 In this presentation we will discuss the payroll register and what is included in it. The payroll register is going to be one of the most important types of documents that will be used in order to track, record, and accumulate payroll information. It'll include broadly broad categories including the wages, the gross pay, gross pay being pay before the deductions so of course that's not the net pay not what we actually receive as paychecks. Then we'll record the deductions in the payroll register and then the net pay what we actually receive as a paycheck and disbursements. So the payroll register is going to start to show us some of the complexity in payroll. Notice that no one component of payroll is that complex whenever we think of payroll laws and types of laws that relate to payroll taxes when we think about it in an individual case it doesn't seem too overwhelming we could say well we can apply that individual law in an individual employee for an individual payroll but when we start to apply a lot of different fairly simple laws to payroll we can see that it does start to build up the complexity and the calculations and just the amount of data that we need and we start to see that when we build the payroll register so we'll go over just some of the data that will be included and then when we work a problem we'll see that the payroll register and how to do some calculations with it. So first we need the marital status why because the marital status is going to be needed in order to calculate federal income tax which is a progressive tax system and a marital status married or single is one of the components to that. Number of withholdings are going to be what are also going to be needed for federal income tax calculations salary and hourly rate so clearly we will need the rate there so that we can calculate the wages that will be there for if their salary or hourly. Number of regular hours worked so we're going to need the hours worked and the hourly rate in order to calculate the regular rate and then we need the number of overtime hours worked however that be calculated whether it be based on a 40 hour work week or a 40 hour work week and an eight hour day we need to break out the overtime hours and the regular hours then we can calculate the regular pay that being the regular pay rate times the regular pay hours and we can calculate the overtime pay that being the overtime rate usually time and a half 150 percent of the regular rate times the overtime hours then we want the gross pay which will include the regular pay plus the overtime pay to get the gross pay meaning the amount we would get if not for deductions including taxes and other types of deductions then we have the federal income tax that's what we're going to have to withhold on so and that's going to be a bit difficult of a calculation in our works it's probably the most difficult calculation in our worksheet because we're going to need to know marital there's a few things to take into consideration we need marital status we need the number of exemptions and we need the pay period that is is involved is it monthly is it by monthly is it weekly and then we need to look up based on that information what the federal withholdings will be now of course the computerized system can help that process a lot but as we look at the manual process what's actually happening it's it's a pretty complex system to to do by hand at least then we have the social security and and also not just to do by hand it is a lot easier to do with a computer of course to look up this information but to explain it to be able to understand it for an employee to know what's going on then it helps to to see the actual process what's actually being used so we'll take a look at those calculations the most complex thing we'll probably do social security taxes then is something that we need to withhold and it's a lot more straightforward people probably don't understand social security as well as federal income tax because whenever we think of taxes we typically think of 1040s and income tax that type of withholding and the social security is another form of tax but it's going to go into a separate fund it's still going to the fed separate fund the tax is a lot more straightforward however because it's going to be a flat tax in essence so we're just in for the most parts is going to take the wages the gross pay times a flat rate generally it's currently around 6.2 but percent but the rate doesn't matter that's not really what you want to memorize as much as the process the rates easy to look up what we need to know when with regard to taxes is what type of tax is being applied and then just look up the rate and apply the tax that is being applied and this is more of a flat tax medicare withholdings we'll have to with calculate that as well based on gross pay times medicare same thing it's more of a flat tax so it's easier to do so we'll just take the gross pay times the rate which is currently I believe 1.45 percent but again the percent's not as important you need to know well it's just basically a flat tax based on the gross pay so whatever that rate is easy to look up we just take a flat tax much more simplified than doing the federal tax which is a progressive system and then we have the state income tax withholdings that will differ from state to state now if we're in a different state or even a different country then all we need to know is what what is that state applying again there's no new taxes under the sun typically the question is are they applying some type of progressive tax rate where we have to look at the tables and take into consideration different factors or they applying some kind of straight tax rate a flat tax where it's a lot easier we just take the gross pay and multiply it times the withholdings so whatever they're using usually the state will will either copy the Fed in some way and you use a similar system or use a simpler system a flatter tax other state taxes local taxes again these will change from state to state and location to location a 401k or other retirement plan this is going to be a benefit now so these are things that a company may choose to offer or an employee may choose to participate in or not but when we give the the gross pay of course when we give the pay check out we have to subtract this out because we're going to pay into the 401k for the employee and give them the net check and that's kind of like a benefit to the employee as opposed to you might think the taking the social security and the federal tax and the Medicare is a requirement so offering the 401k and offering to take it out of of the check and put it into a subtype of retirement plan for the employee is a benefit those are good things for the employee and not necessarily mandated like taxes are insurance deductions same type of concept if we have insurance that is being taken out of the check on a time period again that's usually a benefit that's usually a good thing that the company is is doing that for the employee as a as a choice and we have to take that out and the register garnishments and levies may not be considered a good thing but again it's something that's going to be required by law so if there's some type of garnishment that is given by a court order something happened and then they're garnishing the wages taking money out of their wages directly rather than you know waiting for the person to pay the the legal fees they're taking it out of the wages directly from the employer again putting the the emphasis on the employer now the employer is responsible for you know making the payment in the form of a garnishment rather than the employee being the one responsible to to make the actual payment union dues are something that could be taken out again that will apply only in cases where there is a union involved and then any other deductions that we're going to take out so this is going to be a you know a long list of stuff that we're going to put into a worksheet and some companies may not include some of this stuff some of these other type of deductions especially over here state taxes could be similar or different but many of these things will apply here and we'll put this together when we start to put together a worksheet if we if we just look at a worksheet now and we don't go through the calculations it just looks like a a lot of numbers on a worksheet so it's best to really build this the register step by step and concentrate on each calculation and then when we see the full product when we see all the employees on it and we see just a bunch of numbers and this calculations of all these things if we can then focus in on one individual thing like what is the marital status what is the number of withholding what is the salaries why do i need it then it's not that complex but if you if we look at a completed payroll register with a with multiple employees and state taxes and especially if we have some of these other deductions it's usually a more intimidating than it needs to be if we break it down piece by piece so that's what we'll do going forward we'll start to create the payroll register we'll look at it piece by piece and we'll do a problem where we calculate these calculations in a payroll register if you're on the payroll