Yes, open the sample file and look at how Projects (allocated by hours) can divide costs based on percentage or hours. If your Edition of Sage 50 Canadian has Time Slips then you can record more of the detail and calculate it within the payroll module.

Projects work alongside the G/L and can be used to track most any transaction. The Project Allocation report will show a breakdown or summary of amounts allocated. Whether you bill the G/L amounts inter-company using an invoice, or using a Journal entry, the report will show the cost incurred and the amount billed.

Use the G/L if transactions in the A/P module can be viewed by staff who shouldn't see what 40% of an employees wage is.

(Departments are a more involved way to separate out parts of a business become another dimension of the G/L accounts, and can only be effectively used where employees, customers, vendors, inventory & Service items, etc. are completely separate. i.e. the Parts department staff don't sell cars, and the sales department doesn't sell wiper blades, and Administration staff don't do oil changes)

I agree with Randy, I use the Projects Module for my payroll all the time. Absolutely love it. We break ours down by what Truck Unit the Employees (30) were working for every day! This then is included in the costs for that truck unit along with their maintenance costs and revenue (also projected) for the month to see which units are physically making money. I think you would be happy with how it works.

Thank you Randy. I've asked sage support for advice several times, and no one mentioned the Projects module to me! I am reading thru set ups and trying to follow the instructions. Does that mean everytime I do a pay cheque I have to click on each paycheque and allocate it to the project? (i'm assuming yes, but just checking). Is it also calculating the percentage of EI and CPP and WCB? I really appreciate you taking the time to answer - this may make my job so much easier! :)

Hey Marj, do you know if it breaks down the percentage of EI and CPP and WCB?

I think I've made a mistake.... haha. Would you mind telling me how your income types are set up? Before Randy mentioned Projects, I was trying to use income types to divide up the hours. So I had set up each company department as an income type. But looking at Projects, it seems as if I can just have "regular hourly pay" as my income type, and then the Project divides up the allocation of hours for me. Thanks for any help you can offer!

Hi Blackhunter....the CPP & EI are included in the amount of gross or hours (we do ours by hours) in your projected amount, the CPP shows on the report separate but not the EI...not sure why. Not sure about the WCB as we do not charge WCB to our employees. I would think that it does.

You can call your Project Names anything you like. We bill Oil & Gas Companies for our services and when entering the invoice it is divided up by the Truck Unit# (that's our project names) such as Rig 5 & Tank 15. So after entering the amount for each unit in dollars for revenue (within the invoice entering in AR), I just continue across and enter the unit number that matches the revenue GL Account that I set up in the project column. When I run the project report for example Rig 5...it will show me all the revenue generated by that unit, wages for the employees, maintenance and parts and supplies purchased for that unit, fuel, tires etc. Then the bottom line tells me what my net revenue is for that unit. Boss loves it, easier for me to balance by GL Accounts etc.
So for your payroll you can call them Company A, Company B etc.... One note Sage does recommend is NOT setting up any Liability Accounts for Leases etc. and any Asset Accounts as Projects. It seems to cause problems. But any expense account or revenue account can be set up with projects. I even do Utilities with one GL# but project names of Gas, Power, Water, Garbage Etc. so you only have one GL but the projects break down so you at one glance you can see how much was paid for each utility. Hope all this info helps. If you need more info please contact.