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If payment information for a few employees varies for a particular pay period (for example, overtime or a change in hours worked), it may be faster to select all employee records for automatic payment in the Auto Pay window and then use the Selective Payment Entry feature to adjust individual records.
To distribute employee earnings information to many departments or labor codes, it may be best to use the Automatic Payment feature for employees whose pay does not fluctuate (salaried employees) and then selectively enter payments for any other employees.
How you can best use the Automatic Payment feature depends on the size and variations in your payroll. You can try different combinations of the Automatic Payment and Selective Payment Entry features until you find the most efficient method for your needs.
Salaried employees are normally exempt from overtime pay. This means that the employer is not obliged to pay for any extra hours worked by the employee beyond the standard working hours. Exempt salaried employees have the Overtime Exempt check box selected on the Employee Maintenance Wages tab.
Using Payroll Data Entry, you can enter overtime earnings or override the standard hours for regular earnings entry. You may want to pay overtime to exempt salary employees on an exception basis. You may also want to factor the employee's salary amount by any nonpaid hours taken off by the employee.
To adjust an employee's salary amount, or to calculate any overtime rates, a base hourly rate is calculated by dividing the salary amount by the standard hours worked by the employee. The base hours are determined in the Autopay Hours field on the Employee Maintenance Wages tab.
If the number of hours entered for regular pay is less than the standard number of hours, the salary amount is recalculated based on the base hourly rate. If the number of hours entered is greater than the standard number of hours, the employee is paid the standard salary amount.
For nonexempt salaried employees, the base hourly rate is calculated by dividing the salary amount in the Pay Rate 1 field by the amount in the Autopay Hours field. Nonexempt salaried employees have the Overtime Exempt check box.
Using Payroll Data Entry, you can enter overtime earnings for hours worked that exceed the employee's standard autopay hours. These hours are entered using an overtime earnings code established with a 1.5 pay rate multiplier.
If the number of hours entered for regular pay is less than the standard number of hours, the salary amount is recalculated based on the base hourly rate. If the number of hours entered is greater than the standard number of hours, the employee is paid the standard salary amount (Pay Rate 1) and the hourly rate is recalculated based on the number of hours entered.
For more information, see Calculate Hourly Employee Overtime Rates.
An asterisk (*) is printed in the VAR column on the Quarterly Tax Report, when a variance between the calculated tax amounts and the actual deduction amounts is detected. The variance must be at least $.05 for the variance and the asterisk to print.
On federal reports, the asterisk indicates a variance between the amount of employee Social Security tax withheld and the calculated amount of wages subject to employee Social Security tax multiplied by the current employee Social Security tax rate in the tax calculation engine. The asterisk is also printed if there is a variance between the amount of employee Medicare withheld and the calculated amount.
On state and local reports, the asterisk indicates a variance between the amount of employee or employer disability insurance tax withheld and the calculated amount of wages subject to employee or employer disability insurance tax multiplied by the current employee or employer disability insurance tax rate.
The asterisk also prints if there is a variance between the amount of employee or employer unemployment insurance tax withheld and the calculated amount.
If an asterisk prints in the VAR column for an individual employee on a line for an employer-paid tax, you can compare the report to the tax summary data available in Employee Maintenance. For more information, see Employee Tax Summary.
Employees who do not have any wages for the year are not included in the report.
