Cari-Pay is a cloud based software which any business can utilize to manage their employees wages and human resource related tasks. Our primary goal is to provide an application that is easy to use and adaptable to all usage requirements.
Cari-Pay is constantly evolving to be in step with the modern world, one example of that is our ability to integrate with a wide variety of biometric devices to provide accurate and reliable timekeeping. Cari-Pay supports finger, palm, face and swipe card timekeeping devices. Cari-Pay is also customizable, because we are not only the distributor but the developer. Any special processing requirements that are needed by your business is potentially available in Cari-Pay.
Within Caripay, weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly payment schedules are accommodated, where employees can be configured as hourly, flat-salary, or a combination of both. Deductions for taxes, insurance payments, loan payments etc are fully configurable in recurring or limited time frames. In addition, the rates and thresholds for the deductions are also configurable as time passes and rates change. Earnings for meal allowances, bonuses etc are also supported and fully configurable.
The typical work-flow for processing a payroll starts with configuring the employee, adding any bonuses, allowances etcetera that are necessary and any other adjustments. The second phase of setting up for processing is to input the employee’s punchins (also referred to as “clock-ins”). In this phase data may be pulled from biometric time clocks, uploaded from spreadsheets or entered manually by the user. For companies that issue payment based on fixed salaries, this step may be skipped as it is not necessary for processing. The final step is going to the processing screen, which is our “Home” screen, creating and processing our pay-period.
The company configuration must be carefully considered and set up before you start processing payrolls. Here basic information about the company is inputted, along with other critical elements like the specification of overtime for the computation of wages/salaries. This section is accessed from the “Config” portion of the menu, the “Company Settings” Item. The image below displays a sample Company settings.
Overtime may be awarded in multiple ways and CariPay allows you to direct how that awarding is performed.
Daily Overtime occurs when employees working hours for the day exceeds the “Daily threshold”
Weekly Overtime occurs when employees working hours exceed the “Week Threshold”.
Weekend Overtime occurs when employees work during the weekend (Sat, Sun) and those hours are classified as overtime.
These Overtime Awarding Methods can be combined to suit your requirements.
Hours exceeding this threshold will be awarded as overtime. Conversely, if you do not want to award overtime, regardless of the number of hours worked, you may set this number to 24. This kind of method may also be used for the Weekly Threshold and Monthly Threshold, eg. for Weekly Threshold set to 168 (7x24) and there will be no overtime awarded during the week.
This setting is tied into the “Saturday Is”, “Sunday Is” settings, and “Weekly Overtime Threshold” settings. If Saturdays and Sundays are configured as overtime, this setting indicates that the “Weekly Overtime” threshold must be reached before weekend hours are awarded as overtime.
This is for Monthly pay-periods, any hours exceeding the threshold will be considered overtime.
Holidays can be set as Overtime/Doubletime. Holiday dates are set in the Holiday-Lookup-Table section of the config.
Ties into the Weekly Overtime Threshold setting, if set yes, the threshold hours must be reached before Sunday is awarded as overtime.
If set to Weekly, will break the monthly period into weeks and calculate the RT/OT/DT hours based on the Weekly rules. Set to Month to use the Monthly rules.
The day your work week starts must be set for the correct calculation of overtime.
Indicates whether a threshold is required before work during the weekend is qualified as overtime.
This setting should be left in the default state “No” unless instructed by the software provider.
This setting should be left in the default state. It controls internal processing that is particular to your installation and is initially set by your provider.
There are two primary levels of access in the system, the Admin and the Standard User. The Admin is able to perform all the functions in the system and also has some exclusive powers listed below:
Managing employees is performed on the “Employees” screen.
Active Start Date and Active End Date establishes an employee’s active period. This active period means the employee will be included in any payrolls during that period. Utilizing these two dates, we are able to enter employees before they are active in the company. We are also able to set an employee’s termination date by utilizing the ‘Active End Date’.
