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1. Do I have to issue separate payrolls in QuickBooks® for each job my employees
work on?
2. What is the difference between this program and the Certified Payroll Box 1 -
Employee Information Report offered in the Premier Contractors Edition?
3. How long will it take me to setup this program? What are the setup requirements?
How difficult is it to setup and use?
4. What are the main benefits of using this program?
5. How much time will this program save me?
6. Who provides technical support, and how do I obtain support?
7. How do I correct data entry mistakes?
8. Do I have the ability to customize an existing report or create a new one?
9. How exactly does this program work? Does it write information back to QuickBooks®?
Is my QuickBooks® data safe?
10. How do I obtain a demo and what type of limitations are imposed on the demo?
11. Who designed this program and what kind of background do they have?
12. Will this program work with QuickBooks® Assisted Payroll Service?
13. Will this program work with QuickBooks® Complete Payroll?
14. I use an outside payroll service (ADP, Paychex, etc.), how can I utilize Certified
Payroll Solution?
15. What are the program's limitations?
16. How often must I issue payroll?
17. I am behind in issuing Certified Payroll Reports; can I use this
program to catch up?
18. Is this a stand-alone product?
19. Does Certified Payroll Solution interface with Peachtree or
other software products?
20. My QuickBooks Customer:Job List contains Customers, Jobs, and
Sub-Jobs; can I "roll-up" certified payroll reports to the job level?
21. How does Certified Payroll Solution differ from Quantum's
Certified Payroll Reports and/or Wizard Business Solutions CertPay Wizard?
22. Can I return the program for a full refund if I don't like it or find
that it doesn't work to my expectations?
23. I issue payroll on a bi-weekly basis - how will Certified Payroll Solution
handle this?
24. Our company works on jobs that require certified payroll reports and jobs that
do not require these reports - can I somehow filter out only the jobs that need the reports?
1. Do I have to issue separate payrolls in QuickBooks® for each job my
employees work on?
Absolutely not! Simply enter all hours worked by each employee using the QuickBooks® Weekly
Timesheet function; assigning the appropriate job, service item, payroll item, and hours worked each day.
This information from the timesheets will automatically be pulled into your paychecks when you create them.
Certified Payroll Solution first looks at those timesheets and will do the rest of the work for you.
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2. What is the difference between this program and the Certified Payroll Box 1 -
Employee Information Report offered in the Premier Contractors Edition?
Certified Payroll Solution generates complete US Department of Labor Form WH-347 and/or State mandated
Certified Payroll Reports, the required Statement of Compliance, 9 different EEOC/Work Utilization Reports,
plus Generic and/or Custom Designed Benefit Reports that are ready for your signature and mailing (see the
Demonstration page for details).
The Certified Payroll Box 1 Report that is included in the Premier Contractor Edition will only provide
you with the Employee Name, Address, and Social Security Numbers of your employees and does not include
other required information.
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3. How long will it take me to setup this program? What are the setup
requirements? How difficult is it to setup and use?
These are difficult questions to answer without knowing exactly how well you are currently utilizing QuickBooks®.
Most of our customers can use Certified Payroll Solution by their next paycheck run, some can even use it the very
first week they receive it. The bulk of the setup requirements are in QuickBooks® and are as follows, an accurate
overview is provided in the Flash presentation on the
Demonstration Page:
- You must enter employee time using the weekly timesheet function
- You must edit the job record of each prevailing wage job and in the "Ship To" Address
block, enter your project number, project name, and project location
- You must have specific payroll items that you use in your timesheets for when an employee
works as a Carpenter vs. when he works as a Laborer
If you read the manual that is provided with the program and watch the training demonstration that is included on your
installation CD, you should experience little to no trouble. The first week that you run Certified Payroll Solution
you should figure that it will take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to input missing information in the Linked records
(time depends on number of Employees, Jobs, Payroll Items, and Deductions that you have), after that it will take 5-30 minutes
to generate your certified payroll reports - again this time frame is dependent upon the number of employees, jobs, QuickBooks
file size, computer and printer speeds, etc.
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4. What are the main benefits of using this program?
One of the greatest benefit of using Certified Payroll Solution is the time savings through integration with your
QuickBooks company file - customers have told us that what used to
take them a half day or more using spreadsheets to do reports for 10-15 jobs now takes them roughly 10 minutes per week;
what used to be 3+ hours completing reports manually now takes roughly 10 minutes; we have also been told that now the
hardest part of the process is stuffing the reports into envelopes and applying postage. Please note: these are
actual user comments and can be found in the References.
Other benefits include accuracy - if your QuickBooks® payroll is accurate, your Certified Payroll Reports are accurate;
you no longer need to worry about transposition errors that are caused by double data entry; you know longer have to worry
about filing your reports in a timely fashion because it now takes minutes instead of hours to generate reports; and finally
because the reports are computer generated they are legible.
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5. How much time will this program save me?
We have been told that our customers are saving from 3 hours to 3 days of time each week (for complete stories
see the References section). Really this is
hard to determine, but the more jobs and/or employees you have the greater amount of time you will save.
