Allocating Tips in Payroll – How and Why?

This posting steps through the tip allocation computation used by the Payroll module in Dynamics GP. Some questions have come up lately on the forums; rather than posting a lengthy answer, I thought it would be better to cover it in more detail in my blog.

What is it? -- The IRS has set a minimum amount that it expects waitstaff should have included in income for tips. The tip allocation calculation function merely adds an amount to taxable income; it does NOT result in an extra amount going into the paycheck.

The amount includable in income for an employee who is directly tipped is the greater of (a) the amount they reported to their employer or (b) their allocable share of the minimum amount established by the IRS (for 2009 it was 8%).

An indirectly tipped employee does not receive allocated tips. Generally, indirectly tipped employees receive their tips from other tipped employees rather than directly from the customers. Positions such as cooks, bussers, hostesses, barbacks, and dishwashers are typically indirectly tipped employees. Of course, an employee could receive both direct and indirect tips, if so they will be included in the allocation computation for their direct tips.

The Dynamics GP instructions provide the following explanation about allocated tips:

Microsoft Dynamics GP uses the Gross
Receipts method that is calculated per pay
run. The allocated tips amount equals the
difference between tips received and
employee gross receipts divided by
company gross receipts, multiplied by the
tip allocation rate, provided the difference is
more. Made to each directly tipped
employee.

Reading it again won’t help. I think an example is in order.

Our Example -- Let’s say our company, named Tailspin Pizza (“Tailspin”), has three employees who receive tips. The employees are tipped both directly and indirectly

During a payroll period, gross receipts at Tailspin were $15,500. Total tips reported by employees for this period were $980. Directly tipped employees reported $430 and indirectly tipped employees reported $550. Based on the IRS guidelines, the employees’ total tips should have been 8% of $15,500, or $1,240. Our job is to properly calculate and allocate the $260 shortfall.

Dynamics GP can do it!

How to set it up in Payroll -- Payroll Options need to be set telling the system that you want to use the tip allocation feature. To do this:

1. Navigate to the Payroll Setup window

Microsoft Dynamics GP>>Tools>>Setup>>Payroll>>Payroll

2. Select the Options button on the lower right-hand corner of the Payroll Setup window.

3. Mark the Calculate Tip Allocation checkbox in the Options section of the Payroll Setup Options window and set the Tip Allocation Rate to 8.00% (or whatever applicable percentage).

The allocation rate is determined by the IRS. Unless a lower amount was negotiated with the IRS, the rate was 8.00% for 2009.

How to set up Pay Codes --The appropriate pay codes need to be set up in order to include tips in a payroll run. Additionally, we need to be able to indicate whether the tips were received directly or indirectly. For the purposes of the tip allocation computation it does not matter whether the tips were ‘charged’ or ‘reported’. We’ll set up the following 3 Pay Codes to use in our example:

Pay Code	Pay Type	Tips Received
CTIPI	Charged Tips	Indirectly
CTIPD	Charged Tips	Directly
RTIPD	Reported Tips	Directly

For the payroll period, Tailspin has total gross receipts of $15,500. Total gross receipts are calculated by adding together the individual employee receipts entered on the payroll transaction. The employee’s receipts are entered on the Payroll Transaction Entry window with the ‘show’ details open.

The Calculation -- Total gross receipts were $15,500, total reported tips were $980. Tips received directly were reported as $430. Tips received indirectly were reported as $550.

Directly Tipped Employees	Gross Receipts for payroll period	Direct Tips Reported
ACKE	3,500	30
BARB	5,500	100
BARR	6,500	300
Totals	15,500	430

1. $15,500(gross receipts) x .08 = $1,240

2. $1,240 - $550 (tips reported by indirectly tipped workers) = $690

The amount used to calculate each directly tipped employee’s share of 8% of the gross is $690.

3. Calculate each directly tipped employee’s share of 8% of gross receipts.

Directly Tipped Employees	Directly Tipped Share of 8% of the gross	(Times) Gross Receipts Ratio	Employee’s share of 8% of the gross
ACKE	690	3,500/15,500=	156
BARB	690	5,500/15,500=	245
BARR	690	6,500/15,500=	289
		Total	690

4. Calculate the shortfall in reported directly received tips

Directly Tipped Employees	Employee’s share of 8% of the gross	(Minus) Tips Reported	Employee shortfall (use 0 if no shortfall)
ACKE	156	30	126
BARB	245	100	145
BARR	289	300	-
Total	690	430	271

5. Calculate the allocable share of the total tip shortfall. $1,240(total gross receipts x 8%) less $980 (total tips reported, includes direct and indirect) = $260(amount to be allocated among employees who had a shortfall).

