Payroll System Analysis Team

 

 

 

 

 

Section : 4                     Team Number : 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 12, 2002

 

 

 

 

Dear Mr. Singh:

 

Our group is currently in the process of developing a new computer-based system for your payroll system. We are now in the Programming phase of our studies, which includes the structure chart, detailed programming logic and the table structure.  It will also have the third level prototype and the report status of what has been completed.

 

We are pleased to be able to develop a new automated system for you.  We hope to help your business processes become more efficient, effective, and save you time.  If you have any questions regarding this report or the project, please call Mr. R.

 

 

 

 

Thank you for this opportunity.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Team Members and theirs Roles:

The representation of the specific roles and functions of the project is mapped out on table-1 (Appendix A). Mr. R our project manager will be responsible for phase-I (Project Organization Report), as well as phase-IV, which is the Programming Phase.  Data Modeling and System Programming will also be his key responsibilities throughout all of the phases. Mr. P who is also accountable for System Programming and Testing will lead phase II, System Definition.  Ms. J is the leader for Phase III, which is Analysis And Physical Design Phase.  She will be responsible for Data Modeling and System Design.  The next phase, Mr. D who will also be responsible for System Testing and Technical Writing will lead System Test Phase.  Mr. A who will also assist Mr. D with Phase V will lead the Acceptance Phase.  He will be responsible for the Business Analysis part.  Ms. A will direct the final phase, which is Installation, and Operation Phase. She will be responsible for System Analysis section as well as the Technical Writing section.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Team Standards:

 

·        Each group member must be on time to group meetings and to class.  If a group member cannot attend a meeting or class, he or she must e-mail the group members a day ahead explaining the need for absence.

 

·        Each group member may only miss two meetings; thereafter points will be deducted from the member’s group evaluations.

 

·        Participation is required from every member at group meetings.

 

·        Each group member must complete work on time and work must be typed and saved to a 3-½ floppy disk.   Hardcopies must be ready to submit to the phase leader on time or points will be deducted from the members group evaluations.

 

·        The project leader for each phase is responsible for binding and appearance or points will be deducted from the project leaders part at group evaluations.

 

·        Deliverables must be due a week before the due date or points will be deducted from the group evaluations.

 

Project Schedule:

The Gantt chart located on Appendix-B serves as a way of describing the stages and approximated time involved in completing each stage.  Due to the uncertainty of how long each stage will take there is no definite time suggested for the sections of the stages.  We gave each section equal time to the stage that it pertains to. 

 

Name and Description of Client:

 

Client Profile: 

Pizza Restaurant Franchise

 

Address:

           

           

 

Line of business: 

Pizza Restaurant is a pizza franchise that operates in all fifty states as well as many countries internationally.  Pizza Restaurant is a restaurant that produces a majority of its income from the sale of pizzas.  The franchisee that we are in contact operates three stores in three different cities.  The owner has a store in City 1, City 2, and City 3.  Pizza Restaurant is one of the leaders in the pizza industry.

 

Company Contact:

Mr. Singh owner of these three stores is the main contact

 

Indication of company size:

The company is composed of about thirty to thirty-five people.

 

Geographical locations: 

The owner of this Pizza Restaurant franchise operates in three northern California cities. These cities are City 1, City 2, and City 3.

 

 

 

Transaction by type and volume:

 Table-3 located on appendix-C consists of the transaction types, the description of the transactions, and the volume that the transactions are conducted in the proposed system.  The transaction type column lists the actual names of the transactions that occur in the proposed system.  The second column lists the descriptions of the transactions.  The second column describes the transactions in greater detail and what they literally mean.  The last column in the table shows the volume the transactions occur in the proposed system.  The transactions occur within a two-week payroll period. 

