                     ANTHISTLE SYSTEMS & PROGRAMMING LTD.
                             563 Patricia Drive,
                             Oakville, Ontario,
                               CANADA L6K 1M4

                           Telephone 905-845-7959



       PAYROLL CANADA - SHAREWARE TRIAL RELEASE V4.02 15th. FEB. 1994
       ==============================================================

This file is maintained primarily for our Registered Users. Shareware trial
users need not care what is new as they should be getting their next version
by registering with us, not through shareware sources.  We are in the business
of providing you with good low cost software, we are not a charity providing
free software.  Shareware is for evaluation only, so you can "try before you
buy". It is not for obtaining free (or almost free) permanent use of programs.
For marketing reasons the shareware version file size has to be kept as small
as possible therefore most of this file has been edited out. I have retained
only the following which may also be useful information for first time users.


New Employee Pick List
----------------------

Not all of the changes are visible to the user, but they should result in
faster running.  The most noticeable change is the employee pick list which is
now an alternative to the traditional find employee methods. I have also added
another group find method based on your choice of Status and Pay Method. That
new pick list was much more difficult to program than I expected when I said I
would do it, I had to rewrite all the internal index handling and employee
file I/O to do it properly so it responds to multiple pay frequencies, and
gets updated instantly when an employee is updated.  However, the pay off is
that it is re-usable in some of the reports.

To use the new pick list, from the Add or Update Employee Menu select
"F2 Update Individual Employee (List)".  To get out of it simply press Esc.
The traditional search methods are "F3 Update Groups of Employees (Search)"
(moved down one) which will lead you to another menu which has the new search
item "F8 Your CHOICE Status/Pay Method".


Adding New Employees
--------------------

When adding new employees you can now stop after only 2 screens instead of
having to go through every screen with annoying pop ups between them. You can
also get out easier if you get into the Add Employee choice by mistake, SIN =
000 000 000 and nothing in the Employee Number and you are gone, no questions
asked. I have also put a list of existing employee numbers on screen to help
in choosing a new number for a new employee.  Also on new add's I have stopped
the question about do you wish to transfer YTD figures from popping up on
every YTD screen, it now pops up once only per employee per session.


Vacation/Sick Accruals
----------------------

When adding or updating employees a new pop up window offers advice on
percentage to use for Vacation & Sick Accruals.  You will note that the more
weeks there are off the higher the percentage (as you would expect) but some
percentages have fractions for more accuracy as the more time taken off the
less time remains to accrue the cost of the time off. Example: the percentage
for 2 weeks is 200/50, but 3 weeks is 300/49, and 4 weeks is 400/48 (which are
not exactly 1.5 or 2 times the percentage for 2 weeks). However, if you wish
to stick to your regular percentages (or zero if not using the accruals
feature) that will be fine with the program.


** NEW ** Hours Entry Report
----------------------------

This new report will list the hours you entered for the next pay period so you
can check against time cards to ensure they are correctly entered and nobody
was missed.  It is produced in alphabetical order. With overtime and shift
differentials I had to allow for the possibility that there are 23 possible
columns of hours that could be entered, though not everybody will use them
all. If there are too many columns to fit on the width of one page it will
continue the extra columns on the next page.  There are totals on each page
and grand totals on the last page.  Note that if you have more than one pay
frequency (pays per year, such as 52, 26, 12, etc.) on one file only those pay
frequencies you have selected as being active for this session will be
included on the report.  Those included are listed at the bottom of the grand
totals (last page).  I have put this report on the Update Employees Menu as it
is most likely to be used at the conclusion of each hours entry session.  You
can run it as often as needed.  On large files it takes a moment or two to do
its work, so don't assume nothing is happening once you have selected the menu
choice.


Pay Cycle
---------

Lots of internal changes in the pay cycle.  The most apparent is the selection
of who gets paid.  Previously all active were paid even if they had no hours
(I had expected users to change the status from active to laid off if they had
no hours, but many of you apparently do not do so).  Active with no hours
previously resulted in zero or (if there were voluntary deductions) negative
pay.  Now I check every employee who is active to make sure there is something
to pay for before he/she is processed in the pay cycle.   This will cut down
on the size of the Status Report, the only people on it will now be the ones
who actually got paid.   Also, on the Status Report, Connie S. of Vancouver
pointed out it sometimes splits an entry at the bottom of the page and
continues the same entry on the next page so I have adjusted the print routine
to try not to start an entry unless there is sufficient space left on the page
to finish it (and skip to a new page immediately if insufficient space).

