Summary

Once the timecards have been generated and reviewed, run the Calculate Payroll step to add the deductions and benefits to the paychecks and generate the journal entry. The Calculate Payroll step will add deductions and benefits to the paychecks based on the deduction cycle set up on the pay schedule period selected during the Generate step. If you make changes to the deductions or benefits, employees, or any other records used to generate the employee paychecks, you will have to rerun the Calculate Payroll step before the Check Proof List, GL Distribution Report, AP Distribution or Checks will update with the changes. If you make changes to the accruals on an employee record, you should return to the Timecards step to update the timecards in the batch.

The Exceptions step after the Calculate Payroll step will display any errors and exceptions generated during the Calculate Payroll step. For example, if a direct deposit is a negative amount or there is no active revision on a deduction or benefit attached to an employee record. The Exceptions step will only display the exceptions and errors generated on deductions and benefits that belong to the deduction cycle selected during the Generate step of the Computer Checks process. The Exceptions step will not display all of the deductions and benefits attached to the employee record that were not included in the batch because they belong to a different deduction cycle.

Step by Step

1     Create a Computer Checks batch and generate the timecards.

2     Generate the deductions and benefits on the paychecks.

• Once the timecards have been generated and reviewed, the Calculate Payroll step on the Computer Checks palette is used to calculate the deductions and benefits that should be included on the paychecks.
• Open the Calculate Payroll window (PR> Computer Checks> Calculate Payroll).
• The payroll will be calculated based on the settings defined during the Generate step. For example, the Generate step determines which deduction cycle will be used to select the deductions and benefits included in the batch. You can review the settings by opening the Generate window (PR> Computer Checks> Generate). As long as you do not save any of the information in the window, the batch will not be reset to the Generate step. If you make changes to the Generate step and rerun the step, the default timecards set up in the Timecards step will be overwritten.
• Press ENTER to calculate the payroll immediately or enter a date and time in the field next to the Confirm icon   to schedule the paychecks to generate at a later time.
  • You can view the progress of the report on the Job Viewer window (SS> Utilities> Show Scheduled Jobs).
• If the Show inactive deduction and benefits toggle is checked on the Payroll module Setup window (PR> Utilities> Setup> Checks tab), deductions and benefits that have a zero dollar amount will be included on the Check Proof List (PR> Computer Checks> Check Proof List) and Check stub (PR> Computer Checks> Checks) if there is committed activity on the deduction or benefit during the calendar year (based on the batch month and batch year).
• If the Calculate Payroll process generates a paycheck with a negative amount, the Calculate Payroll step will result in an error. This error will display on the Jobs Viewer window as “An exception was detected that must be fixed. Check the error list in the jobs viewer.” You can view the exception detail by highlighting the error message and clicking the View Message icon  . This will open the Errors window. The Errors window will display the employee number attached to the negative check and the amount of the negative check.
  • To fix this error, you will either have to change how deductions and benefits on the employee record are calculated, or you will have to remove deductions and benefits from the employee record. For example, if a direct deposit deduction is a flat amount of $1500 but the check is less than $1500, you will receive this error message. In this example, you can either reduce the deduction amount on the employee record or remove the deduction from the employee record.
  • The rate structure of deductions and benefits are set up using the Deduction/Benefits Maintenance window (PR> Maintenance> Deductions/Benefits).
  • The deduction and benefits that are included on an employee's paycheck must be attached to the employee record (PR> Maintenance> Employee).

3     View the exceptions generated on the paychecks.

• There are two Exceptions steps on the Computer Checks palette.
  • The Exceptions step after the Generate step displays why employees that are attached to the pay schedule period selected during the Generate step have not been included in the batch. For example, if an employee does not have a default timecard with an effective date prior to the period end date of the pay schedule period, the employee will not be included in the batch and they will display on the first Exceptions step.
  • The Exceptions step after the Calculate Payroll step displays exceptions and errors generated on the deductions and benefits attached to the employees in the batch.
• Select the Exceptions step after the Calculate Payroll step. If there are no exceptions in the batch, an information window will open that reads, “No detailed errors exist for this job.” This means there were no exceptions in the batch and the payroll was calculated as expected. This does not guarantee that the deductions and benefits on the paychecks are correct. For example, if a deduction or benefit that should be on the paycheck was assigned to deduction cycle 1, but the Computer Checks batch was processed using deduction cycle 2, that deduction or benefit will not display on the paycheck and will not generate an Exception.
• If there are exceptions or errors in the batch, the Errors window will display a list of the errors and exceptions in the batch. Here is a list of common errors and their solution.
  • Could not calculate deduction (AAA) because no applicable revision exists before period end: XX/XX/XX – You will get this exception error if the effective date on the deduction is less than the period end date on the Computer Checks batch. For example, if the effective date on the only revision on the deduction record is 01/01/10, you will receive this exception error if the period end date on the Computer Checks batch is before 01/01/10.
    • The period end date of a Computer Checks batch is set up during the Generate step (PR> Computer Checks> Generate> Period End Date field), and this value is pulled from the pay schedule period that is selected in the batch. The period end date is set up on a pay schedule period using the Pay Schedule Maintenance window (PR> Maintenance> Pay Schedule).
    • The effective date of revisions are set up on the Deduction Maintenance window (PR> Maintenance> Deduction/Benefit> Calculation tab> Revisions section> Effective Date field).
  • Could not calculate benefit (AAA) because step (X) could not be found for revision (B) – You will receive this exception when the step amount on a benefit attached to the employee record does not exist on the benefit. For example, if the benefit is attached to step 1 on the employee record (PR> Maintenance> Employee> Benefits tab> Select a benefit> Step field), but that step does not exist on the current revision of the benefit record (PR> Maintenance> Deduction/Benefit> Calculation tab> Revision Steps section). There are a few different ways this could happen, but the solution is to either add the step to the benefit record using the Deduction/Benefit Maintenance window or change the step on the employee record using the Employee Maintenance window. After the benefit record or employee record has been fixed, you will need to rerun the Calculate Payroll step to include the benefit on the paychecks.
  • Deduction (AAA) was a negative amount ( -$X.XX) and the deduction does not allow negative amounts – You will receive this message if a deduction was calculated as a negative amount but the Allow Negative toggle is not checked on the deduction record (PR> Maintenance> Deduction/Benefits> General tab). To fix this, you can:
    • Check the Allow Negative toggle on the deduction record if the deduction should be allowed to be a negative amount. Do not check this toggle if the deduction should never be a negative amount or the deduction was calculated incorrectly and should be positive amount.
    • Change the rate structure on the deduction if the deduction shouldn’t have been calculated as a negative amount. This means you should either change the step amounts on the deduction record (PR> Maintenance> Deduction/Benefit> Calculation tab> Revision Steps section), or change the step or amount attached to the employee record (PR> Maintenance> Employee> Deductions tab).
    • Leave everything the way it is and proceed. For example, if the deduction was a negative amount, it was calculated correctly as a negative amount, and the deduction shouldn’t be included on the paycheck if the amount is negative, then you should ignore the exception.
  • Current Fed tax tables do not have a Revision for XX/XX/XXXX - You will receive this message if you have not updated your Federal tax tables. This is a non-stopping exception, so you can proceed to the commit steps without updating these tax tables.

4     Generate the checks and commit the Computer Checks batch.