COMPUTERIZATION OF PAYROLL SYSTEM

(A CASE STUDY OF TALATA MAFARA LOCAL GOVERNMENT)

BY

LAWALI M. BALA 1807231079

SAFWAN ALMUSTAPHA 1807231080

A RESEARCH PROJECT SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT

OF COMPUTER SCIENCE, ABDU GUSAU POLYTECHNIC
TALATA MAFARA.

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR

THE AWARD OF NATIONAL DIPLOMA IN COMPUTER
SCIENCE

APRIL, 2021

i
 APPROVAL PAGE

The research has been carefully supervised and approved as having satisfied one of the
necessary pre-requisite for the award of National Diploma in Computer Science at Abdu
Gusau Polytechnic Talata Mafara, Zamfara State.

------------------- ------------------

Mal. Ahmad Bello Date

Project Supervisor

------------------ --------------------

Mal. Abdulaziz Garba Date

Project Coordinator

------------------ --------------------

Mal. Shehu Muhammad Date

Head of Department

ii
 DECLARATION
We hereby declare that this project was written by us and it is record of our research work.
All sources of information used for the write-up have been acknowledge by means of
references

LAWAL M. BALA Sign and Date

1807231079

SAFWAN ALMUSTAPHA Sign and Date

1807231080

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 DEDICATION

This project is dedicated to Almighty Allah, trusting in His ability to see this grow beyond just
a project work to being improved and established; to every promising individual and
organization that believe and work towards giving ourselves and others a better computer
experience and also to computer science staffs in Abdu Gusau Polytechnic and beyond,
trusting that this will serve as an educational resource and inspiration causing subsequent
development and innovation.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We acknowledge first god almighty Allah. We wish to express our earnest gratitude to our
beloved parent.

We will not forget to express our sincere gratitude to the supervisor of this project Mal.
Bello Ahmad Mada for his distinct guidelines and direction on how to write this project,
more grease to your elbow Sir.

We wish to express our gratitude to the Talata Mafara Local Government Council for their
attention to all the requirements we needed of them.

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 ABSTRACT

This project work ‘Computerization of Payroll System for Talata Mafara Local Government’ is aimed at
creating a computer based payroll system. Payroll is a critical operation for every organization to pay
employee accurately their salary and enrollments on time. The idea of taking control of employees pay
calculations are quite tedious if done manually and require more effort and time mainly for big organizations
and Government agencies. Hence if this process is automated, it would be of great benefit as it would
require less time to calculate the salary of the employees. The software for payroll management system
service on the cloud is provided as a solution in this paper. This system provides multiple user data access.
Each user like employee cashier or admin can login into the software by writing username and password
which are allocated to them from the local government. It involves keeping track of duration of worked and
is capable of keeping a record of employee data including their pay, allowances, deductions and taxes on
monthly bases so that fresh definitions are reflected from the month onwards, which leaves all the past data
intact. The proposed payroll system is advantageous as it provides a user friendly environment and also
increases security and minimizes human calculation errors. Also, the aim is to automate its existing manual
system by the help of computerized equipment’s and full-fledged computer software, fulfilling their
requirements, so that their valuable data/information can be stored for a longer period with easy accessing
and manipulation of the same. Basically the project describes how to manage for good performance and
better services for the staffs. The model driven development is adopted because the (MDD) methodology is
suitable for the payroll management system. The design and functions of the computer based payroll
system were implemented with Hyper-text Pre-processor (PHP), Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) and Hyper-text
Mark-up Language (HTML). This study was carried out to first of all to eliminate a manual payroll system and
bringing up a web based payroll system that allows a dedicated payroll software. A manual system can result
in payroll errors and is usually a slow, laborious process. Web based systems offers a number of advantages,
including increased accuracy and speed.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title page

Approval page

Declaration

Dedication

Acknowledgement

Table of contents

Abstract.

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 Introduction
1.1 Background of the study
1.2 Statement of the problem
1.3 Objective of the study
1.4 Significant of the study
1.5 Scope of study
1.6 Definition of the terms.

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

1.0 Introduction
1.1 Review of the Related Literature
1.2 Benefits of the computerized payroll system
1.2.1 Timely-keeping Transactions
1.2.2 Payment calculation
1.2.3 Deduction calculation
CHAPTER THREE

SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

2.0 Introduction
2.1 Methodology
2.1.1 Model driven development
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 2.2 Description of the existing system
2.2.1 Problems of the existing system
2.3 Analysis of the propose system
2.4 The activity diagram of the system
2.4.1 Activity diagram for Employee
2.4.2 Activity diagram for Admin
2.5 Database design
2.6 System software architecture
CHAPTER FOUR

SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION

3.0 Introduction
3.1 Choice of development Environment
3.1.1 MySQL Database Application
3.1.2 PHP Scripting Language
3.1.3 HTML Language
3.1.4 Javascript
3.2 Implementation Architecture
3.3 Software Testing
3.4 Documentation
CHAPTER FIVE

