Chapter 2

1: Employee Payroll

To aid familiarisation to the programme a company payroll, Soap plc , is already set up. The database of a company payroll resides in the directory "/home/payroll/payrollbash-1.0?/database". The files are :

employee.db
pay.dbM
pay.dbW
payded.db
org.db

A copy of these files has been placed in :

~/database/training

so you can trash and replace at will up until the time you wish to create your own payroll.

1.1:Creation of Employee Payroll Database

If you select :

                               "C" "Edit/Create payroll database"

from the opening menu and then "M" - for Monthly you will see the following screen:


___________________________________________________________________________________________


		Monthly Payroll : Soap plc


 	                   Menu


eecode             BUT01                lname        Butcher
taxcode            456L                 fname        Janine
week1              Y                    dob          02/02/1985     age    18
nitable            A                    dos          _
basic              250                  sex          F
hourRate           2.234                ni#          PT887766T
starter            _                    add1         3 Walford Road
startercumpay      _                    add2         Railway Terraces
startercumtax      _                    add3         London
leaver             _                    add4
leaveDate          _                    add5
director           _                    postCode     E1

 (N)ext (P)revious (E)dit (C)reate (Q)uit
Please enter choice

____________________________________________________________________________________________

This is where you set-up(create) and edit the employee payroll data.
Try the following. To delete the hour rate press "E" and hit "Return" until you see:

	HourRate : Change ?

and hit space bar and then "Return" and "q"
OK , so "Return" on its own will skip the field leaving the contents untouched whereas "space" "Return" deletes the field.
To edit the hour rate do the above but enter 6.6667 and "Return" and "q" and "Return".

You can quit anytime by entering "q" and "Return". The changes are automatically saved.

1.2:Example of creating of Employee Payroll Record

The following is an example of creating a new employee record. As the fields are entered a detailed analysis of what is valid will be given.
Ok. Its still the beginning of the tax year and Pauline Fowler has yet to be entered.

1.2.1:Name

Type "C" or "c" ( all menus are case insensative ) to create a new employee record.

              "What is the last name ? :"

is requested.
Type: Fowler ...........and Hit Return .
You will see now that the field "eecode" is FOW02.
The "eecode" is programme generated and cannot be edited/deleted.
As Lisa Fowler is FOW01 the programme allocates FOW02 to Pauline Fowler.
The last name supplied must be at least 3 characters long - excluding spaces,hyphens and other punctuation ( which is ok but not for the 3 characters required for the "eecode" ). Failing this requirement returns you to the where you were originally . Having been through my local telephone directory I realise that there are valid 2 letter surnames eg., Ng . If you should "hire" such an "alpha" deficient individual you could enter ,for eg. Nga and then edit the Surname later.

1.2.2:Tax Code

 "taxCode : Change ? :"

Try entering a non-valid tax-code eg.,H78,78K,33W ....
Try skipping this field by entering "Return"
...........and you will be told that this field is compulsory.
Type: 456L ...........and Hit Return .(you can type lower case letters).

1.2.3:Tax Basis

 "Week1? : Change ? :"

Tax basis.The only accepted response is Y , y , N , n .
This field is compulsory.
Type: n ................and Hit Return .

1.2.4:NI Code

"NITable : Change ? :"

The only accepted response is a valid NI Table Code such as A,D or X if the employee is not subject to National Insurance (such as under 16's).
Type: C ................and Hit Return .(This is invalid because Pauline has not reached retirement age . However it is accepted !!!!. If after completing all the fields you return to the Main Menu and run "E" "Run Health Check" the error will be reported if the date of birth field is completed ).
This field is compulsory.

1.2.5:Basic Salary/Wage

"Basic : Change ? :"

The monthly salary or weeky wage. Any value from 0 upwards is accepted.
This field is compulsory.
Type: 856.78 ................and Hit Return .

1.2.:Hour Rate

"HourRate : Change ? :"

This is what will be paid for overtime at single rate. The programme will use this figure to calculate overtime over the varying rates ie., time-and-a-half,double time etc.
The figure must not exceed 99.9999.
This field isn't compulsory as salaried staff may not be paid overtime.
Type: 5.3977 ................and Hit Return .

1.2.7:Starter

"starter : Change ? :"

If you set up a new employee after the 1st period in the year ie., week 1/month 1, then this field is compulsory . Place "S" in field.
Otherwise this field is empty.
Hit Return.

