FAQs

Attaché have produced two Business Improvement Guides for clients.

• Payroll – Over 100 tactics
• Expense Reduction – Over 120 tactics.

The below links will take you to each of the guides.

attache-expense-reduction-guide

attache-payroll-improvement-guide

Where an employee is linked to a leave table that is set to accrue on an hourly basis, a problem arises when they cash out annual leave.  Attache would normally accrue additional leave on these cashed out hours which is usually incorrect.

The attached procedure prevents that and allows for full tracking of this cashed out leave.

If you have any questions please contact our support desk on 08 9470 9922 or via email [email protected]

Click here to download

More that one time sheet can be created for an employee in a pay run if required provided the option is turned on under SETUP – PAYROLL – PAYROLL OPTIONS second page Allow Multiple Timesheets

Each time sheet will be taxed separately and have a separate Pay Advice. Separate cheques or banking details will also be generated if the employee is paid by either of these methods.

Note: If you are using monthly super calculations, it will not calculate correctly when there is more than one time sheet in the last pay for the month. You will need to do a separate super calculation run.

How do I delete employees in Attaché Payroll?

To delete terminated employees, you must have run End of Year on your Payroll data. To do so, choose Period End | Payroll | End of Period | Payroll and set both the End of Period and End of Year checkboxes to Yes.

1. Make sure you have taken a copy of your payroll data before you start deleting terminated employees. You will use this copy if you need to reprint reports payment summaries for terminated employees.

2. Delete history transactions — Timesheets and Adjustments

o Transactions | Payroll | Time Sheets | Delete History Transactions. Enter the date range and employee code range.

o Transactions | Payroll | Adjustments | Delete History Transactions. Enter the date range and employee code range.

3. Delete Super Payment Details

o Period End | Payroll | Superannuation | Delete Super Payment Details. Set the Terminated checkbox to Yes and Page Down to enter any relevant ranges.

4. Delete employee

o Masterfiles | Payroll | Employee Details | Delete. Enter employee code range.

Information messages and recommended action

“Fringe Benefit information still exists”

• You cannot delete the employee because FBT amounts exist for the next financial year.

“Leave Liability Not Zero”

• Print the Leave Liability Journal (Reports | Payroll | Leave | Leave Liability Journals).
• In the Employee Status selection area, set only the Terminated checkbox to Yes.
• Print the report and choose Yes to create the GL Journals.

Note: If the message still appears when trying to delete terminated employees, check the employee’s masterfile Leave tables. If they are set to NIL, you will need to add the relevant leave tables to reverse the leave liability.

The Employee Other Payments File contains unprinted details for Employee CodeXXXXXXX

• Delete Super Payment Details (Period End | Payroll | Superannuation | Delete Super Payment Details). Set the Terminated checkbox to Yes and Page Down to enter any relevant ranges.

Cannot delete – Employee Masterfile has Payroll G/L Interface

• Print the GL Postings (Reports | Payroll | Other Reports | General Ledger Postings). Select Payroll in the Modules selection area.
• Check the transactions on this report.
• If the transactions are to be posted to the general ledger, go to your General Ledger and post now.
• If the transactions are not to be posted to the general ledger, go to Reports | Payroll | Other Reports | Delete GL Postings File. Choose from the Modules selection area and enter the transactions date range.

Both the Supplier and Payroll programs have a menu option which allows the creation of a file which banking software can read to transfer funds directly from/to bank accounts.

Care must be taken to ensure the correct information is entered when selecting to create this file. Two fields in particular must have the correct information keyed, or the file will not be created correctly.

These fields are:

Destination Path – This field must contain only the drive information, eg C:\ – do not enter any additional detail in this field.

Output Device – Normally the report would be printed to a printer, but may be printed to the screen. Do not select to print to Disk File as this will print the report to the bank file resulting in the file being in the incorrect format. The file will be rejected by the bank.

If an employee’s pay is not included on the bank transfer file, there could be several reasons for this. Some of the most common causes are:

– When entering a time sheet, the Pay Advice Required field has been set to No.

– The Bank line type has been deleted from the body of the pay.

– The incorrect Company Bank account has been entered on the employee masterfile.

In these instances, uncheck the pays, make corrections, recheck the pays and create the bank transfer file again.

