Troubleshooting
Payroll Tax Calculation Errors during Payroll Entry
How Do I...
Sage 50 checks both the Payroll Formulas and the employee setup
information when calculating paychecks during Payroll Entry.
Note: You must subscribe to a Sage Business Care plan for paychecks to be calculated within Sage 50.
Troubleshooting Zero or Inaccurate Amounts
Troubleshooting Payroll Tax Calculation Error
Messages
What to do if Sage 50 calculates zero or
inaccurate amounts during payroll entry
If you just installed Sage 50, federal, state, and most local payroll
taxes will not calculate automatically for you during payroll entry. (In
some cases, payroll tax amounts will be inaccurate or zero.) To
calculate these tax amounts within Sage 50 and to stay current with regulatory changes, you should subscribe to a Sage Business Care plan and install
the latest update. Otherwise, you will have to manually calculate and enter your payroll taxes and other deductions on your paychecks.
If you have subscribed to a Sage Business Care plan and your formulas are still calculating incorrectly, you need to verify that the
latest update is installed.
- To determine which version of the Sage-maintained
formulas you have currently installed, select About
Sage 50 Accounting from the Help
menu. This identifies the current version of the Sage-maintained
formulas that are installed.
If you have
the latest update installed, the first four
digits of the version represent the current payroll tax year
(for example, 20120101). If you have the latest installed, the first four digits of the version represent
the current payroll tax year. (For example, 20120101 represents the year
2012 payroll tax formulas, version 0101.) If the first four digits of the
tax formula version do not match your current payroll tax year or the tax
table version is 19000101 (a generic tax formula), you should install
the latest update.
If you have set up your formulas manually and taxes are calculating
incorrectly:
Please review your tax formulas and compare
the information to the tax information from your federal, state, or local
government
Tell me more about setting up formulas.
What to do if Sage 50 displays error messages
during payroll entry
If Sage 50 runs across an error while calculating or displaying a
paycheck, it displays an error message that attempts to explain the problem and provide you with information regarding the error so that you can fix it.
The problem may be that a formula existed last year, but hasn't been updated for this year. You would need to get the latest tax update if you subscribe to one of the Sage Business Care plans.
Another problem may be that the filing status is incorrect. This primarily happens with state tax calculations. You would need to change the filing status for the employee to a valid status for the state.
Troubleshooting Example
For example, Sage 50 might display, "An invalid Filing Status is selected for a Payroll Field Name on the Withholding tab of an Employee record." The employee ID, payroll field name, and filing status will be displayed on the message as well. In this case, let's say it is the GA state income tax calculation and the filing status is Married.
You should check to see if there is a "Married" filing status for
the state of Georgia.
Georgia
does not have a "Married" state filing status. Georgia currently
only accepts "Married/2 Incomes," "Married/Jointly,"
and "Married/Separately." To correct the problem, change the
employee's state filing status to one of the three valid choices in the
Maintain Employees/Sales Reps window.
Common Reasons Sage 50 Displays Payroll Formula Errors during Payroll
Entry
You must subscribe to a Sage Business Care plan to access payroll formulas within Sage 50.
- If the message
states that a formula existed last year, but cannot be found this year, then
the formulas for the current year are probably not set up. There are
two ways to establish tax formulas 1) to subscribe to a Sage Business Care plan and install the latest update, or 2) to set up the calculation in User-Maintained
Payroll Formulas. If you are a current subscriber to Sage Business Care,
and this message just started appearing, you can reinstall
the tables. . Tell me more about setting up a user-maintained
tax calculation.
- If the message
states that an invalid filing status has been selected or that the state/locality doesn't exist, then the employee
might not have been set up correctly. Make sure that you have entered
the correct state's initials in the employee's State/Locality box in the
Maintain/ Employees window. For example, Georgia's State field is GA,
not GE or GR. Some states require unique filing statuses. You could have
set the employee up with an invalid filing status. Check your state's
valid filing statuses here. The employee could have been set up with a filing status
that is not valid for the state. For example, with the NJSIT calculation,
an employee cannot have a simple "Single" or "Married"
filing status. New Jersey uses "Special A-E" as filing statuses.
Valid
state filing statuses in employee setup
- If the calculation
is for a local income tax, check the Locality field in the Payroll
Formulas and compare it to the Locality field entered in Maintain
Employees/Sales Reps. These must match
exactly (including character spaces). Examples of localities for
New York City (NYLIT) are "NYC Res" (New York City proper) and
"YONK Res" (Yonkers). Please note that locality codes are case-sensitive.
- If you desire
to create new payroll calculations, they must be set up in user-maintained
formulas. Make sure the new tax formula is listed in the formula
list and the employee is set up properly to use the formula. If not,
you must set it up.
- If the message
indicates that a tax formula you created cannot be found, make sure
that at the end of the tax name there is a space followed by the current
calendar year (for 2012 example, K401 12 or VAC_Rem 12).
- If you just started
a new payroll tax year and can't find the state unemployment (SUI) tax
table, then you need to update this to the new payroll tax year.
SUI tax formulas are maintained by you in the user-maintained tax formulas
and are not updated with your payroll tax solution.
Update
the employer state unemployment (SUI ER) formula to a new payroll tax
year
If the error persists after trying all of the above, contact Sage 50
Customer Support.
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