Probation End Date is used for establishing a probation period prior to that date. Upon reaching the ‘Probation End Date’ the system will issue a notification so which can be acted on to perform an Employee Review, set a rate increase etc
In order for the software to properly generate pay for the employee, the ‘Payment Info’ section must be completed.
Of special note, is that many of the above mentioned items work in conjunction with the employee’s configured Earnings and Deductions (detailed below) e.g. If an amount is inputted into the Company Loan Balance field and the deduction Employee Loan Deduction is not configured for the employee, then the system will not perform the deduction from the employee’s pay. Similarly if the Earning Auto-Compute Travel Allowance is not configured for the employee, the system will not add the travel allowance to the employee’s pay.
Depending on the locale of the application, TIN or TRN is displayed. The meaning is the same: Taxpayer identification number.
Deductions refer to the taxes, insurance etcetera which will be deducted from the employee upon the processing of each payroll. These components deduct from the employee’s pay.
Earnings refer to the items that the employee’s pay is composed of, Hourly Pay, Travel Allowance, Bonus etcetera. These components are added to the employee’s pay.
Default Earnings/Deductions When creating a new employee a default set of deductions/earnings is initially set. This default set depends on the company’s configuration. The user may change the deductions/earnings as needed. Restore to the default set of components by utilizing the “Reset to Default” action. It is advised to change the default sets to the settings that match the majority of your employees. This makes the user’s job easier, having to customize only a few employees whose settings diverge from the default set.
Extend Earnings/Deductions The user may extend the available list of earnings/deductions by accessing the Earnings/Deductions screen.
System Deductions/Earnings Some pay components are special and work in conjunction with other settings of the employee. For example removing the “Overtime” Earning from an employee will result in the employee not receiving overtime pay. Similarly an employee configured with a “Daily Travel Allowance” amount, but not the Auto-Compute Travel Allowance would not receive the Travel allowance.
Adjustable Some pay components are classified non-adjustable, meaning they work based on a formula defined in the system, e.g. PAYE deduction. Others are classified as “adjustable” eg “Employee Loan Deduction” is adjustable and allows you to set the amount that should be deducted from the employee pay and applied towards the loan
Recurring/Active Period Some items (be it earnings or deductions) we want to set in perpetuity eg. Internet Allowance. However for some other items it makes sense for them to only run in payrolls within a limited time frame e.g. a Bonus. By setting the “Recurring” and “Active Period” settings when configuring an Earning or Deduction, we may limit it from being processed in only the payrolls that apply to it (The item will be processed in payrolls whose ending date falls within the active period).
Timeclock ID When utilizing biometric timekeeping devices or spreadsheets to upload time data, a “Timeclock Id” is required. Typically time-clocks provide a unique number for each enrolled employee. That number is required to be entered here so that the software may allocate the time from the device to the correct employee. Even without an integrated time-clock a user may assign unique Timeclock Ids to employees when planning to upload spreadsheets with attendance data.
Shift Schedule When utilizing time keeping devices, it is possible that employees punch-in in advance of their shift and also punch-out later than is required. ‘Shift Schedule’ is a mechanism that remedies this condition, by setting starting and ending shift times. An employee’s time is “clipped” within these ranges.
The Custom Overtime, Hourly Pay section, facilitates the overriding of the normal overtime rates by setting a custom overtime rate for an employee. Note this feature is only available to an admin user.
This screen is used for capturing HR info, it is not necessary in the processing of the payroll.
Employee reviews can be created and stored in the system. The metrics are configurable.
Employee documents may be stored in the system for example certifications, degrees etc.
This screen is used to populate the working hours of employees prior to payroll processing. The pay-period must be selected before proceeding to the other functions below (it will need to be created on the Home screen if not created already).
Regular, Overtime and Doubletime hours can be specified. These hours are used for the calculation of Hourly employees pay. In addition, these hours are used to produce attendance reports. This step may be skipped if the payroll is composed of purely Salary employees and attendance reports are not required.
Note:If a particular date is designated as a Holiday, hours entered on that day are automatically sent to the DoubleTime category (this behaviour can be customized in the Company Settings to be Overtime).
