Employee Information Window
Employees are the backbone of your business. There would be no reason for a payroll application without them. All the processes for creating and maintaining your employees start here. The Employee Info window offers a complete spectrum of tools and command buttons to assist you with creating new employees, maintaining multiple employee lists, keeping notes, and setting default values for pay rates.
Setting up new employee defaults
The process of entering employees into the payroll program involves setting up the default information file for new employees and then entering each employee with their own specific information (e.g., pay rate).
In many cases the default information will not differ greatly from one employee to the next. For instance, all the employees may have the same city, state, and zip code.
As a result of the payroll installation process, a file called Default Stationery was created. This file contains all the deductions, employer paid contributions, and other information. It can be thought of as a "new employee template" because when you click the New Employee button, the program starts a new employee file that consists of the information contained in the Default Stationery file (e.g., pay period, zip code). All you have to do is enter each employee's unique information.
You can edit the new employee default settings at any time however, it is best if you make any necessary changes before entering new employees to be sure that the defaults reflect your "average" employee.
Commands on the button bar
New Empl.
Delete Empl.
Be very careful not to accidentally delete an employee for which you need to process reports such as the W2 report.
Personal Info
Pay History
Notes
Save
Employee Information window
Setting up employees in order to process payroll involves:
• Entering employee information
• Entering prior pay history, if applicable
• (Optional) Creating additional employee lists
• (Optional) Setting up performance evaluation forms for evaluating employee work performance
Saving employees
When saving a new employee file, the program automatically places the new record in the Employee Files ƒ folder of the currently open company and adds the employee's name to the Master List. If an Employee List other than the Master List is open when a new employee is saved, the program also adds the employee's name to this list.
Click the Save button upon entering a new employee or editing an existing one.
Updating Employee Information
When an employee's marital status, pay rate, or other information changes, their file needs to be updated and saved with the new data.
1. In the Employee Information window, select the employee you want to edit from the Employee List on the left.
If this employee is on more than one list, it does not matter which Employee List is open. Changing employee information in one list changes that same information in all lists.
2. Make the necessary changes.
3. Click the Save button.
Employee Direct Deposit
In Chapter Two - Company, we discussed setting up the company for direct deposit. Employees who wish their payroll checks deposited directly into a checking or savings account must be set up individually. This next section discusses the procedure involved.
Processing direct deposit payroll involves some different steps as well, and this is explored in the Process Payroll chapter. For now, let's set up the direct deposit employees.
Setting up individual employees for direct deposit
Before you can pay your employees through direct deposit, you must first set them up so the program knows which employees get paid via direct deposit and those employees who are paid with a regular paycheck.
You will need to gather the banking information of those employees who want direct deposit. A convenient way to get this information is to have your employees provide you with a voided check or deposit slip from their bank.
Setting up an employee for direct deposit
1. In the Employee Information window in the Pay section, select the name of the employee for which you are setting up direct deposit and mark the Direct Deposit checkbox.
2. Click the Direct Deposit Settings button.
3. Enter the employee's bank information.
Bank routing number
Enter the employee's bank routing number.
Account number
Enter the employee's bank account number.
This is a savings account
If the account is a savings account, indicate this by selecting the checkbox.
This employee has been "pre-noted"
Refer to the instructions in the window to determine if you need to check this box.
If this is the first time you are setting up Direct Deposit, the above option should not be marked.
5. Click the OK button.
6. The program returns you to the Employee Information window.
7. Click the Save button.
8. Continue setting up your direct deposit employees following the instructions in steps 2 to 7.
Using employee lists
An employee list is simply a list of employee names. You can create as many employee lists (e.g., Part-time Help, Health Insurance, Interns) as you need, and an employee can be on as many lists as you deem necessary.
The lists themselves actually contain no data except for the employee names. Except for the Master List (which is described below), names may be added or removed from these lists at any time. You can use the Master List for processing payroll and department employee lists for running reports.
What is the Master List?
The Master List is an employee list which is automatically created every time you start your payroll program. It includes the names of all the employees who are in the Employee Files ƒ folder of the currently open company.
The Master List is automatically created with all the employees in the Employee Files ƒ folder.
How employee names are displayed in employee lists
The status of an employee determines how his or her name is displayed in an employee list.
Blue type
Current employees (i.e., those you process payroll for) are displayed in blue type.
Red type
An employee who has been terminated appears in red type.
You may not see the name appear in red type until you exit and re-enter the program.
The Employee List pop-up menu
The top portion of the Employee List pop-up menu contains the commands needed for creating and configuring your Employee Lists.
