Distribution Master

The Distribution Master defines the payroll environment for each Company/Division on the system. This is set up at the Company/Division level so each Company/Division can be unique.

Prerequisites are required for some types of records, whereas a General Ledger Chart of Accounts is required for all. For individual prerequisites please refer to the Distribution Code Definition Guideline Table.

The Distribution Master is used to establish controls for a variety of payroll rules and defaults, including

General Ledger liability and expense accounts
Tax exempt status
Accounts Payable Company/Division and Vendor
Start and Completion dates
Descriptions
Workers Compensation classification and calculation rules

Arrears rules
Year-end rules
ACH rules
Default values
Types of deductions
Bodily Injury and Property Damage liability accounts

eCMS makes extensive use of master files and, in most cases, a record must exist in the Distribution Master prior to setting up the other masters.

Employee Deduction (M)	Each deduction is assigned a user-defined Distribution Number. The additional detail (amount, frequency, etc.) will be entered when the Employee Deduction file is built.
Payroll Adjustment (D)	Payroll adjustments include taxable travel, non-taxable travel, adjustments, sick pay, etc., or additional payments to an employee.
Union Benefit/Deduction (U)	Each Union is assigned a user defined Union Number. Each Benefit/Deduction within each union, is assigned a user defined Deduction Type Number.
Human Resource Benefit/Deduction (H)	These codes include benefit/deductions for health, dental, life insurance or pension, etc., and must be assigned a user defined Distribution Number. In addition, records containing a Distribution Number and Deduction Type must be set up for Employee Participation plans in order for them to display on the Human Resources Investment Plan screen. An employee participating investment plan associated with a 401K is a good example of this type of record.
Comp Time Earned (I) Comp Time Burden (J)	These codes (valid only if the Human Resources application is installed) are used to accrue the liability for Compensatory Time Off given to an employee who does not receive overtime pay for extra time worked. Comp Time Used entries use the same General Ledger accounts to reduce the liability when the Comp Time is taken.
Tips Credited (P) Tips in Excess (R)	These codes are used to record the increase in employee and employer FICA wages based upon tips reported and/or tips deemed to be wages.
Z (W2 Box)	This code is used to describe and assign a W2 box number to deductions and benefits which are required to be reported on the annual W2 form. These records are only required for any reportable income or benefit paid or provided outside of normal payroll processing, such as the provision of a company car or life insurance in excess of the IRS limit. Dollar amounts that correspond to these records are added or subtracted using W2 Box maintenance on the Annual Processing menu. If you specify a box number that the system already has a value for, the amount entered will be added to or subtracted from the other amounts that will print in that box. When the format of the W2 form is changed, you must change the box assignments as required.

Distribution Code *	Description	Distribution Number	Union Number	Deduction Type	Prerequisites
A	FICA (Social Security)	000	00000	00
B	FUTA	000	00000	00
C	SUTA	State Number *	00000	00
D	Adjustments	Dist. Number **	00000	00
F	Federal	000	00000	00
G	FICA (Medicare)	000	00000	00
H	H/R Benefit/Deduction	Dist. Number **	00000	00 (4) **	Check Types States Locals
I	Comp Time Earned	000	00000	00
J	Comp Time Burden	000	00000	00
K	Earned Income Credit	000	00000	00
L	Local	Local Number **	00000	00
M	Employee Deduction	Dist. Number **	00000	00	Check Types States Locals
S	State	State Number *	00000	00
P	Tips Credited	000	00000	00
R	Tips in Excess	000	00000	00
T	State Disability	State Number *	00000	00
U	Union	000	Union **	00(3) *
V	W/C Employee Portion	State Number *	00000	00
W	W/C Insurance	State Number *	00000	00
Z	W2 Box	Dist. No.	00000	00

Distribution Table Key
	*	Required
*	*	Required - User Defined

Accept the Company/Division used at login, or click the Division Number prompt to make new selections.

