PSA Payroll - Reports or Forms: 941 does not match total for quarter

941 does not match total for the quarter

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When Wages, Tips, Other Comp does not match Gross Pay for the quarter for the selected payrolls, it is likely because the Employee's Withhold Federal Tax box and/or Withhold State Tax box were not marked during at least one Payroll Process in the period/year. When these options are not marked, the employee's pay is not included in the Taxable Wages Accumulations and therefore will not be included in reports.
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In this example, the Wages, Tips, Other Comp on the 941 (9700.00) (above) does not match the Gross Wages shown on the Payroll Summary Report (12,200.00) (below) for the same time span. During this same time span, the Withhold Federal Tax box was unmarked for at least one employee record. 
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Potential Causes
Make sure the Tax Statement has W-2 Selected. 
If not, update this field and submit. If this is the only thing that needs to be changed on the setup, changing this will fix the 941. 
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The changes to Federal Tax Withholding may be found in the Audit Report. When checking dates, make sure you compare the date the Payroll was run with the date span the Federal Tax Withholding was unmarked and not the Payroll Check Dates or Payroll time span.

If you find the employee for whom the Withhold Tax box was unmarked during any payroll in the quarter/year, you may run a Payroll Summary report for that employee. You will likely find that their Gross Pay will divide evenly into the difference between the 941 and the Gross Pay figure. 

 

Edit Paychecks
If you use step 6) Edit paychecks during your payroll process, this can throw off your 941 depending on what you have edited.  If you edit the FICA or Federal withholding or any pre-tax deduction, your fractions of a cent will be incorrect.  To prevent this in the future, we recommend you do not use step 6) Edit Paychecks.  Rather, that you go and make the necessary changes to your employee record and then calculate again.  Remember to undo your employee changes if necessary after your payroll is complete.

 

How to fix it

Once you have determined the employee did not have the correct tax withholding box(es) marked, what can be done?

  1. The first thing you must do is ensure all employees have the Federal Tax Withholding box marked. The State Tax Withholding should also be marked. Marking these boxes causes the software to accumulate taxable wages for tax reporting. If the person does not want taxes to be taken out of their paycheck, an override amount of 0.00 may be entered in the same Tax Data screen of the Employee Record.
  2. The second thing you must do is set an alert to remind you that you must update the Employee's W-2 at the end of the year.

Alternatively, you could void the paychecks:

  1. Void the paycheck (before marking the tax field
  2. Mark the tax field.
  3. Once the tax field is marked, re-enter the paycheck.
    NOTE: The tax field must not be marked when you actually void the check if it was not marked when you first entered it. 
You would not actually print a replacement check, but you would need to display it to your screen, close the PDF, and mark the check as having printed. Also, you could use the same check number but you would need to add a letter at the end because the system will not allow for duplicate check numbers. We would only recommend voiding and reissuing a check when the actual taxes payable/paid will not be affected. For example, if a Pastor who has a 0.00 override amount for taxes taken from his or her check has the issue, voiding and re-issuing the check will only change the amount reported on the 941 and not affect any tax figures. Note: if 0.00 taxes were taken out of the original check, make sure the 0.00 override is marked for the replacement check record. All numbers must match exactly. Only the 941 should be different.

 


Related Articles

941: FAQs

How to void a paycheck

Setup: Enter Employer Information

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