Today’s post is short-ish and sweet. In my last post, I documented where to go to get registration keys. In the last part of the post, I had added a note that was specific to Canadian Payroll and today learned that it no longer applies, at least not for recent versions of Dynamics GP. I have edited that part of the post now…
This post is a very brief overview of the 2 things that need to be done in a company in Dynamics GP where you want to use the Canadian Payroll module. At some point I may start a series on more topics around Canadian Payroll but for today, it’s just two things you may want to know that aren’t necessarily obvious or well documented. Please note: this is specific to Dynamics GP, this is not a general “payroll in Canada” post!
Registration Keys for Canadian Payroll
Special keys are no longer required, where they once were something that needed to be set up specially for Canadian Payroll in a “Manage MultiCompanies” link on CustomerSource. Those who have used GP for a while may recognize the window below.
I am writing this post in the context of GP 18.x because no other versions are supported any longer. That means if you are on an older version of GP and still using Canadian Payroll, you are not using current tax tables/rates and should be upgrading (or moving to an external payroll provider).
Now, all that being said, in a newly created Dynamics GP company, even with Canadian Payroll installed, the “Payroll - Canada” menus do not appear in the HR & Payroll navigation pane until you start to configure the Canadian Payroll Control window. Here is what the HR & Payroll nav pane looks like: US payroll items only (& possibly Human Resources if that is installed like it is in my test environment).
Task #1 - “enable” Canadian Payroll
This is the first thing someone needs to do in a new company that requires Canadian Payroll to be configured. In the nav pane, there is no entry for Canadian Payroll, so to enable the module, go to the Microsoft Dynamics GP menu > Tools > Setup > Payroll - Canada > Control.
There are 2 required fields (plus a drop down list that is required) but only one of the fields is empty when this is first opened (Next Cheque Number). For the registration key, it does not seem to matter, it seems like the window just needs to be opened to initialize the module and you’re good to go. In my case, it’s a test database so I am not completing some of the other things I would ordinarily configure here for now. I will revisit other fields in this window some other day!
NOTE: the menus do not appear instantly. Log off (or switch companies) and back to see the full menus. If you don’t, you will just see “Control” and not much else. This (below) is what the HR & Payroll nav pane should look like with Canadian Payroll enabled. I also have HR installed so those menu items are also visible in this screenshot.
Task #2 - create “CPY” source document type
The second thing that isn’t documented anywhere (to my knowledge) is the default “Source Document” code for Canadian Payroll does not get automatically created when CPY is installed, and a user will only find this out when trying to post their first payroll batch.
To be perfectly clear: this does not impact payroll itself, but the batch will not post to the G/L until the source document “CPY” is created. Good news? That’s easy, but I always forget to do it, so I’m documenting this step as a reminder.
This is a test batch from Fabrikam (sample data, very outdated!). If I attempted to post this batch without creating that CPY code first, it would not post. The Edit List would show the error “This source document is invalid; please select another.”.
Here’s how to add “CPY” to the Source Document list:
- Open the Transaction Entry (aka journal entry) window
- Click on the Source Document lookup
- In the lookup window, click on New to open the Source Document Setup window.
- Enter “CPY” as the Source Document and put in a description.
- Click Save and that’s it.
Summary
That is it for this post. At this point, Canadian Payroll is ready to be configured!