Conclusion, Summary and Recommendation

5.1 Coclusion
5.2 Summary
5.3 Recommendation

REFERENCES

viii
 CHAPTER ONE:

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

A payroll is a local government's list or records of its employees, which is often used to refer
to the total amount of money that a council pays to its employees. The term Payroll refers
to a series of accounting transactions involved in the process of paying employees for the
services rendered after taking all the statutory and non-statutory deductions into account,
in conformance with the terms of employment, company policy and the law of the land i.e.,
payment of payroll taxes, insurance premiums, employee benefits and other deductions. An
efficient payroll system facilitates an error-free, accurate and timely employee payment
while ensuring that the employment is well within the valid work permit

A payroll system is software which organizes and arranges all the tasks of employee
payment and the filing of employee taxes. These tasks may include keeping tracking of
hours, calculating wages, withholding taxes and deductions,

Net pay, Payroll software plays several roles for the user, the employees and the company,
such as giving you supper easy ways to manage employee calendar (e.g, deduction, and
overtime), gives you latest tax updates you when by notifying you when the updates arrive,
allows you to quickly and easily generate payslips for all your employees, serves as a
reminder. Payroll also makes deductions from employee’s wages for taxes, wage
garnishment, health and life insurance, spending accounts and retirement investments.
Payroll works with your accounting department to ensure that wage deductions and other
payroll expenses are paid and properly reported.

In an organization, there are several departments and each department has a payroll
section to manage its payroll activities. Each section has to perform necessary personnel
operations like data collection and preparation, entry, updates, monitoring and reporting of
data. Many of these existing practices and procedures need to be reassessed at this time of
changing needs, changing demands of employees and changing technologies So Talata
Mafara Local Government Council needs an integrated web based payroll system that would
integrate personnel and pay- roll related data collection, processing in individual
departments and payroll audit in a more efficient and streamlined way. With this computer
based payroll system, payroll section of the Local Government would be able to keep a
record of employees including their personnel data, pay band, allowances, deductions,
savings and taxes etc.. Net pay of each employee is calculated by using the information
about his allowances and deductions. All these complex calculations have been incorporated
herein. Many optional allowances and deductions for the employees are added by
specifying the corresponding details. The individual pay slips and deduction vouchers are
printed out as a receipt. Pay bands, grade pay, allowances, deductions and tax information
are updated if there is an amendment in salary structure.
1
A payroll is a list of the employees and the payments due to each employee for a specific
pay period. A pay period is the amount of time over which an employee is paid. Most
businesses use weekly, biweekly (every two weeks), semi-monthly (twice a month), or
monthly pay periods.

The payroll is a major expense for most companies. To ensure accurate records, most
business set up a payroll system for recording and reporting employee earning information.

Payroll is an application that lends itself well to the computer because of its repetitive
procedures and calculation. A Web based payroll system can perform the same basic
function as those performed manually by payroll clerk. The important differences are the
computer’s speed, accuracy, reliability, and ability to easily generate reports. In a web based
payroll system, the computer stores data such as an employee’s name, address, social
security number, marital status, number of withholding allowances, pay rate and voluntary
deductions. At the end of each pay period, the operator enters all payroll transaction data,
such as regular and overtime hours for each employee and deduction into the computer.
The computer calculates all withholding taxes and other deductions and accumulates and
updates the earnings and withholdings.

Payroll System is a flexible compensation administration solution. It is designed to help

human resource professionals as well as finance and accounting personnel to manage
employee compensation, deductions, allowances, and benefits in an organization. The
system is integrated with the Employee Information System, offers efficient features and
functionality to manage company's expenses.

1.2 Statement of Problem

1. Calculating salaries through manual operation is burdensome and stressful.

2. Difficulty in handling personnel records and inaccessibility of information when needed

3. Overpayment/Underpayment of salaries

4. Delay in payment of staff salaries because too much time is spent in preparation of the
payroll.

5. The use of paper to keep pay details about each employee which results in too much
paper work.

6. There is less security in the manual system of the local government payroll

1.3. Objective of Study

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The objective of this study is to design a computer based payroll system for Talata Mafara
Local Government Council.

Implementation of a computer based system for calculating basic salary and allowance of
staff.

Implementation of a computer based payment platform.

Implementation a system that accurately stores employee data and retrieves payment
history when needed.

Implementation of a computer based payroll system that can calculate transactions easily
and summarize all the deducted contribution of the employee and net pay

1.4 Significance of the study

The purpose of this study is to have a better service for the employee and less error for their
payroll system.

The study will aid in reducing errors, fraud, increase speed and also aid growth in Local
Government if successfully implemented. Manual payroll systems in Local Government will
be totally eliminated with this Computerized based system in place.