Shortfall Employees	Allocable Amount	(Times) Shortfall ratio	Amount of allocation
ACKE	260	126/271=.46484	120.86
BARB	260	145/271=.53516	139.14
BARR	260	0/271=.00000	0
Total			260.00

6. Since employee BARR did not have a shortfall, there is no allocated amount to employee BARR.

Leave it to the IRS to dream up this ‘simple’ allocation calculation. Fortunately Dynamics GP does it for us!

Until next post!

Leslie

DEXVBA.ini Switches - Part 1

In keeping with my ‘.ini’ switch theme I would like to keep track of entries we can make to the DEXVBA.ini file. I currently have only two. I hope you will comment here if you have any others and I can add them to the list. I have titled this ‘Part 1’ in hopes that I will get additional settings so that I may post a ‘Part 2’.

The DEXVBA.ini file is not created by default. You will need to open Notepad (or similar text editor) and create it. The file should be created in the root Windows folder, not in the GP folder.

Step 1. Create a file named DEXVBA.ini in the root Windows folder.

Step 2. Add the following line to the top of the file: [General]

Step 3. Add the selected .ini setting beneath [General].

INI Setting	Description
LogObjects=TRUE	This will create a text file that will include all of the objects in a VBA project. The text file will be the same name as the product dictionary with a ‘.txt’ extension.
NoUnresolvedDialog=TRUE	This will suppress the following error message when you launch Dynamics GP. “The product_name.vba project references some objects that cannot be found. These objects are listed in the file: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Business Solutions\GP\ product_name.txt” The warning will be suppressed for all VBA projects loaded. It doesn’t solve the problem regarding missing objects, but it suppresses the message.

Until next post!

Leslie

GP 2010 on 64-bit Windows 7 with i3 Processor

I have more to report on my attempted installation of Dexterity 2010.

Thanks to Vaidy for the guidance, I did the following:
I ran "dw20sharedia64.msi" from the following path:
GP2010 Main Folder -> Tools -> Dex -> Watson -> dw20sharedia64.msi

I got this error:

I then ran “dw20sharedamd64.msi'” from that same folder and was greeted with nothing noteable. I didn't expect anything because this is not an AMD processor, but you never know.

I then ran the “dw20shared.msi” and received this message:

It looked promising, but then nothing else happened.

I then run the setup.exe file for Dex and got this again:

I restarted the machine between attempts.

The test machine's processor is an i3. The i3 was released January 8th, 2010. Since the first error message tells me the processor isn't supported, I am thinking the new processor may be the issue.

I do not have another machine to use for the beta - has anyone tried to install Dex 2010 on a similar hardware configuration to mine?

The machine is 64-bit, running Windows 7 Professional, with an i3 processor.

Until next post!

Leslie

12 inches of Snow in Dallas!

How is this related to Dynamics GP? It isn’t, but it was a record setting day! The snow fell on Thursday, Feb 11, 2010. It is all melted now, but it was amazing.

The city shut down, schools closed, electricity went out, etc. I grew up in Michigan, if they had closed the schools because of cold weather and snow, I would still be in high school.

The pictures are from my neighborhood. We lost a lot of trees, that was a shame.

Until next post!

Leslie

Tools Available from Professional Services

Lately there have been several posts to the various newsgroups regarding functionality that is not part of Dynamics GP ‘out-of-the-box’.

I received a list from GP Professional Services of tools available to partners for resale. Prices are subject to change, and the versions supported have been based on the popularity of the request. Some of the tools are my favorite price, free! The most expensive one is $1,500, most are $500 or $750.

I have struggled with so many of the issues that these tools have solved so I thought I would put the list out for all. I asked Microsoft first and they said it was OK to post it.