The messages for making a pay cycle permanent and creating a backup before
doing so have been changed to make them more understandable. Some people said 
the old messages (prior to Feb. 94) was confusing. 

Also, the screen which asks for current and next pay dates will now suggest a 
next pay date based on current pay date and the highest active pay frequency 
being processed.   You can change it if you wish. 


Cheques and Pay Slips 
---------------------

Cheque and pay slip printing has been re-written.  You can now spool anything,
cheque, pay slip, or cheque register, to disk.  If printing you can skip the
line up routine. HOWEVER, FOR THE FIRST FEW TIMES YOU PRINT with the new
routine I suggest you do not skip the line up in case it is different to what
you have been used to.  For those who print laser cheques I have added the
option of printing an extra stub on the throw away portion of the sheet.  I am
also printing Phone Number, Branch, & Department Codes above the employee's
name as this might help in distribution of cheques and payslips.  Let me know
before June (for the next release) if this causes any complaints from the bank
or from employees.


Cheque Reconciliation
---------------------

Cheque Reconciliation has been added at no extra cost.  Count it as a bonus, a
thank you for continuing to use PAYROLL CANADA.  If you wish to use it, select
the Cheque Reconciliation option before printing the very first cheque that
you want to be included as it will offer to "turn on" this feature
(alternatively you can turn it on or off from the Configuration of Company
Information). There isn't much else you can do in Cheque Reconciliation on
this first trip their (except maybe look at the instructions) until you
actually get some cheques on file. So escape out after turning the feature on,
then come back later after printing some cheques, or maybe after they come
back from the bank and you want to reconcile them.

I have left reconciliation turned off as some companies may be using other
cheque reconciliation methods and wish to continue those methods.  If you are
using it and you print a batch of cheques more than once (example: cheques
printed, error found, fixed and pay cycle re-run, cheques re-printed) then you
must use the Cheque Reconciliation to void the first batch of cheques (ideally
before you reprint them) else it will show too much outstanding against your
bank and possibly result in error messages as the second cheque register is
produced.  Cheque Reconciliation allows for multiple Bank Accounts by having a
separate cheque file for each bank. Instructions can be viewed or printed from
the Cheque Reconciliation Menu.

If you are handwriting cheques and issuing pay slips no entry will be
automatically made in the Cheque Reconciliation file.  If you want to use the
reconciliation you can enter them manually if you wish, or if you have a
continuous block of manual cheque numbers allocated in the same sequence to
the same people and for the same amounts as the pay slip cheque register then
you can easily fool the program by running the cheque print and spooling the
output to disk to be later deleted (saving paper). Those thrown away spooled
cheques will still be added to the Cheque Reconciliation file and if you give
your first manual cheque number as the first computer cheque number for the
run you have in effect got your manual cheques into the reconciliation file
without having to do it manually.


Employee Summary Report
-----------------------

The Employee Summary report (print out of 1st 2 basic information screens) has
been revised so it now optionally also prints the comments screen. It has also
been revised so that you can pick which employees, or groups of employees as
in the Add/Update employee function rather than having to print them all.


Employee Labels and Rotary Cards
--------------------------------

The Employee Label printing has been vastly expanded to include most popular
label sizes available for Laser printers (as well as the earlier laser and dot
matrix choices).  You can now also print dot matrix or laser rotary cards (for
Rolodex's) with some information about the employee on them.  In fact, even if
you do not have a Rolodex or a laser printer you might still want to print out
the laser 4" x 2 1/6" rotary card report on plain paper (it will print on a
dot matrix too) as an employee name, address and phone number list (plus some
extra information) printed 8 employees to a page in alphabetical order. You
can pick which employees, or groups of employees as in the Add/Update employee
function rather than having to print them all.


Birthdays, Start, End, Review Dates - New Reports
-------------------------------------------------

A **NEW** report (actually several new reports) has been added to print out
your choice of sorted lists of employee birthdays (useful for cards and
gifts), start dates (who has been here longest and gets the next gold watch),
end (termination) dates, last and next review dates. Some reports are sorted
by month, others by year and month.  Choice F9 from the reports menu will lead
to a more detailed menu.


