COINS Enhancement: Verify Pay Rates against State Minimum Wage

Transcription

1 COINS Enhancement: Modules Affected: Payroll Versions Affected: COINS Version 7 (9.7c2.34) and COINS Ti (9.7c2.34TI) Documentation Updated: New changes described in this CE document are included in the online help and appropriate Reference Manuals concurrent with the software release. This document may also contain information that is not incorporated into the documentation, such as procedures and sample reports, so you may want to keep a copy for future use. An archive of CE documents is available on COINS USA s Client Center web site at ti.com/support/releases/cedocs.php. The discussion of these enhancements is divided into the sections shown below. Overview... 2 Set Up Requirements and Screen Changes... 2 Tailoring... 2 Tax Code File... 4 Employee File... 7 Processing Changes... 9 Time Card Entry Pre Posting Status Report Copyright 2008 Construction Industry Solutions (Shaker) Corp. 06/09/2008 1

2 Overview This document describes enhancements to the Payroll module to allow verification that employees are paid at or above the state s minimum wage in cases where a state s minimum wage is greater than the federal minimum wage. The federal minimum wage is set under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and is currently $5.85 (increasing to $6.55 per hour effective July 24, 2008). Many states also have minimum wage laws. Where an employee is subject to both the state and federal minimum wage laws, the employee is entitled to receive the higher minimum wage rate. Set Up Requirements and Screen Changes This section provides information about setting up COINS to check and warn for minimum wage problems during payroll processing. Tailoring Two fields in Payroll Company Tailoring control how minimum wage checking is used on your system. The fields provide: The choice of a warning or a hard stop if the time card rate per hour is below the work state minimum wage The choice of a hard stop or no error when entering hourly rates for the employee s primary earnings category. Note These Payroll Company Tailoring options apply to both COINS v7 and COINS Ti. 06/09/2008 2

3 Figure 1: Payroll Company Tailoring 05/08/08 PR - Company Tailoring Co 10 stage Time Card Defaults - cont'd Enter Start and Stop Time to Calculate Regular Hours Worked (Y/N): N Calculate Regular Hours Exactly or Round to the Nearest Quarter Hour (E/R): R If employee's locality Time Card default rule is J, Tax Distribution Method is 1 or 3, and Locality is blank on the Job - place Default Work Locality on the Time Card (Y/N): N Stop/Warn if Rate per Hour is below Work State Minimum Wage (S/W): W Field Definitions (Selected fields) Stop/Warn if Rate per Hour is below Work State Minimum Wage During time card entry, the system checks whether the time card s minimum wage is less than the work state s minimum wage (i.e., the time card states). If it is, either an error (stop) or warning displays as determined by this tailoring flag: S Stop a warning message displays and you are not allowed to save the time card unless you correct the time card rate. Note Payroll security (set at the User ID and Payroll Tailoring level) control the ability to view and access the time card rate field. Depending on how these are set, users may not be able to access and update the time card s rate. The payroll supervisor may need to assist. W Warning a warning message displays but the user may continue entering the time card without correcting the rate. This is the default response. 06/09/2008 3

4 Figure 2: Payroll Company Tailoring 05/08/08 PR - Company Tailoring Co 10 stage Employee Master File Defaults Use Job or Employee for Withholding State (J/E): E Use Job or Employee for Locality (J/E): E State Withholding Method (1/2/3/4/5): 3 Locality Withholding Method (1/2/3/4/5): 3 Enter Extra Withholding Amount/Percent for the Work State (Y/N): N Force hourly primary earnings to meet State Minimum Wage (Y/N): N Use Job or Employee or Time Card State for SUTA State (J/E/T): E Use Job or Employee or Time Card State for DBL State (J/E/T): E Use Job or Employee or Time Card State for Workers Comp State(J/E/T): E Require Birth Date to be Entered in Employee F/M (Y/N): Y Require Hire Date to be Entered in Employee F/M (Y/N): Y Require Sort Group to be Entered in Employee F/M (Y/N): N Upon Entering Employee Through Long Add, Automatically Enter PR Employee Company Calculation F/M (Y/N): N PR Employee Deduction F/M (Y/N): N Field Definitions (Selected fields) Force hourly primary earnings to meet State Minimum Wage This tailoring option controls whether an error message appears when you enter hourly rates in the Employee File for the primary earnings category. Y N Yes if you enter an hourly rate for the employee s primary earnings category that is less than the minimum wage of the employee s default work state, an error message displays and you must correct the rate. No the system does not compare the employee s rate against the work state s minimum wage. This is the default response. Tax Code File In the Tax Code File, the State Minimum Wage field contains the minimum wage for states. This field should be filled in for any state that has a minimum wage greater than the Federal one. This file should be reviewed and updated regularly, since minimum wage laws change periodically. The Tax Code File is maintained at the company level, so you need to repeat this process for each company in your database. 06/09/2008 4

