TheBigZ
01-04-2021, 06:46 PM
I really meant to bring this up last year before the new version got released, as I know some things can't easily be dealt with mid-year. So with eyes towards next year... this PA SDI thing is getting out of hand.
First let me say, I completely understand what you're doing with the SDI and why. And between you and me, I don't really care what the tax is called, as long as it's withheld properly and shows up on the reports it needs to correctly. But it's really not just between you and me... it's between me and all my clients and all their employees.
I can't tell you how many calls I've gotten over the years from clients when they add a new employee... "Bob, my employee said you did their paycheck wrong, we don't have SDI in PA"... "Yes Client, and as I've told you the last 25 times you've called about this (ok, that part is just in my head), it's really the UI tax, which we DO have in PA, it just shows up that way on their paystub. We didn't really steal 28 cents from their pay". Or even better, the client has gotten tired of it, and just has the employee call me... I won't recite some of those NSFW conversations here.
The reason this popped into my head again now, is that I'm getting ready to send out W2s to all these people. And so it gets worse. Now, the employees are taking the W2 to their tax preparer, who then proceeds to tell them Bob doesn't know how to do payroll. I've even had a rival firm try to use it to try and take the client.
So the crux of the problem isn't the actual calculation. It's how it's displayed. I've tried setting up and labelling a separation deduction as UI and I've unchecked the 'Is there SDI' box on the tax table, (with only minor exaggeration) at least a trillion times. But of course any time there's an update, it gets changed back.
I've been thinking about this for a while (obviously) and I've had various ideas. But I think the simplest might be: could the tick box description be changed to 'Is there SDI/UI', and then put a drop down next to it to let us choose to label it either SDI or UI on all reports, paystubs and W2s? Again, there's no calculation issue, and if it was all internal and no one else ever saw, then who would care. But others do see it, and it's technically incorrect.
Now usually when I post something like this, you very quickly come back with "Well dummy (ok, that part is just in YOUR head), why don't you just do this or that?". Hopefully, I haven't overlooked the obvious and been dealing with this for years for no reason. ;)
Oh, while I have you here. When I enter pay for hourly employees, I click the employee, hit F6 and the screen comes up with the cursor right where it needs to be for easy data entry. It's right there at the hours field with the 0 already highlighted, and I can just type the hours and hit F6 again. However, if someone is set as salary, but without a fixed salary amount, it doesn't work the same way. I click the employee, hit F6 and the screen comes up, but the cursor is not in the Pay Rate box. As a matter of fact, I have clue where the cursor is. I actually have to click in the box, and then usually hit delete to get rid of the 0 that shows up. Is it possible to have it work consistently no matter how the person gets paid?
Thanks for listening. Hope you and yours are all safe.
First let me say, I completely understand what you're doing with the SDI and why. And between you and me, I don't really care what the tax is called, as long as it's withheld properly and shows up on the reports it needs to correctly. But it's really not just between you and me... it's between me and all my clients and all their employees.
I can't tell you how many calls I've gotten over the years from clients when they add a new employee... "Bob, my employee said you did their paycheck wrong, we don't have SDI in PA"... "Yes Client, and as I've told you the last 25 times you've called about this (ok, that part is just in my head), it's really the UI tax, which we DO have in PA, it just shows up that way on their paystub. We didn't really steal 28 cents from their pay". Or even better, the client has gotten tired of it, and just has the employee call me... I won't recite some of those NSFW conversations here.
The reason this popped into my head again now, is that I'm getting ready to send out W2s to all these people. And so it gets worse. Now, the employees are taking the W2 to their tax preparer, who then proceeds to tell them Bob doesn't know how to do payroll. I've even had a rival firm try to use it to try and take the client.
So the crux of the problem isn't the actual calculation. It's how it's displayed. I've tried setting up and labelling a separation deduction as UI and I've unchecked the 'Is there SDI' box on the tax table, (with only minor exaggeration) at least a trillion times. But of course any time there's an update, it gets changed back.
I've been thinking about this for a while (obviously) and I've had various ideas. But I think the simplest might be: could the tick box description be changed to 'Is there SDI/UI', and then put a drop down next to it to let us choose to label it either SDI or UI on all reports, paystubs and W2s? Again, there's no calculation issue, and if it was all internal and no one else ever saw, then who would care. But others do see it, and it's technically incorrect.
Now usually when I post something like this, you very quickly come back with "Well dummy (ok, that part is just in YOUR head), why don't you just do this or that?". Hopefully, I haven't overlooked the obvious and been dealing with this for years for no reason. ;)
Oh, while I have you here. When I enter pay for hourly employees, I click the employee, hit F6 and the screen comes up with the cursor right where it needs to be for easy data entry. It's right there at the hours field with the 0 already highlighted, and I can just type the hours and hit F6 again. However, if someone is set as salary, but without a fixed salary amount, it doesn't work the same way. I click the employee, hit F6 and the screen comes up, but the cursor is not in the Pay Rate box. As a matter of fact, I have clue where the cursor is. I actually have to click in the box, and then usually hit delete to get rid of the 0 that shows up. Is it possible to have it work consistently no matter how the person gets paid?
Thanks for listening. Hope you and yours are all safe.