THE GHANAIAN

WORKER
A COMPLETE HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT SUITE

Documentation and User Manual

Designed And Developed By

Theodore J. Quist
May 2007
 DEDICATION

This work is dedicated to Bill

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 APPRECIATION
No one can embark upon a major project such as an HRM unaided. I wish to thank the
many people who have supported me throughout the process of bringing this software
suite to this stage. First, my thanks go to Almighty God for giving me the vision for this
project and sustaining me throughout the feasibility study, analysis and design of this
software. There were times when I almost gave up the system failed to deliver what I
expected, but His assurances gave me courage and hope.

I also wish to thank Mr. Noble Y. Adonoo, CEO of NOBADO, an Audit firm. This man is a
good brain when it comes to taxation and auditing. He explained and guided me in the tax
computations in the system, having worked with the Internal Revenue Service several
years.

Finally my thanks also go to the Personnel Department of FABI-BRM Wood Processing

Company for helping with the information that pertains generally to Human Resource
Management.

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 Table of Content

DEDICATION................................................................................................................... .....................2

APPRECIATION......................................................................................................... ..........................3

INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................... ...............6

SYSTEM REQUIREMENT...................................................................................................................................6
PROGRAM FEATURES.......................................................................................................................................6
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE PROGRAM...........................................................................................................7

GENERAL DESCRIPTION.................................................................................................... ..............8

SOURCE DOCUMENTS......................................................................................................................................8
APPLICATION FORM.........................................................................................................................................8
LOAN APPLICATION FORM................................................................................................................................8
EMPLOYEE CLOCK SHEETS...............................................................................................................................8
WELFARE CONTRIBUTION LIST..........................................................................................................................8

EXPECTED OUTPUTS AND REPORTS.................................................................................. ..........9

SCREEN OUTPUTS..........................................................................................................................................9
PRINTER OUTPUTS.........................................................................................................................................9

HOW TO USE THE SOFTWARE.................................................................................... ..................10

LOGGING INTO THE SYSTEM..........................................................................................................................10

SETTING UP THE DATABASE.......................................................................................... ...............12

BANKS .......................................................................................................................................................12
COST CENTRES............................................................................................................................................12
DEPARTMENTS..............................................................................................................................................13
INSURANCE..................................................................................................................................................13

DATA ENTRY..................................................................................................................................... ..14

NEW RECRUITMENT ENTRY..........................................................................................................................14

LOAN AND REPAYMENT.................................................................................................................................17
SALARY INPUT.............................................................................................................................................17
LOG OF EMPLOYEE EVENTS..........................................................................................................................19
ABSENTEEISM...............................................................................................................................................19
ANNUAL LEAVE............................................................................................................................................19
EDUCATION..................................................................................................................................................19
FAMILY........................................................................................................................................................19
INCIDENT......................................................................................................................................................19
LETTERS......................................................................................................................................................20

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MEDICAL ....................................................................................................................................................20
PROMOTIONS.................................................................................................................................................20

QUERYING THE DATABASE............................................................................................ ...............21

PAY SLIP ....................................................................................................................................................21

EMPLOYEE STANDING...................................................................................................................................22
BANK ADVICE SUMMARY..............................................................................................................................23
LIST OF ALL EMPLOYEES.............................................................................................................................23
EMPLOYEE BASIC DETAIL.............................................................................................................................23
PERMANENT EMPLOYEES..............................................................................................................................23

UPDATES AND MODIFICATIONS.................................................................................................. .24

SALARY ARCHIVING.....................................................................................................................................24
MARKING AN EMPLOYEE AS DISMISSED.........................................................................................................24
DISCIPLINARY CORRESPONDENCE..................................................................................................................25

REPORTS FOR PRINTING............................................................................................ ...................26

