This is a quick and easy reference guide to help first time users get started with Thesaurus Payroll Manager. Additional detailed explanations and guidance can be found through the extensive built in help file which is broken down by each software feature and most common user queries. If you require help with any section as you progress through the program you should refer to the ‘Help’ menu and ‘Search for help on’ to view or print our comprehensive help file.
To setup or update an employee’s details within the payroll software follow the below step by step instructions. It is advisable that you enter as much information as is available to you.
Update the relevant fields with all the information available to you. The minimum required by the software is Surname and Forename. If you do not have a PPS number for an employee, the additional minimum Revenue requirement is the employee's address and date of birth.
For any new employees joining after 01st January of the current tax year then pay details from the P45 must be entered for future cumulative calculations and Revenue forms:
Total Pay to Date - total year to date gross taxable pay subject to PAYE Total
Tax to Date - total PAYE deducted to date
Total Pay for USC - total year to date pay subject to USC, this may differ to the gross taxable pay
Total USC tax - total USC deducted tax year to date.
These must be entered at the initial setup of an employee in order to ensure accurate tax calculations while in your employment. These figures are obtained from the P45 presented to you by the employee commencing or on the P2C file issued by the Revenue to you as the new employer, once you register the new employee as commencing in your employment.
PRSI Class
Assign the appropriate PRSI class to the employee’s earnings. While pay thresholds exist for the purposes of calculating PRSI, the appropriate PRSI class is not always based solely on earnings and you may need to obtain further information from the employee pertaining to their date of birth, etc. Please refer to the Help menu within the software for the official PRSI class table publication.
Set up any relevant Additions (taxable and non-taxable). Any narrative entered will print to the employee payslip opposite the addition figure.
Set up relevant Deductions (allowable and non-allowable). Any narrative entered will print to the employee payslip opposite the deduction figure. If setting up Revenue-approved, tax-allowable pension deductions for an employee, you must use the dedicated pension field.
Set up a master list of departments (if relevant) which will be available to choose from across all employees. Allocate the employee to a department under “Personal Details”.
This Employment ONLY – if you choose to start using Thesaurus Payroll Manager after period 1 of the current tax year you can enter the cumulative pay, tax, PRSI and USC figures already calculated for the tax year to date within this screen. Thereafter, Thesaurus Payroll Manager will recognise these cumulative figures as those related to the tax periods passed. Calculations will commence going forward based on the start period set by the user.
Use this screen to record personnel information such as recruitment date, emergency contact details etc.
Should you receive a request from the Central Statistics Office to complete a quarterly EHECS return then, the software features an option to automatically generate this return based on the periodical information entered into the software. Should you wish to use this feature, the CSO information must be updated by the user for each employee, including those employees who have left your employment during this tax year.
Click on UPDATE to save and activate the employee record.
Please Note: Employees must be entered on the payroll within the tax period they commence work with you. Once the payroll has been rolled forward you cannot enter employee details retrospective to when they commenced employment.
STEP 2 PROCESSING PAYROLL
You can enter an employee’s pay in one of two ways:
(1) Gross Basis (pay before tax deductions)
or
(2) Net Basis (take home pay)
If you pay your employees a GROSS Wage then use one of the following options:
Both entry screens give access to the same information. The Quick Edit option lists the employees in report format whereby the user can simply select the employee by double clicking on their name from the list and enter the pay details. The Weekly / Monthly Input screen displays only one employee at a time, after entering the pay details the user will select “Update file ” or "Next" to save the changes. Due to the nature of the Quick Edit screen (to allow ease and quick pay detail input) not all features that are available within the Weekly /Monthly Input screen are available within the Quick Edit screen e.g. the inputting of illness benefit.
Departmental Input
If you have entered Departments then you can process by department if you wish:
Choose your department from the drop down menu on the right hand side. Only those employees allocated to the chosen department will appear in the drop down menu on the left hand side for processing.
If you Pay by the Hour
If you pay your employee(s) by the hour, then enter the hourly rate for the employee. Each period, enter the numbers of hours worked for that period within the relevant fields (Standard Hours, Time and a third, Time and a half, Double time) - the hourly rate will automatically be adjusted accordingly).
Remember that if you enter the hourly rate and the hours worked, then do not enter the amount again in the 'Weekly/Monthly Basic' field - this will result in the number of hours multiplied by the hourly rate PLUS the weekly basic figure.
If you Pay by a Weekly/Monthly Basic
If you pay your employee(s) by a basic rate then enter the basic gross wage in the Monthly/Weekly Basic field.
