Design and Implementation of Computerized Staff Payroll Information System for Kosofe Local Government
Chapter One
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The aim and objective of the project is to primarily automate the existing system. The secondary aim is to:
- Offer access control to the payroll system;
- Avoid errors in the preparation of the payroll;
- Ensure prompt payment of accurate salaries;
- Reduce the administration time and overhead of personnel in the account section;
- Reduce the use of paper in record keeping;
- Keep records of employees secure;
- Make necessary information available to employees;
- Offer update and processing control to the payroll system; and
- Improve the working efficiency of the employees
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
MEANING AND PURPOSE OF PAYROLL
Payroll according to David Weaver et al (1998) is referred to as the total earnings of all employees for a certain pay period. It is one of a series of accounting transactions dealing with the process of paying employees for services rendered, after processing of the various requirements for withholding of money from the employee for payment of payroll taxes, insurance premiums, employee benefits and other deductions (Payroll,Wikipedia the free encyclopedia.htm,2006).
Payroll involves the calculation of amounts due the employee, such as hourly wages, a salary consisting of a certain amount per calendar period, or pay to salespersons on commission. In addition to these payments, there are often computed amounts of paid vacation time and accrued sick leave which have been used or are available for use. All of these monies credited to the employee are usually referred to as gross pay.
From these amounts that are credited to the employee, various debits are taken as withholding, the most significant being income tax, then other taxes such as security. There may also be additional deductions for health insurance, union dues, pension plan contributions, repayment of prior salary, vacation or sick leave overpayments made in error and other deductions. The amount left after deductions from gross pay is generally the amount given in the employee’s pay envelope, either as cash or a cheque. This amount is known as net pay. If the employee has their net pay deposited to their bank account (through a process known as direct deposit) then the employee may simply receive a pay stub indicating this.
The purpose of payroll is to calculate pay due employees, to print paychecks and to maintain cumulative earnings records of all employees.
Generally, there are three main computations in the payroll namely:
- Gross Earnings
- Deductions
- Net
Computation of Payroll Earnings
The amount an employee earns is known as the gross earnings. Various plans such as the salary plan, hourly rate plan, incentive pay plan, are used to determine an employee’s gross earnings.
A payroll deduction is an amount subtracted from gross earnings. Payroll deductions include deductions required by law, such as the federal income tax, state income tax, and social security tax. They may also include voluntary deductions, such as the life insurance and hospitalization insurance premiums. In addition, some union contracts call for union deductions such as initiation fees and dues to be withheld from the employee’s earnings. The remainder after subtracting all deductions is known as net pay. Net pay is the amount actually given to the employee and it is commonly referred to as the take- home pay.
CHAPTER THREE
SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
INTRODUCTION
According to Simon Bennett et al (2002), system analysis is defined as a process of seeking to understand the organization, investigating its requirements and modeling them. System analysis can also be referred to as the study of a business problem domain to recommend improvements and specify the business requirements for the solution. (Jeffrey.L.Whitten et al, 2001)
It is the result of this analysis activity that gives the specification of what the proposed system will do based on the requirements.
System analysis is the study of a system and its component as a prerequisite to system design. It is a problem solving technique that decomposes a system into its component pieces for the purpose of studying how well those components work and interact to accomplish their purpose. Contemporarily, System analysis is a term that collectively describes the early phases of system development. There are many approaches to system analysis and these include structured analysis, information engineering, discovery prototyping, and object oriented analysis. For the purpose of this project, the object oriented analysis will be used for the system analysis and design.
System analysis is a very important aspect of system development because during this phase several fundamental decisions are made. During the analysis the system owner and user are specified because the system analysis is driven by the business concerns of the system owners and users, system analysis also reveals what the system would do and it helps the stakeholders know whether the proposed system is technically, economically and operationally feasible.
BRIEF REVIEW OF THE EXISTING SYSTEM
Processes to compute the payroll in Kosofe Local Government are done manually. Records and payment details about each employee is kept in a personal emolument card and payment salary voucher, which are stored in files and eventually in a file cabinet.
The harmonized public service salary structure is used to determine the amount to be paid to employees in the Local Government and this is based on employee’s grade level and step.
The net pay for each employee is gotten after subtracting the total deductions from the gross earnings.
CHAPTER FOUR
SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
INTRODUCTION
Implementation is the process by which a system developed is utilized and made functional or the process of converting a new system design into operation. It is the delivery of the system into production. This is the phase where all the requirement analysis and system design is put to test to ensure effective delivery of the system.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION
SUMMARY
Developing a system requires the system developer to meet the user requirements of the proposed system and as a result of this, the developer must fully understand what the problems are, understand the people for whom he/she is designing the system for in order for the system to communicate effectively.
RECOMMENDATION
Considering the rate of technological development in our society today, any organization that want to remain in the forefront of today’s competitive market is left with no choice than to computerize the manual system that are operational in their organization.
Other recommendations include:
- Putting in place computers and other peripherals that would allow the usage of the
- Installation of Java 2 Software Development Kit (J2SDK1.4.1) and PAYMASTER software with Microsoft SQL server engine.
- A good training background for the users of the system in order to familiarize with the software.
- A recovery/back up must be in
- Lastly, adequate environmental security must be provided for the confidentiality of information.
CONCLUSION
The development of this application software is to help solve problems associated with the existing system and this has been achievable to an extent. The merits of the new system outweigh the advantages (if any) of the existing system. It does not only provide automation, it has also replaced the traditional cabinet file storage method that deals with a lot of paper work thereby, allowing ease in the storing, handling and retrieval of data in a dynamic way.
In concluding this project, I would like to highlight areas for future development and these include:
- Reviewing of this project work to see what has been done and then look out for what the project should have accomplished that has not been implemented in it for those who desire to continue on this project.
- Furthermore, certain features must be included in the system in order to justify improvements on the current version and this include putting in place a multi-user system that allows for use in a network environment so that information can be made available in all other Local Governments as well other parts of the organization under study.
REFERENCES
- Jeffrey L.Whitten, Lonnie D.Bentley and Kevin D.Dittman (2001). System Analysis and DesignMethods. New York, Irwin/McGraw-Hill, Fifth Edition, pp13, 479.
- Simon Bennet, Steve McRobb and RayFarmer (2002). Object Oriented Systems Analysis and Design Using UML, Maiden: McGraw-Hill, Second Edition, pp301, 321.
- L.Boockhdt (1999) Accounting Information Systems-Transaction Processing and Controls. United States of America, Irwin/McGraw-Hill, pp 673-674.
- David H.Weaver, Edward B. Bruner, James.M.Smiley and Virginia A. Rose (1988). Accounting Systems and Procedures. United States of America, McGraw-Hill, Fifth Edition, pp 443-449.
- Gregory Anders, Emmajo Spiegel berg and Sally Nelson (2002). Microcomputer Accounting-Tutorial and Applications. United States of America, Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, pp196-197.
- Mark Priestley (2003) Practical Object-Oriented Design With UML. New McGraw-Hill. Second Edition, pp330-333.
- Myrvin F. Chester, Avtar.K. Athwall (2002). Introduction to Basic Information Systems Analysis and Design .New York. McGraw-Hill, pp 212.
