Processing the Payroll

	Processing The Payroll Wage Easy Payroll is designed to minimise routine work. Therefore, the pay processing system can be configured to operate automatically and, in routine operation, can produce the payroll for the whole company at the click of the button. This is applicable for employees on weekly, fortnightly, four weekly or monthly pay periods. For automatic operation, the employee work hours for the pay period can be loaded directly from a link with a time and attendance system, or by link to a rostering system. The operator can exclude one or more employees from the automatic process, and this may be required for employees on sick leave for example. In automatic operation, Wage Easy Payroll processes the payroll using the existing settings for each employee.
		The payroll can also be produced manually, via a pay slip wizard. The operator can generate individual pay slips, selecting the employee via the employee number or name. The name and number fields include drop-down lists of existing employees, and are automated to provide incremental searching where the program will select the likely employee as the operator types the information. Employee work times for the pay period are entered manually from time sheets, in hours and minutes. The wizard allows the operator to alter most of the award or contract factors for each employee during the process. This feature is enhanced by the ability to move backwards and forwards in the wizard, thus being able to review the results of changes prior to saving the pay slip.
	The program can also be configured to work semi-automatically, with predefined prompting for operator input for settings that are likely to change on a regular basis. In effect, this flags certain employees and/or settings that need to be checked each pay slip. This can be very useful where an employee works in different departments, or may be entitled to allowances that vary with the nature of the work performed during the pay period. The operator also has the ability to copy the work hours from the previous pay period and this is useful for staff or salaried employees with regular work times. Wage Easy Payroll calculates the pay slips by interpreting the employment conditions as defined in the award files, in relation to the hours worked in the pay period. In setting up the award and employee files, the operator establishes the normal payroll settings for each employee. These settings can include: normal work times, overtime and shift loadings, leave, superannuation, workers compensation, termination, tax, union, department, pay rates, banking, allowances and so on. All automatic calculations based on these preset payroll factors for an employee can be changed by the operator at pay slip production stage.
	When the pay slips for the pay period have been prepared and saved, the operator can initiate payments and printing of the pay slips. If the Internet facilities are established, the payments and other statistical information can be sent at the click of a button. At the same time, Wage Easy Payroll will do an online check for updated award or tax information from the various association sources. Individual pay slips can be printed or reprinted at any time. Each pay slip is saved with a 'tracking stamp' allowing tracking of pay slip production. Reports that allow managers to monitor and analyse the company payroll can be generated once the pay slips have been saved.