Name	Description	Versions	Price
AutoDim	Utility allows you to launch Great Plains and run one or more integrations or integration groups and have Great Plains exit upon completion of the integrations. This product also supports integrating into several different companies.	7.0, 7.5, 8.0, 9.0, 10.0	500
Customer PO Number Check (this is a very nice tool, it prevents some orders from being duplicated)	This tool checks the Customer PO Number for duplicates as data is entered into the field on both the SOP Entry window and the SOP Customer Detail Entry window.	7.5, 8.0, 9.0, 10.0	500
Doc Date Verify	When a document date is entered in Payables Transaction Entry or Receivables Transaction Entry, a check will be performed to determine if the document date is in a fiscal period. If the date does not fall within a valid fiscal period, a message will be issued and the user will not be allowed to continue until the date is in a valid period. This customization will also do a validation if the period is closed.	7, 8.0, 9.0,10.0	FREE
Grant All Access Script	Grants all users access to all projects.	Not version specific	FREE
Master Record Macros	Macros to populate the master records when Project Accounting has been implemented after Vendors, Customers, or Employees have been created.	Not version specific	FREE
Payroll Local Tax Tool	This utility allows specific local taxes for an employee to be sheltered for TSA style deductions while allowing other local taxes for the same employee to not be sheltered.  Each deduction in the system can specify which local taxes should be sheltered, and employees can also be specifically excluded from this process.	7.0, 7.5, 8.0, 9.0, 10.0	500
PO Returns (this prevents you from paying for an item that has been returned)	When invoicing a receipt in POP, this customization will check the previous quantity invoiced and the quantity returned for the line item. The maximum quantity allowed to be invoiced is based the following formula: Quantity Shipped minus (Previous Quantity Invoiced plus Quantity Returned). This customization will not allow invoicing of more than this amount.	7.5, 8.0, 9.0, 10.0	FREE
POP Cost Defaulter (a life saver if you don’t want your PO cost to float around)	This utility allows the user to default in the Standard Cost or the Current Cost within the Purchase Order Entry window instead of the vendor specific Last Invoice Cost.	7.0, 7.5, 8.0, 9.0, 10.0	FREE
RM Auto Apply Utility	This application will allow the user to Mass Apply posted RM Credit Documents to posted RM Debit Documents.  The user can select a range of Customer, Debit Document Dates, Credit Document Dates, and a Credit Document Type restriction if desired. The credit documents will apply to the debit documents in the order specified in Receivables Management Setup window which is the same order that Dynamics Apply Sales Documents Auto Apply button uses.	7.0, 7.5, 8.0, 9.0, 10.0	750
Shipment Notification (YES! No more delaying customer billing!)	Will allow drop ship sales orders to be transferred to invoice prior to invoicing the purchase order	7.x, 8.0, 9.0, 10.0	750
SOP Lot Number Overrides	Use this tool if you use Lot Number processing and run into situations where you sell Lot Numbers before they are entered into the system through POP or BOM.  This utility will create a temporary Lot Number receipt during the Sales Transaction Entry process and manage the Lot Number quantity accurately. After the Lot Number is received through POP, BOM or IV, the temporary receipt is removed and the actual lot receipt is updated to reflect that a portion of it has already been sold.	7.0,7.5,8.0, 9.0, 10.0	1,500
SOP Partial Kit Transfers	This utility supports partial transfers of Kit items from Orders to Invoices and will maintain the Previously Invoiced quantity for the overall kit item and all of its components. This utility does not currently support partial transfers to back-order documents.	7.0,7.5,8.0, 9.0, 10.0	1,500
SOP to POP Line Reordering (the PO doc will now be in the same order as the SOP doc.)	This utility will reorder the line items of Purchase Orders generated by the SOP to POP transfer process to be in the same order as they originally were on the Sales Order document(s).  The preview report will still show an alphabetical list, but on the actual Purchase Order document the line items will maintain their correct sequence. This is critical for companies who rely on matching up PO printouts to Packing Lists or Picking Tickets in SOP.	7.0, 7.5, 8.0, 9.0, 10.0	500
Default AddItem for POP/SOP	Application that defaults the Add Item option to be marked in Sales Transaction Entry, Purchase Order Entry, POP Receivings Entry and Purchasing Invoice Entry.	8.0, 9.0, 10.0	FREE
AutoPost	COM dll that can be called from IM or an outside application to post some types of Dynamics Batches.  Currently the application supports posting of: Sales Order Processing Batches GL Transaction Entry Batches IV Transaction Entry Batches RM Cash Receipts Batches Because this application uses the Continuum API, the Great Plains client must be running and a user logged into a company for this application to work.  The posting process would then use that user & company to post the desired batch.	8.0, 9.0	500
Benefit Modifier Tool	Allows users to change the Benefit Code	7.5,8.0,9.0	750
Deduction Modifier Tool	Allows users to change Deduction Codes	7.0,7.5,8.0,9.0	750
Credit Limit Override for eOrder	Allows the function of overriding credit limits for customers that have no credit or have reached their credit limit during the creation of an Order. This feature is not available on the base package of eOrder or eCommerce.	7.0, 7.5, 8.0	750
Customer specific Catalogs for eOrder	Provides ability to setup multiple catalogs and assign different catalogs to different customers.	7.0, 7.5, 8.0	750
Email confirmation for eOrder	Sends an email to the shopper after the order has been placed with the order details to the email address entered on the Internet Information page from the page off the Customer’s main address record for eOrder.	7.0, 7.5, 8.0	750
