About the Manual Check Process in Sage 300 Payroll

You can use the manual cheques functions in Sage 300 Payroll to enter cheques that you produce outside the regular Calculate Payroll process. These are considered to be "manual cheques," and can be either:

• manual cheques you write by hand, or otherwise generate outside of Sage 300 Payroll (referred to as "after-the-fact" or "ATF" cheques), and do not need to be printed but need to be recorded in payroll. You enter these cheques into the payroll system after they are written.
• manual cheques that you enter, print, and post within Sage 300 Payroll.

Creating Manual Cheques

To produce either type of manual cheque within payroll, you use the Manual Cheques window and enter the payroll data contained on the cheque into the system.

• For manual cheques that you want printed and posted within payroll, you select the Print Cheque check box at the top of the Manual Cheques window.
• For "after-the-fact" cheques, you do not select the check box.

Processing manual cheques differs from payroll calculation because, when issuing manual cheques, you do most of the calculating yourself before entering the manual cheques.

On the Manual Cheques window, you must explicitly enter the calculated amount for every earning, deduction, benefit, advance, expense reimbursement, accrual, and employee tax withholding that you want to record in connection with the manual cheque payment.

Accruals, Deductions, Overtime, and Taxes

For accruals, advances, earnings, deductions, and expense reimbursements, you enter employee amounts only; for benefits, you enter employer amounts. Employer tax liabilities such as Canada Pension Plan, Quebec Pension Plan, and Employment Insurance are automatically calculated when you process manual cheques.

The system does not calculate overtime or shift differential wages for a manual cheque. You calculate the overtime and shift differential wages and enter the amounts in the Extended Amount columns.

When you enter a manual cheque for an employee, the system records the wage amounts that are subject to Employment Insurance or any other tax or earning/deduction for which wage ceilings have been established. If you enter multiple manual cheques for an employee, the system records the cumulative wage amounts so that when the taxable wage ceiling is reached, no further tax or earning/deduction amount is calculated.

Processing Manual Cheques

After entry on the Manual Cheques window, you process the manual cheque using the Process Manual Cheques window, regardless of whether the manual cheque is to be printed.

The Process Manual Cheques window processes the manual cheque information, but does not post it.

Posting Manual Cheques

After processing, you must post the manual cheque. Here, the path takes a detour for manual cheques that are to be printed, than for those ("after-the-fact") not to be printed. To post, you either:

• Print and post manual cheques

  For cheques in which you selected the Print Cheque check box at the top of the Manual Cheques window, you use the Process Manual Cheques window to process them. Then, use the Payroll Cheques window, not the Post Manual Cheques window to post system-printed manual cheques.

  Because you need to print the cheque before posting it, you turn to the Payroll Cheques function, which both prints and posts manual cheques that have their Print Cheque check boxes selected. You do not use the Post Manual Cheques function to post system printed manual cheques.

  You can enter as many to-be-printed manual cheques per employee per pay period as you need as long as the date on each cheque is unique. To enter more than one printed manual cheque for an employee in one period regardless of the date, you can also enter the cheque, process it, print and post it, and then, when you have completed the process, you can enter another printed manual cheque for the employee using the same pay period end date, and the same cheque date if necessary, and repeat the process.

• Post "after-the-fact" manual cheques without printing

  For cheques in which you did NOT select the Print Cheque check box at the top of the Manual Cheques window, you use the Process Manual Cheques window to process them. You then use the Post Manual Cheques window, not the Payroll Cheques window to post not-to-be-printed manual cheques.

  You can enter an unlimited number of after-the-fact manual cheques for an employee in a pay period.