There are multiple ways of inputting employee hours. Hours can be downloaded from time-clocks, uploaded via spreadsheets or manually inputted. Each method of inputting data is a different form of inputting a clock-in/clock-out pair (also referred to as punch-in/punch-out pair). The system handles the arithmetic of figuring out the duration of this pair and will automatically aggregate the figures into a final total. Additionally, the software will compartmentalize the Regular Time/Overtime/Double time totals depending on for example which day the shift took place. A user can also skip the input of individual clock-in/clock-out pairs and just enter “bulk” figures for the RT/OT/DT totals (utilize the action icons to the right of the employee’s line).Clicking on the employee’s name brings up a calendar dialog where the user may enter employee’s punch-in/punch-out pairs. Multiple pairs can be entered for a single day (representing pre-lunch, post-lunch work sessions etc).
CSV files need to be in a specific format so that the software can properly decipher the data. When uploading CSV files a time-clock must be selected (the system has a default U160C timeclock, even if no time-clocks are connected). The time-clock selection is necessary, because it implicitly specifies the format of the CSV file. The default format is U160C.
The U160C format is extremely simple with 4 columns. Each line contains the employee name(can be left blank, the system does not utilize this column), a unique Id identifying the employee (set in the Time clocks tab of the Employee screen) and two columns formatted YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM for the punch-in/punch-out pair (hours are 24 hour format).
CSV files can also be produced from MS Excel, be careful that the output format matches the specifications above, MS Excel tends to format the punch-in/punch-out data in its own way.
We may use several CSV files to upload data for a single period by breaking them into segments. The only requirement is that the segments span distinct time frames and do not overlap. This is useful for example in situations where a month long period is broken into 4 weeks of data.
Data can be downloaded from any time-clocks connected to the system. The “TC Crctn” button is used to download time-clock data, it stands for “Time-clock Correction”. This terminology is used because the software performs analysis of the downloaded data checking for errors like double-punches, missed punches etc. Alerts of errors are presented by the software and the user is given the opportunity to correct them. Segmented downloads are also supported and are especially helpful for long periods such as monthlies, where the user may download data and correct on a weekly basis so he/she is ready for processing at the end of the period. These features help the user navigate and solve problematic situations that arise in the real world.
The software supports multiple time-clocks. The user is also able to download the timeclock-data as a CSV file.
There are scenerios where you will want to trim an employees punch-in/punch-out time. This typically occurs when an employee works beyond the time he is authorized and he should not
be paid for that time, or vice-versa if he comes in earlier that authorized. Without trimming the punches this scenerio can result in extra costs to our payroll. We can mitigate against this by utilizing the Shift Schedule feature available on the
Employee screen on the Timeclocks tab. To prevent an employee from getting paid for time before and after his designated working hours you can set the values in Pre-Shift Clockins and Post-Shift Clockins, make sure to check the boxes otherwise the punches would not be clipped.
If you want to just prevent early punches and allow late ones, just set the Pre-Shift Clockin. Once these are set, any time entered over these boundaries would be trimmed to the boundary. Eg setting Pre-Shift Clockin to 07:00 would automatically change a 06:30 punch in to 07:00. Note: Times are in 24hr format.
If you are paying different rates on holidays, for example you are paying double-time on a holiday, you must configure this in company settings. Also, you must define which dates are holidays in Config/Lookup Tables/payroll holidays prior to inputting the employee clock-in/clock-out data, otherwise Cari-Pay will not be able to know on which days to designate those working hours as overtime or double time.
The home screen consolidates the current status of the system, provides reporting on all processed pay-periods and it is where the user goes to create and process a pay-period.
Pay Periods - are Weekly/Fortnightly/Monthly periods defined in the system. The “New Pay Period” button is used for creating new pay periods. When the pay-period has ended (the ending date of the period has reached) it will be available for processing and listed under the Process button.
Once a period is processed, the Pay Slips document (and other reports) will be available to be generated.
Unended pay periods are not available for processing. In some situations, we may want to process a pay period and issue payments immediately before the end of the period. In such cases, the user can utilize the Force-end button and make the period available for processing.