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6. Who provides technical support, and how do I obtain support?
All technical support is provided by Sunburst, it is not outsourced. You will be dealing with the people
who designed and wrote the program. You may obtain support Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern
Standard Time by phone, fax, or email. Additionally we provide an on-line user
Forum where you may post questions.
To view our Support Policy.
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7. How do I correct data entry mistakes?
If the errors are payroll related they must be corrected in QuickBooks®, and then you can run the Certified Payroll
Reports again. If the errors are in the Work Classifications that are printing on the Certified Payroll Reports,
then it is something that is corrected in Certified Payroll Solution.
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8. Do I have the ability to customize an existing report or create a new one?
You are free to design and create Benefit Reports, but if it is a change to one of the other reports, contact us
and we will help you make the change, as what you want may require a change to the programs internal code as well.
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9. How exactly does this program work? Does it write information back to
QuickBooks? Is my QuickBooks data safe®?
Perhaps the best way to explain how Certified Payroll Solution works is to say that it knows as much as
you do about Certified Payroll Reporting mandates (if you have been doing these reports for any length of time), and
works much like you would to prepare them.
First it looks at the Weekly Timesheet and Employees, Jobs,
Payroll Items, and hours worked each day; then it starts verifying that it knows about the items found -
if CPS finds anyone or anything new it starts making "lists" (John Jones needs to be added to my database, Job A needs
to be added to my data base, etc), then it simply starts sorting, compiling and merging the data (much as you would
from various reports you generated in order to complete them manually) in order to generate the completed reports.
Certified Payroll Solution accesses your QuickBooks® company file on a "read-only" basis - in the 2005 versions that
is validated when you initially grant CPS permission to access your company file. Any change to your QuickBooks®
company file has to be done by a human.
Yes your QuickBooks® data is totally safe. Intuit has built provisions into their Software Development Kit (SDK),
which we use to create CPS that makes all third party applications follow normal QuickBooks® business rules, no matter
what the program can do. Click here
to learn about how Certified Payroll Solution was designed and how we have utilized the SDK to create it.
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10. How do I obtain a demo and what type of limitations are imposed on the demo?
Flash® demonstrations are available on our Demonstration page.
You will find the Flash® demonstration to be an accurate depiction of how CPS interfaces with QuickBooks® as
well as set up requirements in both programs; the demo combined with the whitepaper provide you with an efficient
training overview. We offer the demonstration in Flash® based on recommendations from the Intuit Developer Network
as it is felt that a self-running demo is an easy and efficient means of understanding how the program works without
having to make any changes to your existing file on your part. Free 30-day trial versions are available upon request at the
completion of the Flash demonstration, if you feel that the product is indeed something you are interested in.
The trial version will allow you to retrieve payrolls dated 30 days prior to or 30 days after
you request the trial, and a "demonstration" watermark will show on the reports. The trial is easily converted
to a fully licensed version in which the watermark will no longer appear and the reports will be suitable for submission.
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11. Who designed this program and what kind of background do they have?
Certified Payroll Solution was designed and written by a
Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor and a Software Engineer who each have an Accounting background
as well as 20+ years of experience in their respective fields. For more information, please see
the About Us page.
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12. Will this program work with QuickBooks® Assisted Payroll Service?
Yes, we currently have several customers who are utilizing the Assisted Payroll Service offered by Intuit
without problems. One word of caution with the Assisted Payroll Service - spend a little extra time
to verify that all hours have been entered correctly using the correct payroll item prior to sending your
payroll data to Intuit, as editing paycheck information after it has come back from the service is
difficult and sometimes totally impossible.
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13. Will this program work with QuickBooks® Complete Payroll Service?
No, it does not. With the Complete Payroll you enter hours worked in a product that is outside of QuickBooks®
instead of utilizing the QuickBooks Weekly Timesheet function, and is processed and returned to your data file
in a manner that we cannot read and do not have access to.
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14. I use an outside payroll service (ADP, Paychex, etc.), how can I
utilize Certified Payroll Solution?
You would need to turn on the full Manual Payroll function of QuickBooks®, and basically "act as if" you
do your payroll in QuickBooks, when it comes time to actually create the check you will use the withholding
information from the payroll service to get your deductions, and give each check the check number provided
by the payroll service. While this might seem like a lot of work - think of how much better your
job costing will be now that you are including payroll information.
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15. What are the program's limitations?
Currently there are few limitations for Certified Payroll Solution, other than limitations within
QuickBooks itself or data access limitations imposed by Intuit. For example an Intuit® data access
limitation prevents Certified Payroll Solution from reading the number of Federal Withholding Allowances
in the QuickBooks Employee Record. Payroll items that are classified as Additions to wages in QuickBooks®
cannot accurately be assigned to a specific job, but can be included in Total Gross Wages on the Certified
Payroll Report - this follows the same business rules as it does within QuickBooks®. We also cannot
accurately separate a bi-weekly paycheck into amounts for each week - again this follows the QuickBooks®
business rules where payroll is recognized on the date that the paycheck is issued and not when payroll is accrued.