LIST OF BANKS............................................................................................................................................26
EMPLOYEE REPORTS....................................................................................................................................26
MONTHLY DEDUCTIONS................................................................................................................................26
LIST OF DEPARTMENTS.................................................................................................................................27
BANK ADVICE SUMMARY..............................................................................................................................27
SALARY SUMMARY SHEETS...........................................................................................................................27
SALARIES, SSNIT AND IRS.........................................................................................................................29

TROUBLESHOOTING PAYROLL PROBLEMS............................................................................ .30

PAY SLIP MISSING.........................................................................................................................................30

INSURANCE FIGURE MISSING...........................................................................................................................30
TAX RELIEF MISSING....................................................................................................................................30
LOAN NOT DEDUCTED...................................................................................................................................30

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INTRODUCTION
System Requirement
For complete database security it is recommended that the software is installed on a network

server running Windows 2003 server operating system. This can be provided at extra cost.

However, for a standalone PC, the program conveniently runs on a Pentium III or higher system,

with a disk space of not less than 1GB, and memory of 256MB or above. The operating system

should be Windows 2000 or higher and must have Microsoft Access XP or higher version

installed. A Scanner or Digital Camera is necessary for the insertion of photographs into records.

The software that comes with the scanner or camera should enable saving in bitmap format. A

laser or colour printer is needed for the printing of various reports.

Program features
The software is ideally for the management of Human Resource of any organization. It features

the IRS tax system and Social Security policies peculiar to Ghana. It functions perfectly in a

networked environment – where various departments require access to some of the functions of

the program. It allows multiple users. The following are the main features:

1. Employee Management: -

a. The program captures recruitment details of all employees of the institution or

organization according to the various classifications.

b. It also updates personnel records as and when necessary.

c. Captures the photograph of employee and displays as part of the employee’s

details.

d. Keeps track of employee status (Probation or confirmation status) and allows

changes when due.

e. Keeps track of all employees and prints reports alphabetically arranged in order of

Department

f. Keeps records of HRM correspondence with employees (i.e. Query, Warning and

Dismissal).

2. Loan Management

a. At a glance the HR Department can see how loans are repaid. The system

automatically calculates how much should be deducted per payment period based

on the terms agreed both by Management and Employee.

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 b. Total payments are matched against the loan until it diminishes to zero. Once the
loan is fully paid, the system allows discontinuation of loan deductions.

c. About two different loans can be contracted.

3. Salary Management

a. Captures each month’s salary variants

b. Automatically generates Pay slips for each employee with all the details in a neatly

designed form for printing

c. An individual’s pay slip can also be printed

d. Automatically generates Bank Advice for each bank that employees save with

e. Automatically extracts and generates IRS tax deductions for each salary period

f. Automatically extracts and generates SSF deduction for SSNIT

g. Archives each month’s pay master for future reference.

h. Classifies each cost centre for salary analysis.

i. Automatically extracts and generates Salary Summary report for management.

Here management knows exactly how much to part with for the month in respect

of Salaries, Tax deductions and SSF contributions.

What to expect from the Program

The HR Management software is very easy to install and use. It has a very friendly outlook and is
devoid of jargon or loose ends. Anyone who knows to read and write and a little knowledge of
payroll accounting should be familiar with the program within a few hours of use.

1. The Main Menu which helps the user throughout has a consistent outlook. It provides
access to all the features of the system.

2. There is always an Exit option that takes the user out of a menu, and a Close button that
closes any form used.

3. The menus and forms are well designed and make viewing interesting and provide a

convenient work environment.

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GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The HR Management Software was designed using Ms-Access. It mainly uses buttons for menus

and commands. The fonts are clear and easy to read. HR Managers will find this software very

helpful. The program is made up of input and output Forms, pop-up dialogues which pose simple

questions and relay information or cautions, and beautifully designed Report templates.

The HR Management system is ready for the revaluation of the cedi. The programmer is aware

that not all salary paying companies and organizations have the same monetary conditions of

service and so has made room for modification to suit any organization.

Source Documents
The forms that are used to capture data into the system are the source documents. These must

be filled out completely. The forms are as follow:

Application Form
This form is filled by a successful job applicant and is filed at the HR office. It contains the

applicant’s personal data, Contact Details, Educational Details, Family details and Financial details.

