Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things
“The Sound of Music” – who doesn’t know that movie? I love that movie and especially the songs – a perfect winter weekend, curled up in a blanket with hot chocolate in hand. Granted, GP Payroll may not be the first thing you think of when thinking of YOUR favorite things, yet there is a lot of functionality to be excited about!
Let’s take a look at some of my favorite things in GP Payroll, staring with GP Payroll Freebies!
As a GP user, you have access to GP Payroll in the Starter Pack. Many do payroll in-house and the core functionality is all right there, including a couple of really cool things – absolutely free:
Overtime Rate Manager
Overtime pay: easy, right? 1.5 times the regular pay, done. Not so fast! The Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA) says:
- “Unless exempt, employees covered by the Act must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rates of pay.”
What is their regular rate of pay? It is not just their regular hourly pay, it includes anything you pay your employee that is part of their regular compensation plan: variable pay rates, bonuses, commissions, tips, etc.
- “The Act applies on a workweek basis. An employee’s workweek is a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours – seven consecutive 24-hour periods.”
The calculation then becomes: adding up all their different “pays” for that workweek (so not bi-weekly!) and then dividing it by hours worked that week to get their actual regular rate of pay. This freebie is great for automating these more complicated overtime calculations.
Deductions In Arrears
Generally, there are two situations where this cool functionality is useful:
- Employee does not have enough wages to cover all deductions. This is common in the restaurant industry, for example, when employees receive tips that they pocket directly, or when they don’t work enough hours that week. Then, you must manually track the check that they do get that week – which does not cover all deductions.
- Employee does not receive a check in a particular pay week (for example FMLA). They still get health insurance through their employment so the deduction is there, but there is no check to cover the deduction. Yet another tracking scenario.
This freebie keeps track of it all and deducts when the money is in a future check. No spreadsheet (or memory) needed!
Payroll Integration to Payables
The title says it all here: this freebie integrates payroll to payables automagically. Why is this awesome?
- Monies withheld (aka deductions) from employee paychecks need to be remitted to various entities (e.g. Federal and State taxes/Retirement and Health plans/garnishments)
- Monies expensed (aka benefits) for employer provided benefits need to be remitted to various entities (e.g. Federal and State taxes/Retirement and Health plans)
Rather than having to create payable vouchers every time you run payroll, the system will keep track of all that for you (great audit trail!) and create the vouchers in bulk, sending them to the various entities.
Want to learn more about these GP Payroll freebies? Watch Tom’s webinar recording on the GPUG site (You do need to be a GPUG member to access).
Stay tuned for my other favorite things in GP Payroll – coming soon!
And as always, don’t hesitate to reach out about anything GP Payroll related – we love to help!
