Enter payroll data using the Rapid Entry page

The Rapid Entry pages are where you can enter multiple employee’s hours, earnings, deductions and contributions for a payroll run. If you plan to use Rapid Entry pages to enter payroll data (as opposed to Employee Timesheets), you must specify the pay elements and deduction and contribution elements to include in the rapid entry grid. The number of employees appearing on each page, as well as the choice of pay elements and their positions are configurable so that you can create a Rapid Entry page that is most efficient for the data entry of your payroll.

Note: You can only select elements that have already been set up for your payroll. It is not possible to remove any element that currently has entries made for it on the Rapid Entry page. If you need to add or modify pay elements, contact your Customer Support Team.

You do not have to enter employee payments through the Rapid Entry page if you do not want to. You could enter them individually on each employee's Detailed Timesheet. However the Rapid Entry page makes your job faster and easier.

Use the Rapid Entry page to enter data into your active employees' most commonly used Pay Elements and Deduction & Contribution Elements. After entering data on this page, each employee's hours, earnings, deductions and contributions are entered into Powerpay as though they were entered through the Detailed Employee Timesheet and the Deductions & Contributions page. They are included in the Audit Trail produced for the current pay period payroll and appear in the Detailed Employee Timesheet and Deductions & Contributions page and can be edited through those pages.

Tip: On a Regular run, salaried employees are paid automatically, so you do not have to enter values for them unless you want to pay an additional amount over their regular salary.

All entries made on the Rapid Entry pages are "This Pay Only", and allocated to the current pay period. They are made at the employee's current base rate of pay in conjunction with any permanent rates or factors applicable to that employee. For a Regular run, they use your standard pay period Applicable Period of Time and are allocated to each employee's current home distribution. For an Extra run, the Applicable Period of Time Extra Run — No Time Taken is used.

All entries are assigned the Applicable Period of Time based on the payroll's pay frequency. If an Applicable Period of Time other than the standard is required, make the appropriate selection and enter the employee's timesheet data on the Employee Timesheet — Regular Payment page. The payroll's Applicable Period of Time displays at the top of the page.

When there are more active employees then displayed per screen, navigation buttons are available to navigate to the next screen with active employees.

Employees who are on leave or terminated do not appear on the Rapid Entry page. If an employee is put on leave or terminated as part of a pay period payroll, any entries that have been made on the Rapid Entry page as part of that pay period payroll are automatically removed when the Status Change page is saved.

When Salary Override is selected on the Rapid Entry screen for a Regular Payment, Powerpay disables the employee's text entry area for this pay element if the employee's Pay Type is any of the following:

  • Hourly employee
  • Hourly employee — paid Vacation Pay each pay
  • Hourly employee — paid Additional Accumulator each pay
  • Hourly employee — paid Vac Pay and Addn Accumulator each pay
  • Hourly employee — also receives commissions

The disabled cells also display N/A.

Note: You cannot use the Rapid Entry page to edit previously saved deductions and contributions entries or enter an exception pay period, applicable period of time, distribution, or pay rate. To do those things, use the Employee Timesheet page (regular or second payment, as appropriate).

Note: On the Rapid Entry page, the fields that you changed on the Employee Timesheet display the text Timesheet (or 2nd Timesheet for second payments) and are no longer be editable on the Rapid Entry page during this pay period.

For Payrolls set to receive a Payroll Input Document (PID), use the Sort Options to define how the items on the page display. Select PID Sort to sort the items as on the PID, or select My Sort to sort the items based on your own user preference (as displayed after the My Sort label).

All entries are assigned the Applicable Period of Time based on the payroll’s pay frequency. If an Applicable Period of Time other than the standard is required, make the appropriate selection and enter the employee’s timesheet data on the Employee Timesheet – Regular Payment page.

All entries are assigned the Applicable Period of Time ‘No Time Taken – Extra Payment’ as this is an Extra run. If an Applicable Period of Time other than the standard for an Extra Run is required, make the appropriate selection and enter the employee’s timesheet data on the Employee Timesheet – Regular Payment page.

Video

How to enter hours and earnings in Rapid Entry

Prerequisites

You must have at least one employee set up and at least one valid Pay Element or Deduction/Contribution Element set up.

Tasks

Note: To enter exceptions to any of the above circumstances, enter the data for the employees in question on the Employee Timesheet and Deductions and Contributions pages.

