Major calculation error in 9.0.11

[sathni]

i just loaded 9.0.11 and was trying to do my 941 tax return ... my wage sums and amount due just do not add up ....

i had to uninstall ver-9.0.11 and re-install ver-8 ... i think it has to do with the Fica tax being lowered to 4.2 for the employees .... it is using this calculation for 2010 ....

from a programming standpoint, the code should know we are working with 2010 and use 2010's tax tables .... it does not ....

i spent nearly 2 hours trying to figure out where the error was coming from .... very frustrating ..... since i had already purchased ver-9, i spent the time ..... BUT, i am now very close to switching to a different software .... such basic programming errors should not occur with such money-sensitive commercial software ....

very disappointed in Z-pay :-(

[Paul Mayer]

This has all been answered in our newsletters as well as in FAQ's in our Support Forum here. If you read our information, you'd have spent very little time "trying to figure it out".

You cannot use the 941 Form in PayWindow 2011 until the new one is released in March by the IRS. This is a Quarterly Report and If you had read the newsletter we said that if anyone did not complete their end of year for 2010, to email me and I'd give them a link to the last download for PayWindow 2010 to complete the year.

If you want to get angry, take it out on your congressmen for dragging their heels and releasing the 2011 tax information which required complete rewrite of thousands of lines of code to support the new tax split.

[sathni]

thank you for the reply ...

BUT, from a programming standpoint, a new version should have the basic ability to handle the prior year's stuff ... so version 9 should be able to handle 2010's numbers .... this would prevent such frustration (even for those of us who don't read newsletters) ....

[Paul Mayer]

Not that easy as with constant changes, we cannot support past years as it is not that simple. The new tac split required a complete code addition of several thousand lines of code just to handle what seemed simple because in the past, we stored the single FICA deduction in each transaction and doubled it.

Users of our software have the backup CD's we send and can always use them to go back in years.

But the smart user follows the law of good practices and has a paper trail since the IRS and State auditors do not want to look at a computer screen, they want a paper trail. I can look at any past payroll I have for the last seven years in my payroll folders in a file drawer.

But if you want a payroll program to go back in years, you don't want what we sell for $45 a year, you want a high end package that will cost you a lot more.

[TheBigZ]

You cannot use the 941 Form in PayWindow 2011 until the new one is released in March by the IRS.

Perhaps the in-program message might have caused less angst if it made it clear that the 1st qtr 2011 941 could not be filed until the form is approved. Tho I guess I don't see why it had to be mentioned at all... is there really any reason to be printing a 1st qtr 2011 941 before March anyway? You were probably just trying to prevent the inevitable questions.

[Paul Mayer]

Perhaps the in-program message might have caused less angst if it made it clear that the 1st qtr 2011 941 could not be filed until the form is approved. Tho I guess I don't see why it had to be mentioned at all... is there really any reason to be printing a 1st qtr 2011 941 before March anyway? You were probably just trying to prevent the inevitable questions.

I'd give you a gold star if you could tell me why users seem to think that the 941 Form is to be used to figure out their tax payments from month to month. We've had this as a problem as far back as I can recall and that is why I explain it in the newsletters and FAQ's as well as in the help file.

Of course the previous year's 941 is *always* in the program until the new year's form is released to close out the last quarter. And the reason the IRS does not release the new year's form until the 2nd or 3rd month of the year is because it was a problem with people using a new year's form to report the previous year's last quarter. I hope you are seeing the problem here at this point.

But this year with the FICA split raised a new problem since the 2010 Form is coded to audit the transaction by calculating the FICA on the fly at 2010 rates, it cannot be used at all in 2011. We never had that problem in the past. And that is why I sent out the reminders to everyone and to simplify what they could do if they did not complete the end of year as well because of the problems with 2011 higher taxes and the 2011 FICA split.

Think we will ever see this happen again? I hope not. And if you think we had problems, the IRS cannot even process tax returns until their software is re-written because of the late release of the tax laws this last December.