Loan Application Form

This form is used to apply for loan.

Employee Clock Sheets

They contain the daily reporting schedule for employees including overtime and night

hours. This is needed for the salary input.

Welfare Contribution List

In organizations that employees contribute welfare funds, this sheet is used to enter the details

of the monthly salary input.

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EXPECTED OUTPUTS AND REPORTS
In addition to screen outputs there are also formatted reports that can be conveniently printed

out.

Screen Outputs
• Pay Slips

• Dismissed Employees

• Staff on Probation

• List of All Employees

• Individual Details of any Employee

• List of Confirmed (Permanent) Employees

• Retrieval of Previous Salaries

Printer Outputs
• List of contract based Employees (Pensioners)

• List of Permanent Employees

• List of Dismissed Staff

• HR Master List

• Staff on Probation

• Loans Deducted for the month

• Salary Summary Sheets

• Bank Advice

• Master List of Salaries (for departmental distribution)

• Individual Pay Slip

• IRS Tax Returns report

• SSF Contribution Report

• All Pay Slips (Batch/Bulk)

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HOW TO USE THE SOFTWARE
To use the HR Management software, it must first be installed on a hard drive. To use it in a

server based network environment, the software must be installed on the server and referenced

by the authorized workstations. Each user must have a password and is limited to their functions

only.

Logging into the System

To activate the program, double-click its icon and expect the following screen which performs log

on operations. You must supply the user name and password assigned to you before the system will

allow you to use the program. If the software is not legally acquired the system will not grant

permission to use it.

Or if you enter either a wrong User Name or password, the following error information will pop-

up. In this case

A successful login will present the main menu:

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At the top is displayed “Main Menu.” This is the main menu that leads to all the other functions of

the system.

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SETTING UP THE DATABASE
In order to smoothly run the program you need to capture some important data. These are

displayed in the menu

You will need the foregoing information during data entry.

Banks
The Bank option records all the banks that employees operate accounts with. This is where
their salaries will be paid to. When the Banks button is clicked a dialogue will pop-up where
only the bank name is entered:

Cost Centres
This option is entered if the accounts department would want to classify costs. When the
Cost Centres button is clicked a dialogue will pop-up where only the Cost Centre name is
entered:

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Departments
Where there is more than one department in the organization, this option can be used to
classify human resource into departments for easy management. When the Departments
button is clicked a dialogue will pop-up where only the bank name is entered:

Insurance
Some employees may have insurance policy with insurance companies. This option allows
creation of the insurance companies in the system.

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DATA ENTRY

The components of Data Entry in the diagram above are the three major data capturing points
for the system. Here data is entered once and the system uses it for further data processing.
Let us take a closer look at the New Recruitment entry form.

New Recruitment Entry

It is divided into seven sections namely:

• Personal Detail

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 • Contact Detail

• Job Detail

• Financial Detail

• Employment History

• Educational History and

• Dependants

These are all included in the Job Application Form. If it is not properly filled, data capture may

be difficult or the system may reject the record altogether. Care needs to be taken to ensure

that the right information is keyed in to the system for accurate and valid data processing.

Inserting an employee’s photograph

First of all scan all the photographs and save them in .bmp format. Save all the photographs in a

folder you can easily locate.

Right – click the photograph box in the recruitment form. In the shortcut menu that pops up,

click Insert Object… as in the diagram below:

This option takes you to the following dialogue:

Click Create from File. The dialogue changes to the diagram displayed below. Click the Browse…

button to locate the photograph folder and files.

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Select the photograph file and click OK

This will send you back to the previous dialogue. Now that you have selected the picture, click ok

to return to the recruitment form. The photograph appears on the form now. You have

successfully inserted the photograph.

The recruitment form with the inserted photograph.