5 COINS Navigation 1. Select Payroll from the COINS v7 menu. Enter the payroll company number at the prompt. 2. Select File Maintenance Company from the Payroll menu. 3. Select Tax Code File from File Maintenance menu. 4. Select Change from the strip menu, and choose the State option on the next strip menu. 5. Enter the 2 character code for the state. 6. Enter the minimum wage in the State Minimum Wage field. Press F1 to complete and save the entry. 7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for each state that you need to update. Figure 3: State Tax Code (COINS v7) 05/08/08 PR - Tax Code F/M Co 10 stage Change - State Last Date of Tax Change 01/01/06 Tax Code* NY Description: NY Employer ID: User Code: G/L Withhold Account* 1102 Postal Numeric Code: 36 Vendor # for A/P Inv* Suppl. Earnings Tax %: State Minimum Wage: 7.15 DBL Info Employee Employer DBL Rate %: Gross Limit: Limit Base (A/P): P P G/L Liab Acct* Vend # for A/P Inv* Appear Separately on W-2?: N Box on W-2 (12 or 14): COINS Ti Navigation 1. Select Payroll from the tree menu. Enter the payroll company number at the prompt. 2. Select File Maintenance Company > Tax Code File from the tree menu. 3. Choose Tax Level = State and select the desired state from the drop down menu. 06/09/2008 5

6 4. On the Primary Info tab, enter the minimum wage in the State Minimum Wage field. Press F1 to complete and save the entry. 5. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for each state that you need to update. Figure 4: State Tax Code (COINS Ti) Field Definitions (Selected fields) State Minimum Wage The State Minimum Wage defaults as zero. The system only verifies time card rates for states that have a value greater than zero. If you leave a state s State Minimum Wage set to 0.00 (zero, the default), the verification program will skip time cards for that state. If each state has a minimum wage that is greater than the federal minimum wage and you want to check the rate when entering time cards or updating the employee file, change the 0.00 to the current minimum wage for the state. If you update the State Minimum Wage and the Force hourly primary earnings to meet State Minimum Wage is Y in Payroll Company Tailoring, the system prompts you to update employee records: 06/09/2008 6

7 Update all Employees whose default work state is XX and primary earnings category is hourly and below this minimum wage with this new State Minimum Wage of $XX.XXXX (Y/N): Reply Y to update the employees primary earnings category with the new rate. A report lists the changed employees when the update is complete. Employee File During time card entry, the system compares the time card rate with the time card state s minimum wage. It displays a warning or error message if the time card rate is less. You can typically correct the error by changing the rate on the time card, but a more permanent solution is to update the rate in the Employee File. If you use job or union rates, you should also review the Job Rate File and Union Rate File and update them as required. The system can also automatically update the hourly rates in the Employee File when you change a state s minimum wage in the Tax Code File. This updates any employees who have that state as their work state and have hourly rates for the primary earnings category that are less than minimum. See the Tax Code File field definitions on page 6. Note If you enter an hourly rate that is less than the State Minimum Wage for the employee s work state, an error message may appear on the screen, as shown in Figure 5 and Figure 6. You will see the message if the option Force hourly primary earnings to meet State Minimum Wage is set to Y in Payroll Company Tailoring. COINS Navigation 1. Select File Maintenance Company from the Payroll menu. 2. Select Employee File from File Maintenance menu. 3. Select Change from the strip menu, and use the Lookup [F5] to select the employee to be updated. 4. Use the strip menu to go to the Earnings Category screen. 5. Update the hourly rate for the employee s primary earnings category (the first one listed). You may also update other hourly earnings categories. 6. Press F1 to complete and save the entry. 06/09/2008 7