The new FBT gross-up rate will not affect the calculation of an employee’s reportable fringe benefits amount. When calculating an employee’s individual fringe benefits amount, employers will continue to use the former gross-up rate of 1.9417 for reporting on the employee’s group certificate or payment summary. This is regardless of whether benefits that are provided are type 1 or type 2 benefits.

The new gross-up formula is only used to calculate the employer’s fringe benefits tax liability.

Incorrect tax deduction

It is not necessary to enter a correcting Adjustment pay for a pay entered within the same pay run. Pays can be modified until included in the Process Pay.

Points to consider:

Header

Function

If you choose Empty or Standard Pay, only pay components will display. Hours or values must be calculated and entered manually. Tax will be calculated automatically but can be overridden.

If you choose Other Pay, you can select to read in any of the pays on file for this employee using Find (F2) on the Pay Number field. Tax will show as per the original pay. Reverse (F8) can be selected on the Header which means the pay will be displayed in reverse and can then be modified if necessary.

Description

Enter a brief description for this Adjustment pay. This description will display on the Pay Details Report and on Enquiries on the pays.

Pay Advice Required

Should payment information be generated for this pay?

‘Yes’ will generate payment details such as a pay advice, cheque or bank transfer transaction etc. but will do so for a positive adjustment only. 

If ‘No’ is selected, only figures will be updated but no pay advice or payment details will be generated such as cheque, coinage or bank details. Enter ‘No’ if only adjusting figures or cost centre details etc. 

If ‘Yes’ is entered for both a timesheet and an adjustment within the same pay run for the same employee, both will generate a pay advice.

Body 

Add or modify lines as required. 
Check to ensure that the Gross, Tax and Net figures are correct before accepting the pay. 
Auto Tax can be overriden.

Note:

Monthly Income for Super for Casual Employees does not update for Adjustments, only Timesheets.

For the latest Attaché postcode file log into Attache’s web site using your VIP number.

Use Locations where employees are located in separate areas and location sorting and subtotalling are required on some reports e.g. sick leave taken by individual locations. A Location can be a suburb, state, branch etc.

If employees can work in different sites week by week, use Pay Points to direct a pay to a particular site. Pay Points can also be used to sort pay advices into areas within a company to make distribution easier.

It is possible to have Pay Points within a Location.

Note: If an employee moves from one Location to another and their code is changed via ‘Change Employee Location/Code’, all their period and year to date totals transfer to the new Location. If this is unsuitable or two separate Tax Certificates for an employee are required, then the employee should be terminated in the original location and set up as a new employee in the new location.

This information applies to Allowances, Deductions, Employee Bank Accounts and Employer Super Contribution codes.

Fixed type
During standard pay maintenance or transaction entry the code can be selected but the Fixed field cannot be accessed. Any change made to this type of code, will immediately affect any Standard Pays with this code.

Variable
During standard pay maintenance or transaction entry the field can be modified. Any amount entered during set up will appear as a default amount in transaction entry or standard pay entry and can be modified.

All users who report to the ATO via magnetic media are required to fill out the Magnetic Media Information form.

Attaché Software STRONGLY urges you to read the information contained in the the ATO. Payers Reporting by Magnetic Media before you commence your end of year. In this bulletin you will find information on magnetic media reporting, the forms you need to complete and details on printing plain paper payment summaries.

What is the Magnetic Media Information form?
The Magnetic Media Information form contains your contact details and a name or identifier that links your form with your magnetic media. This form must be sent with your magnetic media to Magnetic Information Processing Services (MIPS).

When MIPS receive the file, an acknowledgement receipt is sent to the postal address specified in the magnetic media. If the magnetic media has been damaged and MIPS are unable to read the file, MIPS will contact you using the information on the form. The name or identifier you write on the form and the magnetic media helps the ATO match your magnetic media with your contact details.

This form is the only way for MIPS to know who any damaged data belongs to and how to contact you for a replacement file.

The required file for the 2007/2008 financial year is attached.

Click here to download

Whether you are performing the year end rollover yourself or having your Attache consultant do this for you, these checks will ensure smooth, trouble free processing.

See attached document for a check list for the year ending 30 June 2011.

Click here to download

From 1 July 2003 employers will be required to make superannuation guarantee contributions on behalf of their eligible employees at least one each quarter.

Contributions are due by: 28 October, 28 January, 28 April and 28 July each year. Employers who already make superannuation contributions quarterly (or more often) should continue to do so.