1.5 SCOPE OF STUDY.

The study will cover the entire local government database while focusing on the Payroll
aspect but not entirely excluding the council database. The Database contains different
aspects including the Entry of Permanent staff and Casual Staff details, getting results of
specific to different departments. It also contains an entry point for different staff and
departments. The Payroll aspect deals with the process of getting the Pay plan for each
Employee. It monitors the Pension Plan, Tax etc. Extra Parameters can be added to the
database based on the requirements of each department but the skeletal structure of any
council payroll database has some specific aspects and each of these has been entered for
starters.

1.6 DEFINITION OF TERMS

PAYROLL: Payroll is a process by which employer pays employees for the work they have
done. Any business with employees should have a payroll established.

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PAYROLL SYSTEM: A payroll system is a software which organizes all the tasks of employee
payment and the filing of employee taxes. These tasks can include keeping track of work
days, calculating wages, taxes, pensions and paying/printing of checks.

SQL SERVER: SQL stands for Structured Query language. This Server works hand in and with
Visual Studio, as any data entered while the Application is set up and running enters the
database created in SQL. It is a database computer language designed for the retrieval and
management of data in relational databases.

SDLC (SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE): The software development life cycle is a
framework that describes the activities performed at each stage of a software development
project. It starts with system analysis and runs through various stages till implementation
and maintenance phase.

HTML: HYPER TEXT MARKUP LANGUAGE. It is a language used in describing web pages. It
works hand in hand with CSS. It is a case sensitive programming language and has various
tags used to mark different aspects of the web page

CSS: CSS means Cascading Style Sheets. It is used to style the HTML page which results to
attractive and presentable web pages.

DDL: Data Definition language. It is used in defining data. Create, Alter and Drop.

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 CHAPTER TWO:

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction

This chapter summarizes the evaluation of the literature relevant to the computerized
payroll system. The purpose of this project payroll system is to eradicate the manual payroll
system and bring up the computer based payroll for employee record accuracy and easy
calculating of basic salary and allowance of staff. This tends to change the manual system
totally.

2.1 Review of Related Literature

The importance of this review is to make known of some other research made in relevance
to the project topic. Many researchers have made some findings on how this problem can
be solved and achieve the objective of the topic. Nowadays, many payroll system
implemented in different companies here in the Nigeria because payroll system is one of the
most important in establishing a business firms on how you provide the right and
appropriate benefits for the employees in the company. Business firms must operate within
the boundaries of laws and government regulations, Laws have been developed not only to
protect consumers but also to promote competition among business and industries. Over
Half a century on, it’s fair to say that payroll is now one of the most commonly automated
business operations; and certainly the most frequently the most used HR Solution that
maintaining payroll record is one of the most important financial tasks in any business.

According to the researcher (Aguilera, Bronzas, and Marqueses) of automated payroll

system of Panama Medical Center (2010). A great payroll is really one of the most
important issues to pay attention in almost every company. It is impossible to handle payroll
responsibilities with a pen, ledger sheet and calculator, but nowadays it is more convenient
for most companies to use computerized payroll software. The school is also not exempted
in using a payroll system namely the study of payroll system for the teachers and staff.
Payroll system is needed in order to have an accurate and error free in their payroll process
and services.

Researchers (Alvarez, Aldrine, Gecolea ) of Krizalen enterprises (2014) uses a biometrics

with online data analytics dashboard to give krizalen enterprises an efficient payroll system
that can automatically monitor the attendance and trip tickets of the employees, drivers and
helpers with the biometrics technology and data analytics that would help them in the
security and accuracy of the company payroll and information. Summing up the past

5
situation of payroll inside krizalen enterprises, there was need for a system that could help
them with employee information management attendance, monitoring, payroll processes,
and assistance for the manager decision making. With this idea, the proponents conducted
a study for the development of software that can minimize data redundancy, inconsistency,
and manipulation. Employees can view their current pay and review their information from
the database. And with updating of the reports that can be viewed through the internet, the
manager can view the recent activities within the proposed system.

According to the researcher of Nyanmaru Computerized Payroll System (2013) nowadays all
establishments are becoming modernized, they use modern technologies to make their
transaction fast, easy, and accurate in order to avoid waste of time and for the sake of
safety and security. It also helps human to solve and understand complex problem and
analysis such us the computational need of humans. Especially to business establishment or
corporation processing enormous data and complex transaction. Payroll is an example of a
complex transaction because it is a critical business operation dealing with numerous
accounts and produce plenty and confidential files. Payroll is encompasses every employee
of a company who receives a regular wages or other compensation due to each. Applying
manual procedure on a Payroll transaction involving the vast is at answer in that problem
would be computer because computers can simulate enormous data and can process
complex transaction in a fast and efficient way.

It can generate numerous accounts and data accurately. A Computerized Payroll System will
not only provide accurate calculation and fast process of Payroll transaction but it will
secure data through security.

