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Understanding the Basics of Payroll Setup

This is a very basic topic designed to give you a quick idea of how you go about setting up payroll in Total Office Manager. After you read this section, you may then go deeper into this guide for specific details how to do the things mentioned here.

The best way to learn about payroll is to open the sample company in Total Office Manager and study it. Add tax items, payroll groups, create pay checks, whatever. Just play around, experiment, and try to have a little fun.

Please don’t forget that your printed User Manual includes an entire section devoted to setting up payroll. The various screens shots and tips make it a lot easier than it otherwise would be.

Caution: It is vital that you set up your payroll correctly. We invite you to fax the Payroll Setup Report to our offices for review. We will check your payroll settings FREE.  Please be sure to seek qualified assistance if you feel you need it.

Payroll Setup Steps – In Their Proper Order

  1. Add Employees
  2. Add Payroll Related Vendors
  3. Enter Payroll Items (in this order)
    • Taxes
    • Liabilities
    • Deductions
    • Time Off
    • Earnings
    • Addition
  1. Payroll Template List
  2. Payroll Group List
  3. Unemployment Tax Rates
  4. Employee Payroll Items
  5. Time Sheets
  6. Process Pay Group
  7. Process Paychecks
  8. Printing Paychecks

Explanation of Each Payroll Step

Add Employees

Add employees that you need to create paychecks for.

Employees are added and maintained using the employee list. From the main menu, click Employees | Employee List | Employee List | New Employee.

Add Vendors

Add vendors for all payroll related items such as payroll taxes, health insurance, dental, vision, benefit plans, life insurance, liabilities, etc. This includes the IRS and other state and local tax authorities. Some of these may already exist in Total Office Manager by default.

Vendors are maintained using the vendor list. From the main menu, click List | Vendor List.

Add Accounts to COA

Add required accounts to your chart of accounts. The default chart of accounts should have most of what you need already.

Accounts are added using the chart of account list.  From the main menu, click Banking | Chart of Accounts

Setup Payroll

Payroll involves setting up tax types, earning types, deduction types, employer liability types, and time off types. You may then create groups of these payroll items to make processing checks easier. We call these groups Payroll Item Groups. We will cover each one of these processes in great detail.

Related Content

Setting up a Payroll System from Scratch