With AccountMate 6.5’s Payroll, you can set up records for salaried, hourly and time card/piece work employees, as well as for independent contractors, and pay them over a variety of pay periods, according to their pay/employment status. Within this flexible system, deductions can be withheld using a variety of methods. For instance, salaried and hourly employees can be paid using default hours, rates and deductions. Additional payments, such as bonuses, can be entered for any employee and paid on the same or separate checks. The system automatically calculates payroll taxes and prints payroll tax returns, W-2 forms and 1099 forms. Using the Payroll module, employee and federal tax deposit payments can be made electronically.

Figure 1: Employee Record – Information Tab

Using the AccountMate 6.5’s Payroll module, you can drill down on the Employee # label to have instant access to an individual employee’s records, including salary, benefits, W-4 and deduction information, as well as earnings by quarter. This breadth of information is helpful when entering payroll data, and also when applying payrolls for payment.

The Payroll module’s system automatically alerts you if a time card has already been created for any given employee on the current day. The system also alerts you if there is already an unpaid applied payment for the individual for whom the user is trying to apply a payment. In addition, you can review the amounts applied for payment. This helps you avoid duplicate payments.

You can use the Payroll module to track regular time, overtime, holiday time, sick time, vacation time and personal time – by employee, department and state.

You can use the Payroll module to define up to three additional tax codes for each tax state, and you can set up employee and employer tax rates – and a wage base – for each tax. This is useful for setting up taxes that affect all employees in a state but are not hard-wired into the system.

The AccountMate 6.5’s Payroll module system supports the electronic deposit of both Form 940 and 941 federal payroll taxes via the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System. This enables you to deposit payroll taxes directly with the IRS, avoiding trips to the bank.

The Post After-the-Fact Payroll function built into the Payroll module enables you to record checks generated outside the system without first using the Apply function to calculate exact earnings, deductions, withholdings and net payments. This is useful when system-generated data is not available at the time the checks are printed or written.

With the Payroll module, you can set up an unlimited number of deductions, and then apply any number of them to any employee. You can indicate whether a deduction is to be withheld as a fixed amount per pay period, a percentage rate or an amount per hour worked. You can also indicate that deductions such as contributions to 401(k) plans are to offset taxable wages. Deductions can be customized for each employee, and can be overwritten when payrolls are applied for payment.

Figure 2: Apply Payroll / Payment

The Payroll module system automatically supports 1099 payments to independent contractors, tracks 1099 payments and produces the appropriate 1099-Misc. forms. You can use the Payroll module to print out 1099 forms for the prior year as well as for the current year.

The automatic payroll application function integrated into the Payroll module is fast, since payment is immediately applied for all employees/contractors in the selected range; however, the manual application option allows you to review, amend, apply or skip application of the payment for each person. Either way, AccountMate 6.5’s Payroll module calculates earnings, plus default deductions and withholding amounts for employees.

With the AccountMate 6.5’s Payroll module, you can enter salary and performance review dates on employee records – then generate reports based on this information. You can see at a glance which employees are coming up for review, as well as when a specific employee is scheduled for review.

The Handwritten Check function in the Payroll module supplies the amounts needed to issue out-of-system payroll checks when you cannot wait for the regular computer-check printing cycle. It also records the issuance of these checks. This flexible option makes it easy for you to issue emergency payroll checks – and only requires that the amounts be applied for payment first, so that the checks can be printed or written using the exact, system-calculated wages, deductions, withholdings and net pay amounts.

The Payroll module’s drill down feature allows you to instantly access or set up records for all major field labels, including the Employee #, Dept #, Job Title – and, where applicable – General Ledger account ID labels.

You can generate registers of both computer checks and handwritten checks using the Payroll module. You can also include or exclude checks that contain overtime or other wages, and you can show or omit information about deductions and hours worked. Using this option, you can also generate summary check reports, electronic payment reports, and reports on voided, outstanding and cancelled checks.

When the Payroll module is linked to the General Ledger, you can set up unlimited General Ledger accounts and default wage/tax distribution percentages on employee records. This makes distribution to multiple accounts easy, and the information can be overwritten when entering time card/piece work data.

You can recalculate your FUTA and SUTA liabilities. This feature is vital in chases where you receive notices of changes in our FUTA and SUTA tax rates and wage bases after you have issued paychecks.

• Payroll checks can be voided at any time, reverting the data to the status of applied payroll/payments