Based on the research study entitled computerized payroll system of Department of Health
(DOH) (2007) explains that a computerized payroll system is a window based program which
is specially designed to facilitate and simplify the monthly preparation of general payroll and
related reports. Also that is must be flexible to provide option which allows the user to hold
additional fields for other compensations and deduction which was unique to an office the
company.

Also related study of Amrit Kadam ( Aug 13, 2014) are include the study entitled College
Payroll System & Taxation the purpose of this study is to aim of developing Employee
Payroll Management is to provide an easy way not only to automate all functionalities
involved managing leaves and Payroll for the employees of College, but also to provide full
functional reports to management of College with the details about usage of leave facility &
even deduction of income tax & related taxes can be done by this system. Payroll system is
the heart of any Human Resource System of an organization. The solution has to take care
of the calculation of salary as per rules of the College, income tax calculation and various
deductions to be done from the salary including statutory deductions like Income tax and
provident fund deductions. It has to generate pay-slip, cheque summary and MIS reports. It
is understood that we are tired of managing thousands of odd papers, payslips, payroll

6
reports, and salary details and so on. Imagine that we have a payroll processing system
which will generate our pay slips and payroll reports within seconds. We can help others
automated your payroll system by developing a customized payroll application that suits
your specific requirements.

Timecard and payroll review to edit and confirm payroll information prior to printing checks
or posting payroll Flexible direct deposit and electronic bank transactions allow multiple
payment options and export file generation. Links with the Enterprise IQ
Workforce modules to help maintain and track accruals such as vacation, paid holidays and
sick days.

Extensive built-in payroll reports help track wage, benefit and tax history
Enhanced security allows access rights to be granted to specific pay groups
Supports customization to meet your unique payroll requirements.

According to the researcher of Nyanmaru Computerized Payroll System (2013) nowadays all
establishments are becoming modernized, they use modern technologies to make their
transaction fast, easy, and accurate in order to avoid waste of time and for the sake of
safety and security. It also helps human to solve and understand complex problem and
analysis such us the computational need of humans. Especially to business establishment or
corporation processing enormous data and complex transaction. Payroll is an example of a
complex transaction because it is a critical business operation dealing with numerous
accounts and produce plenty and confidential files. Payroll is encompasses every employee
of a company who receives a regular wages or other compensation due to each. Applying
manual procedure on a Payroll transaction involving the vast beat answer in that problem
would be computer because computers can simulate enormous data and can process
complex transaction in a fast and efficient way it can generate numerous accounts and data
accurately. A we based Payroll System will not only provide accurate calculation and fast
process of Payroll transaction but it will secure data through security.

2.2 Benefits of Computerized Payroll System

2.2.1 Time-keeping Transportation

Hourly workers are paid according to hours worked during the pay period. The employer
uses a time-keeping system to track hours and pay hourly employees accordingly. It is
critical, therefore, that each employee’s time is computed accurately. Many employers use a
time clock to track work hours. A manual payroll system requires computing the time clock
data by hand; this increases the likelihood of mistakes.

The automated time-keeping system allows the employer to import time clock data into
payroll software. Specifically, the employee uses a swipe card or badge, or the handprint or
fingerprint method, to clock in and out. Once the entries are transported into the payroll

7
software, the software computes the time worked. All the payroll staff member has to do is
ensure the time is transported appropriately and make the necessary edits.

2.2.2 Payment Calculation

The computer based payroll system uses payroll software to compute all wages. Payroll
software, such as QuickBooks, PenSoft, Z-Pay, Ultipro and Sage Peachtree calculate gross-to-
net earnings based on the data the payroll representative inputs. Therefore, the result
depends on the accuracy of the input. Thus, if a terminated employee is due severance pay
but the payroll representative neglects to make the entry, the system will not pay it.
Typically, the system is reliable so long as the entries are correct.

The automated system performs all types of payments: hourly, overtime, double-time,
salaries, commissions, bonuses, pay raises, retroactive pay, wage deductions, auto
payments and tuition reimbursements. Notably, the automated system eliminates manual
pay check writing. The system automatically generates pay checks and stubs and enables
direct deposit.

2.2.3 Deduction Calculation

Salary and wage deductions are a necessary part of payroll processing. The employer must
take mandatory withholding from employee pay checks, including federal income tax, Social
Security tax, Medicare tax and usually state income tax. These taxes can be time-consuming
and perplexing to compute manually. A number of rules are attached to withholding tax
calculations. With an automated payroll system, the software has the tax rates hard-coded
in the system. It calculates the withholding tax for each employee based on the withholding
conditions data input. This reduces the likelihood of payroll tax errors, which can result in
fees from the IRS and the state taxation agency.

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 CHAPTER THREE:

SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

3.0 Introduction

In this chapter, the analysis and choice of method used in this research work will be
analysed from the existing system and design. It includes specific methods Which were used
in order to achieve the aim of the research work, particular requirements for
implementation of the project and clear explanation of reasons why such method were used
for design and implementation of the system, also included is a brief description of the
current system of computer based payroll system.

