Employee W-2 is incorrect or is not generating
In order to generate a W2, several things must be in place:
- The employee must be in the Payroll system and the Tax Data Tab must be set up correctly.
- W-2 must be selected for the Tax Statement in Employee Tax Data Tab.
- There must be at least one Pay item in the Pay Description column in the Employee Pay Data Tab.
- If no actual paychecks have been generated through the accounting software due to a mid-year system move, start-up totals may be entered for those employees.
- Or if paychecks have been generated but the employee's tax data tab was set up incorrectly and not updated until now when you are trying to print W-2s, if certain criteria are met, you may be able to generate a W-2 for this employee through start-up totals.
Reprocess Employee Record
After following the above steps for each employee for whom a W-2 did not generate, go to Payroll, Forms, and select Edit Employees W-2 Information. At the bottom of the screen, click the Reprocess All button. You should see the employee(s) you just added/updated using the above steps.
At the bottom of the screen, you will see the Reprocess All button. Click that and all missing W-2 for Employees who are set up correctly will populate. Also, if any updates were made since the last time the W-2 was Reprocessed, the Reprocess All button will include that information.
For more information on W-2/W-3 Form processing, click on the following link: W-2/W-3 Processing
Using StartUp Totals for an employee who was initially set up incorrectly
If the Tax Data screen initially did not have the Withhold Federal Tax box and Withhold State Tax box checked, and you only discovered you needed to have them checked to generate a W-2 for this employee after all the payrolls for the year have been run, you may be able to populate a W-2 for this employee if certain conditions are met.
If Employee Start-Up totals have never been used at all or if they were used to report start-up totals during the current reporting W-2 year, you may add start-up totals for this employee.
To learn if this option is available, go to Payroll, Setup, Start-Up Employee Totals.
Note the date in the field, Calendar year totals for all employees as of.
If the year matches the W-2 reporting year, you may add Start-Up totals for the employee for whom a W-2 did not generate.
Note: If this employee needs a W-2, the income is taxable income even if the employee is self-employed and wants to handle his or her taxes on their own. Therefore, you would put the wage amount under Taxable Income and submit the Start-Up Record. Note: you will want to also add any Deductions and Benefits that may affect Tax Forms.
Once you submit this record, make sure you go into the Edit Employees' W-2 Information Screen and select the Reprocess All button to generate a W-2 form for this employee.
Warning: Once the employee startup totals option is used, it may not be used in subsequent years for this purpose. It is important never to change the startup total date.
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