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1995-04-25
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PAYROLL EXPERT
Version 2.00
By Randy Blain
Copyright 1992-1994
Please read the READ_ME files for additional information about newer versions.
OVERVIEW
Payroll Expert is a powerful GEM-based payroll program that has all the
features neccessary to handle large or small payroll applications.
Everything is accessed via the standard GEM interface, so very little
instruction is needed in order to use the program. Also included in
this package is ACC-Time, my shareware time-clock accessory, since
Payroll Expert allows importing of the time-clock data to facilitate
easy payroll computation for all employees. You can easily pay all of
your employees without ever touching the keyboard. Complete reports
are available at any time to make all your federal and state taxes easy
to compute and file (of course, it doesn't make them any easier to
pay).
Up to 64 employees are supported (only 2 in the demo version), but if
you send in your shareware payment I'll gladly make a version available
to you that supports as many employees as you want, limited only by the
amount of memory in your computer. The program should run fine on any
ST or STE but if you only have 512K of memory you won't have much room
for accessories, etc. Payroll Expert will work fine with a floppy
drive, but a hard disk is recommended. Payroll Expert was written for
medium resolution, but it will work fine in monochrome. However, it will
not run in low resolution. OK, on with the program!
INSTALLATION/SETUP
All of the data files for Payroll Expert must be in the same directory or
folder as the program file. The files are detailed below:
PAYXPERT.PRG - The Payroll Expert program
PAYXPERT.RSC - Resource file
PAYXPERT.CFG - Configuration file
PAYROLL.DAT - All employee and pay data
COMPANY.DAT - Company name/address & ID numbers
FEDTAX.DAT - Federal tax tables
STATETAX.DAT - State tax tables
STATETAX.ALT (Optional) - Alternate State tax tables
PAYCHECK.FRM (Optional) - Text file for printed check format
The first time you run the program you will get several alerts that it
can't find certain files. Don't worry, all the data files will be created
with ease.
Note: 1994 Federal tax tables are included with the program, as well
as state tax tables for Virginia and several other states. If you
create tax tables for your state, please make them available to me so I
can include them with the next release.
The first thing you should do is go to the Create/Edit menu heading and
enter your Company Data. Also, if a STATETAX file for your state is not
already on the disk, then now is the time to enter the tax tables for your
state. Since all the states are probably different, I don't know whether
your state data format is supported. If not, just let me know and I'll
fix it. Once everything is correct, just click on the SAVE button and the
files will be written to the directory from which you ran the program.
Next, it's time to enter your employee data. Just type in the name,
address, etc., set up the various options as you want (see below for
details), and save each employee, or you can save them all at once if you
choose. Now doing your payroll is as simple as point and click!
There are two main screens which contain most of the data about your
employees; the EMPLOYEE DATA screen and the PAY AMOUNTS screen. The button
in the top left corner toggles between the two screens. On both screens,
there are arrow buttons in the top right corner. These are used to move
from one employee to another:
<== (Left arrow) - Display previous employee
If the currently displayed employee is a new employee, you will have
the option of adding the employee or not. Otherwise, the currently
displayed employee will be saved to memory (but not to disk) and any
changes that were made will be noted. Then, the next-lower numbered
employee will be displayed. If you are currently displaying employee
number 1, then nothing will happen.
==> (Right arrow) - Display next employee
Basically, the same details apply as for the left arrow except that if
you are at the highest numbered employee then nothing will happen.
Now let's get to some of the details...
THE 'EMPLOYEE DATA' SCREEN
This is where you enter all the pertinent information about your
employees. Aside from the obvious (name/address, etc.), there are
several other selections. PAY RATE is either wages per hour, or wages per
period depending on whether you have selected SALARY or HOURLY for PAY
TYPE. EXEMPTIONS is the number of withholding allowances claimed by
the employee on their W-4 form. If the employee is exempt from federal
and state tax just enter 99 here. Enter whatever you like in the
DEPARTMENT field. PAY PERIODS is the number of pay periods per year,
usually 52 or 26, but any number will work. You may also enter any
vacation hours that the employee has, as well as any extra pay and a short
description of what the extra pay is for. This is also where you enter
the number of hours worked and any vacation or holiday hours. The regular
hours may be imported from ACC-Time as explained below. Overtime pay is
calculated properly (i.e. time and a half).
Also on this screen is the calendar display. When the program is first
run, the current month is displayed. You may use the arrow buttons at the
bottom of the screen to view a different month. The current day and date
are displayed on both the EMPLOYEE DATA screen and the PAY AMOUNTS screen.