3.1 METHODOLOGY

According to Bennett (2002) defined methodology as a set of general principles that guide a
practitioner or manager to the choice of the particular method suited to a specific task or
project”. Whitten (2001) maintained that a system development methodology is a very
formal and precise system development process that defines a set of activities, method,
best practices, deliverables and automated tools for system developers and project
managers used in developing and maintaining most or all information systems and
software” There are different kinds of system development methodology such as build and
fixed model, spiral model, waterfall, object oriented, top-down, bottom-up, stepwise
refinement etc. In view of this build and fixed model is the one of the worst model for
project development because the project is built without specification and lacks design
steps. Spiral model is one of the software development processes which combine the design
and prototyping in stages, together to gain the advantage of top down and bottom-up
approaches (Barry, 1986). Rapid prototyping determines and identify the design flaws and
obtaining feedback during process (Frederick, 1975). Waterfall model: This is a software
development process which follows a sequential approach. This approach steadily flows
downwards like a waterfall which includes the phase of conception, initiation, analysis and
design (Winston 1970). But for this project work, The Model Driven Development (MDD) is
adopted

3.1.1 Model Driven Development (MDD)

MDD methodology is suitable for the payroll management system. The Model Driven
Development (MDD) methodology consists of seven phases like investigation phase, analysis
of problem, requirement phase, decision analysis, Designs, Construction phase and
implementation phase. The MDD methodology plays an important role in the success of the
payroll project.
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The MDD methodology approach emphasizes the drawing of models in order to

1. Visualize and analyse problems of payroll management system

2. Define requirements of the Local Government
3. Design the information system for the organization

3.2 Description of the Existing System

Payroll is financial record of employee’s basic salary, allowances, deductions and net pay. In
existing payroll all the calculations are done by clipper based system. It is not fully computer
based system. The main disadvantages of this system is that majority of work is done by
hand. The whole procedure involving delivery of an employees pay is very tedious, time
consuming and frequent verification is required so as to avoid the risk of human error. The
manual payroll system is an inexpensive method of performing the payroll process. Manual
payroll means that you, or another employee within your company, calculate the payroll
each pay period entirely on paper.

3.2.1 Problems in the Existing system:-

1. High risk of data loss or corruption

There is inadequate security, especially for your most private information, if you process
your employees’ payroll on a spread sheet could easily result in data loss or corruption.

2. Tendency of errors

Manual payroll processing is an error prone activity. A single erroneous entry could result in
a completely inaccurate record and finding the source of the error would be a time
consuming and complex process. If the error cannot be found, data would have to be
recalculated, wasting more time that could have been used to focus on more strategic tasks
otherwise.

3. It’s costing you more time and money overall.

It’s a simple fact that manual payroll processes suck up time and are rife with inefficiencies.

Switching to the cloud significantly reduces the time your payroll team is spending on
unnecessary admin and data entry, freeing them up to perform other business functions,
while switching from paper to digital payslip distribution reduces waste and provides further
savings.

A self-service model in which staff can access their payslips, update their details and apply
for leave remotely and without the need for a paper trail reduces the admin burden even
further - all of which should have a positive effect on your bottom line.

10
4. There’s a potential transfer of knowledge issue.

Manual payroll functions are typically owned and understood by one or just a handful of
people.

If those individuals leave the council, this information must be effectively transferred to
their successors. In an ideal world, this transition would happen seamlessly.

But newsflash: we don’t live in an ideal world. The reality is that things get missed,
forgotten, overlooked and by the time they’re discovered, the damage has already been
done.

5. There’s an increased security risk.

While there are some who believe that storing highly sensitive data remotely is a security
risk, the truth is that your data is far more vulnerable and open to misuse in a manual
system.

Modern cloud payroll systems offer the highest security standards available, which means
your data is stored on secure servers while still giving you the added convenience of remote
access and all the benefits that brings - such as online and smart phone time sheeting,
approvals and payslip access.

3.3 Analysis of the proposed System

The proposed system is expected to overcome most deficiencies encountered in the present
system with the following advantages

In an organization, there are many departments and each department has a payroll section
to manage its payroll activities. Each section has to perform necessary operations like data
collection and preparation, entry, updates, monitoring and reporting of data. Many of these
existing practices and procedures need to be reassessed at this time of changing needs,
changing demands of employees and changing technologies. With this payroll system,
payroll section would be able to keep a record of employees including their personnel data,
pay slips, allowances, deductions, leave, savings and taxes etc.. Net pay of each employee is
calculated by his allowances and deductions mentioned according to the company rules.
The individual pay slips are printed out as a receipt if employee wants to get a printout Pay
bands, grade pay, allowances, deductions and tax information are updated if there is any
amendment in salary structure. The computer based payroll application is a web based
design.