Employers will need to:

1. Calculate 9% of the earnings base for each eligible employee (generally employees who are paid $450 or more per month).

2. Pay this to a complying superannuation fund at least quarterly.

3. Report in writing to your employees the details of the contributions you have made to a fund at least once every quarter on a pay slip, letter or email. You should note amount contributed, name of fund and their contact phone number and, if known, the employee’s account number.

4. Keep a record of when, what and how you reported superannuation contributions to your employees.

If you don’t make your superannuation contributions by the cut off dates you will face penalties. You may also face penalties if you don’t report details to your employees.

To comply with this point 3 above if using Attache, you will need to go to each employee’s standard pays and add in two comment lines. This information will then appear on your emplyees payslips and will serve as their notice in writing.

The first comment line needs to contain the superannuation fund name and phone number and the second comment line needs to contain the employee’s superannuation member number.

If you do not have a member number we suggest you put in the description of “To be advised” until received.

For further assistance or queries relating to the above please contact our office.

The attached file will give you an indication of what information is required when installing a new payroll program. This information is required for each employee.

The ability to reprint payslips only applies to those pays which were processed after loading version 1.24.400 or later.

During January it is all too easy to accidentally key incorrect dates, especially when entering transactions. Here are two handy tips to help you avoid these common errors.

Turn on date checking

Date error #1 A user changes the month from January back to December but forgets to change the year, resulting in a date such as 21/12/2009 being recorded – a future-dated transaction.

Date checking lets supervisors set a limit on the range of dates that a particular user can enter. It applies to all date fields throughout the software.

To activate date checking, choose File | Maintain Users | Maintain and then select an appropriate option in the Date Checking area. The default date range is 60 days before or after the Attaché date. To change the default simply type the Number of Days you require.

Turn on four-digit years

Date error #2 A user, when attempting to change the year, accidentally types the century in the year field because they habitually type years as four digits. For example, attempting to enter 21/12/2008 results in 21/12/2020 being recorded.

By default, Attaché 7 requires only the last two digits of a year to be entered. Users accustomed to entering four digits can change their default to four-digit years.

To turn on four-digit years, select File | User Preferences and select Enter years as four digits in the Display Properties area. Remember to sign on again for the change to take effect.

These handy features were introduced in Attaché 7 version 7.01.10x (November/December 2008). If you haven’t already, you’ll need to upgrade to Attaché 7 version 7.01.10x to use these new features.

For the Employer Super Contribution to calculate for casuals, all casual employees must have the following:

– An Employer Super Contibution code set up as code type M – % of Calculated Paid Monthly in Payroll Setups.

– Set either the ‘Threshold Amount’ or the ‘Minimum Hours Per Week’ to the required figure.

– Add a line containing this code on their Standard Pay.

To calculate and reset the Casual Super, Calculate Monthly Super must be set to ‘Yes’ on the Check Pay screen on the last pay run of the month.

The amount accumulated in the Monthly Income for Super field on the Lump Sums (F3) screen of Employee Enquiry, will be used in the calculation.

If this amount is greater than or equal to the Threshold amount set on the Employer Super Code, a Super amount will be generated and the Monthly Income for Super field will be reset to zero.

If the amount is less than the Threshold, Super will not be generated, but the Monthly Income for Super will be reset to zero.

To set up a deduction code for Child Support:

1. Create the code within Deductions – “After Tax” and “Do Not Show on Tax Certificate” should be selected.

2. Select this line, as required, on the relevant Employee’s Standard Pay.

The tax scales for 2009/2010 are now available for download.

Loading New Tax Scales

1. Click on the download image to begin downloading. The File Download dialog box asks what you want to do with the file. Click Save.

2. In the Save As dialog box, click Save in and locate your chosen folder, for example, C:\download. Click Save. The file is downloaded to that folder.

3. Open the folder and double-click taxajul09.exe. If an Open File Security Warning message is displayed, click Run.

4. In the WinZip Self-Extractor dialog box, at Unzip to folder, click browse and locate your Attaché program folder (for example, C:\Attache). Then click Unzip.

To check the location of your program folder, in Attaché 7 choose Help | About Attaché 7.