1.2.8:Starter Cum Pay

"startercumpay : Change ? :"

If you have entered "S" in "starter" then enter the P45 figure. If not known or not applicable enter "0". You can edit this field in later periods and the tax will be automatically recalculated .
Otherwise this field is empty.
Hit Return.

1.2.9:Starter Cum Tax

"startercumtax : Change ? :"

1.2.10:Leaver

"leaver : Change ? :"

After the last pay period run-down enter "L" in this field. This will stop payroll processing this employee. At year-end run-down leavers are removed from the active monthly or weekly database but their details remain in the employee database.
Hit Return.

1.2.11:Leave Date

"leaveDate : Change ? :"

Date Format accepted is "dd/mm/yyyy". It will accept "d/m/y" and pad the missing "0"'s automatically. This is required for year-end P14 completion.
Hit Return.

1.2.12:Director

"director : Change ? :"

[ Currently the programme can only cope with simple "Director" profiles . If the Director changes National Insurance Table Code through the year then it is back to pen & paper. This will be resolved by the tax year 2004/05.... hopefully. ]
A Director is treated differently from other staff for National Insurance Class 1 deduction purposes. Place "D" in this field if approriate. If the Director resigns but continues to be on the payroll then enter "R" in this field . The ex-Director will be continued to be assessed as a Director for NI purposes until the year-end. The programme will erase this field if "R" at year-end run-down.
If the director is an existing employee then make him a leaver and create a new employee .
Hit Return.
If "D" had been entered 2 further fields would have been requested to be completed.
DirField1:

If this is the beginning of the year then enter "1" signifying commence payperiod 1. Otherwise enter the payperiod that the Director commenced.

DirField2:

If "DirField1" is "1" then this field can be "P" if the Director elects to pay NI contributions on a pro rata basis ( if entitled ) or "N" if the Director declines or is not entitled to the election .
If the "DirField1" is anything other than "1" then enter the WEEK No. that the Director commenced the directorship . Thus even though they will most probably be monthly paid it is the WEEK No. that is required for correct NI calculations.

1.2.13:Name

"lname : Change ? :"

This is asked for on creation of the employee record but can be edited/changed/hyphenated....
Hit Return.

1.2.14:First Name

"fname : Change ? :"

On creation "NoFirstName" is input but can be edited/changed at will. You can put in more than one name but as the field on payslips,etc has to have some limit it may be best to just add initials after the first name.
Enter "Pauline".... and Hit Return.

1.2.15:Date of Birth

"dob : Change ? :"

See 1.2.11 : "Leave Date" for accepted date input. Date of Birth.
This field isn't compulsory.
If supplied it will be used by the ( Main Menu )"E" "Run Health Check" to check for appropiate NI Tables relating to under 16's,over 60's/65's,etc.
Age is also displayed on the screen automatically. The system date is used in the calculation.
Enter 12/3/49.....and Hit Return.

1.2.16:Date of Start

"dos : Change ? :"

See 1.2.11 : "Leave Date" for accepted date input.
Date of Start. For those that are starters within current tax year.
This field isn't compulsory although is required for correct year-end P14 preperation.
Hit Return.

1.2.17:Sex

"sex : Change ? :"

The only accepted response is M , F .
This field is compulsory.
It is used by the ( Main Menu )"E" "Run Health Check" for eg., to ensure that NI Tables appropriate to Married Women are not allocated to Men.
Enter "f" ........and Hit Return.

1.2.18:NI Number

"ni# : Change ? :"

Valid input is in the form of 2 letters,6 numbers and a letter.
If not supplied it will default to for eg., TN280285F where the numbers are the birth date of employee and F is for Female.
If birth date is not supplied it will default to TN999999F or TN999999M according to gender.
Hit Return.

1.2.19:Address

"add1...postCode : Change ? :"

Whatever.
These fields are not compulsory although are required for correct year-end P14 preperation.
It is automatically saved.

1.3:Health Check

"E" "Run Health Check" : after each session that executes changes to the employee database it is prudent to run a health check to pick up gremlins that the localised menu validation routines didn't detect.
You will see that it has picked-up the wrong NI code that has been entered. Go back and change this to "A" and re-run "E" "Run Health Check".

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