CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Prompt payment of staff salaries by management of an organization boosts the morale of
staffs and enhances productivity. Manual preparation of staff’s salaries is often associated
with lots of problems, which often time disrupt the morale of workers. The problems
ranges from arithmetic error in computation, delay in payment, underpayment or
overpayment and so on. In this project work, automated system shall be developed which
shall eliminate all the problems associated with the manual process.
The most common method of keeping the financial records of a company was manually.
A bookkeeper kept the journals, the accounts receivable, the accounts payable, payroll
and the ledgers in his best possible penmanship. In later years, an accounting machine,
which was capable of performing normal bookkeeping functions, such as tabulating in
vertical columns, performing arithmetic functions, and typing horizontal rows was used.
The billing machine, which was designed to typewrite names, addresses, and
descriptions, to multiply, to compute discounts, and to add net total, posting the requisite
data to the proper accounts, and so to prepare a customer’s bill automatically once the
operator has entered the necessary information, was used. Early accounting machines
were marvels of mechanical complexity, often combining a typewriter and various kinds
of calculator elements. The refinements in speed and capacity made possible by advances
in electronics and operating complexity of these machines. Many of the newer
“generations” of accounting machines are operated by a computer to which they are
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permanently connected. Because of the minute by minute change in finances, accurate
record keeping is critical. Computerizing a business’s general ledger, payroll, and other
accounting tasks increases office efficiency.
With the advent of computerization in accounting, Electronic spreadsheets were used to
compute payroll and perform other accounting routines in organizations. Electronic
spreadsheets allow you to do anything that you would normally do with a calculator,
pencil and columnar scratch pad. Spreadsheets were primarily designed for managers
who in the process of planning must do “what if” calculations and due to their flexibility;
electronic spreadsheets have found their way into businesses. It takes its name from the
accountant’s spreadsheet—a sheet of paper with rules for rows and columns—on which
such work was usually done. Spreadsheet programs are much faster, more accurate, and
easier to use than traditional accounting techniques. An example of electronic spreadsheet
is Microsoft Excel.
Early programs such as VisiCalc provided 254 rows and 63 columns for entering data and
formulas for calculations. VisiCalc was introduced by Robert Frankston, a young
computer programmer, and Dan Bricklin, a Harvard Business School student who was
looking for a way to use the power of a computer to simplify complex time-consuming
financial analyses. VisiCalc proved so useful in such applications that it provided an
entry for personal computers into the business world. In 1980, the Sorcim Corporation
introduced SuperCalc, a similar spreadsheet program for personal computers using the
CPM operating system. Some modern programs for computers with large memories
provide thousands of rows and hundreds of columns.
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A new generation of computer software for business began with integrated spreadsheet
programs, which can be used to prepare spreadsheets, create graphs, and manage data. In
such programs, for example, it is easy to display spreadsheet data in the form of a graph
or to transfer data from a data base to a spreadsheet. One of the first such programs was
Lotus 1-2-3, an immediate success following its introduction in 1983.
1.2 STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PROBLEM
Preparation of payroll manually as earlier said is a cumbersome and boring task
encountered by the account personnel in the account department of Kosofe Local
Government due to the calculations involved and its repetitive nature. After an extensive
interview with the account personnel on the existing payroll system, I discovered the
following problems within the system:
· Calculating salaries through manual operation is burdensome and stressful.
· Errors such as transposition of figures in the journal
· Overpayment/Underpayment of salaries
· Delay in payment of staff salaries because too much time is spent in
preparation of the payroll.
· The use of paper to keep pay details about each employee which results in too
much paper work.
· There is less security in the manual system.
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1.3 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The aim and objective of the project is to primarily automate the existing system. The
secondary aim is to:
· offer access control to the payroll system;
· avoid errors in the preparation of the payroll;
· ensure prompt payment of accurate salaries;
· reduce the administration time and overhead of personnel in the account section;
· reduce the use of paper in record keeping;
· keep records of employees secure;
· make necessary information available to employees;
· offer update and processing control to the payroll system; and
· improve the working efficiency of the employees.
1.4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This project work will be implemented in Java programming language. Microsoft Access
will be used to keep the database of the organization and employees biodata.Unified
Modeling Language (UML) will be used to model diagrams.
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Organizations which have very few employees may calculate payroll manually and find it
less cumbersome and accurate but larger business organizations find it boring and
cumbersome going through the same process due to the required record keeping and
repetitive nature of the calculations involved in payroll.
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A public sector (Kosofe Local Government) has been chosen as the litmus test for this
project work because it is one of the largest employers of labor and it has been
discovered that calculating the payroll of large organizations by manual process can be
more prone to errors, inaccurate and burdensome. Also, it has been discovered that the
development and use of an application is more cost effective than the manual system.
Therefore a secured application that will improve on the way employees are being paid
shall be developed for the Local Government.
1.6 SCOPE /LIMITATION OF STUDY
The scope of the study is limited to only computerization of payroll system of Kosofe
Local Government and the software developed will run on stand alone system.
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