Piecework payroll overview

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Product support for the Creative Solutions Accounting platform ended on September 30, 2020.

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Piecework payroll calculation is for use with Payroll CS clients that have employees who work on a piecework basis. There are a number of set up steps involved in preparing a client to use the piecework payroll options.

Global setup for piecework payroll

The initial step in setting up your clients to use piecework is to set up as many piecework pay items as necessary. There are no piecework pay items available by default, so they will need to be added.

  1. Choose Setup > System Configuration > Pay Items.
  2. Click the Add button and then enter a description and report description for the new pay item.
  3. Modify information in the Description and W-2 Info and Tax Treatment tabs as needed.
  4. Click the Special Information tab and then select Piecework in the Special type field.
  5. Click Enter to save the new piecework pay item. You can copy and then modify this pay item to create any other piecework pay items you might need, and then click Done to close the Pay Items dialog.

The new piecework pay items are now available for use by any of your clients.

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Client setup for piecework payroll

To enable a client to use piecework payroll, choose File > Client Properties, click the Calculating Payroll tab, and then mark the Enable piecework payroll checkbox. If this checkbox is not marked, piecework menu options and fields are not available for the client.

If your client pays its piecework employees overtime, we recommend using weighted average overtime (WAOT) calculation for those employees.

Notes

  • When a client is set up to use piecework, all Rate columns throughout the application and on payroll reports automatically display to five decimal points.
  • During payroll processing for piecework employees, the application automatically performs a minimum wage verification if hours are entered into the Hours column for a piecework payroll item. You can choose to disable this option by choosing Setup > Calculation Profiles, and marking the Piecework verification checkbox in the Calculations to Turn Off group box on the General tab.

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Employee setup for piecework payroll

For each employee working on a piecework basis:

  1. Choose Setup > Employees.
  2. Highlight the appropriate employee and then click the Edit button.
  3. Click the Earnings tab and then add the appropriate piecework pay items in the Earnings grid, entering the appropriate rate per piece.

    Note: If you are using weighted average overtime calculation for piecework employees being paid overtime, add the WAOT pay item after the piecework pay items in the grid.

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Processing payroll checks for piecework employees

When piecework is enabled for a client, the Payroll Items grid in the Payroll Check Entry window contains a Pieces column. Enter in this column the number of pieces for which the employee should be paid.

Notes

  • When a client is set up to use piecework, the Rate column in the Payroll Items grid automatically displays to five decimal points.
  • During payroll processing for piecework employees, the application automatically performs a minimum wage verification if hours are entered into the Hours column for a piecework payroll item. You can choose to disable this option by choosing Setup > Calculation Profiles, and marking the Piecework verification checkbox in the Calculations to Turn Off group box on the General tab.
  • The Minimum Wage Verification dialog offers you the options to edit the check, accept the check as is, or to adjust the piecework wage rate to meet the minimum wage requirements for this check.

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Running payroll reports for piecework clients

The following payroll reports provide options to display piecework information.

By default, all Rate columns in payroll reports display to five decimal places for piecework clients. To override this behavior for a client, perform the following steps.

  1. Choose File > Client Properties.
  2. In the Properties dialog, click the Payroll tab and then click the Payroll Report Options button.
  3. In the Payroll Report Options dialog, select either the option for two or four decimal places.
  4. Click OK to close the Payroll Report Options dialog and then click OK to close the Properties dialog.

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Piecework variables for checks and custom reports

A number of check and report variables are available specifically for piecework clients.

You can choose to display the following check variables on paystubs for piecework employees:

  • Effective rate
  • Pieces

You can choose to include report variables in your custom reports from the following categories for piecework clients:

  • Pay items pieces
  • Pay items effective rate

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Related topics

Piecework calculation example

Weighted average overtime calculation

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