THE 'PAY AMOUNTS' SCREEN
This screen contains all the detailed pay information. It is divided
into pay period, month, quarter, and year amounts. The values on this
screen are normally computed when you pay an employee but all of them
are editable and may be changed at any time, with the exception of the
TOTAL DEDUCTIONS field.
Also displayed are the pay date and period ending date, as well as the
employee's name and the number of hours worked; if the employee is
salaried the word "SALARY" is displayed in the TOTAL HOURS box.
The pay date is automatically changed to the current date when an employee
is paid so if you want to change it, you should do so after you pay the
employee. The period ending date will automatically be set for all
employees that use the 'ACC-Time' time-clock when you select LOAD
ACC-TIME DATA from the FILES menu.
The CANCEL button returns you to the EMPLOYEE DATA screen and any changes
that were made are NOT saved to memory. (Unless you have already selected
one of the other buttons or menu items that does cause the data to be
saved to memory).
THE MENU BAR
Payroll Expert uses a standard GEM menu to access most of the features
available to the user. What is unique about this is that normally you
can't have a standard dialog box and a menu at the same time. I have
circumvented this problem by writing a replacement for the standard
dialog handler provided by GEM. What this means to you is that the
program is easier to use and the screen isn't cluttered up with a bunch
of buttons. Following, is a description of the features available from
the drop-down menus.
Desk
From the Desk menu you may access any accessories that you have installed.
The Payroll Expert selection displays the box you saw when you first ran
the program.
File
Load Payroll Data - This displays the file selector so you can load a
PAYROLL.DAT file from a directory other than the one from which you ran
Payroll Expert.
Load Tax Tables - This allows you load the Federal and State tax table
files from another directory.
Load ACC-Time Data - This allows you to load the hours worked and the
period ending date for all the employees that use the ACC-Time time
clock. While you can load this data from anywhere, both of the files
'EMPLOYEE.DAT' and 'TIMECARD.DAT' (or 'TIMECARD.BAK') must be together
in the same directory. If you are not using ACC-Time then just pretend
that you are not reading this paragraph.
Save Payroll Data - This saves the data for all employees to the file
PAYROLL.DAT in the current directory. This can automatically be
performed when you exit the program, but if you are making a lot of
changes you might want to save the data often, just in case the power
goes off or something.
Quit - This exits the program. If you have made any changes since you ran
the program, you will be given the option to save them if you want.
Reports
Write Check(s) - You may print checks for one or all employees. If you
select ALL Employees, checks will be printed for any employee who has been
paid but whose check has not been written. Payroll Expert keeps track of
who has been paid and who has not so you won't be printing anything for
those employees who were not paid yet. If you want to print a check more
than once, you must do it one employee at a time. The file 'PAYCHECK.FRM'
controls the format in which the checks will be printed. This file can be
created or edited with any text editor. The file that is included on the
disk is the same as the default format. It was included to help the users
understand how to create their own 'PAYCHECK.FRM' file. The default
format is just a check stub with all the information necessary so the
checks can be written by hand. Stubs are printed 3 to a page. By
creating your own 'PAYCHECK.FRM' file, you can print checks and stubs on
any type of form that you want, from continuous feed computer checks to
standard single checks. You may select Continuous or Single sheet from
the Configuration menu described later. The format for the 'PAYCHECK.FRM'
file is described in detail at the end of this documentation. If there is
no "PAYXPERT.FRM' file in the current directory, the default format will be
used.
Payroll Totals - This report lists the total amounts for all employees for
period, month, quarter and year. The following categories are listed:
Gross Pay
Federal Tax
State Tax
FICA
Medicare
Insurance
Other Deductions
Other Additions
Total Deductions
Net Pay
Employer FICA
Employer Medicare
Advance EIC Payments
List Employee(s) - Lists all the data available from both the EMPLOYEE
DATA and the PAY AMOUNTS screens for one or all employees. Employees are
listed two per page.
941 Tax Report - Total of employee and employer FICA and Medicare
contributions and federal tax withheld. From this is deducted any
advance Earned Income Credit payments made to employees. You generally
pay these taxes monthly, depending upon the amount, and file the 941
form quarterly. This report will give you all the information
necessary to make this a simple job.
940 (FUTA) Tax Report - Generally paid quarterly. Form 940 is filed
annually. This report lists amounts to be paid for federal unemployment
taxes.
State Tax Report - Lists the state income tax withheld for all employees.
SUTA Report - Paid quarterly (at least in Virginia...). This report
lists amounts to be paid for state unemployment taxes.
