Employee Records

The next step in setting up the Payroll database is to create the Employee Database. You can not enter pay items for Employees who are not in the Employee Database.

Create Employee Files

Note: The term ``Employees'', as used in BBPR, includes classifications for hourly, salary, contract, and ``other''. Before you can enter pay requests into the database or make payments to employees you must have the employee's name and Social Security number on file. You may create a record for as many employees as needed. The first step in adding an employee is to select the Create New Employee Function. To add an employee to the Employee Database;

Select:

Employee Files -> Employee Maint -> Create New Employee

Figure: Employee Code Window

1. Assign a unique code for each employee. Each employee code must be unique. (Tip: You can simply abbreviate the employee's name or, if you have several employees with the same or similar names, an easy-to-remember code is the first few letters of the employee name followed by the first few digits of the employees street address.) When you need to use a employee code but don't know that code you can always search the employee Database by clicking the Find button to activate the search feature and then entering any part of the employee name in the search field.
2. When the employee code screen appears enter and accept the new code to proceed to the employee data entry screen (see below).

Figure: Employee Data Screen

Tax Withholding - Withholding boxes are provided to show the total amount of pay to the employee and tax and optional withholding from each employee during the current calendar year. These history boxes are automatically updated by the program with the latest totals as you continue to pay the employee throughout the year. These boxes contain the data you will need to complete payroll tax reports at year end. When you close the Payroll year end the tax withholding amounts will be reset to zero for the new Payroll year. Each withholding category will be included in the amounts automatically forwarded to the General Ledger at the end of each pay period and will be recorded in the General Ledger accounts which you entered in the control file for recording tax withholding.

New Employee Note -

Typically, if you begin using BBPR during the calendar year when employees have already received pay checks for earlier pay periods, when setting up the employees for the first time you will have to enter year-to-date amounts. If you do not enter the year-to-date amounts they will not be included in the totals you will use for preparing tax reports. If you start at the beginning of the calendar year you will not need to enter any amounts in these boxes since each year begins with zero pay and withholding amounts. You may enter amounts into these boxes at any time should it become necessary to correct amounts during the year.

Optional Withholding - Two withholding options are provided for each employee. These two boxes, below the tax withholding area, are to be used for miscelaneous items which must be withheld from an employees pay check, such as, pension amounts, insurance, alimony, loan repayments, etc. You may enter any title you wish for the type of withholding. You must select a General Ledger account into which the amounts should be posted. If you are setting up this withholding item during the year you may need to enter the amount previously withheld during the year. These amounts are also reset to zero at year end closing. If the deduction total must be continued into the new year you must manually enter the total to be carried forward.

General Ledger Payroll Expense Account - Each employee's gross pay must be charged to a General Ledger payroll expense account. You must create this account in the BasicBooks General Ledger as an ``Expense'' type account. (Examples: Office Salaries, Shop Wages, Contract Labor, etc.) You may have as many different categories of pay expense accounts as necessary. However, each employee's pay must be assigned to only one expense account for each pay check written. If you need to use more than one pay expense account you may change this account number at any time and new pay checks will be charged to this account.

When you have entered all appropriate data click SAVE to save the data.

Other Employee Maintenance Options

Other options on the Employee menu allow you to view, print, and delete employee files. An option is provided to allow searching of the employee Database by any part of a employee's name. You may also see and print employee lists with names and codes.