Our Year Start Playbook has been designed for payroll teams preparing for the new year. It outlines what to do at the turn of the year, including collecting new SUI rates, updating benefits and employee withholding forms, resetting PTO and sick balances, and reviewing special tax parameters that refresh annually.

Within you will see setup timelines for partners using Embedded Setup vs. owning setup, risk documentation guidance to keep onboarding moving, and a practical FAQ covering common year-start scenarios like holiday pay dates and post-dating parameters.

For existing companies transitioning into the new year with you, review the following items or recommend them to your customers for review.

As we move into the new year, it's important to keep an eye on potential changes to unemployment rates. For 2026, it's not uncommon for an employer's specific unemployment rate to fluctuate based on their unique circumstances. They will be notified of this new rate toward the end of this year, or early next year, by mail or on the agency website.

These rates may increase or decrease, so it's crucial for each employer to monitor any notifications regarding these updates (mail, e-mail, notification in state tax system). The rate can be updated in the API using the Tax Parameter Object, using Check’s Tax Setup Component or directly in Console under the Taxes tab.

Please note that while many states adjust their unemployment rates at the beginning of the year, this is not universally true. If the unemployment rate comes in at a later date, instruct your employers to make the update and Check will reconcile any differences at the end of the quarter.

Be sure to add or update any benefit contributions for 2026. New benefit limits are available to review below in the Benefit Changes section below. Changes to benefits can all be effective dated through Check’s API or in Console. This means you can add benefits with a start date of 1/01/2026.

Conversely, you will want to ensure any benefits that stopping in the current year have an end date 12/31/2025.

All employees should be aware that they can update any withholding allocations. Employees should update their Federal (W4) withholding forms and any state withholding forms to reflect any life changes that may affect their withholding.

Even though not directly supported by Check, it’s important to remind companies about time off balances. Depending on their policy, this might include Resetting Sick and/or PTO Balances.

As a reminder, this is tracked in Check on Payroll Items.

The calendar year brings many changes to payroll taxes. Taxes restart, amounts change, and new taxes may apply. As a payroll provider, you should understand these changes and be ready to address customer concerns. The following areas commonly raise questions.

Check will automatically update annual limits in our system. However, employees should be reminded to adjust their per-pay-period rates if they want to reach the new maximum amounts (for example, 401k deductions may need to increase to hit the new annual limit). Below is a summary of benefit amounts and their new limits.

Minnesota has implemented a new Paid Leave program which is going into effect on January 1st, 2026. This program is funded by a 0.88% payroll tax, which is funded by a combination of employee and employer contributions. And like other states’ PFML programs, employers below a certain size by employee count will be subject to a lower tax rate.

Employers will also have an option to provide paid leave benefits through a private plan in lieu of the public program.

In December, Minnesota employers will be prompted for setup parameters related to this tax, and will see their Onboard Status change to needs_attention.

State Disability Insurance (SDI) program, which includes Paid Family Leave (PFL). The contribution rate will increase to 1.3% from 1.2%,

The state’s paid leave program premium drops from 0.9% to 0.88% (paid by both employers and employees), slightly improving employee net pay and reducing employer payroll expense

Embedded Setup submission deadlines for Year End and Year Start will be the same as they are for setups throughout the year. As a note, preliminary review will happen within 2 business days of the setup submission deadline. Note, Embedded Setups are subject to the following deadlines:

Partners who own their own Setups have extended deadlines for submitting setups prior to Year End. Guidance is to ensure there is time to pass risk review and ensure the customer has 100% shut down with their prior payroll provider and indicated their new payroll provider (that’s you) will handle Year End 2025 filings.

Note, we generally recommend that most December starts are pushed to January, as it simplifies the payroll system transition for companies, but trust Partners to assess accordingly.

The following items can be tricky for companies starting in the new year. For any company that is migrating for a clean year start, be aware of the following:

During this time of year, we strongly encourage you to be proactive in obtaining copies of SS-4s  and prior 941s, which will ensure the Company Review process completes in a timely manner and that onboarding companies are assigned the correct processing speed - you can read more here: Risk document requests.

In some cases where we cannot verify ownership, we will also request a driver’s license and/or liveness check from the owner or other associated individual. Obtaining these documents early in the process will ensure a timely implementation. As a reminder, our SLAs for all Risk reviews are 24 business hours.

New Customers should be prompted to whitelist Check’s ACH ID

Some customers have debit blocks on their business bank account they need to whitelist this ID for Check to be able to debit them for payroll.

Having that first payroll run smoothly is critical to a successful relationship with your customers. Whitelisting Check’s bank account can prevent any unnecessary NSF’s for authorization issues.

Employers and employees should review their tax parameter settings to ensure that they are correctly set for 2026 tax calculations. Below are several particular tax parameters that should be reviewed, as their values are often refreshed every year:

Why is the net pay of the employee’s first check of the calendar year different when no changes were made to the employee’s profile?

Even without changes to an employee's profile, net pay can vary at the start of a new year. This is because tax wage bases (such as Social Security) and benefit contribution limits reset annually. Additionally, federal or state tax brackets may change, affecting the amount withheld from the employee's paycheck.

Do employers need to reset or update their employee’s sick time or PTO accruals?

It depends on the company's policy. Some PTO policies allow carryover, while others reset at the start of the year.

Do employers need to reset their pay schedules for the new year?

No, pay schedules carry over automatically. The first pay date of the new year may even cover the last pay period from the previous year.

What do I do with a Notice of Unemployment Rate change that was sent in by my customer?

First, verify that the rate in the system matches the rate on the notice. If it's different, check the effective date and update the rate in Check’s system accordingly.

My customer’s normal pay date is the 1st of the month. Can employees be paid on January 1, 2026?

No, the 1st is considered a Federal holiday and therefore not a banking day. The payday should be moved prior to the 1st, or the 2nd depending on the company’s handbook.

For customers starting in 2026, can everything in the system today be "post-dated" or is that necessary?

For 2026, support has been added so that Check can accept SUI rate information ahead of the Jan 1 effective date and other dated parameters. If there is data that you are trying to “post-date” that doesn’t show an effective date field, please submit a support ticket in our Help Center.

What happens if a customer who plans to start payroll in 2026 accidentally runs a payroll in 2025?

It will be treated as a historical payroll and no action will be taken by Check to pay taxes or employees since the company’s start date will be in 2026.