Web based payroll system enables you to store unlimited data while managing the data as
well. Accounting software processes data and creates reports much faster than manual
systems. Web based payroll Minimum errors as automatic or computerized calculations are
done. Expenses associated with accounting software include training and program

11
maintenance. Expenses can add up fast with costs for printers, paper, ink and other supplies
Productivity is higher than manual payroll as employees get their salary early as calculations
are done on regular basis. No paper work is required as data is stored in the database. So, it
is less bulky. It is more efficient than the manual payroll. A manual payroll means that you
will be required to hire a team of professionals who will do every accounting and payroll
task by hand, a web based one will be operating automatically to keep track of employee
performance, attendance, and bonus data. With a payroll system. All your pouches and
swipes can be directly stored on the system. It can even separate regular work hours from
overtime, calculate different numerations, and deduct taxes. This leaves no room for error,
which can’t be said the same for manual payroll system, which is prone to miscalculations
and mistakes. From basic documentation of each employee’s performance, attendance, pay,
to monthly deductions, these systems save lots of time and money. A web based payroll
system can even generate annual/quarterly wage reports, tax, deduction reports, payroll
reports, direct deposit options, and pay checks processing. Payroll systems even make it
easier to organize essential payroll information. All of your records can be accessed and
organized easily and you don’t have to deal with the piles of folders and papers to find what
you are looking for. One of the best things about using payroll systems is that there is no
need for business to buy expensive hardware. This can prove to be of great use for small
organizations that want to grow and take advantage of the same features large enterprises
use.

Cost- The cost of a web based payroll depends on your organization and the type of
software you need. For many organizations, the payroll software may be integrated with
other business applications that also handle management and accounting functions. Smaller
businesses can invest in off-the-shelf, low-end software designed only for a few functions,
such as payroll, invoicing and financial reporting. Mid-market software typically serves
organizations that must comply with national accounting standards. High-end payroll
software may be part of a larger enterprise resource planning software package that can be
tailored to the needs of the particular company.

3.4 THE ACTIVITY DIAGRAM OF THE PROPOSED SYSTEM

The activity diagram in (fig 3.4.1 and 3.4.2) shows the representation of the activities in
employee’s end and administrator’s end. The activity diagram used geometric symbols and
arrows to represent the implementation of the Computerized based payroll system.

3.4.1 Activity diagram of employee

Start

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 Employee
login

Employee verification

Suppose
d user? Yes

Employee Update profile View employee Change password

detail
Profile page

Logout

End

3.4.2 Activity diagram of admin

Start
13
 Login

Invalid

Gathering Register New Generate Prepare Voucher

employee Payroll and
Employee Pay employee

Log out

Fig. 3.4.2: Activity diagram of admin

3.5 Database Design

Data specification

The database is designed with Mysql. The following are the tables in the database.

Table 3.1: Employee Table

S/N FIELD NAME DATA TYPE FIELD LENGTH

1 Emp_id Int 10
2 Lname Varchar 20
3 Fname Varchar 20
4 Gender Varchar 6
5 Emp_type Varchar 20
6 Division Varchar 30
7 Deduction Int 10

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8 Overtime Int 10
9 Bonus Int 10

Table 3.2: Salary Table

S/N FIELD NAME DATA TYPE FIELD LENGTH

1 Salary_id Int 10
2 Salary_rate Int 10
3 None Int 10

Table 3.3: User Admin Table

S/N FIELD NAME DATA TYPE FIELD LENGTH

1 Id Int 5
2 Username Varchar 10
3 Password Varchar 10

3.4 System Software Architecture

A system architecture is the conceptual model that defines the behavior, of a system it
presents a synthetic view including: the resolution of ambiguity to identify system goals and
boundaries; the creative process of mapping form to function; and the analysis of
complexity and methods of decomposition and re-integration. System architecture helps in
setting of conventions, rules and standards employed in a computer system’s technical
framework.

CHAPTER FOUR:

SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION

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4.0 Introduction

System implementation is a collection of inter dependent physical devices together with

their programming which provides the functionality and performance for which the system
was designed. It covers all the activities necessary to set the system that has been analysed
and designed to be fully functional to the users.

The system was implemented using HTML as the front end, PHP as the server side
programming tool, Apache as the middleware and MySQL database as the backend.

4.1 Choice of Development Environment

The development tools are the necessary requirement tools used during the design to
enable us achieve the system design. The listed packages was used because of their
features, accessibility and effectiveness.

MySQL database application

PHP scripting Language

HTML language

Javascript

4.1.1 MySQL database application

MySQL Database Server- MySQL is a popular choice of database for use in web applications,
and is a central component of the widely used LAMP open source web applications software
stack LAMP is an acronym for Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP/Python/JSP. The MySQL
Database powers the most demanding Web, E-commerce and Online Transaction Processing
(OLTP) applications. It is fully integrated transaction safe ACID compliant database with full
commit rollback, crash recovery and row level locking capabilities. MySQL delivers the ease
of use, scalability and performance that has made MySQL the world’s most popular open
source database.