Holiday Pay
If you are including Holiday Pay within a pay period then enter the amount of additional pay within the Holiday Pay field.
If the holiday pay is to represent future pay weeks then enter the number of ADDITIONAL weeks to which this holiday pay figure relates. The total pay will then be spread over the current week PLUS the number of additional weeks entered. The user will be prevented from processing any further payroll within the weeks flagged as holiday weeks - as tax credits, SRCOP, PRSI and USC will have been automatically been allocated to the total pay figure in advance. The employee will automatically be reactivated for processing once the holiday weeks have passed. To record the number of holidays / leave days taken or to view the automated holiday entitlements calculated click “Holidays Due”. Any automated calculations are calculated on the information entered by the user to date, so the user must manually input the Days/ Hours taken to date to record correctly what holidays are left due to the employee.
Include a Note on the Employee's Payslip
Optional - You can include a note on the individual employee’s payslip e.g. Annual pay review due 1st May or remaining annual leave entitlements etc. Enter the text in the box and the narrative will appear on the printed payslip for this employee only.
Additions
If you wish to include additions to your employee(s) salary, then within the Additions tab, select the type of Addition (taxable & non-taxable). Type the associated narrative in the relevant box on the left hand side and the amount of the addition in the box to the right hand side. The narrative and amount will be displayed separately to the basic pay details on the payslip.
Deductions
If you wish to include deductions to your employee(s) salary then within this tab select the type of deduction (allowable & non-allowable) and type the associated narrative in the relevant box on the left hand side and the amount of the deduction in the box to the right hand side. The narrative and amount will be displayed separately to the basic pay details on the payslip.
Illness Benefit
If an employee is in receipt of Illness Benefit for a pay period then you must consider the Revenue requirements for recording Illness payments received by an employee. Click F1 for the Thesaurus Help menu on how to record payments within this field.
Click on Update File to save the pay details entered for this period and to preview the employee’s payslip or click Next to proceed to the next employee’s input.
If you Pay by the Hour
If you pay your employee(s) by the hour then enter hourly rate for the employee. Each period, enter the numbers of hours worked for that period within the relevant fields (Standard Hours, Time and a third, Time and a half, Double time) - the hourly rate will automatically be adjusted accordingly).
Remember that if you enter the hourly rate and the hours worked, then do not enter the amount again in the 'Weekly/Monthly Basic' field - this will result in the number of hours multiplied by the hourly rate PLUS the weekly basic figure.
If you Pay by a Weekly/Monthly Basic
If you pay your employee(s) by a basic rate then enter the basic gross wage in the Monthly/Weekly Basic field.
Holiday Pay
If you are including Holiday Pay within a pay period then enter the amount of additional pay within the Holiday Pay field to be added to this period payslip.
If the holiday pay is to represent future pay weeks then enter the number of ADDITIONAL weeks to which this holiday pay figure relates. The total pay will then be spread over the current week PLUS the number of additional weeks entered. The user will be prevented from processing any further payroll within the weeks flagged as holiday weeks as tax credits, SRCOP, PRSI and USC will have been automatically been allocated to the total pay figure in advance. The employee will automatically be reactivated for processing once the holiday weeks have passed.
Recording Holiday/ Leave taken when using the Quick Edit option:
You may wish to wait to record holidays taken once all employees wage details have been updated, to save exiting this menu to access another menu and repeatedly changing menu options. To record the number of holidays / leave days taken, or to view the automated holiday entitlements calculated, you can access the employee's Holiday Calculator under Employees> Holidays, Sick Leave etc. Any automated calculations are calculated on the information entered by the user to date.
Additions/ Deductions
If you wish to include additions and/or deductions to your employee(s) salary, all the additions and deductions options are shown on screen. Simply type the associated narrative in the relevant box on the left hand side, under the appropriate addition or deduction heading, and enter the amount of the addition/deduction in the box to the right hand side. The narrative and amount will be displayed separately to the basic pay details on the payslip.
Click on OK to update the employee's pay details and to return to the main employee listing to select the next employee.
NET TO GROSS PROJECTION
To access the Net to Gross Projection screen, select “Net to Gross Projection” from the Payslip menu. From the list of employees simply click on the employee for whom you wish to enter the Net (Take Home) Pay figure for.
Enter Desired Net Pay
Once an employee has been selected, a pop up box will appear on screen, “Enter Desired Net Pay”. Within this field enter the absolute take home pay figure for the employee. *This should equal the PAYMENT figure.**
The Gross Wage will be calculated automatically for you and displayed on screen. The user must then indicate if they wish to continue based on the figures entered and the associated automated calculations.
