Application Brief

Spectrum® Construction Software: Payroll

OVERVIEW

With challenges such as multiple pay rates in multiple states and diverse union fringe benefits needing to be processed in one pay period, payroll management in the construction industry can be complex. The Payroll application in Spectrum Construction Software enables contractors to enter and process employee time, allocate labor and equipment costs to jobs, and manage benefits and deductions. Once you enter data, Spectrum Payroll automatically tracks direct costs in real time; calculates taxes, union benefits and fringes; and allocates additional overhead, such as indirect job expenses and hours of equipment usage.

Manages Multi-state and Multi-company Payrolls

When entering a job in Spectrum Payroll, you select the default local, state and federal income taxes. As you enter data, the application automatically allocates the appropriate taxes, thus protecting your business from overpayments. You enter the time, and the software calculates and withholds payroll taxes based on the location where work was performed.

Spectrum Payroll is versatile and can provide employees working for more than one company during the same pay period with a single paycheck. The application can also support companies with multiple tax identification numbers.

Manages Union Payrolls with Ease

Spectrum Payroll manages the multiple variables associated with unions, including cash and non-cash fringe benefits, deductions and add-ons. When union contracts change, the software updates pay rates, even when the change occurs in the middle of a payroll cycle. You schedule the new pay rates for the effective date, and paychecks issued after that date will reflect the changes. If the payroll cycle includes rates before the contract change, the previous and new rates will be reflected on a single paycheck.

One Integrated Solution

Spectrum Payroll integrates with other Spectrum applications, including Job Cost, Equipment Control, and Work Order, to provide a comprehensive, real-time overview of your company’s payroll status without re-entering data. With the ability to view un-posted payroll time cards in Spectrum Job Cost, you can proactively manage costs by seeing the impact of employee hours on the budget without processing payroll.

When you set up a job in Spectrum, you have the option to also include burden, or the additional costs incurred when you employ someone, such as vacation and sick time, benefits, and Labor and Industry costs. You may enter these costs on an hourly basis or by flat rate, and they are automatically allocated to Job Cost. When you process payroll, the estimated burden is charged to the job. Information from Spectrum Payroll also flows to Spectrum Accounts Payable, generating invoices for payables such as garnishments and deductions in one easy step. For example, you can set up an automatic deduction from a worker’s pay check for child support payments and have Accounts Payable prepare a check for the recipient.

SAB_Payroll_20130312

Spectrum’s Payroll application simplifies the complexities of construction payroll, including multiple pay rates in different states and diverse union fringe benefits needing to be processed in one pay period.

This is the Employee Main Screen with the human resources options.

Application Brief

Spectrum® Construction Software: Payroll

SAB_Payroll_20130312

CONCLUSION

Spectrum Payroll is designed to help you more efficiently manage payroll for your company. It is fully integrated across all Spectrum applications, for streamlined data entry and easy report generation. It enables you to track complex and multi-company payrolls and allocate payroll and equipment hours to job costs in real time.

Features

Spectrum Payroll simplifies payroll for the construction industry by providing a comprehensive range of features. The application:

+ Tracks any changes to employees’ data. + With user-defined deduction and add-on codes, automatically calculates amounts for employee paychecks based on a percentage or a fixed amount.

+ Allows unlimited job and phase distributions with multiple pay rates per employee and per union via timecard entry.

+ Shows multi-state work at the line item level on time cards and pay stubs. Supports multiple state, county and local taxes.

+ Calculates employer taxes and burdens, and supports multiple variables for unions, including fringe benefits, multiple pay rates, and multiple states and locations.

+ Prints certified payroll reports for any period. + Supports automatic deposit. + Calculates and prepares manual layoff paychecks. + Enables you to reissue a lost payroll, manual or auto-deposit check without having to manually void and re-enter a new check

+ Automatically reverses voided payroll checks in Spectrum General Ledger and Job Cost and removes them from actual employer taxes.

+ Imports time card entry from a text file or spreadsheet.

+ Maintains dates of hire, re-hire, termination and pay rate.

+ Supports I-9 reporting. + Prints payroll tax reports for any period or quarter. + Distributes labor totals to multiple general ledger accounts.

+ Charges employees’ time to specific jobs, pieces of equipment or work orders, and automatically updates information in Job Cost, Preventive Maintenance and Work Order.

+ Streamlines payroll entry by preventing entry overlap; enables uploading time cards in batches for salaried workers or those with consistent hours.

+ Shows un-posted payroll information in Equipment Control, Time + Material, Job Cost and Work Order.

+ Sets up incentive and retro pay rates for employees, and can apply the retro pay back to the original job and phase distribution.

+ Allows you to electronically file payroll taxes. + Works with other Spectrum applications including Cash Management, Equipment Control, Job Cost, Accounts Receivable, Human Resources, Preventive Maintenance, Time + Material, Work Order and Service Contracts to provide a comprehensive overview of job status.

Benefits

+ Allocates labor and equipment hours by job and phase code, so you can view accurate cost breakdowns at each part of the project.

+ Supports certified payroll for government jobs, union payroll tracking and reporting, and multi-state payrolls.

+ Allocates employee hours not affiliated with job labor to multiple jobs as overhead.

+ Sets up union and wage codes by job; these amounts appear as defaults so no manual manipulation is required.

+ Automatically calculates prevailing employee pay rates based on the type of work performed.

+ Includes labor entered into un-posted payroll when you review job cost reports, for an accurate picture of costs throughout each job phase.

+ Further automates payroll processes with additional add-on products, such as MICR checks and Spectrum’s Multi-State Payroll Tax Tables subscription.