4.1.2 PHP scripting Language

PHP- PHP is a script language and interpreter that is freely available and used primarily on
Linux Web servers. PHP, originally derived from Personal Home Page Tools, now stands for
PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor which the PHP FAQ describes as a "recursive acronym." PHP
executes on the server, while a comparable alternative, JavaScript, executes on the
client. PHP is an alternative to Microsoft's Active Server Page (ASP) technology. As with ASP,
the PHP script is embedded within a Web page along with its HTML. Before the page is sent
to a user that has requested it, the Web server calls PHP to interpret and perform the
operations called for in the PHP script.

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4.1.3 HTML language

HTML Language- Stands for "Hypertext Mark-up Language." HTML is the language used to
create web pages. "Hypertext" refers to the hyperlinks that an HTML page may contain.
"Markup language" refers to the way tags are used to define the page layout and elements
within the page.

Below is an example of HTML used to define a basic webpage with a title and a single
paragraph of text.

<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<title>computer based payroll</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>This is an example of a paragraph in HTML.</p>
</body>
</html>

The first line defines what type of contents the document contains. "<!doctype html>"
means the page is written in HTML5. Properly formatted HTML pages should include <html>,
<head>, and <body> tags, which are all included in the example above. The page title,
metadata, and links to referenced files are placed between the <head> tags. The actual
contents of the page go between the <body> tags.

The web has gone through many changes over the past few decades, but HTML has always
been the fundamental language used to develop webpages. Interestingly, while websites
have become more advanced and Interactive, HTML has actually gotten simpler. If you
compare the source of an HTML5 page with a similar page written in HTML 4.01 or XHTML
1.0, the HTML5 page would probably contain less code. This is because modern HTML relies
on cascading style sheets or JavaScript to format nearly all the elements within a page.

4.1.4 Javascript

JAVASCRIPT - JavaScript (JS) is a scripting languages, primarily used on the Web. It is used to
enhance HTML pages and is commonly found embedded in HTML code. JavaScript is an
interpreted language. Thus, it doesn't need to be compiled. JavaScript renders web pages in
an interactive and dynamic fashion. This allowing the pages to react to events, exhibit
special effects, accept variable text, validate data, create cookies, detect a user’s browser,
etc.

HTML pages are fine for displaying static content, e.g. a simple image or text. However,
most pages nowadays are rarely static. Many of today’s pages have menus, forms,

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 slideshows and even images that provide user interaction. JavaScript is the language
employed by web developers to provide such interaction. Since JavaScript works with HTML
pages, a developer needs to know HTML to harness this scripting language’s full potential.
While there are other languages that can be used for scripting on the Web, in practice it is
essentially all JavaScript.

There are two ways to use JavaScript in an HTML file. The first one involves embedding all
the JavaScript code in the HTML code, while the second method makes use of a separate
JavaScript file that’s called from within a Script element, i.e., enclosed by Script tags.
JavaScript files are identified by the .js extension. Although JavaScript is mostly used to
interact with HTML objects, it can also be made to interact with other non-HTML objects
such as browser plugins, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) properties, the current date, or the
browser itself. To write JavaScript code, all you need is a basic text editor like Notepad in
Windows, Gimp in Linux, or BBEdit. Some text editors, like BBEdit feature syntax highlighting
for JavaScript. This will allow you easily identify elements of JavaScript code. The latest
versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera all support JavaScript.

4.2 IMPLEMENTATION ARCHITECTU

Home

Login

Admin Employee

Employee payroll
management Employee profile
Personal
details
Update profile
Change password
Deduction
Salary updating
updating Overtime rate View salary

Netpay
View payment
status/history

4.2.1 Admin Login Diagram of the proposed system

This is a login activity diagram of the computer based payroll system, which shows the flows
of login activity, where admin will be able to login using their username and password. After
login user can manage all the operations on the Employee, Salary, payments, etc. The

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diagram below helps demonstrate how the login page works in a computer based payroll
management system. The user will not be able to access the employee, salary and payments
pages without verifying their identity.

Admin is
registered

Admin

Check Invalid login

Login

Login to the system

successfully

Set user level and

Access the internal

End
Functionalities

Fig. 4.3: Admin Login Diagram of the proposed system

4.3 SOFTWARE TESTING

During the development of the system, the application undergoes two phases of testing
firstly, testing done during development phase. This testing includes

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* Syntax error testing: this method of testing is used to check all the syntax errors during the
software development

*Compatibility testing: the testing is used to determine whether all the languages used
during the programming were well integrated with each other.

*Logically testing: this is the argument involved during the programming. This will check
whether the argument is accepted by the system or not.

