Payroll calculation in Excel

In this Excel tutorial wage system employees are given incentive for increased productivity. In this system different tiers slabs or scales of output are defined and progressive slab has increased wage rate.

Calculating wages in this system is not simple as it was in earlier cases. Because in this situation first we have to identify the number of units employee has identified. Then we have to look up for the slab in which that output falls and take the rate of that slab and apply it to calculate wage.
Excel have functions or formula that do exactly the same and are called LOOKUP functions. We have different variants of these but the one I will be using is VLOOKUP.

How Excel VLOOKUP works – very briefly
Syntax:
VLOOKUP(lookup_value,table_array,col_index_num,[range_lookup])

Lookup value: the value that you want to look up in the data

Table array: in simple words its the rage of data in which you will be finding the look up value. Remember the first column of range selected will be used for look up purposes

Column index number: the number of column where the target information is.

Range lookup: this is an optional field. So I am skipping the discussion on this just for now.

Steps of working:

1. Take the value as mentioned as lookup value
2. Look for this value in the first column of the range specified as table array.
3. And once the value is found excel will fetch the target information on the same row in the column which is identified by column index number.

Differential wage payments – Case 1

Step 1: Open worksheet named: DPW – S1
In this situation we have slabs as follows:



Step 2: Right click on any cell in Rate column. From the menu click “insert”The information of slabs is not in the form that we can use in the formula. We need only numbers. For this purpose we will add another column between Slab and Rate column named Class. To add column in between follow these steps:

Step 3: An insert dialogue box will appear. From the dialogue box select “Entire column” and click OK.
New column will be added between Slabs and column. Name the column “Class” and type 0, 100, 200…., 1000 in the column as shown below:




Observe the slabs. In this data 1-99 is one slab 100-199 is another slab. But how do excel knows this? Well the formula we are about to use understands this automatically as it is programmed like this. If employee has produced 95 units. It will go to 100 and see its on the next level so it will revert back to previous rate. So automatically it will stay within 1-99 range for 3 dollars rate.

Step 4: With the data ready to be used, we have employee information in with their names and units produced put the following formula in cell G5:
=F5*VLOOKUP(F5,B5:C15,2)

Press enter and wage of first employee is done. Drag the fill handler down or double click to process wages for the rest of employees as well.

In this formula B19 contains the value of units produced which we know before hand multiplied with the  appropriate rate for which we found using VLOOKUP function. And this solves our case.

Steps to enter above formula:

Step 1: Select cell and press = button. This will put excel in edit mode.

Step 2: Write B19 or select the value of units produced by first employee.

Step 3: Press and hold Shift button and hit 8 on the keyboard this will put asterisk  *  in the formula that works as multiply in mathematics.

Step 4: Type vlookup. Notice when you were typing the helper tag appears just under the field where you type a smart tip appears. You can make the selection of right function using directional arrows. Once VLOOKUP highlighted press TAB key on the keyboard.

Step 5: Select the same cell again i.e. units produced as you will use units produced to look up for the slab and hit comma button. Mostly found just at the left to enter key.

Step 6: Select the data in Class and Rate column with mouse. Lock the range i.e. make it absolute by cursor in or with the range and press F4 function key one time. This will put $ sign with the column and row references. Once done hit comma button on the keyboard.

Step 7: The target information is in the second column of selected range so press 2 key on the keyboard.

Step 8: Press and hold shift key and press 0 (zero) key to put closing parenthesis and hit Enter key.
To best practice all the above steps use the following worksheet. Few steps have already been done for you:

Payroll in Excel 2013

 Differential piece work wage payment – Case 2
Make sure the worksheet named: DPW – S2

In previous example our scale was set like 0-99, 100-199 and so on. Meaning everyone hundredth value was in the next slab. But what if we want the data to be like; 0-100, 101-200 and so on. In other words instead of 100 and above, 200 and above, 300 and above we want Upto 100, Upto 200, Upto 300 etc. This changes the scenario a little bit as previously 100, 200, 300 were in next slabs but in this case they are in the same slab.

To incorporate this we only have to change our range a little bit and rest of the steps are same as above. Instead of having classes as 0, 100, 200 and so on. Now the classes will be 0, 101, 201, 301 and so on. This way for 0-100 applicable rate will be 3, 101-200 applicable rate will be 5 and so on.

Rest of the steps for calculation are same as above.
You can practice this method with the following live worksheet. Few steps have been done for you already.

Payroll tutorial in Excel

Read more »

The best things of Office 365

The new Microsoft Office: As with the previous versions, you can get Word, Excel, PowerPoint and more as a locally installed suite of applications or as Office 365, a cloud-based subscription. However, choosing between Office 2013 desktop software and the new Office 365 is a dramatically different decision than in the past.
This time, there is virtually no decision to make. Comparing Office 2013 to Office 365 is an exercise in semantics; Microsoft has significantly stacked the deck to favor one over the other.

Microsoft has given Office 365 a clear advantage over Office 2013.
There is a clear distinction between the two options. Office 2013 describes only the desktop applications. By contrast, Office 365 is a Web-based platform that pairs the Office applications with cloud storage. In the past, though, the Office 365 versions of the software had limited features and capabilities compared to the full desktop versions, and if you didn’t have an Internet connection you didn’t have Office.

