Did You Know? – How to Automatically Create Salary Payroll Checks

Did you know you can create payroll checks for all or a group of salaried employees with just a few clicks of the mouse?

Here’s what you need to set up:

At a minimum the Employee File must have their Pay Type set to Salary, the Salary Rate and a G/L

Employee File Salary Setup Basic

If you require Cost Centers, Crop Years and or Jobs entered on Payroll Checks, you can set up additional information to be created on the Salary checks using the Profile tab in the Employee File.

Employee Check Profile

Department
You can create salary checks for different groups of employees using the Department code on the Employee file. For example you may want to create Salary checks for office employees automatically, but not Supervisor Salary checks. To do this you would need to have a Department code for the Office employees.

To Create Salary Checks
In the Check Entry window (Checks > Check Entry) you must first enter the Pay Period that will be used for the payroll checks and then Right Click and select Create Salary Checks or press the Ctrl key + Y.

Create Salary Checks option

If you have departments assigned the program will bring up a selection box for you to select which departments to create checks for. You may select multiple departments at one time.

Department Selection

Confirm by answering Yes that you want Salary Checks Created. When all of the checks have been created the program will notify you of the total number of checks that were created. You can then edit any checks if needed or continue with your payroll workflow process.

Did You Know? is a series on Datatech’s blog that will highlight hidden and lesser known program features that I’ve found many customers aren’t familiar with. If you have a favorite “hidden” program feature, email it to me at Hannah@DatatechAg.com.

Did You Know? – Payroll Search & Replace Utility

Did you know there is a utility that will modify multiple entries in the Daily Payroll or Batch Check Entry file with one process without having to edit individual lines?

The Search & Replace utility is available from the Payroll > Utilities menu.  It may be used to correct the G/L #, Job ID, Cost Center, Crop Year, Wage Type, Pay Rate, Crew ID and Time Sheet # on payroll entries.

To modify payroll line items, be as specific as possible on what entries need to be corrected. In the example below, I have selected transactions on 8/15, G/L # 601, Wage Type P/W, Job 02 and Cost Center BL 102 with a Pay Rate of 1.15. In the Replace section I have entered a Rate of 1.25. The program will find all of the Line Items matching the criteria in the Search column and change the Pay Rate on just those entries to 1.25

If the entries are still in the Daily Payroll File you would checkmark Replace in… Daily Payroll File. Or, you can select Payroll Check Line Items if the entries are in the Batch Payroll Check Entry.

There is no Undo with this Search & Replace utility, so if you make a mistake, just use the utility again to correct the entries modified.

Search & Replace Utility

Did You Know? will be a new series on Datatech’s blog. Each post will highlight hidden and lesser known program features that I’ve found many customers aren’t familiar with. If you have a favorite “hidden” program feature, email it to me at Hannah@DatatechAg.com.

ACA Seminars Filling Up

Datatech and Barkley Insurance will be presenting two seminars on The Affordable Car Act’s Impact on Ag Employers & Datatech’s New Human Resource Management Software. These seminars will be held in Bakersfield on Aug. 20th and Fresno on the 21st.

Both seminars are booking up fast, but there are a limited number of seats available for both sessions.

For more details and the sign up, call Jason at (888) 222-DATA (3282) ext. 116. or Jason@DatatechAg.com.

Determining eligibility for health insurance coverage under the ACA

In our ongoing series on the Affordable Care Act’s impact on agricultural employers, we explain how you will determine which employees must be offered coverage.

The regulations refer to “applicable large employers” (or ALE’s, as we will abbreviate it here).  These are employers that the penalties apply to if health insurance is not offered to their full time employees.  This is important to remember, because if you miss-classify an employee and/or do not make an offer of coverage that should have been made in the time periods required by the law, and that employee purchases insurance coverage through a state or federal exchange, your business could be subject to substantial penalties.

Update 9/4/2014:  After fielding questions from customers and re-examining the regulations, this article has been substantially reorganized to make the differences between the Monthly Measurement Period and the Look-Back Measurement Period clearer and some new information has been added.

Draft 1095-C form released by IRS

In a previous post, we mentioned that starting in January 2016, all large employers will need to file a new form with the IRS, the 1095-C.  A copy of the form will also need to be provided to each employee.

Think of the 1095-C as the “W-2 for health insurance”.

The IRS has released a draft of the new form, which you can see here.  Instructions have not been released for the form yet, but the indicator codes that will be used for the monthly status boxes 14 and 16 are included.

This is a draft form, so while the final form may look a little different, this gives us a basic outline of the information that will be required.  Keep in mind that although the form will not be printed until January 2016, we recommend that you record the information necessary to complete the form throughout the year.

Datatech’s Human Resource Management software will automate recording the necessary information, print the 1095-C form and create an equivalent electronic file for reporting more than 250 employees (this is the same employee limit for reporting W-2 information electronically rather than on paper).

Would you like to learn more about compliance with the Affordable Care Act and our new Human Resource Management software?  You can attend one of two joint presentations sponsored by Datatech and Barkley Insurance & Risk Management.  The first presentation will be at the Double Tree Hotel in Bakersfield, CA on August 20th.   The second presentation will be at the Fresno Hotel & Conference Center in Fresno on August 21st.  Click here to view a flyer for the seminar.

Call Jason Titterington at 1 (800) 833-8824 ext. 116 or email him at jason@datatechag.com to get more information or reserve your space at one of the presentations.

Datatech Welcomes New Employee

Datatech would like to welcome Jason Titterington to the family. Jason will be working in the sales and support departments, specifically on the new Human Resources software. If Jason lasts name sounds familiar, it is because he is Beth Titterington’s (Datatech’s Controller/Office Manager) husband.

Jason’s first task will be contacting customers in the Bakersfield and Fresno areas to inform them about our upcoming HR workshops on August 20th and 21st.

For more information on the workshops or our new HR software, please feel free to contact Jason at (888) 222-DATA (3282) ext. 116.