Purpose
This page will explain the steps that must be carried out to process payroll.
Application
The Bookkeeper/Office Admin conducts the payroll process. It runs semi-monthly and is processed twice a month.
1. Calculate the Total Hours Worked
Before closing the payroll in Quickbooks, the number of hours worked must be calculated. All the sign-in & out information for each employee will be transferred from the sheet at the desk to the online sheet.
The hours have to be in decimal format in QuickBooks. Ensure all break periods over 30 minutes are deducted, and the final total is recorded in decimal format. The total weekly hours will be entered in QuickBooks as regular pay hours.
2. Calculate STAT Holiday Hours
If a STAT holiday falls within the payroll period, the number of hours to be paid must be calculated for each employee. Employees receive STAT holiday pay if they have been employed for 30 calendar days and have worked or earned wages (like vacation pay or another STAT holiday) on 15 days of the 30 days before the STAT holiday.
*Note: 8 hours is the maximum paid for STAT
Example: Calculation for Thanksgiving October 12
The 30-day period would be from September 12 to October 11.
For each employee, go back to the previous time sheets that covered this period and record the number of hours and the number of days for each week from Sunday to Saturday.
Debbie:
Sept 12-19: 33.86hrs (5 days)
Sept 20-26: 37.03hrs (5 days)
Sept 27-Oct 3: 36.81hrs (5 days)
Oct 4-Oct 11: 37.30hrs (5 days)
Total hours: 33.86+37.03+36.81+37.30= 145 hrs
# of days: 5+5+5+5= 20 days
Total STAT hours = 145/20 = 7.25
*Note: If this were 8.25 hours, only 8 hours would be paid. Also, if the # of days worked were less than 15, the employee would not be paid for the STAT.
3. Entering the Hours in QuickBooks
For this step, the user must have their own username and password for Buzz Quickbooks online.
Once logged in, go to the menu on the left-hand side and choose Payroll.
Once the payroll button is clicked, this will open the Employees dashboard.
4. Run the Payroll
Click on the Run payroll button. This will open the dashboard where all the hours have to be entered.
Make sure the pay period is the one that you need to close. This will be at the top of the page.
5. Fill in the Hours
Fill in the hours for each employee (semi-monthly pay usually results in payment for 10 or 11 days, resulting in an estimated 80 to 88 hours of regular pay per employee if worked 8 hours per day).
Sections to fill in:
- Regular Pay: Total hours calculated on the online sheet, for example, 86.60.
- Overtime: # of hours if authorized by Management.
- Sick Pay: # of hours, if any.
- Vacation Pay: # of hours, if any.
- STAT Holiday: the amount that was calculated, for example, 7.25.
- Bonus: the $ amount, if any.
- Travel allowance: $ amount, if any.
Next, Preview payroll or Save for later, found at the bottom right-hand corner.
To finalize the process, click the Preview payroll button, this will open to the Total cost section.
Here, you will be able to review all the information that was previously entered. Ensure the hours entered, the pay period, and the pay date are correct.
In this section, you can see:
- Total hours
- Gross pay
- Net pay
- Employee taxes and deductions
- Employer taxes and deductions
*Note: Send Barry a Skype message to let him know what will be the total Net pay
6. Submit Payroll
If everything looks correct, click the Submit payroll button at the bottom right corner.
After submission, the screen will show the date the payroll will be deducted from the company bank account and the date it will be deposited into the employee's bank account. Additionally, the link for the pay stubs will be shown.
7. Send Each Employee Their Pay Stub (Optional)
This is an optional step, as it is also available in Workforce, which each employee has access to. An email notification is usually sent to let them know that the pay stub is available.