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Loan and Repayment

It is important to note that before each employee’s pay slip can be viewed or printed out, a loan

file must be opened for every employee. Even if the employee has not taken any loan just fill

the fields with zeros. Every month you must enter zero as loan repaid. Without this you cannot

get the pay slip of the employee. You cannot make any entry in the Loan Summary portion of the

Loan form. The system automatically fills it when you make entries in the appropriate fields,

especially the loan amount, the payment term, the month, year and amount paid.

Salary Input
You need to have the Employee ID at hand in order to locate the record you want to input. Use

the Search ID combo box to locate the employee’s record. As you type the ID the system

suggests the rest of the ID. If suggested ID is what you want, pressing the return (enter) key

will invoke the record. All the fields in grebe portion of the form are displayed for identification

of employee so cannot be changed. Go on to the Work Details section below and complete the

required fields as they appear on the source documents.

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The Salary input form.

The Update Loan button has been provided to enable you go directly to the Loan Update of the

employee whose salary variants you are inputting. Ensure to update the loan repayment for the

month. At this stage you can verify if you have successfully entered the variables that make up

the payroll by going back to the main menu and selecting E for Enquiry or clicking its button.

Next, click the pay slip button or type “s” to retrieve the pay record.

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Log of Employee Events
This option presents a form with a sub form of 8 tabs as in the diagram below:

Absenteeism
• Records instances of absenteeism on the part of the employee. If any reason is given for

the act, it must be written against the date absenteeism was committed.

Annual Leave
• Each year, an employee is entitled to a leave. This form can be used to manage employees’

annual leave. However if the employee did not proceed on leave the checkmark blank to

indicate it.

Education
• This form can be used to keep record of employees’ further training and education

Family
• This can be used to modify the size of employees’ dependants

Incident
• Any incident involving an employee can be recorded here

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Letters
• Here any correspondence given to an employee can be recorded. These are the categories

of letters sent to employees: Query, Suspension, Warning, Dismissal, General and Special.

However a brief detail of the contents of the letter must be written against each entry

to explain the reason for the letter.

Medical
• This is useful when there is the need to track employees who frequently fall sick and also

to record the amounts refunded as medical bills each time they visit medical facilities.

Promotions
• Here promotions can be recorded for each employee who is considered for a rank raise.

However any salary increment should be entered using the Updates and Modification menu

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QUERYING THE DATABASE

The Enquiry menu allows you to check the entries that have been entered previously. Though a

printout of results of queries can be printed from here, it is not recommended. In the Reports

for Printing menu the same details can be found, which are conveniently formatted for printouts.

Also note that you cannot make any changes to the displays. You can only view them.

Pay Slip
• In order to get the pay slip details you will have to enter the month of the pay slip and

the year in these dialog boxes as they appear one after the other:

In this case Apr is entered for the month of April. Also 2007 is entered for the year. All

the entries that were successful will appear. But you have to use the search button to

locate the employee’s record.

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Click the button with the inscription Click to find a Pay slip and enter the Employee ID in the

following dialog box:

In the Find What combo box type the Employee ID and click Find Next. The program

quickly locates the record and displays it in the background, or return an error to show

that the record does not exist. Close the dialog in either case.

If the system reports that the record does not exist, check if you have entered the loan

for that record. Also check in the Employee data and make sure that even if they don’t

subscribe to any insurance, the Insurance Amount is set to zero. Try checking the pay

record again.

Employee Standing
• The Employee Standing itself is a menu:

Clicking any of the options will display the information it depicts

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Bank Advice Summary
• This lists all the banks that checks will be sent to. This helps to know how much should be
sent to each bank as per the employees who will receive their salaries from the bank.

List of All Employees

• Lists all the employees of the company.

Employee Basic Detail

• Displays the details of an employee as it was entered as at the recruitment stage,
including any update to their records in the updates form. You must have the employee’s
ID number in order to access his/her details.

Permanent Employees
• Displays all those whose appointments have been confirmed after the probation period.

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UPDATES AND MODIFICATIONS
This function allows the modification and update of any data captured into the system. The
diagram shows all the options that provide forms to perform this task.