  1. Click the Pay Period menu and click the Enter button for the pay period you want to work with.

  2. Navigate to the Rapid Entry page.Closed From the Payroll menu, select Regular Payment > Rapid Entry.

    For customers with import functionality activated, the Import Status page is the default page.

  3. Beginning with the first employee in the Employee List, enter hours, earnings, deductions, and contributions amounts for each employee.

    Note: Salaried employees are paid automatically. Do not enter their regular salary amount here or they will be paid twice.
    Note:

    • For hourly employees, approved time of requests are automatically populated to the Timesheet or Rapid Entry page. Enter any hours worked as usual.

    • For salaried employees, time off requests automatically offset the permanent salary amount.

    Tip: Many people find it more efficient to use the Tab key to navigate around data entry pages such as this because they don't have to move their hands off the keyboard to use the mouse and then find their fingering again when they're finished. You may also use the Down and Up arrow keys to move down to the employee below or up to the employee above rather than tabbing through the columns.

  4. When you finish entering data for each employee, click Save.

    Note: Be sure to read any error or warning messages that appear after you click Save and make corrections, as required. If any of the data is invalid, no data on that page is saved for any of the employees.

    If you have more active employees than can be displayed on one page, navigation buttons appear under the Save button.

  5. Repeat steps 1 and 2 until you have entered hours and earnings information for all employees.

  1. Click the Pay Period menu and click the Enter button for the pay period you want to work with.

  2. Navigate to the Rapid Entry - Second Payment page.Closed From the Payroll menu, select Second Payment > Rapid Entry - Second Payment.
  3. Review the current Second Payment options displayed at the top of the page. Use the links to amend any settings as required.

  4. Enter all relevant information for each employee.

    Tip: If no Second Payment is required for a given employee, leave the fields for that employee blank.

    All earnings and hours entered are allocated to the current pay period, for insurable history purposes. If this Second Payment is to apply to a different pay period, you must use the Employee Timesheet - Second Payment page.Closed From the Payroll menu, select Second Payment > Employee Timesheet - Second Payment. to allocate the payment to the appropriate pay period.

  5. Click Save.
  6. (Optional) For those employees requiring exceptions such as exception rates, allocation to a different period of time, exception distributions, salary overrides and any vacation pay codes or additional accumulator pay codes, use the Employee Timesheet - Second Payment page.Closed From the Payroll menu, select Second Payment > Employee Timesheet - Second Payment.

  1. Click the Pay Period menu and click the Enter button for the pay period you want to work with.

  2. Navigate to the Rapid Entry page.Closed From the Payroll menu, select Regular Payment > Rapid Entry.

  3. Click .
  4. Select the fields to add to the grid from the Hours, Earnings, Deduction and Contribution lists. You can select as many items as required as well as multiple items from each list. As you select items, they display below the selection lists.

  5. The columns display in the order they were selected. Drag and drop the fields to reorder the columns.

    Note: Click the X to remove a field from the list. If there is no X to remove the field from the list, a value has been entered in the column. Remove the values in the column, and the X displays to remove the field.

  6. Click Apply.

  7. Click to select a sort order for the employees in the grid.
  8. Select values by which to sort and group the employees. Data is sorted by value within each group. The selected Group By field appears in a column to the right of the employee name in the grid.
  9. Click Apply.
  10. Click to select the employee information elements to include on the rapid entry grid. These fields are not for data entry.
  11. Click Apply.

To set up Rapid Entry – Second Payment, go to the Rapid Entry - Second Payment page.Closed From the Payroll menu, select Second Payment > Rapid Entry - Second Payment. and follow steps above.

Note: You cannot delete, edit, or move the display position of any element that currently has entries made for it on a Rapid Entry page

  1. Click the Pay Period menu and click the Enter button for the pay period you want to work with.

  2. Navigate to the Rapid Entry page.Closed From the Payroll menu, select Regular Payment > Rapid Entry.

  3. Click .
  4. Select the fields to amend in the grid from the Hours, Earnings, Deduction and Contribution lists. You can select as many items as required as well as multiple items from each list. As you select items, they display below the selection lists.

  5. The columns display in the order they were selected. Drag and drop the fields to reorder the columns. Click the X to remove a field from the list.

    Note: If there is no X to remove the field from the list, a value has been entered in the column. Remove the values in the column, and the X displays to remove the field.

