A number of common types of pay items are already defined in the system. You can use the predefined pay items, and add more of your own. There is no limit on the number of different types of pay items.
Once you have entered a particular pay item in the Calculation screen in a tax year, you will not be able to modify the pay item set up screen. If you do so the change will not be saved. The only way to change a pay item mid tax year is to create a new pay item with the setup you want and use an adjustment payslip for each employee to debit the old pay item and credit the new.
You cannot change the priority number directly in the pay item set up screen, but you can change the priority in the pay items selection form using the up and down arrows to move a pay item up or down the processing sequence.
See Pay Item Calculation Methods for a full list of the options and how they calculate the pay.
Calculation Method
The calculation method specifies how the pay item is to be calculated. You can choose from a number of options which will depend on your country.
Factor
The factor is used by some pay item types to calculate the amount to pay. See the pay item calculation type description.
The pay item factor can be over-ridden by specific award. This allows a singe pay item to be used with different factors. See Award Pay Item Factors for more details.
If the pay item has a calculation type of 'Hol Accrue' the maximum is the maximum leave balance the employee may accrue. For example, a sick leave accrual with a maximum of 40 would ensure that the employee cannot have a sick leave balance of more than 40 hours.
Please note that the basis will not cause the pay item to be repeated at the frequency selected. If you wish to schedule pay items to occur at a frequency different from the pay group's pay frequency, use the transaction scheduler.
A cost code selected here will over-ride a cost code selected for a payee on their Pay Conditions screen. However, this cost code can be over-ridden by one selected on the Calculation pay item screen.
You can only select a cost code that you have already defined in the Cost Codes set up screen.
If an expense code is not selected here, the suspense expense code selected on the Payroll set up screen will be used to analyse this pay item.
You can only select an expense code that you have already defined in the Expense Codes set up screen.
When you select a pay item property for edit, or add a new pay item property, the Pay Item Property Edit form is displayed.
Additional properties can be defined using the Properties form.
Cost Code
The Cost Code is used by the Costing Report to analyse pay items and deductions.
Expense Code
The Expense Code is used by the Costing Report to analyse payments and deductions within cost centres.
Leave Category (Payment only)
You can only select a leave category if the pay item is a pay item. This indicates the type of leave that a pay item accrues or pays. It is left as (Not Leave) for those pay items that are not related to leave.
Disbursement (Deduction only)
You can only select a disbursement method if the pay item is a deduction. The disbursement method inidicates how the pay item is to be paid. The default is 'Retained', that is not paid to any third party. If you enter a bank account details in the pay item edit form, every employee who has the pay item added to their pay will have the deduction paid to the same bank account. See direct credits for more information.
Repeating
If you click here, the pay item will be carried forward to the next pay period. A pay item that has not been marked as repeating will only be carried forward to the next pay period, if you request that when you open the next pay period, otherwise it will be deleted from the payee's next pay.
Benefit
Click this field to indicate that the pay item is an employer sponsored pay item that is not used in the payee's net pay calculation. The pay item will be shown separately on the pay advice and included in the Costing report.
Notional
A notional pay item is not included in an employee's net pay calculation and is not shown on any reports. It's value can be used in the calculation of other pay items. Tick the Notional. checkbox to make this pay item a notional pay item.
Rounding
Select how the pay item calculation is to be rounded when the number of decimal places in the calculated result exceeds 2 places:
Miscellaneous Properties
The miscellaneous properties define how the pay item is to be treated in tax calculations and categorised in various reports. Most of the miscellaneous properties are pre-defined and required for specific processing in Kwik-Pay, but you can add extra properties of your own in order to define your own reporting criteria for pay items.
Hide
Check the hide box if you wish to stop the current pay item from being selected in the pay calculation screen. The pay ite will also be hidden from the pay item list form, but you can display all hidden pay items, by selecting the 'Show Hidden' check box on that screen.