Salary Archiving
The Salary Archiving form looks like the following diagram:

Clicking to archive pay slips for a period will present you with request for the month and the year

of the payroll.

Marking an Employee as Dismissed

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Here check the Staff Dismissed check box. Next, enter the date of dismissal and in the memo

box provided, enter the specific reasons as detailed in the dismissal letter. To locate the

employee to be dismissed, click the “Search with Staff ID.”

Disciplinary Correspondence
In course of performing their duties, employees make some mistakes or take decisions that are

questionable. Under normal circumstances the employee is queried by means of a letter demanding

explanation of the employee’s action. If the explanation is not convincing a warning letter follows.

Both of these correspondences are recorded in the Queries and Warnings form. It is an option in

the Updates and Modifications menu as displayed below and followed by the input form.

In order to make an entry, first search for the employee using the ID. Enter the date of the

query or warning letter and the content.

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REPORTS FOR PRINTING

List of Banks
• This option prints out all the bank names entered at the Database Setup

Employee Reports
• This is a menu of the following detail:

All the options on this menu do not require further information. Clicking each one displays
the list automatically.

Monthly Deductions

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Since all the items are deducted monthly, to print them out you must specify the month and the
year of the deduction. To print out the Insurance Contribution Report, in addition to the month
and year you need to enter the insurance company.

List of Departments
This displays the list of department names entered during the Database Setup.

Bank Advice Summary

This creates a report of how much should be sent to each bank as salary advice. You will be
required to enter the month and year of the payroll.

Salary Summary Sheets

This option generates the summaries of all the pay details. . You will be required to enter the
month and year of the payroll. The following are samples of the summary sheets:

Page 1 of the Salary Summary

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Page 2 of the Salary Summary

Page 3 of the Salary Summary

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Salaries, SSNIT and IRS
The option displays the following menu:

• Bank Advice
o Is the list that is printed and distributed to the various banks for the payment of
salaries. You will be required to enter the month and year of the payroll and the bank
name.
• Master Pay Slips
o Is automatically generated with this button. Once you are satisfied with the pay
displays and are certain that all records exist, you can proceed with the printing of
the pay slips. The pay slips of all the workers are generated here. You will be required
to enter the month and year of the payroll.
• Salary Master List
o Generates a list of all employees with their net salaries arranged departmentally. You
will be required to enter the month and year of the payroll.
• Individual Pay Slips
o Can be generated if for some reason an individual’s pay slip must be replaced. You will
be required in addition to the month and year to enter the employee’s ID
• Internal Revenue Service
o Option automatically generates the IRS tax report list. You will be required to provide
the month and date for this report.
• SSNIT Contribution Reports
o Option also requires the month and date to automatically generate the report listing
all the Social Security contributions of staff on the scheme.

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TROUBLESHOOTING PAYROLL PROBLEMS
You may face some challenges while using the program, especially when it comes to the generation
of pay slips. If you can’t find an employee’s pay slip then it means the overall totals in the salary
summary sheets will also be wrong. Before printing the pay slips you must ensure that all the
figures are correct. This will prevent the wasting of paper and printer cartridge.

Pay slip missing

• Check if you have entered the Month and Year in the Salary Input form
• Check if you have entered the Month and Year in the Loan Update form
• Check if the Daily Rate in the Staff Update form is not 0 or blank. Please ensure that it
contains a figure since this is the principal figure that is used in all the computations.

Insurance figure missing

• This means that it has not been entered in the recruitment form. Use Staff Record Update
to insert the figure. You can find this within the Financial Detail section of the form.

Tax Relief missing

• This means that it has not been entered in the recruitment form. Use Staff Record Update
to insert the figure. You can find this within the Financial Detail section of the form.

Loan not deducted

• Check the entry in the Loan Repayment form to update it.

If after all these have been checked and there still are problems, then call Mr. Quist on 0244
661148 for emergency assistance.

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