SUTA, ETT and SDI tax table entries for CA and UI for TX and CO

[sierrasoftwareinc]

I have to constantly check, every time I run the payroll, to make sure these entries have not flipped to some value that is incorrect. When I enter the correct values for each state in the state tax tables, they are "OK" if you then run a payroll. However, that is no guarantee that they won't change to something else the next time you run a payroll. For example, the UI for CA is 2.9%. For CO it is 2.52%. The dollar limit maximums don't seem to change but the percents seem to do it randomly. For the April 7 payroll, the CA percent showed up as 3.4%, and CO showed up as 2.9%. They were correct when I ran the Mar 20 payroll. I didn't discover the error until the April 17 payroll was run, when I just happened to notice that the percents were wrong. I had to go back and check every pay period, and fortunately only the April 3 payroll was incorrect. (This has happened a couple of times previously but I caught it at the time.) It is very inconvenient to discover these errors and pay taxes incorrectly. Having to scrutinize these numbers every pay period is time consuming. Isn't there some way to fix the software so these percents stay fixed once you enter them into the table?

[Paul Mayer]

Every time the tax tables are replaced with an update, the default figures are replaced.

That's why we use the company override so you don't have to worry about updates. See this FAQ:

http://zpay.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=500

[sierrasoftwareinc]

The override doesn't work for multi-state. Whatever state # I put in (UI for ex) the prog assumes all employees are that state. The prog uses diff UI rates for no reason; ie if you closed it with TX filter then TX info may go in for CA next time, or vice versa. I can enter correct state tax info with a new download, but then it shouldn't change until next download. It has done this flipping two or three times since last download.

I run 4 reports each payroll:
1. A fed only report (state filter unchecked) for the total fed tax deposit. It would be convenient to be able to run a fed only report that doesn't show anything for the state info. I gnore all the state info but it is confusing to the unknowledgeable.
2. A CA report to get the CA st tax deposits.
3. A TX report to get the TX UI info.
4. A CO report to get the CO st income tax and UI.

Is there a way to ensure that the 3 state reports use the right % info for the state amts? I never know what will show up.

[Paul Mayer]

That's a drawback when you are using multiple states, you cannot use the company override and you must have the "Enable multi-state processing" checkbox selected in the Company settings.

You will also have to go into each state tax record that you use every time that you perform an update in PayWindow and adjust the percentages for your company.

It should use the SUTA rate that you have entered into each "state" tax record when you change the state filter for the reports as well as pay the employees.

[sierrasoftwareinc]

I agree it should correctly use the SUTA rate (for ex) for each state once it has been entered and it shouldn't need to be changed again until you do a new download. That is exactly the problem. The values will not stay fixed after I enter them. They can and do change for no apparent reason, from one payroll to the next. It is very frustrating to have to check every rate for every state every time I run the payroll.

[Paul Mayer]

I agree it should correctly use the SUTA rate (for ex) for each state once it has been entered and it shouldn't need to be changed again until you do a new download. That is exactly the problem. The values will not stay fixed after I enter them. They can and do change for no apparent reason, from one payroll to the next. It is very frustrating to have to check every rate for every state every time I run the payroll.

I cannot duplicate the problem. I just set up a test company and had two employees in two states with different rates. In three payrolls, ONLY the rates I had set for the states attached to the employees was used in the reports when I selected them for each state.

I have no idea what is going on with your system if the rates are changing unless you forget to check the Filter by State checkbox when pulling up the individual states. That is the only way I can have it show an incorrect figure other than What I expect.