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16. How often must I issue payroll?
Certified Payroll Reporting mandates the submission of Weekly Certified Payroll Reports, therefore, to
accurately generate these weekly payroll reports, you must issue payroll weekly, as QuickBooks® does not
accrue payroll. CPS will handle bi-weekly payroll, however, it will report the full amount of the bi-weekly paycheck
on the certified payroll reports - in most cases adding a statement to the Remarks section of the Statement of Compliance,
that payroll is issued bi-weekly and the amounts reflected on the reports reflect the amount of that bi-weekly check, will
suffice.
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17. I am behind in issuing Certified Payroll Reports; can I use this program to catch up?
An enhancement to the program made January 2005 will alleviate some but not all of the difficulties that one would encounter
when generating delinquent reports, HOWEVER, the enhancement does not replace proper setup. The enhancement will
assist you if you have only used the QuickBooks® standard Hourly Rate Payroll item for all of your employees by allowing your
to create and assign a Work Classification in the Wage Reconciliation section of Certified Payroll Solution that will
defer to the work classification that was assigned to the Employee as his or her most often used Work Classification during the
employee reconciliation. While this will work in some instances, it will not work if the employee works under more
than one work classification.
Certified Payroll Solution is really designed to work from this point forward, due to setup requirements that
are outlined in #3 above and in the Demonstration.
While it is not recommended to go backward in time, it is possible to catch up on old reports, however, due to
the amount of technical support required to do this; it is not considered part of your normal free initial
technical support and we will charge you a fee - see our Support Policy.
We do provide, free of charge,
detailed instructions on how to accomplish this task.
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18. Is this a stand-alone product?
No. It is not.
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19. Does Certified Payroll Solution interface with Peachtree or other software
products?
No, Certified Payroll Solution has been specifically designed to interface with QuickBooks® Pro, Premier,
and Enterprise Solutions editions.
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20. My QuickBooks Customer:Job List contains Customers, Jobs, and Sub-Jobs; can
I "roll-up" certified payroll reports to the job level?
You will not be able to "roll-up" your reports to the job level. QuickBooks treats each sub-job as its
own entity (so that you can get accurate job costing reports); therefore, we must follow the same business
rules and generate a certified payroll report for each individual sub-job.
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21. How does Certified Payroll Solution differ from Quantum's Certified
Payroll Reports and/or Wizard Business Solutions CertPay Wizard?
There are several differences; the main differences are program design, the length of time that each
program has integrated with QuickBooks, and functionality.
Certified Payroll Solution was specifically designed to interface with QuickBooks in August 2000.
Quantum's Certified Payroll Reports was originally designed as a standalone program; with QuickBooks
integration provided in November 2004.
Wizard Business Solutions CertPay Wizard was originally designed for Peachtree; with QuickBooks
integration provided in July 2005.
For more details, please read the "Side-by-Side" comparison.
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22. Can I return the program for a full refund if I don't like it or find
that it doesn't work to my expectations?
Actually we have alleviated that issue by offering a FREE 30-day trial version (available upon request
from the last slide of the Flash demonstration). This is
a FULL VERSION of the program with only two limitations. All reports have a "Demonstration"
watermark; making them not suitable for filing and you can only run payrolls issued 30 days before or 30 days after
the date that we send you the trial. If you like the program, contact us to purchase a license, and within
15 minutes you can turn that "trial" into a fully licensed program, the watermark will disappear, and you can
re-run the certifieds and submit them.
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23. I issue payroll on a bi-weekly basis - how will Certified Payroll Solution
handle this?
Essentially you will run 2 certified payroll reports for each paycheck issued. For example, let's say that
your work week ends on a Sunday, on 9/6/06 you issue paychecks for the two week period covering 8/21/06 through 9/02/06.
When you start CPS and choose Run->Certified Payroll you will use the following dates:
Work Week/Pay Period ending 8/27/06 with Paychecks dated From and To 9/6/06, to get the first week
Work Week/Pay Period ending 9/02/06 with Paychecks dated From and To 9/06/06, to get the second week
Each individual payroll report will show the correct hours worked each day, total hours for the week, and applicable
rate of pay; however, Gross Pay This Job/All Jobs and deductions will be based on the single paycheck that was issued
in QuickBooks. In most cases adding the following in the "Remarks" section of the Statement of Compliance will suffice:
Payroll is issued on a bi-weekly basis. Gross Pay and Deductions shown on the Certified Payroll Report reflect
the totals from the single bi-weekly paycheck.
Currently there is no way for us to compensate for the way that QuickBooks does not accrue it's payroll, and this is by no
means a guarantee that the person you will be submitting these reports to will accept them. If in doubt, please
contact the awarding contractor or agency to discuss this matter prior to purchase.
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24. Our company works on jobs that require certified payroll reports and jobs that do
not require these reports - can I somehow filter out only the jobs that need the reports?
Yes, there are two ways to accomplish this. One method is done on the QuickBooks side in the Job Record and the other
is done in Certified Payroll Solution when you initially create the linked Job Record. Both methods are explained in
the manual you receive with the program.
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