Additions/Deductions
If you wish to include additions and/or deductions to your employee(s) salary, all the additions and deductions options must be entered to the employee record under the menu Employees > Add/Amend Employees. Select the employee from the drop down list and click into the Additions or Deductions tab. Set up any relevant Additions (taxable and non taxable) and Deductions (allowable and non allowable). Simply type the associated narrative in the relevant box on the left hand side, under the appropriate addition or deduction heading, and enter the amount of the addition/deduction in the box to the right hand side. The narrative and amount will be displayed separately to the basic pay details on the payslip. Any figures entered will be applied to all future payments made to the employee until the user returns to this menu to remove the figures.
A preview of the employee’s payslip will automatically be shown on screen. Click on Close in order to proceed to the next employee for update or to return to amend the figures for the last employee. Once all employees have been updated, click on Close to exit to the menu and proceed to the next process.
It is recommended that you preview your payroll figures before proceeding to updating your payslips by means of the "Payroll Preview" report which shows the payroll figures entered to date for the current pay period.
The Period Number at the bottom of the screen is the period you are about to update / process.
All employee’s being paid for this period should be shown within this payroll preview and you should ensure the figures on screen are correct before proceeding to Update Payslips.
If an employee is not appearing then they have not been set up within the program - therefore revert back to Add/Amend Employees to add the employee to the program.
If an employee is showing the incorrect pay figures, then return to the pay entry screen (either Weekly/Monthly Input, Quick Edit or Net to Gross Projection) to make the necessary amendments.
This section will update your payroll run for ALL EMPLOYEES for the period.
The last pay period updated will be shown (this is not available for amendment) and the payroll period that you are about to process is also shown as “Update to ... ”
The period number that you are processing is automated by the program as the next sequential pay period to process and is not available for amendment by the user. Simply enter the appropriate pay date you wish associated to this pay period.
Click on Update to prepare the files for processing, once files have been successfully prepared for updating, click OK.
BACKING UP
Within the Update Payslip process you will be prompted to take a backup of the payroll period. We strongly recommend that you follow this process, as a backup of your payroll file will provide a safety measure should you experience any problems with your PC or wish to return to a pay period in the absence of a reverse option.
We recommend you back up your payroll to a location other than the place your payroll is installed. For example – a CD, memory stick, server location which is backed up regularly:
Choose the location of where you want to take a backup to.
Click Backup
A message screen will confirm where you are taking a backup to.... - click OK
If you wish to choose a different location then click Cancel and change the location.
Click Yes to proceed
Click OK
Once the payroll has been updated, then the payslips and the reports for the period are available for printing.
Choose the period for which you want to print the payslips from the drop down list of processed periods (all historical payslips can be printed by simply choosing the prior period from the drop down list).
Click on the individual employee names for whom you want to print a payslip for or choose “Select All”.
Choose the payslip type that you wish to print - 2 per page High Resolution / Low Resolution will print to plain A4 paper.
Press Print to send to the printer.
Payslips by Department
Alternatively, if you have set up employees assigned to departments, simply choose the department for which you want to print the payslips for.
All relevant employees within the chosen department will be automatically highlighted.
Choose Print to send to printer.
When an employee leaves your employment, you should issue them with a Form P45. The Form P45 states the amount of pay the employee has received to date, the amount of PAYE paid to date, income subject to USC, USC deducted, PRSI paid to date, their leave date, etc.
The P45 Pt 1 can be returned to the Revenue Commissioners online through ROS or by post if you are not registered with ROS.
Before proceeding you must ensure that all payments have been made to the employee for work carried out e.g. if the employee works a full week 2, then process week 2 before preparing the P45.
Payroll Summary/ Audit Trail
It is recommended that you print a Payroll Summary/ Audit Trail Report as a file copy for the employer records. To access this report, simply:
From Month/Week – Choose the start period from the drop down menu
To Month/Week – Choose the end period from the drop down menu
Click OK – the report will be shown on screen
Choose Print
P30
In line with your Revenue obligations, the Employer must return the total PAYE, Universal Social Charge,PRSI and LPT deducted from the employees and the employer PRSI cost to the Revenue by means of a Form P30 on a monthly or quarterly basis.
These figures are automatically calculated by the program on a pay period basis and are then amalgamated within the P30 report.
To generate the report go to:
P30 by Week Number
The P30 figures are reported based on tax week number and month.
P30 by Date
The P30 figures are reported based on the pay date entered by the user when updating the payslips.
Need help? Support is available at 01 8352074 or thesauruspayrollsupport@brightsg.com.
