It’s hard to believe, but now is the time to start reviewing your payroll reports and setups to verify that everything is in place for year end.
We recommend that you run the following balancing reports from Reports ? Payroll Tax Reports:
- Unupdated Deduction Pay Masters: Pinpoints Pay ID’s that have not gone through the Update Payroll History process, which would mean they’d be excluded from 941’s and W-2’s because they haven’t been updated to a Calendar Month or Year
- Federal/State Earnings Comparison: Identifies employees whose Federal wages don’t equal their State wages, which would normally indicate a problem, unless they had a deduction that sheltered Federal, but not State wages
- FICA/Medicare Earnings Comparison: Identifies employees whose FICA wages don’t equal their Medicare wages, either because they were exempt from FICA, met the annual FICA gross limit, or have an issue that needs to be addressed
- FICA Calculation Report: Determines whether any employees’ FICA is outside the acceptable rounding difference of 6.2% of taxable earnings
- Deduction Pay Masters/Calendar Comparison: Compares employees’ Deduction Pay Masters (which determine tax liability) to Deduction Calendar Summaries (which project 941 and W-2 taxable wage and tax amounts), and distinguishes differences that are valid (because they were the result of adjustments having been made in the Change Deduction Earnings and/or Amounts process), from discrepancies that require further investigation
- 941 Tax Liability Report: Shows employees’ Federal, FICA and Medicare earnings, sheltered amounts and liabilities by Pay ID, month and quarter, as well as a total number of employees that has each deduction
- Consolidated Tax Report: Details employees’ Federal, FICA, Medicare and State earnings, sheltered amounts and taxes for the selected quarter, and provides totals for the year
- Note that the 941 Tax Liability Report and Consolidated Tax Report should match, unless any adjustments have been entered on the Change Payroll Deduction/Earnings Amounts screen, without the indication to Adjust Gross to the Pay Master .
We encourage you to refer to our online document that provides ranging recommendations and review tips to help you balance your tax deductions each payroll, month and quarter.
http://wiki.openrda.com/wiki/index.php/PAYROLL-TAX_DEDUCTION_BALANCING
Please let us know if you have any questions as you prepare for year end. We look forward to helping make your year-end experience a smooth one.