  6. Click Apply.

  7. Click to select a sort order for the employees in the grid.
  8. Select values by which to sort and group the employees. Data is sorted by value within each group. The selected Group By field appears in a column to the right of the employee name in the grid.
  9. Click Apply.
  10. Click to select the employee information elements to include on the rapid entry grid. These fields are not for data entry. To remove an item from the grid, deselect the item.
  11. Click Apply.

  1. Click the Sort button .

    The Sort options display.

  2. From the Sort By list, select the sort option to apply.

  3. From the Group By list, select how to group the employees within the selected sort option.

  4. Click Apply.

Next steps

After you save data on this page, employee Hours, Earnings, Deductions, and Contributions are saved in Powerpay. The entries appear on the Employee Timesheet page.Closed From the Payroll menu, select Regular Payment > Employee Timesheet. and the Deductions & Contributions page.Closed From the Payroll menu, select Regular Payment > Deductions & Contributions. You can edit data on those pages. The data is included in the Audit Trail produced for the current pay-period payroll.

Rapid Entry - Regular Payment page Field Information

The employee number and name for each active employee. Click the employee name link to open a pop-up window with the profile information.

(View-only) Displays each employee's pay rate (for example, dollars per hour for Hourly employees or dollars per pay period for Salary employees).

(View-only) Each employee's pay type (Hourly or Salary).

(View-only) The distribution information, which may be the department code (default) or costing items if the advanced costing features are enabled. The information displayed here is set up on the Department/Distribution Setup page.Closed From the Company menu, select Department/Distribution Setup.

(View-only) The province or territory in which the employee works (not necessarily where the employee lives).

Use these fields to enter Hours/Earnings and Deductions/Contributions data for that employee's current payroll.

Gray text may appear in these boxes, indicating that they are not editable on this page:

  • The text N/A means that this deduction or contribution is not valid for this employee.

  • The text Timesheet2nd - Timesheet appears:
    • in the hours and earnings entry fields if any entry was made in the Hours or Earnings sections of the Employee Timesheet page.Closed From the Payroll menu, select Regular Payment > Employee Timesheet.Employee Timesheet - Second Payment page.Closed From the Payroll menu, select Second Payment > Employee Timesheet - Second Payment.
    • in the deduction and contribution entry fields if any entry was made in the Deductions or Contributions sections of the Employee Timesheet page.Closed From the Payroll menu, select Regular Payment > Employee Timesheet.Employee Timesheet - Second Payment page.Closed From the Payroll menu, select Second Payment > Employee Timesheet - Second Payment.

  • The text Ded&Con appears in all deduction and contribution entry fields when a permanent or one-time change has been made on the Deductions & Contributions page.Closed From the Payroll menu, select Regular Payment > Deductions & Contributions.

    If this deduction/contribution description is displayed on the Rapid Entry — Second Payment page, you will not be able to enter a one-time dollar amount for that deduction and/or contribution on this page. You will have to use the Employee Timesheet — Second Payment page. (On the next payroll run, you would be able to enter a dollar value on the Rapid Entry — Second Payment page as long as the permanent value is not changed again).

    Note: Ded&Con is displayed only when a permanent value is edited or entered on that payroll run. This text is not displayed if permanent amounts exist and there are no changes to the permanent amounts.

  • The link Salary Offset displays under the description of the earning when the salary adjustment option ‘Salary offset by hours/earnings entered’ is set up for a pay element or a vacation and/or additional accumulator. Click the link to view additional information.

    Note: For vacation and/or additional accumulators, the link only displays for the hourly element. It is not applicable to vacation and/or additional accumulator earnings codes.

  • The link Salary Reduced displays under the description of the earning when the salary adjustment option ‘Salary reduced by hours/earnings entered’ is set up for a pay element or a vacation and/or additional accumulator. Click the link to view additional information.

    Note: For vacation and/or additional accumulators, the link only displays for the hourly element. It is not applicable to vacation and/or additional accumulator earnings codes.

  • The link Salary Offset (EI) displays under the description of the earning when the salary adjustment option ‘Salary offset by hours/earnings entered’ is set up for a pay element and the ‘For Hours types, $ are insurable in calculation of EI / QPIP; hours are not insurable’ is also selected. Click on the link to view additional information.

  • The link Salary Reduced (EI) displays under the description of the earning when the salary adjustment option ‘Salary reduced by hours/earnings entered’ is set up for a pay element and the ‘For Hours types, $ are insurable in calculation of EI / QPIP; hours are not insurable’ is also selected. Click on the link to view additional information.

