Employee Template

Employee Template XE "template:employee" should XE "employee template" be set up before entering employee records. The template serves as a source for data common to most employees, such as withholding taxes. Hourly wage items may be included, and deleted for employees where they do not apply. The template is accessible from FilePreferences|Payroll, or from Lists|Employees.

Additions or deductions, such as 401(k) can be entered if they will apply to the pay checks of most employees.

Earnings box takes annual salary, hourly wage rates, sick and vacation pay items.

Additions, Deductions, and Company Contributions box accepts entries for commonly used payroll items of these types. Note that the figure has been edited to show that it also takes Commission payroll items.

NOTE

Complex pay situations must be set up very carefully. The order of payroll items in this box is critical, because of the order of calculation when a pay check is generated.

Commissions (if listed) regardless of position in the list, are first added to gross pay.

Additions, Deductions, and Company Contributions take effect according to their order in the list.

As an example, consider a deduction based on a percentage of gross pay, followed by an addition to gross pay. The percentage deduction will not be taken from the addition, or any other entry that follows.

The first two or three pay checks should be verified by manual calculation. QuickBooks will do what it is told, but will understand the instructions on its terms.

Taxes template shows that the Federal tab is not likely to need change. The State tax tab needs care. Unemployment and disability tax will usually need entries, where they apply. The individual employee records can be changed if there are any workers who reside in different states (an alien concept in the San Francisco or Los Angeles areas.)

Sick pay and vacation pay are good candidates for template entry.

Sick pay and vacation pay can be accrued either once a year, with the first pay check, or with each pay period . The Hours accrued per accrual period could be, for example, 1.5 (or 1:30) per pay period, or perhaps 80 hours for annual accumulation.