Create/Edit
Federal Tax Tables - The tax table screens are laid out like the ones in
the employer tax guide from the IRS (circular E) so it's very easy to
just copy the figures from the book onto the screen. Use the figures for
annual payroll (Table 7 on page 30 of the 1994 guide). Payroll Expert
will automatically compute the proper amounts depending on the number of
pay periods per year that you select for each employee.
Note: This is for reference only, since the 1994 Federal tax info is
included with Payroll Expert.
State Tax Tables - There are quite a few differences in the way the
different states handle their taxes so this will no doubt be updated
frequently. There is a button at the bottom which will toggle the
display for single or married taxpayers. The text in the button will
indicate which data are currently displayed. The single and married data
must be entered separately. If your state uses the same data for both
single and married taxpayers you may just enter the data for 'Single' and
then when you click on the 'SINGLE' button, all the data will be copied to
the 'Married' data for you. The state tax table screen has been set up to
accomodate as many states' data formats as I know of. There are separate
standard deductions available for single and married taxpayers. If your
state only uses a single deduction for both single and married taxpayers
you must enter that amount into BOTH fields. If your state uses different
amounts for the first, second and third (or greater) withholding
allowances you may enter the different amounts so that pay will be
calculated correctly. This also applies for differences in withholding
allowance amounts for single and married taxpayers. As with the standard
deductions, if your state doesn't use different values you must enter the
same data in ALL of the withholding allowance fields. If your state
requires you to deduct the withheld Federal tax from the gross pay before
calculating the state income tax, there is a button on the screen to
accomodate this. If this button is highlighted (darkened) the federal
withholding amount will be deducted along with the standard deductions
and withholding allowances before the state tax is computed. There is
room for ten different tax brackets. If your state has less than ten you
MUST enter the last bracket at the bottom and work your way up. Just look
at the Virginia tables included with the program for an example of this.
All the state tax data files are in the folder 'STATETAX'. Just copy the
file you need for your state into the same directory as PAYXPERT.PRG and
rename it to STATETAX.DAT. Currently the only state tax data files
included are for Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Virginia, and
West Virginia. I'll add more as I get them.
Company Data - This is where you enter your company name and address.
Also, you should enter your Federal Employer I.D. number here as well as
your state tax I.D. numbers if that applies to you.
Configuration - From here you may choose between single sheet and
continuous forms for paychecks. Also, you have the option of specifying a
percentage of the gross pay to automatically be calculated for the 'Other
Deductions' field. You may also specify the name for the field (for
example 'Disability'). This will be shown on the screen and on the
reports.
Maintenance
Start New Month/Quarter/Year - This will zero the amounts in the specified
fields. Be sure to print your reports before starting a new month, quarter
or year because the amounts in the respective columns will be cleared.
Each time you run Payroll Expert it checks to see if a new month, quarter
or year has started since the last time you ran the program. If so, it
will remind you so you can print your reports and start a new
month/quarter/year, before making any changes to the pay amounts.
Set New Pay Date - This allows you to set the Pay Date for ALL employees.
This is normally set to the current date when each employee is paid. If
you would like to change the date, do it after you pay the employees,
otherwise it will be reset to the current date.
Set New Period End Date - This allows you to set a new period ending date
for ALL employees. You will probably use this to set the period ending
date for your salaried employees. If you are using ACC-Time this will be
set for all employees that use the time clock when you select Load
ACC-Time Data from the Files menu.
Employee
Pay Employee - This will compute the pay and deductions for one pay
period, based on the number of pay periods, exemptions, etc. selected for
the employee, and add it to the monthly, quarterly and yearly totals.
When you do this from the EMPLOYEE DATA screen, the calculated amounts
are automatically saved to memory. Of course you may quit without saving
to disk, so it's not really as permanent as it sounds. This menu item
performs the same function from the PAY AMOUNTS screen except that you
may click on CANCEL and the pay amounts will not be changed in memory.
There are some buttons in the PAY AMOUNTS screen that allow you to change
or recalculate pay amounts without saving them to memory. These will be
discussed later.
Find Employee - You can find any employee and display that employee's
info on the screen. It looks for the first match of the characters
entered. You may enter as little as is necessary to be unique, and the
first match will be located very quickly. The currently displayed
employee will be saved to memory before the found employee is displayed.
Add Employee - The first time that you run Payroll Expert, the program
automatically selects this option. You may only access this from the
'EMPLOYEE DATA' screen. If necessary, you will be asked if you want to
save the currently displayed employee first. It's important to understand
that this function just lets you add a new employee into memory. It does
not automatically save the employee to disk. If you accidently select
this option you may exit by clicking the previous employee button (arrow).