The bottom portion of the Employee List pop-up menu displays the names of your employee lists. A checkmark appears next to the name of the currently open employee list.
You may have to move your mouse pointer up and down to see every option on the Employee List pop-up.
Creating employee lists
By default, the program automatically creates certain types of Employee Lists for you. They are created from the pay period and active/inactive (i.e., terminated) settings. For example, if you have both active and terminated employees, the program will create two lists; one that contains your active employees and another for your terminated employees. This option can be enabled and disabled in Program Preferences, located at Program > Preferences... (e.g., Aatrix Top Pay > Preferences... )
Creating an employee list
1. From the Employee List pop-up menu, select New Employee List.
2. Enter a unique name for your new employee list.
The list can be the name of a department (i.e., Sales Dept. ) or any other descriptive name (i.e., Interns).
3. Click the Save button.
When you click the Save button, the Employee List is saved to the Employee Files ƒ folder of the currently open company and its name is displayed at the bottom of the Employee List pop-up menu. If you remove this file from the Employee Files ƒ folder, it will no longer appear in the Employee List pop-up menu.
Opening employee lists
Use the following instructions to switch to a different employee list.
Opening an employee list
1. Click on the Employee List pop-up menu.
Note the checkmark displayed next to the name of the currently open Employee List.
2. Drag your mouse pointer to the employee list you want to open.
The selected employee list will open. Its name is displayed in the pop-up menu bar and the employees on that list will appear in the scrolling list.
Deleting employee lists
If you no longer want an employee list to appear in the Employee List pop-up menu use the following instructions to remove the list.
Deleting an employee list
1. Quit the payroll program.
2. On your hard disk, open the Aatrix Payroll ƒ folder.
If you use Top Pay with QuickBooks®, locate and open the QuickBooks® program folder and open the Top Pay folder within it.
3. Open the company folder that contains the employee list you want to delete.
4. Open the Employee Files ƒ folder.
5. Locate the name of the employee list you want to delete then drag this file to the trash.
6. After you trash the old list, close each of the folders you opened.
At this point you can relaunch the payroll application if desired.
Adding employees to employee lists
After you've created a record for a new employee, you will want to add him or her to one or more Employee Lists. For example, you can add Anthony A. Augustine to the Master List (which contains all employees), to a list called Part-Time Employees, and to Active Employees. This makes it easy to target certain groups of employees for customized reports and the like.
Adding individual employees
There are two ways to add individual employees to lists. One is to highlight the name of the employee, select the list to which you want to add him or her, and then select the Add Employee to List command or the Add "Anthony A. Augustine" to List command from the top portion of Employee List pop-up menu.
In actual use, the name of the currently highlighted employee will appear in the place of the examples used in this text.
If a highlighted employee is already part of a list, the name will appear grayed out.
Adding multiple employees
You can add an entire list or multiple selection of individuals to a particular Employee List using the following set of instructions.
Adding multiple employee to an employee list
You should not add the same employee twice to the same Employee List, although you may add the same employee to as many different lists as you wish.
1. Open the Employee List to which you must add names.
2. From the Employee List pop-up menu, select Add Employee to List...
This will open a dialogue containing all the names on the Master List of employees.
3. If you want all the employees in the list added to the currently open Employee List, click the Add All button.
4. When selections are complete, click the Add button.
To help you keep track of which employee names have been added to the list, the program removes the employee's name from this list when you add it to the Employee List. This way, you won't have to rely on the scroll bar to search to the bottom of a lengthy list because the list gets shorter.
5. Click the Done button when you have finished adding names.
Removing names from employee lists
There may be times when you want to remove an employee from an Employee List. For example, you may have an employee on your "Full Time" Employee List that is now working part time, or you may have an employee who is no longer on your "Union" Employee List.
Removing a name from an employee list
1. Open the Employee List that contains the name of the employee you wish to remove.
2. Select the name of the employee you wish to remove.
3. From the Employee List pop-up menu, select Remove Employee.
Find and replace
The Find and Replace feature saves you the time of having to go into each employee's file and make a change that must also be made in many other employee files. For example, if you need to change a health insurance deduction amount from $100 to $125, you simply Find the $100 and Replace it with $125, or if you need to replace your salaried employees pay from $700 to $750, or if you need to change the pay rate of your minimum wage hourly employees from $4.25 to $4.50. The Find feature also allows you to Find and Replace an amount of a deduction, extra income item, or employer paid contribution.
In the Employees tab window, select Edit > Find to open the Find dialogue.
Items such as state name, area code on employee telephone numbers, zip code, salary pay rate, and hourly pay rate are found using the Employee files option.
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