Year End Procedure for Payroll; Traditional Astra

PURPOSE

To allow for an easy transition to the New Year, perform the following updates before the end of the current year.

Astra Product

Traditional Astra

Process

In traditional Astra user will proceed to menu Pay Schedules (12-1-4-1).

Create new pay schedules for the new payroll year. Only create the pay schedules that will actually be used. (Pay schedules can be added at any time during the year, if the need arises.) It is best to use the same codes that were used the year before. If there are any codes that were not used last year, those codes will also need to be added to the affected employees in 12-1-1-P.

Remember, if a pay date for a particular pay period falls on a holiday; adjust the pay date for that pay period accordingly before payroll is processed for that period. Have a list of the holidays and a calendar handy when creating these pay schedules. Also, if a pay date falls in the next year, that pay period will be processed in the next payroll year.

The user will then continue to Tax Tables (12-1-4-10).

• Create the federal tax tables for the new payroll year. (For use with the federal deduction code, usually (FED). The appropriate information can be found in the Circular E provided by the Internal Revenue Service. Make sure to choose the Tables for Percentage Method of Withholding pages.

• Create the Earned Income Credit tax tables (for use with the deduction code EIC), if there are any employees that receive this credit. Make sure to choose the Tables for Percentage Method of Withholding pages.

• Create the state income tax tables for the new payroll year, if there is a state income tax and the state deduction code reads from the tax tables.

This is determined by what has been entered in field 4 (deduction type) of the deduction code setup in 12-1-4-8. If a ‘T’ is entered in this field, enter new tax tables. If an ‘S’ is entered in this field and tax calculation changes are to be made, please contact IDS as soon as possible to get these changes made.

Statutory Holidays are created in menu 12-1-4-12. Enter the statutory holidays for the New Year. The system uses this list to apply the appropriate holiday pay on the wages page when entering payroll in 12-1-4-2-W.

The next step is Updating after Generating the Last Payroll. Make the following updates after the last payroll has been processed for the year, as these areas do not differentiate by payroll year. The changes will take effect as soon as they are entered.

Configurations (12-1-4-2 or 11-10)

• Payroll (Part 1) Current Payroll Year: Enter the new current payroll year. (In order to run payroll reports for last year, set this back to last year for a short time. Remember to only do this when no one is processing payroll.)

• Payroll (Part 2) Yearly limit for SUTA and FUTA: change the annual limits for FUTA and SUTA, if necessary. Also, change the Current W-2 Year. The current W-2 year is the year for which W-2’s are processed. For example: if it is December 2004, change the current payroll year on page 1 to 2005 and the current W-2 year on page 2 to 2004.

Change the minimum wage, if necessary. This can be done in the State File, menu 12-1-4-3.

Deductions are next. Found in menu 12-1-4-8. Update any deductions that have changed, if necessary. For example, update the SSE and SSC deductions for social security with the maximum amount per year.

This means the maximum amount of deduction and not the maximum wages. 

This information is provided on page one of the Circular E. Multiply the gross wage by the percentage and enter the dollar amount in field 23.

If the percentage amount has changed, enter that in field 5.

If the FUTA and SUTA maximum amounts have changed, correct them in the same way.

Create any new deductions that will be implemented. Don’t forget to add any additional deductions to the employees in 12-1-1-D on the deductions page.

State Constants (12-1-4-?) If the state income tax information has changed for the following states, enter the changes in the appropriate state option in 12-1-4. (The states are currently DE, KY, AL, AR, MD, IA, SC, CA, MA, and LA.)

This completes the changes that need to be made to run your new payroll year. If there any questions when updating, please call IDS Support.