How to reconcile payroll reports?

To verify that tax amounts from 5-2-2 Payroll Records, Payroll Reports and Federal and State Tax Forms and eFiling by Aatrix® are correct, follow these steps:

Step 1

1. Print 5-1-3-21 Federal Tax Report, for Check Date 01/01/20## thru 12/31/20##.
2. Print the 5-4-1 941/Schedule B/941-V Reports for quarters 1 through 4.
3. • The Federal Income tax, Social Security, and Medicare totals from the 5-1-3-21 Federal Tax Report should match the combined totals of the 5-4-1 941/Schedule B/941-V Reports.

Step 2

1. Print the 5-1-4-21 State Tax Report for Check Date 01/01/20## thru 12/31/20##.
2. Print the 5-1-4-61 State Quarterly Wage Report for quarters 1 through 4.
3. Print the 5-1-4-66 Quarterly Earnings Report for quarters 1 through 4.
4. Print the 5-4-2 State Forms report for quarters 1 through 4.
5. • The totals from the 5-1-4-21 State Tax Report, 5-1-4-61 State Quarterly Wage Report, and 5-1-4-66 Quarterly Earnings Report should match the combined totals of the 5-4-2 State Forms reports.

 NOTE: If your company works in multiple states, the state tax reports must be printed for each state. 

Step 3

• • Compare totals to the combined totals of the 5-4-1 941/Schedule B/941-V Reports

If the totals do not match, you can determine the cause of the discrepancy by taking the following steps:

1. Check your 5-3-1 Payroll Calculations and identify any payroll calculations that are assigned Calculation Type 1- Deduct from Employee or  2- Add to Gross - such as an Employee 401K deduction - that is not subject to Federal Income tax.  If such calculations are present, the 5-1-9-31 and 5-4-1 941/Schedule B/941-V reports will not match because the 5-1-9-31 report considers only the hourly wages or salaries as Gross Wages but the Form 941 accounts for hourly wages, salaries, taxable Deduct from Employee, and taxable Add to Gross payroll calculations.  If this is the situation, and the 941 matches your 5-1-4-21 Federal Tax report, you can proceed with processing your tax forms.
2. Check the 5-2-2 Payroll Records for invalid check dates (e.g. Check Date of 01/01/2016 on a payroll check for the 2017 calendar year or check date of 01/01/2017 on a Quarter 4 payroll check).
3. Review the 5-2-2 Payroll Records for invalid Quarter assignments. Run a Payroll Repair in menu 5-3-7. The Payroll Repair will alert you about Quarter/Check Date variances.
4. Run a Payroll Repair in menu 5-3-7. The Payroll Audit will alert you about Social Security and Medicare discrepancies, Quarter/Check Date variances, un-computed payroll records, and un-posted payroll records.
5. Open the menu 5-4-1 Federal Forms or 5-4-2 State Forms and click Options, Update Forms, and Automatic Update to ensure you are using the latest version of the tax form.