Email used as login for eOrder	Changes the login from Customer ID to the email address entered on the Internet Information page from the page off the Customer’s main address record.	7.0, 7.5	750
Extended Pricing eOrder / eCommerce	Allows extended pricing for the eOrder and eCommerce module.	7.0, 7.5	1,500
Historical Order Inquiry for eOrder	Provides the capability of viewing historical Order information within eOrder.	7.0, 7.5	750
Email Invoices	Allows users to email invoices to Customers. No more hassles mailing invoices to customers, simply specify their email address and send the invoice electronically.	7.0, 7.5, 8.0, 9.0	750
Employee Business Card with Image	The Employee Business Card with Image web part will display the image of the employee.  Employee Business Card with Image web part adds an image to the Employee Business Card web part found in the Business Portal at Company – Directory.  Business Portal administrators simply name their *.jpg file according to the Employee ID and copy the file to a specified directory.	8.0, 9.0	FREE
IV Post To GL	Allows IV Transaction Batches to look at the checkbox in Setup>Posting>Posting to determine if the Post To GL checkbox should be marked or unmarked for IV batches.	6.0,7.0,7.5,8.0,9.0	FREE
Multi-Build Payroll Tool	Allows multiple people to build /calculate / print / post payroll batches at the same time	8.0, 9.0	1,000
Pay Code Modifier Tool	Allows users to change Pay Codes	7.0,7.5,8.0,9.0	750
Payables Management Checks (Decimal Place Tool)	There is an option under Setup | System | Currency to change the decimal places. Once you move them up (example 2 to 4) it affects all modules checks and you are not able to back it down. This tool will print the checks out with two decimal places for Payables Management and Bank Reconciliation checks.	7.0,7.5,8.0,9.0	FREE
Payroll Checks (Decimal Place Tool)	There is an option under Setup | System | Currency to change the decimal places. Once you move them up (example 2 to 4) it affects all modules checks and you are not able to back it down. This tool will print checks with two decimal places only for Payroll checks and Direct Deposit.	7.0,7.5,8.0,9.0	FREE
Payroll Customized 941 Report	Prints the 941 by date range and  / or employee	7.0, 7.5, 8.0, 9.0	500
Payroll Detailed Activity Tracking	Each time a change is made within HR and Payroll to an employee a script can be processed to see the activity.	7.5, 8.0, 9.0	750
Payroll Pay Code History Edit	Allows users to change WC, FUTA and SUTA within the Pay Code History window	7.0, 7.5, 8.0, 9.0	500
PM Checks Default (remember this feature?)	Default Print PM Checks to check and not alignment form	6.0,7.0,7.5,8.0,9.0	FREE
Print Check Default (and its cousin in payroll)	For payroll only (not used with Direct Deposit)  to default into print the check within the Print Checks window instead of Printing the alignment first	7.0, 7.5	FREE
PM EFT User Defined Setup Utility	Allows users that require slight variations to the EFT file to format in order for their banks to accept the files.	8.0, 9.0	FREE
POP Over Receipt Tolerance	Utility that allows a receipt tolerance percentage for quantities.  A setup window allows the user to enter a tolerance percentage, that percentage is then used when a Purchase Order is received.  The highest quantity that can be received is the original quantity ordered plus the percentage amount.  For example, a Purchase Order is entered for a quantity of 10.  A tolerance percentage of 20% is entered.  The highest quantity allowed to be received would be 12.	7.0, 7.5, 8.0, 9.0	750
Security Troubleshooting Utility	This utility assist in troubleshooting security issues which have occurred in Great Plains.  Utility lists each window/report resource ID then trace these references to the security table before the permissions to the resources ID is validated by Great Plains, aiding in which resource is causing a security issue in Great Plains.  Does not function with Small Business Manager.	7.0, 7.5, 8.0, 9.0	FREE
SOP Default Site per Line	This customization changes the site that is defaulted on line items.  Instead of pulling the site from the Default Site on the SOP Entry window, if there is a default site assigned to the item in Cards>Inventory>Qtys/Sites, then that site will default for that line item  If there is no default site id for the item, then the customization will default the first site that is assigned to the item.	7.0, 7.5, 8.0, 9.0	FREE
SOP Returns Account Default	This customization will default the sales order returns account when a return is created from SOP Entry under Extras>Create Return.  As the SALES distribution type is created for the return, the customization will check the Sales Order Returns account from the customer card.  If the account is not empty, then all SALES type accounts will default with the account number in the Sales Order Returns slot from the customer.	7.0, 7.5, 8.0, 9.0	FREE
SOP Sort Line Items	This utility allows the user to define custom sorting options to display line items in Sales Order Processing.  For example, a sort could be defined by Item Number and then the currently selected SOP Document would display the line items in Item Number order instead of the standard by order entered.  This utility does not physically reorder the records in the underlying tables; it only displays them differently in the Sales Order Processing window.  This application also does not affect the way that sales documents print. (SQL database only)	7.0, 7.5, 8.0, 9.0	500
Update User Date Utility (otherwise the user date will be off and so will all of the default batch dates)	This application automatically updates the User Date in Great Plains to the next date at midnight.  The application will run in the background as long as Great Plains is open.  This tool can be useful when Great Plains is left open on a machine overnight running integrations or other processes.  (date disabled with dex.ini switch)	7.0, 7.5, 8.0, 9.0	FREE