Delete Employee - This deletes the currently displayed employee from
memory AND FROM DISK! You will be asked if you are sure you want to do
this. When you delete an employee, the old PAYROLL.DAT file is renamed to
PAYROLL.BAK and a new PAYROLL.DAT file is created. If you accidently
delete an employee, you can recover by just renaming the file. You may
only access this option from the 'EMPLOYEE DATA' screen.
Save Employee - This will save the currently displayed employee to disk in
the file 'PAYROLL.DAT' in the directory from which Payroll Expert was run.
This is only possible if the employee has a name entered in the NAME
field. If you want to save more than one employee, you should use the
File menu and select Save Payroll Data. When you exit the program, if you
haven't saved any changes that were made you will be asked if you want to
do so.
Employee Options - This takes you to the options screen where you can
enter several important options for each employee. If the employee stated
on their W-4 form that he or she wanted an additional amount withheld from
each paycheck, you may enter that amount here and it will automatically be
added to the federal tax amount each time you pay that employee. If you
want to be able to import the hours worked and period ending date from
ACC-Time you must enter the employee number from the ACC-Time program
here. Any time you delete an employee from within the ACC-Time program
some of the employee numbers change so you MUST make sure that this number
is correct or you will get the wrong data from ACC-Time. Here you may
also elect to use the alternate tax tables for this employee only. If you
choose, you may elect to have the federal and state taxes rounded to the
nearest dollar. Also, you may elect to deduct the employee's insurance
contribution before calculating the taxes. This would normally only apply
if you are providing what is called a cafeteria plan for the employees.
Check with the IRS for details. If the employee receives advance payments
for Earned Income Credit you should elect to have that amount show up in
the 'Other Additions' field so your 941 taxes will be computed properly.
When everything is set up properly click on OK and you will be returned
to the PAY AMOUNTS screen. If you click on CANCEL nothing will be
changed.
Subtract Last Pay - If you accidently pay an employee you may use this
feature to subtract the last pay amounts. The month/quarter/year amounts
will be adjusted accordingly. These changes are not saved if you select
CANCEL. This is only available from the 'PAY AMOUNTS' screen.
Recalculate Pay - If you make any changes manually to the amounts on the
screen you may use this feature to recalculate the net pay. The old
PERIOD amounts are first subtracted from the month/quarter/year amounts.
Then the new PERIOD net is recalculated with the amounts that were
changed. Then the PERIOD amounts are added to the month/quarter/year
amounts. This way the net pay amounts are always calculated correctly.
These changes are not saved if you select CANCEL. This is only available
from the 'PAY AMOUNTS' screen.
Calculate Hours - If you choose to use Payroll Expert without using
ACC-Time, this feature is available to help you calculate the number of
hours your employees have worked. You may enter up to 24 starting and
ending times and the program will calculate the hours worked for you. If
the 'AUTOLUNCH' button is highlighted (darkened) and the difference in
starting and ending times is five hours or more, a half-hour will
automatically be deducted from the hours worked. The 'CALCULATE' botton
calculates the hours worked and displays them on screen. The 'STORE'
button calculates the hours worked and stores the total directly into the
record of the employee whose name is displayed on screen. The total hours
will then be displayed in the Regular Hours field. The 'CANCEL' button
just exits without making any changes.
Note: In the A.M. and P.M. fields anything other than "P" (or "p") is
considered to be an "A". Therefore 'xm' or 'DM' or nothing at all
is still considered as 'AM'. Also, 12:00 Noon is 12:00 PM and
Midnight is 12:00 AM.
THE PAYCHECK.FRM FILE
This file controls the format for printed paychecks and stubs. It is a
text file that may be created with any text editor. All text from this
file, with the exception of the control codes that are detailed below, will
be printed just as it appears in the file. The first line in the file MUST
be:
PAYXPERT
and the last line MUST be:
END
All lines must end with a carriage return. All control codes start with
the backslash character \. There are several types of control codes
available. The first type is 2 digits (00-64) preceded by the backslash.
