Paying Employees: Generate a Hand Check

There is a button on staff members' Deductions screen (Personnel→Modify Staff→Payroll-Deductions) that is used to generate a 'hand check" for the staff member:

To actually generate a hand check, go the individual staff member's Deductions screen and click the  button.   This brings up the "Create Hand Check" dialog box.

You have the ability to create a hand check for:

1. Casual Earnings 
2. Base Earnings

Please note:  if you are paying an employee for PENSIONABLE Casual Earnings, use the Base Check option so pension comes out.

Creating a Casual Earnings Hand Check:

• The Amount of the check
• Select Casual Check
• If the Federal Tax should be a flat 22% leave that box checked.  If you want to compute the Federal tax based on the employee's W4 selections.  Keep in mind - our system annualizes Federal tax and the hand check earning amount will translate to a full year's worth of income when calculating taxes (which might considerably inflate the amount of tax paid).
• Select the Payroll in which to include this hand check:  It can only be included in a Payroll that has not yet been initiated, i.e. one in the state. It can never be included in either a previous Payroll that has been finalized, or the current Payroll if the current Payroll has been initiated (i.e. is not still in the  state).  The 'Include in Payroll' parameter defaults to the 'next Payroll' whatever that is.
• Check date - any date can be entered here.
• The Note field is not required, but we strongly urge you to always annotate hand checks (for later auditing).
• Link to Casual Earning - use the drop-down to select the Casual Earning for which this hand check is being created.  Remember, these are NON-Pensionable earnings.  NOTE:  ONLY Other Earnings that are NOT flagged as Second Check will show in the drop-down.  If the earning is flagged as a Second Check, it will not show for using to create a hand check.  You must pick another earning to use.
• Expense Account - if left blank, the account number in the employee's position tracking record will be used.  If you wish another account to be charged, use this drop-down to select that account number.

Once you have entered the information, click the Create button to create the hand check.

Creating a Base Hand Check:

• The Amount of the check
• Select Base Check (All Deductions)
• If the Federal Tax should be a flat 22% leave that box checked.  If you want to compute the Federal tax based on the employee's W4 selections.  Keep in mind - our system annualizes Federal tax and the hand check earning amount will translate to a full year's worth of income when calculating taxes (which might considerably inflate the amount of tax paid).
• Select the Payroll in which to include this hand check:  It can only be included in a Payroll that has not yet been initiated, i.e. one in the state. It can never be included in either a previous Payroll that has been finalized, or the current Payroll if the current Payroll has been initiated (i.e. is not still in the  state).  The 'Include in Payroll' parameter defaults to the 'next Payroll' whatever that is.
• Check date - any date can be entered here.
• The Note field is not required, but we strongly urge you to always annotate hand checks (for later auditing).

Once you have entered the information, click the Create button to create the hand check.

A confirmation dialog will be displayed indicating that the hand check has been generated:

Click  to dismiss the dialog and the staff member's Pay History screen is immediately displayed:

The Hand Check is placed in the last row of the employee's pay history.  Note the "Not Started" Payroll Status.   This indicates the record will be picked up by the next payroll to run.

Printing the Hand Check:

In the "Stub" column there are initially two icons:  

The "check" icon displays the hand check for printing. Once it is clicked, the  delete icon will vanish and the hand check can no longer be removed.

The Delete   icon allows you to remove the hand check - until you display it for printing.  Once it has been displayed for printing - whether or not it is actually sent to a printer - it can no longer be removed and the check number is considered definitively used.

You can print the hand check at any time - the actual accounting of it will be in the payroll you selected when the handcheck was created..

After you click the "check" icon, the following window opens.  Note that it indicates the hand check will be locked into payroll.  Select the printer that you want to use to priont the hand check.  You can select the printer that all regular payroll checks are printed or if you have a defferent printer that you utilize for hand checks, you can select the Handcheck Printer.  The check settings for the Handcheck Printer, by default,, will mirror the Default Payroll Check Printer.  If you need to modify the Handcheck Printer settings, click on the link and modify them accordingly.  Click Print.

Setting the "Pays Left" for the hand check (required for encumbrance projections) ONLY FOR HANDCHECKS CREATED BEFORE 2024.

The District MUST set the Pays Left for the hand check to ensure the system will properly project contractual payroll encumbrances.  This must be done afterthe payroll is finalized.  

Setting the pays left for a hand check AFTER payroll is finalized:

After the payroll is processed and finalized, the District can review hand check(s) that were posted by clicking on the amount of hand checks:

Any hand checks that have a Base amount (purple arrow), will need the Pays Left (red arrow) set to the proper amount of Pays Left.  

To set the Pays Left, you can click on the Local ID number for the employee and then navigate to their Payroll >>>  Audit tab (click on the link highlighted by the green arrow above) and navigate to the current payroll in the yellow row.    In the Event section of the yellow bar, select "hand check" to view the audit fore the hand check.  

In the lower left-hand corner of the audit tab, click on the Fix button and the Save the summary.  

Navigate to the top of the Audit box, set the Pays Left,