5. The file instantly unzips to the chosen location. Click OK and then close the WinZip Self-Extractor dialog box.

6. To import the tax scales, start Attaché and sign on to your payroll company.

7. Choose Setups | Payroll | Options | Payroll Options. Page Down to the second screen.

8. Attaché recognises that new tax scales are available and displays a message asking if you want to import them. Choose Yes. The tax scales are imported into the company.

9. To check that the tax scales have updated properly, Page Down to the third screen of Payroll Options and check that the Effective for Payments Date field is set to 01/07/2009 (do not change this date for any reason).

If you have more than one payroll company, sign on to each company and carry out steps 7 to 9 above.

If an employee’s pay is not included on the bank transfer file, there could be several reasons for this. Some of the most common causes are:

– When entering a time sheet, the Pay Advice Required field is set to No.
– The Bank line type has been deleted from the body of the pay.
– The incorrect Company Bank account has been entered on the employee masterfile.

In these instances, uncheck the pays, make corrections, recheck the pays and create the bank transfer file again.

The attached document details how you can export your Attaché Payroll into your Triumph Accounting System.

Click here to download

If you wish to clear the terminated date, hold the Control key while you press Delete.

Standard Messages are useful for storing frequently used phrases for hot key input into any Alphanumeric field throughout Attaché.

They are created in Setups | Company | Standard Messages | Maintain and are accessed by typing the code and pressing [Shift]+[Enter].

Points to consider when entering pays.

– Lines print on Pay Advices in the order of the entry on the Timesheet or if consolidating Income codes, in the order of first occurance.

– On Timesheet or Adjustment entry, a suggested order of selection would be Income codes, Allowances, Deductions, Employer Super Contributions, then Bank Lines. Comment lines may be inserted as required.

– Banking lines, if required, should be the last lines selected on the Pay Advice, with a remainder Bank Line selected as the final Bank Line. Value or Percentage type lines, must appear before the Remainder line. If not, the entire Banking amount will be banked to the remainder account and the other banking lines will be ignored.

– On Pay Advices, Income codes will consolidate for lines of the same line type, same rate, and same Income Code.

– If a line does not appear on the timesheet, it will not be paid e.g. banking or leave loading.

– All casual employees must have an Employer Super Contribution, % of Calculated Paid Monthly line on their Standard Pay for the Super to calculate and reset at the end of the Month. If the super line is deleted from a pay, then this pay will not be included in the calculations.

– When paying Annual Leave to an employee, Leave Loading is not automatically paid. Leave Loading must be paid as a separate allowance line.

Documents such as payment summaries must be signed by authorised signatories, as defined in the Tax Administration Regulations 1976. When the entity issuing the summaries is a company, the “authorised signatory” is the public officer of that company.

When a payment summary is produced by a computer software package, the name of the person authorised to sign payment summaries will satisfy this requirement. This means that when selecting to print Tax Certificates within Attaché payroll, the name of the Public Officer should be entered into the Authorised Person field when the employer is a company.

If a person other than the Public Officer is to be authorised to sign documents, there are specific requirements as to the appointment of that person. Refer to the ATO for details.

Transactions can be entered for Terminated Employees if a Tax Certificate has not yet been printed. This may be necessary where an error has been discovered in a previously processed pay or you are entering a fringe benefits transaction.

While the system will warn during Timesheet or Adjustment Entry that the employee has been terminated, the warning can be overridden. This employee will remain terminated.

Note: If the Tax Certificate has already been printed for an employee, a new employee should be created and another Tax Certificate produced.

Two facilities are available where leave can be estimated.

On the last Employee Enquiry screen, the function key Estimate allows entry for a Date for the Estimation. The leave details on the screen will temporarily update to the estimation date specified.

These details will return to the normal Employee Enquiry once Esc is pressed.

The Leave Liability Report, in the After Pay Process Reports can also provide a leave estimation. On the first screen of selections, an Estimation Date can be specified and, if ‘Yes’ is entered, a date field is displayed.

Enter Estimation Date into this field and make any other selection or range choices. Each employee will display the Leave Accrued to Date on the report.

Note: An estimation can be made for a future or a past date.

There are occasions where an exception needs to be made to a group pay item for just one employee in that group. For example, one employee may not be eligible for a uniform allowance but conforms to all other standards for the group.

Employee Standard Pay and Group Standard Pays combine to create each employee’s pay during Check Pays for Auto Pays or during Timesheet Entry for other employees.

