Recording missing or historical payrolls in Console
Record missing payrolls accurately in Check to ensure compliance and tax accuracy.
Overview
Having a complete and accurate payroll history throughout the calendar year is essential for ensuring the accuracy of tax withholdings and reporting.
It is common for payrolls to be missed in a company’s records in Check. For example, maybe the payroll was run outside of Check, such as an employer paying an employee a bonus via cash or paper check. Or perhaps when onboarding to Check, some payroll records that we run on a previous provider were forgotten during the setup process.
In all of these cases, these payments should be recorded retroactively in Check, and a correction should be processed if necessary. This document will walk through how to upload a missing or non-Check payroll for a company in Console, and the next steps afterwards.
Create an external payroll record
Start by navigating to the company’s “Payrolls” tab in Console.
Click the “More” button next to the “Run Payroll” button, and select the option to “Record an external payroll”.
This will open a modal containing a list of external payrolls that were previously created and/or submitted for the company.
Click the “Add backdated payroll” button in the upper left to add a new record. Choose one of the two options to proceed.
Which option should I choose?
If you are creating a large payroll record (e.g., for a company with 20+ employees) or need to create multiple payroll records at once, it is recommended to use the “Import pay records” method. Otherwise, if you are recording a single payment for a small number of employees, it is recommended to use “Enter manually”.
Enter manually
Import pay reports
Enter and submit payroll details
Regardless of whether you used the “Import pay record” or “Enter manually” options — or if you simply clicked “Edit” on a payroll that you had previously started — you will now need to enter and/or confirm all of the details of the payroll record before you can submit.
Clicking “Edit” next to any “Draft” external payroll will take you to a spreadsheet-like view, where you can enter the earnings, deductions, reimbursements for the external payroll.
If you wish to add or remove employees and contractors, you can do so with the drop down menus at the top of the page, and if you need to change the pay period or payday for the payroll, click the “…” button next to the payday in the header of the page.
In this too, you can take any of the following steps:
- Enter the hours and earnings for each employee. Click on the “+” button below each section if you need to add additional workplaces or earning types.
- Enter the deductions for each employee. Click on the “+” button, and select the deduction type from the list of supported benefit types. If you need to enter miscellaneous a post-tax deduction, select “Miscellaneous — Other (total)”, then customize the description of this deduction.
- Calculate and update taxes — Once you have finished entering earnings and deductions for an employee, click the “Calculate tax amounts” button to generate tax amounts for the earnings and deductions you entered. This will generate tax amounts based on the earnings and deductions you provided.
You can modify the tax amounts directly, if any do not match the tax amounts on the payroll record you are trying to enter.
If you want to add or remove taxes from another jurisdiction, click on the “+” button. If you do not see the jurisdiction you need in this list, it is likely that you first need to assign a workplace in that jurisdiction to the employee.
You can also recalculate taxes by clicking the “+” button and then clicking “Recalculate taxes”. Note, this will overwrite any taxes that you previously modified.
When should I modify tax amounts?
Modifying tax amounts should be done with care, as it may result in errors in tax withholdings or filings if done incorrectly. Certain taxes such as Federal or State income taxes may need to be modified if, for example, an employee’s withholding elections have changed since the original payroll was run.
However, other taxes such as FICA should in general never be modified.
- Enter 1099 workers — For 1099 workers enter a payment and reimbursement amount. Earnings, deductions, and tax amounts are not applicable for 1099 workers.
Once the entire payroll is complete, click the “Submit” button. You will be shown a summary and confirmation modal, with a warning if any tax amounts appear different from amounts that Check calculated.
Click “Confirm and submit” to approve this payroll and add it to the company’s payroll record.
What happens next?
After you create and approve an external payroll through this flow, a Zendesk ticket with Check Support will be created automatically and linked in the confirmation modal after the final step above.
The purpose of this ticket is for Check Support to review and complete the processing of this external payroll, which may involve any or all of the following steps:
Description | |
Approve the payroll | Payrolls submitted through this tool are initially kept in Draft status. This is to ensure that submissions do not disrupt balancing or filing processes for the company, and also gives you additional time to edit the payroll if you need. Check Support will approve the payroll after receiving the Zendesk ticket, once confirming that it will not disrupt any ongoing processes. |
Collect for unpaid taxes | Any tax liabilities from the external payroll that were not already paid by the company to the agency will be collected. Please provide this information on which tax amounts should be collected on the Zendesk ticket with Check Support. |
Process a correction | A correction of other payroll records may be necessary; for example, if the new external payroll affected when a taxable wage limit should have been met on another payroll. Check Support will determine whether a correction is needed, and will process the correction if so. |
File amended returns | If the external payroll was entered in a previous quarter, then amended returns will need to be created to adjust the subject wage and tax amounts reported. Check Support will determine the amendments needed, and will create and file them. |
If you have questions on the next steps after an external payroll is created, reach out to Check Support on the Zendesk ticket.
Last updated on August 31, 2024