Menu Changes
------------

All these improvements have required some changes to the familiar Menu
structure.  I have tried to keep these minimal and logical to avoid confusion.
Reports and Cheques have been split off from the pay cycle menu and are each
on menu's of their own, one for Reports and File Export, another for Cheques
and Pay Slips. The new Cheque Reconciliation is with the Cheques.  Within
reports I have grouped those that print dollars together, and those that print
basic information together, with file export between them. All reports are now
on one menu instead of a menu within a menu as existed previously.  On the
main menu (the 1st menu from the "Start Payroll Canada Main Menu" choice) I
have dropped the F4 Annual TD1 Update Choice (as the Government have given us
no cost of living updates on the TD1 for the past few years and probably no
prospect of any for a few more years), and as it is only used once a year I
moved the Annual T4 from its F3 slot to a new F6 slot.  F1 is still Add/Update
Employees, F2 is still the Pay Cycle, F3 is now Cheques, and F4 is now Reports
and Export.


MICROSOFT WINDOWS VERS. 3.1
---------------------------

The following is a repeat of an announcement first made with the
tax changes release at end December 1992.  It is for the benefit of
those who may have started using Windows since then.  Ignore it if
you do not use Windows or have already got Payroll Canada set up to
run from the Windows desktop.

PAYROLL CANADA is a DOS program, not a Windows program. However,
Windows 3.1 can run DOS programs and you can have icons for them,
include them in a group on the desktop, and start them by double
clicking on the icon in the same way as a windows program.  For
Windows users we have included an icon file (PAYMENU.ICO ) and a PIF
file (PAYMENU.PIF ).  The following instructions apply to Microsoft
Windows users only and are based on Windows 3.1 .

These two files should be copied to your \WINDOWS directory.  Then,
to put PAYROLL CANADA on your Windows desktop:

1. Double click on the Main program group so that group is active.
Double click on PIF Editor.  In the PIF Editor select file, open,
PAYMENU.PIF then verify the directories we have set up are correct 
for your installation (they will be if our install program was used,
but not necessarily so if you did it manually).  Change only if
necessary.

      Command Line: C:\PAYPGMS\PAYMENU.EXE
      Working Directory: C:\PAYPGMS

      { the C: might be D: or E: etc. depending on which disk
        drive Payroll Canada is installed on }

Click OK when done.

2. Double click on the program group you want PAYMENU to be included
in so that group is active (example, Applications). 

3. Click on the Windows Program Manager File (Menu Choice), then
click on New, select Program Item (unless you prefer to start a new 
group in which case you can do that first here then repeat step 3 to
add the item to the new group).

4. Complete the required information,

      Description: PAYROLL CANADA
      Command Line: PAYMENU.PIF
      Working Directory:
         { leave blank as Windows will get it from the PIF }

5. Select Change Icon. You will be told there is none and to select
one from Program Manager, click OK then select Browse and towards 
the bottom of the list select PAYMENU.ICO, click OK, then a final OK
and you are done. 

6. If you accidentally get out before doing item 5 you will get the 
default MS-DOS icon (a monitor screen with MSDOS in it) but you can 
go back and fix it by re-selecting Program Manager, File, then 
Properties, then repeat step 5.  (This also works if you selected
the wrong icon by mistake the first time). 

See your Windows manual in the event you get mixed up here.  Earlier
versions of Windows may differ - it may be necessary to take the 
MS-DOS Prompt choice from the Main group and run PAYMENU from the
DOS prompt, typing EXIT to return to Windows when you are done, (in
those earlier Windows versions).

You will find your mouse or the keyboard both work with the PAYMENU
menu items (the mouse is trapped in a vertical bar along the
choices), and at those places where pressing any key is required to
continue (a mouse click will also do).  However, the mouse does not 
(at this point anyway) work on the data entry screens. 

I had thought of doing a full Windows version of PAYROLL CANADA as
Borland Pascal 7.0 has that capability, but it is not simple, all 
screens have to be re-written and the other code has to be 
completely reviewed, and then I would have two versions to maintain 
as the Windows version would not run under DOS and not all users 
have Windows.  I do not think the cost/benefit would be worthwhile
at the moment.  Running the DOS program from Windows as described in 
the above paragraph is a good compromise for those of our customers
who are Windows users.

                       Christopher Anthistle,
                             President,
                          14th. Feb. 1995
