About the Manual Check Process in Sage 300 Payroll

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

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

Creating Manual Checks

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

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

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

On the Manual Checks 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 check 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 Social Security, Medicare, and SUTA are automatically calculated when you process manual checks.

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

When you enter a manual check for an employee, the system records the wage amounts that are subject to Social Security, Medicare, or any other tax or earning/deduction for which wage ceilings have been established. If you enter multiple manual checks 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 Checks

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

The Process Manual Checks window processes the manual check information, but does not post it.

Posting Manual Checks

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

• Print and post manual checks

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

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

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

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

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

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