Starting Mid Year Payroll

This page explains how to start using Goldenseal payroll software in the middle of a year.

STARTING MID-YEAR PAYROLL
Entering All Periods | Combined Year-to-Date | Ignoring Year-to-Date

WEBSITE INFO LINKS
Payroll Software | Payroll Accounting Software

RELATED TOPICS
Employee Accounts | Write Payroll

Mid-Year Payroll

When you start in the middle of the year, there are three ways to handle payroll:

Go back and enter all pay periods, starting at the first of the year
Enter year-to-date totals directly into a single record
Start at mid-year and ignore year-to-date amounts for the first year.

HINT-- Before you enter previous payroll periods, choose Preferences from the Options menu, choose Expenses from the submenu, and turn on the checkbox for Allow Payroll Deduction Changes. That way you can enter the amount actually withheld (which may be different than Goldenseal's calculations, if you used withholding tables to do your previous payroll).

Entering All Pay Periods

The most accurate way to start payroll in mid-year is to enter information for each pay period, right from the first of the year. That will also give you more accurate job cost information.

To do so, follow these steps:

Set up payroll deductions, wage rates and other payroll information for each Employee. If an employee's wage rate or status changed during the year, start out with their setup from the first of the year.
Choose Labor Hours from the Costs menu.
Click the New button. Enter hours from the first pay period for each employee. You may need to create several records, if the employee worked on more than one job during the pay period.
Choose Write Payroll from the Bank menu. Goldenseal will show you the computed wages and deductions. They may not be correct, but for now you can ignore any differences.
Click the Write Payroll button. Don't enter a bank account, so Goldenseal will skip the actual paychecks.
Goldenseal will create a payroll record for each employee.
In the payroll record, choose Wages from the Breakdown popup menu. You can adjust overtime hours if needed.
Choose Deductions from the Breakdown popup menu. If you used the "lookup tables" in the tax table, you'll probably need to change the withholding amounts. Click in the Amount column and type in the amounts you actually withheld for that period.
Choose Employer Taxes from the Breakdown popup menu, and fill in the correct figures for the first pay period for all employer taxes.
If you calculate some taxes based on the work being done, choose Category Taxes from the Breakdown popup menu and fill in the correct amounts for the first pay period.
Choose Benefits from the Breakdown popup menu and fill in the correct amounts for the first pay period.
Enter hours for each employee for the first pay period, and repeat the previous steps to adjust their wages, withholding and taxes so they match the amount you actually used.
Repeat all the previous steps for each pay period. If any taxes or wage rates changed during the year, make the change when you get to the appropriate pay period.

HINT-- This approach is easiest if you start using Goldenseal near the beginning of the year.

Entering Combined Year-To-Date Amounts

A quicker way to enter mid-year payroll is to put all year-to-date totals into a single payroll record. It won't be as accurate, but it's a "quick and dirty" way to get year-to-date totals, and make sure that taxes like SUTA and FUTA will cut off at the correct wage limit.

To enter combined year-to-date amounts, follow these steps:

Set up payroll deductions, wage rates and other payroll information for each Employee.
For a salaried employee, temporarily switch their Wage Schedule to an hourly rate, or temporarily change their salary amount to the total amount paid for all the weeks you are combining.
Choose Labor Hours from the Costs menu.
Click the New button. Enter the total number of hours the employee worked all year-- starting in the first pay period with a payday in the current year, and ending in the last pay period before you start using Goldenseal.
If the employee worked at more than one wage rate during the year, repeat the previous step, and enter the hours they worked at each rate.
Choose Payroll Records from the Costs menu.
Click the New button.
Enter an employee into the Employee field.
Choose YTD Only from the Status popup menu.
Choose Wages from the Breakdown popup menu. Goldenseal will show you the year-to-date gross wages for the employee.
Adjust the overtime amount so the total wages are correct.
Choose Deductions from the Breakdown popup menu. You'll see a list of employee withholding items.
The calculated deductions will probably not be correct because the wage brackets are not correct, so enter the correct year-to-date figures for each deduction into the Amount column.
Choose Employer Taxes from the Breakdown popup menu, and fill in the correct year-to-date figures for employer taxes.
If you calculate some taxes based on the work being done, choose Category Taxes from the Breakdown popup menu and fill in the correct year-to-date amounts.
Choose Benefits from the Breakdown popup menu and fill in the correct year-to-date amounts.
Repeat the same steps for each employee.
If you have salaried employees, return their salary amount to the correct value before you write payroll again!

Ignoring Payroll Year-To-Date

The easiest way to start payroll in mid-year is to just start, and ignore year-to-date totals. You may want to consider doing that if you are starting very late in the year.

To do so, follow these steps:

Set up payroll deductions, wage rates and other payroll information for each Employee.
Choose Labor Hours from the Costs menu.
Click the New button, and enter hours for the current pay period for each employee.
Choose Write Payroll from the Bank menu. Check the figures, and then click the Write Payroll button to create payroll records. NOTE-- You may need to manually adjust any tax items that "cut off" after a certain amount of wages.
Continue using payroll for each pay period. Everything will work correctly, except that the year-to-date totals will not be correct until you start a new year.