 

Problems:

 

The current payroll system is one major problem the owner is confronting currently.  The owner is currently processing the entire payroll manually with the assistance of one external source.  The external source that the owner relies on is an accountant/bookkeeper that handles majority of the responsibilities to get the payroll completed.  Every activity needed to get the payroll completed currently involves a manual process.  The owner has to do a lot of running around to all three stores to get the information the accountant/bookkeeper needs.  First, the owner has to go to all stores and pick up the time cards from all stores.  Every employee clocks in the time they arrive at work and clock out the time they leave work.  This is done on paper time cards.  The owner after picking up all the time cards has to go through all the time cards and approve

 

the hours.  Once the owner approves the time cards from all three stores, he has to take them to the accountant/bookkeeper.  The accountant/bookkeeper then has to manually input the total hours, input the hourly rate, calculate the taxes for the various individuals, calculate the franchise taxes, and many other activities associated with payroll.  The next step is for the owner to pick up the checks, sign the checks and distribute them to the various stores.  The owner is physically distributing all the paychecks to all three stores in City 1, City 2, and City 3.  The owner is basically exhausted of running all the daily operations and having to deal with all the tasks associated with getting the payroll completed.  The owner’s main complaint with the current system is the time factor associated with it. The owner complains that by the checks get to the employees several days have elapsed from the day they are due.  Another critical issue facing the owner and the accountant/bookkeeper is the difficulty of updating employee information.  Basically the current system produces too many errors and works too slowly which is beginning to kill company moral.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Applications to be Developed:

There are seven Processes that are being developed to accommodate the automation of Pizza Restaurant payroll system. Appendix-C contains our proposed data flow diagram. This diagram shows how the seven Processes correlate with one another to create an effective and efficient payroll system. The following table gives a brief description of each Process.   

Process Number	Process Name	Process  Description
1	Log Hours Worked	Capture the time the employee logs in and logs out. Note: The Employee does not enter the time he or she logs in and out. The system will assign these times and automatically logs the time to the “Employee Time File”.
2	Add/Update Employee	This process enables the Owner or Manager to add or make changes to the employee’s personal information. It also allows the owner to add new employee to the payroll system.
3	Edit Employee Time File	Under circumstances where employee(s) forget to log in or log out. This process permits the manager or the owner to manually edit the employee’s time file. Note: this process requires that the manager or owner to enter the time that the employee arrived at work or leaves work.
4	Create Report	This procedure creates the daily report of the daily attendance of each employee. It also creates the bi-weekly report for the owner to see the attendance of each employee.
5	Calculate Pay	This process computes the gross pay amount to be paid to each employee. This process requires the employee’s worked hours from the Employee time file and salary information from the employee master record.
6	Update Payroll Record	This process updates the “employee master file” with the amount of withholding for end of year tax purposes.
7	Prepare Pay Check & Payroll Summary	This process calculates the net pay to be paid to employee. It also generates a payroll summary for the owner.

 

Tentative Design Tactics:

 

The analysis and design methodologies will be conducted using Visible Analyst and Visio.  Visio will be used to create the Gantt chart as well as logical and physical Data Flow Diagrams. The database that we will be using is a relational one, which is Access.  File access method will be direct, and Visual Basic is the programming language that we will use.

 

This system will require four computers, one for each store and one for the owner’s home residence.  The hardware that is required for the proposed system is available through an outside vendor such as Dell Computers.  Software needed for the system will be partly created in-house as well as through the purchase of software that exits in the open market.  There is software in the market that can be manipulated to meet our system needs.

 

Table-2 describes the hardware that will be implemented for the system.  All four computers will be purchased from Dell.  The owner’s computer will have 1.8GHz and 256MB of memory.  The individual stores will have their own computer, which will be 200MHz and consist of 64MB of memory.  Each of the four computers will be connected to a Lexmark Printer.

 

Table-2

COMPUTER EQUIPMENT	SPEED	MEMORY	COSTS
Dell (Owner)	1.8GHz	256MB	$1199.99
Dell (Stores)	200-MHz	64MB	$ 120.99
Lexmark Printer	N/A	N/A	$ 99.99
HP CD Writer	32/8/2	N/A	$ 200.00
Hard drive	7200 RPM	80 GB	$ 150.00

 

Table-3 shows the software that will be installed for the payroll processing system will be QuickBooks version 6.0.  QuickBooks will be used to produce bi-weekly paychecks for the employees. Visual Basic software will be used to create the data entry forms.  Microsoft Access software will be used to create and administer the database.  Also, Duet Software will be used with the Owner’s PC to dial into the store’s computers to access the daily payroll file and bi-weekly payroll file.  These files will be uploaded into the owner’s PC.

Software:

 

Table-3

SOFTWARE PACKAGE	VERSION	COSTS
QuickBooks (Premium)	6.0	$ 119.00
Visual Basic	6.0	$ 89.00
Microsoft Access	Access 2000	$ 99.00
Duet by ProCom		$ 129.99