To counteract the effect of a Group Standard Pay line, enter the same line on the Employee’s Standard Pay but adjust the amount or percentage to give the required result. The combination of the Group Standard Pay line and the Employee Standard Pay line will give a net effect. For example, entering a negative amount on the Employee Standard Pay will reduce or negate completely the effect of the Group Standard Pay line. Entering a postive amount on the Employee Standard Pay will increase the effect of the Group Standard Pay line.

In our example, just enter the uniform allowance on the employee’s standard pay with a negative amount for the whole allowance. As the net effect will be zero, neither the allowance from the group nor the standard pay will print on the payslip.

Cash or Coinage Analysis can be printed on both the Pay Details and the Pay Totals reports. These analyses provide a breakdown and total value of notes and coins required in the preparation of the pays.

Each Cash paid Employee will also have a coinage analysis printed on their payslip.

The Cash Analysis is available on the following reports in the specified formats:

On the Pay Details Report, select a Pay Point sequence and ‘Yes’ to Coinage Analysis for totals by Pay Point.

On the Pay Totals Report, ‘Yes’ to Location totals and Coinage Analysis for totals by Location.

Circumstances occur where a pay may required to be reversed. For example: the pay may have been entered in error, a pay was generated by mistake, or perhaps a component of the pay was incorrect.

The reverse function only needs to be used where pays have already been processed. Prior to this a pay can be modified or deleted so will not need to be reversed.

To reverse a pay:

1. Select Adjustment Pays.

2. Enter the relevant Employee Code.

3. In the Function field, select “O” for Other Pay. The “Pay Number” will be displayed.

4. If the pay number is unknown, press Find (F2) to select the relevant history transaction.

5. Once the correct pay has been selected, press the Reverse function key. Note that the Tax Period number will now be negative and the whole pay will have been reversed.

6. The Adjustment Pay can now be Accepted.

Note: Reverse will not reinstate a Terminated Employee. This must be done manually via Maintain Employees.

In Australia, the Fringe Benefits Tax year runs from April 1 to March 31 each year.

FBT amounts can be acccumulated onto an employees masterfile by entering an FBT line on the standard pay or time sheet. Alternatively, you may wish to enter the annual amount of the benefit as one entry. Either method can be used within the Attaché payroll.

If you decide to enter an annual value, remember that the Check Pay date must be on or prior to March 31. Amounts entered with a check pay date of April 1 or later will be held on the employee masterfile record for the next FBT year.

FBT values held on the masterfile can be viewed through Employee Enquiry, Summary (F7), Itemise (F6), Employer Contributions. Current Year and Next Year dates and values are shown.

The default pay rate for an employee is the Normal rate set up on the employee’s masterfile. To override this default, select either ‘Award’ or ‘Other’ rate. The Award rate is also kept on the employee’s masterfile but the Other rate enables an hourly rate to be entered for the current line being processed.

To make a permanent change:

– Normal and Award Rate permanent changes are made on the employee’s masterfile. Any pays already checked will not reflect this new rate unless unchecked and rechecked.

– Groups. Where an employee belongs to a group, a permanent change made to the normal or award rate on the Group will adjust the rate of pay on all employees belonging to that group unless an employee has their own rate specified. Any pays that have already been checked will not reflect this new rate unless unchecked and rechecked.

Note: If the rate of pay is likely to change often for an employee, an Other Rate line can be set up on that employee’s Standard Pay and modified each pay.

If an employee is away on Annual Leave you may wish to stop their pay processing until they return.

When processing the last pay for a time, select ‘Yes’ on the Stop Pay after this Pay field. A date field will display. Enter the date this employee is to receive their next pay.

During the Process Pay, this date will update the ‘Stop Pay Until’ date on the Employee Masterfile. Once the date is passed, the field on the masterfile will automatically clear. This field can be cleared or modified via Employee Maintenance at any time.

If a transaction entry occurs before the Stop Pay Until date has passed, a warning will display ‘Pay stopped until….., Continue?

If you choose to continue, a pay will be processed for that employee and the ‘Stop Pay Until’ date will be cleared from their masterfile, or replaced if another Stop Pay date was entered on this transaction

Note: It is particularily important to use this feature for Auto Pay Employees as their pays would otherwise continue to be processed whilst away. Auto Pay Employee codes will not show in the Employee code field in transaction entry automatically. Use Find to locate the employee code.