DFD Test Narrative:Lou's Travel [Payroll Subsystem]

Lou's Travel is an independent travel agency.The following system is used by Lou's Travel to process weekly payroll for hourly personnel.Lou's Travel has a central data processing department.Payroll personnel have online access from terminals located in the payroll department.

(Start Drawing here)

Paragraph 1: listed by sentence

The process begins as data processing prints time sheets from the employee/payroll master file.

The payroll department distributes the time sheets to the various departments (internal entity).

The employees (in each Department) fill in the time sheets each day.

Department supervisors review and sign the time sheets at the end of the week and return them to the payroll department.

Paragraph 2: listed by sentence

The payroll department arranges the time sheets alphabetically by department (received at the end of the week.)

Payroll clerks update the Sick and vacation log file for vacation or sick leave hours.

If an employee has exceeded the allowable hours, the clerk marks the hours as "leave without pay" on the time sheet.This is an exception.

The time sheets and any special adjustments are then keyed into the current week activity file by the clerks.

The time sheets are then filed alphabetically in the Time record history file.

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When the activity file is verified, the data processing department runs a "missing persons" list of active employees who show no time sheet entry for the current week.

Payroll contacts the appropriate supervisor to resolve the problem and requests a time sheet if necessary. This is an exception.

If the employee does not bring a time sheet soon enough, he or she has to request a manual paycheck be prepared.

A manual paycheck is an adjustment in the following week's payroll run.

Otherwise, the missing late time sheet is keyed and verified before the payroll is run.

The use of a manual check and/or late time sheet is very unusual.

The "missing persons" report is forwarded to the Controller.

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Payroll processing is performed by the data processing department.

The system creates the current week pay register file, using the employee/payroll master file and the current week activity file.

The general ledger file is updated.

The following items are printed from the current week pay register file: paychecks with attached stubs, pay stubs for direct deposit checks, a check register (the listing of all checks), a payroll register (the listing of each employee paycheck calculated from gross to net pay), and various payroll reports.

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The paychecks with attached stubs, pay stubs for direct deposit checks, payroll register, and check register are given to the cashier.

The payroll reports are given to the Controller.

The cashier gets the check-signing machine and signs the paychecks.

The cashier checks the total dollar amount and the number of checks and direct deposits against the payroll register.

She places the checks with attached stubs and pay stubs for direct deposit in envelopes.She gives these to the department supervisors, who sign for them and give them to the employees.

Money to fund the bank payroll account is transferred to the bank by wire transfer.

Complete:

Table of entity and activity--optional

Context diagram

Chronologically sorted table of entity and activity with groups

Level zero dfd