Not all codes require a Distribution Number. Coding considerations should be determined prior to set up for those that are not state numbers. Generally, codes that have some visual recognition work better than a purely numeric sequence. For example, using 1 and 2 to represent 402K and S125, respectively, may not be easily remembered and could result in prompting rather than direct entry, whereas using 401 and 125 would be generally recognized as representing federal pre-tax deductions. Employee bank direct deposit deductions (you may use multiple deductions records that add up to 100% of net) intended to deduct 100% of an employee's net pay must be coded with a high deduction number (we recommended you start at 900) to ensure that they are the last deductions taken.

Union Numbers are user-defined. It might be useful to assign a number that could be readily associated with the individual Union, such as a variation of the Union Number itself (i.e. IBEW 128 represented by 128).

Deduction Types are used by Unions to break down the various fringe benefits (i.e. Vacation, Dues, Pension), and Human Resources 401K plans where the employees are allowed to spread their contributions across various investments (i.e. stock, bond, foreign). For Unions, the number of Deduction Types allowed is determined by the value of the Max Ded Payroll default.

Admin | Application Installation | Set Up Default Values Payroll option - second page

Union Deduction Types (referred to as Union Codes in the Union Master) must be set up here before they will be available in the Union Master.

The Start/Completion Date fields are used with Distribution Codes D (Additions to Pay) and M (Deductions from Pay) only. When working with Distribution Codes D and M, Start Date and Completion Date are required fields.

The system uses these dates to calculate the addition and deduction amounts. If date-sensitive pay rates are being used, and this record is a D or M code, enter the required Start/Completion dates.

If date-sensitive pay rates are not being used, enter all 9s in the Completion field, the Start field will default to zeros.

Because records cannot be deleted from this file, a record for this D or M code that uses a Completion Date of all 9s will generate a message that allows the conflicting record to be overridden by clicking Overlap Override.

For hourly rates, the week ending date is used to calculate a rate for each of the 7 days of the week.

These dates, used in conjunction with the day number entered, calculate additions and deductions when payroll is entered. Therefore, for each record, the system can get a new rate during the week.

If you enter a day number as zero, the system will use day seven (7) to calculate pay rates.

The system calculates employee additions (D codes) and deductions (M codes) with fixed or percentage amounts, by week ending date only, as required during payroll entry. The system does not use the above daily logic to calculate fixed or percent amounts.

Distribution Code *	Description	Screen
A	FICA (Social Security)	FICA, SUTA, SDI & Local Detail screen
C	SUTA
T	State Disability
B	FUTA	FUTA Tax, Comp Time Earned & Burden Entry
I	Comp Time Earned
J	Comp Time Burden
D	Adjustments	Payroll Adjustment Entry
F	Federal	Federal, State Taxes and Tips Detail
S	State
P	Tips Credited
R	Tips in Excess
G	FICA (Medicare)	FICA Medicare Entry
H	H/R Benefit/Deduction Employee Investment	Human Resources Benefits/Deductions Entry Human Resources Investment Plan Entry
K	Earned Income Credit	Earned Income Credit Entry
L	Local	Local Distribution screen
M	Employee Deduction	Miscellaneous Deduction Entry
U	Union	Union Benefit/Deduction Entry
V	W/C Employee Portion	Employee Worker's Comp Entry
W	W/C Insurance	Worker's Comp Entry

Distribution Master Selection	Employer SUTA & SDI	FUTA, Comp Time & Burden	Payroll Adjustment
Earned Income Credit	Federal, State Taxes and Tips	H/R Benefits & Deductions	Union Benefits/Deductions
Employee Worker's Comp	FICA Medicare	H/R Investment Plan	Workers Comp
Employer FUTA	FICA, SUTA, SDI & Local	Miscellaneous Deductions

	Click to process these entries and display the Distribution Maintenance Detail screen for the type of Distribution Code entered.
	Click to return to the Distribution Master Selection screen 1 without saving changes.
	Click to return to the Main Menu without saving changes.
	Click to copy records by Distribution Code using the Copy by Code screen. This option is only valid for D and M Distribution Codes.
	Click to copy records by Distribution Number using the Copy by Number screen. This option is only valid for D and M Distribution Codes.