To process a pay-period, the Process button is clicked and the pay-period selected. The system will then provide a preview of the process results, this displays any warnings encountered (highlighted in amber) and the figures produced. Any errors will be highlighted in red and will prevent the committing of the period. The user is able to drill down into the process results and see the details. After a period has been committed it will appear in the Processed Period section.
It is not uncommon for mistakes to be discovered after the processing has been committed. In such cases a user with admin privileges may rollback a period, meaning to reverse the pay period from its Processed state, allowing the user to correct/modify any configurations and then Re-Process that pay-period.
To generate reports etcetera for any processed pay-period, select the pay-period from the ‘Processed Period’ list and click the Period Actions button. Clicking ‘Period Actions’ will display a list of available reports/actions.
Print Period Stmt. will print all the employees’ names, their TIN and NIS numbers, hours worked, rate, gross salary, deductions and net pay received for the pay period selected.
Print Direct Deposit will provide a summary of the direct deposits for the employees of that period. This requires that the employees be configured with the Direct Deposit payment method.
Direct Deposit Docs will provide a specifically formatted document to be submitted to the bank for those employees who desire their salaries or wages to be deposited into the bank.
Direct Deposit Bank Summaryprovides a summary of all the bank deposits that were completed for the pay period selected.
The employee quick view screen is accessed from the Config menu. This allows us to quickly be apprised of the employees, their rates and their deductions/earnings settings within the software. Earn. Override and Ddtn. Override columns are of particular importance when non-routine deductions and earnings are given to employees. In some situations the status of these settings help us figure out unexpected processing results by the software. For instance, if a bonus is given to an employee for a particular pay period. A bonus would require us to override the default settings and add a bonus earning. Processing successive pay-periods would result with that bonus included. Checking the quick view, we are quickly able to detect that the employee has an “override” configuration (Note this particular problem could also have been prevented by setting the bonus as non-recurring).
This screen can also be utilized to carry out mass rate changes. You are able to change values on percentage or amount basis, the software also provides a preview of the new rates before finalized by saving the changes.
There are some earnings that are called "Auto-Compute" because they are computed from analysing the data inputted into the system.
This is an advanced configuation that may require your system installer to configure. It can be found by accessing the JSON Flex Config. in the Company Settings
page in the Config menu.This is achieved by utilizing the Company Default Deduction Settings from the Config Menu and this changes the earnings/deductions of all employees who are using the default set. Note changes here have no effect on employees that have override settings (also referred to as customized settings).
Earnings represent the components that comprise an employee’s pay for example Salary, Meal Allowance, Internet Allowance etc.
The software comes preloaded with earnings that cover most needs. The user is also able to create his/her own earnings and extend the available set. Some allowances have special functions in the system and also some have no effect if the employee is not configured for them, therefore it is good practice to have in the default set so they can be applied to employees who are configured for them. The following is a list of special earnings:
Adjustable : Outside of the earnings that are shipped with the system, the rest are “adjustable”, meaning that the user can set their value, which can either be a percentage or a flat amount. Percentage types are calculated against the salary or hourly pay (other earnings amounts are not taken into account).
Taxable : Means this earnings amount is part of the aggregated total(from the other earnings) which taxes are calculated against. There are some earnings that are non-taxable e.g. meals.
Insurable : Means this earnings amount is part of the aggregated total(from the other earnings) which insurance payments are calculated against. There are some earnings that are non-insurable e.g. pension contributions. DOES NOT APPLY IN THE JAMAICAN TAX CODE!!!
Deductions represent the PAYE, Ed. Tax, NHT payments etcetera that are deducted from the employee’s gross wages.
Cari-Pay comes loaded with a default set of deductions that cover most needs, however for those that are not covered, the software allows you to create your own deductions.
Most tax payments , insurance payments work on a system of tiers, with different rates applied to different tiers of an employee’s pay. To implement that, Cari-Pays uses boundaries to separate the tiers and each may have their own rate.
Here the user can configure a variety of settings in the system.