8 Figure 5: Employee File (COINS v7) 05/08/08 PR - Employee F/M Co 10 stage Change Employee* 0030 Pietro, Andrew Employee Earnings Definition Earnings Rate or Amount Cat* Description Type H/A Regular Over Time Double Time HE HOURLY EARNING NORMAL H The wages for the primary earnings category must be equal or greater than the state's minimum wage of 7.15 COINS Ti Navigation 1. Select Payroll > File Maintenance Company > Employee File from the tree menu. 2. Use the Lookup [F5] to select the employee to be updated. 3. On the Earnings tab, update the hourly rate for the employee s primary earnings category (the first one listed). You may also update other hourly earnings categories. 4. Save the changed record. 06/09/2008 8

9 Figure 6: Employee File (COINS Ti) Processing Changes The following functions have been updated to compare the time card rate to the work state s minimum wage. Enter Time Cards in COINS v7 o o o Add Change Extended Time Card Entry Time Card Entry in COINS Ti Enter Manual Checks o o Add Change Compute Manual Deductions Pre Posting Status Report 06/09/2008 9

10 Time Card Entry The time card entry programs validate the hourly time card rate against the state minimum wage, if the state minimum wage is not zero. If the time card rate is less, the system displays either an error message or a warning message, depending on Payroll Tailoring (see page 2). Figure 7: Warning Message during Time Card Entry in COINS v7 05/08/08 PR - Time Card Entry Co 10 stage Add Batch: ke Employee Number* 0030 Pietro, Andrew Check Number: 1 Transaction #* 2 Earnings Cat* HE Job number* Phase* Cost Code* Work Order*/Work Type: State* NY Locality* Rate Hours Gross SUTA State* / Trade* NY Reg: Equip (CO/CH/NO): NO Ovt: Union* Dbl: Skill Level* ========= ========= Labor Category* TOTALS: Cert (Y/N) / Super: Y Workers Comp* 5022 Reimbursable Amt: 0.00 Days Worked:.00 Reimbursable G/L Account* 1640 Date / Bank* 05/08/08 CB WARNING: The regular rate is less than the state's minimum wage of 7.15 Pre Posting Status Report The Pre Posting Status Report has been enhanced with a variety of selection options to make it easier to review unposted payroll for minimum wage issues as well as other problems. 06/09/

11 Figure 8: Pre Posting Status Report Selection Screen in COINS Tv7 05/08/08 C O I N S Co 10 stage Payroll Report Menu - Pre Edit / Pre Posting 1. Employee Earnings Report 2. Pre Edit Below Net Min Report 3. Pre Posting Allocation Report Pre Posting Status Report Starting Batch: KE Ending Batch: KE Include Employees: All employees (Y/N): Y Computations have been run (Y/N): Y Edit List has been printed (Y/N): Y Are in multiple batches (Y/N): Y Has Direct Deposit (Y/N): Y Has time cards in error (Y/N): Y Falls below state minimum wage (Y/N): Y Figure 9: Pre Posting Status Report Selection Screen in COINS Ti Field Definitions (Selected Fields) Starting Batch Ending Batch Enter the range of batches you wish to print for this report. Leave both fields blank if you want to print all batches. 06/09/

12 Include Employees: All employees Computations have been run Edit List has been printed Are in multiple batches Has Direct Deposit Has time cards in error Falls below state minimum wage Select the types of issues that the report should look for. The Falls below state minimum wage option is accessible only when Payroll Company Tailoring is set to WARN when time cards fall below the state minimum wage. If it is tailored to STOP, there is no need to review the rates before posting. Figure 10: Sample Pre Posting Status Report showing employees with minimum wage errors 06/09/