Secondly, testing them by running the software on realistic form. This testing includes

* Running the application in its fullness using a local server each as wamp server,

Xamp server, lamp server and so on that have local host which is using Apache as engine
and MYSQL as the database

*Browser testing: this testing is used to test the appearance and shape of the software on
the browser. This testing also replaces system testing in desktop application.

4.4 DOCUMENTATION

This system was built with basic HTML tags, PHP, CSS and MySQL language, they are all open
source program that allows modification to take place in future.

HTML: This is an acronym for Hyper Text Makeup Language. It is a language for describing
the web pages. Html form elements are elements that allow the user to enter information
(like text fields, text area fields, drop-down menus) in a form

CSS: CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) properties, the current date, or the browser itself. To write
JavaScript code, all you need is a basic text editor like Notepad in Windows, Gimp in Linux,
or BBEdit. Some text editors, like BBEdit feature syntax highlighting for JavaScript. This will
allow you easily identify elements of JavaScript code. The latest versions of Internet
Explorer, Firefox, and Opera all support JavaScript.

PHP: PHP- PHP is a script language and interpreter that is freely available and used primarily
on Linux Web servers. PHP, originally derived from Personal Home Page Tools, now stands
for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor which the PHP FAQ describes as a "recursive acronym."
PHP executes on the server, while a comparable alternative, JavaScript, executes on the
client. PHP is an alternative to Microsoft's Active Server Page (ASP) technology. As with ASP,
the PHP script is embedded within a Web page along with its HTML. Before the page is sent
to a user that has requested it, the Web server calls PHP to interpret and perform the
operations called for in the PHP script.

MySQL: This is my serial query language. It uses a standard form of well known SQL data
language. Different data types were used in this project. It was used alongside with PHP to
create and submit forms used in the software.

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The developed system is packaged in a CD drive in a directory named Computer based
payroll system.

CHAPTER 5:

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

5.1 SUMMARY

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Computerized Based Payroll System enables you to store unlimited data while managing the
data as well. Accounting software processes data and creates reports much faster than
manual systems. Computer based payroll Minimum errors as automatic or computerized
calculations are done. Expenses associated with accounting software include training and
program maintenance. Expenses can add up fast with costs for printers, pa per, ink and
other supplies Productivity is higher than manual payroll as employees get their salary early
as calculations are done on regular basis. No paper work is required as data is stored in the
database. So, it is less bulky. It is more efficient than the manual payroll.

5.2 CONCLUSION

This computerized based Payroll system for Talata Mafara Local Givernment is accessible
and calculates, maintains and records the payroll information of employees.

This Application will help to automate payroll system of Local Government. Multiple
authorized users will be able to login and logout from a system. Login checks (username,
password) are controlled by administrator. Administrator will have total control to
completely customize the payroll system. Director finance of the council will be able to
authenticate new employees,

Update existing employees pay, view reports. The system is user friendly. Whenever there is
an error in entering data, it immediately shows an error. The application is equipped with
tools for updating salary records, deductions, net pay, add new allowances, leave appraisal
or request deduction and savings and many other features that are easy to be operated by
users. The system has also provision for full salary history including all payroll elements and
changes that have been implemented. The prototype web based payroll system is complete
in it and ready to be implemented but changes and growth in requirements will be a reality
on every software project so there is need to timely update them. The same applies to this
payroll system.

5.3 RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the previous chapter discussions, there are some weaknesses in the Computerized
based payroll system and some recommendations are needed to be able to overcome the
weaknesses. Hopefully, these recommendations can be useful.

1. Segregation of duties: The segregation of duties in most local government is not

appropriate, the thing that can be seen through some government agencies structure is that
most of the employees do multi jobs, and in other to overcome this general weakness,
which is related with the segregation of duties, a new organizational structure is needed.

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2. Before you do business with a payroll service provider or an employee leasing company,
check the company’s credentials and ensure it meets federal and state regulations. Obtain a
clear, written agreement from the company, outlining the company’s responsibilities,
including penalties that may arise from payroll errors it makes.

3. Finally, we recommend that Talata Mafara Local Government should use a computerized
based payroll system and have a good Accounting management and also a good Admin that
will manage and update the system always and accurately.

REFERENCES

[1] www.filedonkey.com [PDF] Accounting essential for payroll management and

accounting.

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[2] Aguilera, Bronzas, Marqueses (2010) Automated Payroll System of Panama Medical
Center.

[3] Gupta, A. (2013) AMITY University UTTAR, Pradesh.

[4] Kadam, A. (2014) Payroll System and Taxation.

[5] Cagayan De Oro City Hall Computerized Payroll System.

[6] Enterprise IQ ERP’S payroll processing.

[7] Nyanmaru (2013) Computerized Payroll System.

[8] Primer, T. (2005) Automated Computerize Process, Readers Digest Magazine.

[9] www.slideshare.net/SavioAberneithie/payroll-management-system-complete-
report.

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