With the new versions of the productivity suite, though, Office 2013 vs. Office 365 is a smoke-and-mirrors debate. Office 2013 is more expensive than Office 365, and the license is only good for one machine. If you only need the core applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote) you can get Office 2013 Home & Student for $140. Throw in Outlook, and you get Office 2013 Home & Business for $220. Office 2013 Pro adds Access and Publisher, all for $400.

Office 365 comes in two flavors: Office 365 Home Premium for $100 per year and Office 365 Small Business Premium for $150 per year. Both come with the full Office 2013 Pro software for your PC, but there are key differences. Up to five people can use Office 365 Home Premium on up to five devices, with each user getting an Office experience customized to their own Microsoft ID.

Office 365 Small Business Premium also comes with five licenses, but billed per user per year. Each user can install and use Office on up to five PCs, but the licenses can’t be shared with other users. Office 365 Small Business Premium also includes a managed Microsoft Back Office environment including Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync.

Office 365 includes five licenses for Office 2013 Pro.

Subject on how many computers and devices you want to install Office 2013 on through Office 365, and which version of Office 2013 you’re comparing to, it will take somewhere between one and a half to 20 years ($400 multiplied by five to install Office 2013 Pro on five machines comes to $2000—or 20 years of Office 365) for Office 2013 to become the more reasonable choice.

The only consequence that truly makes sense for Office 2013 is if you only need the software in Office 2013 Home & Student, and only on a single PC. In that case, you can spend the $140 and be done. Once you throw in a second PC, though, or if you need the additional tools like Outlook, Access, or Publisher, the math is heavily skewed in favor of the Office 365 subscription.

The beauty of Office 365 is that you get more than just Office 2013 for your money—it also comes with benefits that Office 2013 lacks. It comes with an additional 20GB of SkyDrive storage and 60 minutes per month of transnational Skype calls. Office 365 also has a new feature called Office On Demand that enables you to stream virtualized versions of the full desktop software to any Windows 7 or Windows 8 PC.

But, even for other stands or mobile devices there are Web-based versions of the Office applications, and as long as you store your files in SkyDrive you can access them seamlessly from virtually any Web-connected device. The world doesn’t end if your laptop is stolen or destroyed, and you can still edit a crucial client presentation even if you don’t have your PC with you.

Even if you only need the applications in Office 2013 Home & Student, it would cost $700 to put that software on five machines, and it would take seven years to break even on the cost of the Office 365 subscription. By that time, there will be a new version of Office (or two, maybe three). If you buy Office 2013 Home & Student, you’ll still have it in the year 2020. But, if you subscribe to Office 365 you will always have the most current version of Office available.

Microsoft has set things up so that the conclusion is already made. You are free to purchase Office 2013, but Office 365 has very clear advantages, and it makes more sense financially in almost every state.

Read more »

How to Add a Filter in Excel 2007-2010-2013

For example your worksheet contains a lot of content, it can be difficult to find information quickly. Filters can be used to narrow down the data in your worksheet, allowing you to view only the information you need.

How to filter data:

In this example, we'll apply a filter to an equipment log worksheet to display only the laptops and projectors that are available for checkout. In order for filtering to work correctly, your worksheet should include a header row, which is used to identify the name of each column. In our example, our worksheet is organized into different columns identified by the header cells in row 1: ID#, Type, Equipment Detail, and so on.

 Select the Data tab, then click the Filter command.

A drop-down arrow will appear in the header cell for each column.
Click the drop-down arrow for the column you wish to filter. In our example, we will filter column B to view only certain types of equipment.

 

 The Filter menu will appear. 
Uncheck the box next to Select All to quickly deselect all data.

Check the boxes next to the data you wish to filter, then click OK. In this example, we will check Laptop and Tablet to view only those types of equipment. 

The data will be filtered, temporarily hiding any content that doesn't match the criteria. In our example, only laptops and tablets are visible.

To apply multiple filters in Excel:

Filters are cumulative, which means you can apply multiple filters to help narrow down your results. In this example, we've already filtered our worksheet to show laptops and projectors, and we'd like to narrow it down further to only show laptops and projectors that were checked out in August.
 

Click the drop-down arrow for the column you wish to filter. In this example, we will add a filter to column D to view information by date. 

The Filter menu will appear.
Check or uncheck the boxes depending on the data you wish to filter, then click OK. In our example, we'll uncheck everything except for August. 

 

The new filter will be applied. In our example, the worksheet is now filtered to show only laptops and tablets that were checked out in August.  

How To clear a filter in Excel:

After applying a filter, you may want to remove, or clear, it from your worksheet so you'll be able to filter content in different ways.
Click the drop-down arrow for the filter you wish to clear. In our example, we'll clear the filter in column D. 

The Filter menu will appear.
Choose Clear Filter From [COLUMN NAME] from the Filter menu. In our example, we'll select Clear Filter From "Checked Out".

 

The filter will be cleared from the column. The previously hidden data will be displayed.  

To remove all filters from your worksheet, click the Filter command on the Data tab.

 

 

 

Read more »