This allows you to access all the individual elements of data available for
the employees. The following is a description of each of these:
Code Description Number of characters printed
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\00 Employee name 41
\01 Employee address 41
\02 City 20
\03 State 2
\04 Zip Code 5
\05 Phone number 12 (nnn-nnn-nnnn)
\06 Social Security number 11 (nnn-nn-nnnn)
\07 Status (Single/Married) 7
\08 Pay type (Hourly/Salary) 6
\09 Pay rate 9 (nnnnnn.nn)
\10 Number of exemptions 2 (nn)
\11 Number of pay periods 2 (nn)
\12 Starting date 8 (mm/dd/yy)
\13 Department 10
\14 Vacation hours accrued 6 (nnn.nn)
\15 Regular hours worked 6 (nnn.nn)
\16 Overtime hours worked 6 (nnn.nn)
\17 Vacation hours 6 (nnn.nn)
\18 Holiday hours 6 (nnn.nn)
\19 Extra pay amount 9 (nnnnnn.nn)
\20 Extra pay type (description) 12
\21 Pay date 8 (mm/dd/yy)
\22 Period ending date 8 (mm/dd/yy)
\23 Gross pay (for period) 9 (nnnnnn.nn)
\24 Federal tax " "
\25 State tax " "
\26 State 2 or City Tax "
\27 FICA " "
\28 Medicare " "
\29 Insurance " "
\30 Other deductions " "
\31 Other additions " "
\32 Total deductions " "
\33 Net pay " "
\34 - \44 Same as above except these are for Monthly amounts
\45 - \55 Same as above except these are for Quarterly amounts
\56 - \66 Same as above except these are for Yearly amounts
\67 Additional Federal withholding "
\68 Additional State withholding "
\69 Additional State 2 or City withholding "
\70 ACC-Time employee number 2 (nn)
The second type of control code is a single letter preceded by the
backslash character. There are only a few of these, but they are very
useful.
Code Description Length
---------------------------------------------------------------
\C Company name 41
\R Pay amount for Regular hours 9 (nnnnnn.nn)
\O Pay amount for Overtime hours "
\V Pay amount for Vacation hours "
\H Pay amount for Holiday hours "
\E Extra pay amount (same as \19) "
\T Total hours worked 6 (nnn.nn)
\M Current month (number, 01-12) 2 (nn)
\m Current month (text, January,etc.) 9
\D Current day (number, 01-31) 2 (nn)
\d Current day (text, Monday, etc.) 9
\Y Current year 4 (nnnn)
\y Current year (short form) 2 (nn)
\A Alphanumeric representation of the
net pay amount (e.g. Fifty-eight and 19/100)
We can't print a check without this can we?
The last few control codes are a bit different:
\Snn nn = the number of spaces to be printed. This is handy if you
don't want to type a bunch of spaces in your text file. Instead
of typing 50 spaces you could just type \S50. There must be 2
digits after the 'S' for this to work.
\\nn Note the 2 backslashes. This is used to insert printer control
codes into the text. After the 2 backslashes you can enter the
printer control code. This must be in hexadecimal format and it
must be 2 characters! If you need to send more than one code,
you must precede each one with the double backslash! For
example, \\1B\\2D\\01 would turn on the underline mode on an
Epson compatible printer.
\(xxxx) If you would like to compute a total of any of the individual
amounts (Regular, Overtime, Vacation, Holiday, & Extra pay), you
may put any or all of the letters R,O,V,H, and E in parentheses
and those amounts will be added together and the total will be
printed. For example, if you would like to total all pay except
that for regular hours, you would use: \(OVHE) and the total
would be computed and printed out in the format: nnnnnn.nn.
While designing a check format may seem like a complex process, it really
is not as difficult as it appears. Just make some photocopies of your
blank checks and experiment. The 'PAYCHECK.FRM' file on the disk may help
you understand this process.
CONCLUSION
This program was written for my particular payroll application.
Although I have tried to incorporate all the features I could think of,
I am open to suggestions for additions or improvements (and bug reports
of course. Murphy's law always prevails...). Also, I'm aware that
very few employers are using Atari computers so the market for a
program like this is very limited. I haven't seen anything on another
computer platform that is as easy to learn and use. It has made my job
a lot easier. I hope it does some good for you too. Enjoy!
CREDITS AND DISCLAIMERS
This program was written using GFA Basic version 3.5. The resource file
was created with the Atari RCS. I have tried to make this program as
bug-free as possible but I cannot be responsible for any problems caused
by its use.
Now the begging and groveling...
This program is Shareware. A lot of time and effort went into the
development of Payroll Expert. I am only asking for $25.00 for a
complete registered version. If you send your shareware payment you
will be eligible for all updates to this program. I will also try to
incorporate any suggestions that you may have. The Shareware donation for
ACC-Time is normally $10.00 but if you pay for Payroll Expert ACC-Time is
free! Please support Shareware authors!
How to reach me:
If you have any questions, suggestions, bug reports, etc., you can
reach me by phone, mail, or GEmail.
Randy Blain
P.O. Box 61748
Virginia Beach, VA 23462
804-490-5944
GEnie Address: RANDYB