The total for the entries made on this page. Only entries made on the page are included in the totals. For comprehensive payments totals for the payroll, navigate to the Data Verification page by clicking on the link at the bottom of the page.

Select the number of employees to display per page.

Tip: Data entry is most efficient if you display the number of employees that fit on one page without scrolling. This number varies depending on the size of your page and your page resolution. Experiment to find the best number.

The drop-down lists under each of these headings contain the elements that have been set up for your payroll.

Select as many elements as you want to appear on the Rapid Entry page.

The drop-down menus under this heading contain lists of the Hours elements that have been set up for your payroll.

The drop-down menus under this heading contain lists of the Earnings elements that have been set up for your payroll.

Note: If you select Salary Override, the salary override amount is applied to the current pay period. If the amount is for a period other than the standard pay period frequency for this payroll, enter the amount on the Employee Timesheet page, allocate it to the correct pay periods and select an Applicable Period of Time. If the employee's Base Salary is $0.00, the employee's Standard Hours per Pay on the Compensation tab.Closed From the People menu, select People List > Compensation. determines the insurable hours for that payroll run.

The drop-down menus under this heading contain lists of the Deductions elements that have been set up for your payroll.

The drop-down menus under this heading contain lists of the Contributions elements that have been set up for your payroll.

Use this section to select the employee information elements to include on the Rapid Entry page.

  • Pay Rate
  • Pay Type
  • Position - Displays when the Compensation feature is enabled and set up for the payroll.
  • ID Fields - When Advanced Costing is enabled for the payroll, the ID fields (Dept, X, Y, and Z) included in the Distribution Layout display. When Advanced Costing is not enabled for the payroll, only the ID Dept displays.
  • Province of Employment

Note: By default, these fields will display before any hours, earnings, deductions or contributions.

Rapid entry data can be exported to a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet includes all the data and columns entered on the rapid entry page. You can export the data after saving the page by clicking Spreadsheet at the bottom of the page.

Related Information

Employees who are on leave or terminated do not appear on the Rapid Entry page.

If an employee's status changes to On leave or Terminated as part of a pay-period payroll, any entries made on the Rapid Entry page for that pay-period payroll are removed when the Status Change page is saved.

When you select Salary Override on the Rapid Entry page for a Regular Payment, Powerpay disables the data entry box for this pay element on the selected employee record if the employee’s Pay Type is any of the following:

  • Hourly employee

  • Hourly employee – paid Vacation Pay each pay

  • Hourly employee – paid Additional Accumulator each pay

  • Hourly employee – paid Vac Pay and Addn Accumulator each pay

  • Hourly employee – also receives commissions.

The disabled cells also display N/A.

  • All Hours and Earnings entered on this page appear in the appropriate Hours and Earnings sections of the Employee Timesheet (Regular Payment) page.

  • All Deductions & Contributions entered on this page appear in the This Pay Only field of the Deductions & Contributions (Regular payment) page.

Unique Features of this Page

Note: Click Save to confirm all data on the current page before you click a Quick Link. Data is not automatically saved when you navigate away from the page.

  • Rapid Entry Setup - Opens the Rapid Entry Set UpRegular Payment - Regular Run page to modify defaults for this Rapid Entry page.

Each employee record contains the following links:

  • Employee Name - Pops up a view-only version of the Profile tab for the selected employee as quick reference for rate of pay, hire date and other information that may be useful as you enter payroll data.
  • Timesheet - Pops up a view-only version of the Hours section of the Employee Timesheet page for the selected employee where you can see an entry that was made on the timesheet. The data that was entered on the timesheet cannot be edited on the Rapid Entry page.
  • Profile - Opens the Profile tab for the selected employee, where you can make any required changes.
  • Employee Timesheet - Opens the Employee Timesheet - <Payment Type> page for the selected employee. This link is a fast way to open the Employee Timesheet when you need to enter payroll data that is not on the Rapid Entry page (for example, vacation pay).
  • Deductions & Contributions - Opens the Deductions & Contributions - <Payment Type> page for the selected employee. This link is a fast way to open the Deductions & Contributions page when you need to enter information that is not set up or available on the Rapid Entry page.
  • Permanent Rates, Factors, Earnings - Opens the Permanent Rates, Factors, Earnings - <Payment Type> page for the selected employee. This link is a fast way to open the Permanent Rates, Factors, Earnings page when you need to enter information that is not set up or available on the Rapid Entry page.

See also