Employee W2 File Update
Use the W2 Employee page to add, change, and delete employee records in your W2 workfile. This page also includes an Import item on the Action Bar which allows you to import DD - Employer-Sponsored Health Cost amounts from files stored on your PC or shared network, with extensions *.xml, *.exml, *.csv, *.txt, and *.unl.
Menu Path: Human Resources > Periodic Routines > Year End > W2 Processing > click Employee W2 File Update
Note
If changes are made in Human Resources > Entry & Processing > Employee > Employee Information to an employee's Social Security Number, Last Name, First Name, Middle Name, Suffix, Address (Lines 1-2), City, State, or Zip Code, a message displays, asking if you want to update the W2 and 1099R records with the changes. This message will only display if:
If the W2 Address Prompting Enabled checkbox on the W2 Processing page is selected.
The system month is January.
W2 / 1099R information exists for the prior year.
Selecting Yes on this message will update the W2 / 1099R information for that employee.
Prerequisites
Before running the Employee W2 File Update option, confirm that the following setup options have been run:
Set Up W2 Parameters
Set Up Employer Records
Copy W2 Information
Create Employee W2 File
Listing Employee Records
Select Human Resources > Periodic Routines > Year End > W2 Processing, and then click Employee W2 File Update to display the W2 Employee File Update page.
In the Search Criteria section, enter criteria to identify employee records for the tax year being reported. Except for the Tax Year, the section's fields accept multiple entries. For more information, refer to the Fields below.
Click OK when you finish your selection criteria. All records matching your criteria will display in the List section.
Adding Employee Records
Select Human Resources > Periodic Routines > Year End > W2 Processing, and then click Employee W2 File Update to display the W2 Employee File Update page.
Click Add New on the Toolbar.
Complete the tab's fields, as specified in the Fields section.
When you complete the last field in a tab, the next tab displays.Repeat Step 3 for each tab.
When you press <Tab> in the last field of the Deductions tab (the last tab), the cursor returns to the Continuous checkbox in the Header tab.Click OK to save the record when you complete your entries.
If you selected the Continuous checkbox, you may enter another record by repeating Steps 3-4. After you save the last record, click Back.
Changing Employee Records
Complete the procedure for Listing Employee Records.
In the W2 Employee File Update page's List section, select the record you want to change, and then click OK to access the Header tab.
Change the desired fields.
Click OK to save your changes and return to the List section.
Repeat Steps 2-4 for each record you need to change.
Deleting Employee Records
Complete the procedure for Listing Employee Records.
In the W2 Employers File Update page's List section, select the record you want to delete.
Select Delete on the Toolbar. A Confirmation dialog will display.
Click Yes to delete the record.
Repeat Steps 2-4 for each record you want to delete.
Click No to return to the Search Criteria section.
Search Criteria and List Sections
These sections contain the same fields, except for the List section’s Sequence Number field. Use the Search Criteria section to enter criteria for listing existing employee W2 records. After displaying records in the List section, you can select a record to view, update, or delete.
Field | Description |
---|---|
Tax Year | Tax year that applies to the W2 information being submitted. |
Control Number | Control number. You can enter multiple control numbers by using the pipe ( | ) to separate each, for example, A123|B123|C123. Character/8 |
Employee Number | Employee’s ID number. You may use the pipe symbol to select multiple employees. Refer to the Control Number field for an example. |
Sequence Number | Sequential number identifying an employee’s workfile record in combination with the employee ID. This field only appears in the List section. For additional details, refer to the description of the Sequence Number field in the following section on the Header tab. |
First Name | Employee’s first name and middle initial. |
Last Name | Employee’s last name and suffix (if applicable). If you are searching for multiple employees, insert the pipe symbol between their last names, for example, BECK/TAYLOR JR/HENDRICKSON. In this case, you should leave the Search Criteria section’s First Name field blank. |
Header Tab
Use this tab to enter header information for the employee’s W2. All fields, except Continuous, are required.
Field | Description |
---|---|
Tax Year | Calendar year being reported on the W2 form. The Tax Year and Control Number fields combine to identify a W2 workfile. As a result, neither of these fields can be changed. |
Control Number | Number or code identifying the current workfile in combination with the tax year. When adding a record, you must enter a valid tax year/control number combination. |
Employee Number | Employee’s ID number. The Employee Number and Sequence Number fields combine to identify an employee’s record within the W2 workfile. |
Sequence Number | One-digit sequential number identifying an employee workfile record in combination with the employee’s ID. When you run the Create Employee W2 File option, the system assigns the sequence number 0 to employees’ initial records. If additional records are generated for an employee in the same workfile, the system assigns 1 to the second record, 2 to the third record, and so forth. If needed, you may change the assigned number. You can have up to 10 records per employee (0-9), including the initial record. |
Employee Type | Code identifying the employee’s status in regard to FICA taxes: R - Regular - Identifies employees subject to the full FICA tax, which includes both Social Security and Medicare. |
Address Tab
Use this tab to further identify the employee. Except for the check location, this information appears on the employee’s W2. All fields are required, except the Address 2 field.
Field | Description |
---|---|
Check Location | Code identifying the location where the employee receives pay checks or direct deposit vouchers, as defined in Personnel’s Location table. To facilitate W2 form distribution, enter the check location code from the Payroll tab of the employees’ Employee Information detail page in Human Resources. |
Social Security | Employee’s Social Security number (SSN). The system provides the dashes. This should match the SSN stored in the Employee Information page. |
First Name | Employee’s first name as it should appear on the W2. Character/30 |
Middle Name | Employee’s middle name as it should appear on the W2. Character/30 |
Last Name | Employee’s last name as it should appear on the W2. Character/30 |
Suffix | Employee’s suffix as it should appear on the W2. |
Address 1-2 | Two fields for the employee’s address, the first for the street name and number and the second for additional address information, such as a post office box or rural delivery number.Character/30 each |
City | City where the employee resides. |
State | Standard two character abbreviation for the state where the employee resides. The drop-down list includes abbreviations for all 50 states. |
Zip Code | Two fields for the zip code, the first for the five-digit code and second for the four-digit extension. The system provides the dash before the extension. |
Foreign Address | Checkbox indicating the employee has a foreign address. |
Foreign State | The foreign state where the employee resides. |
Foreign Postal Code | The foreign postal code where the employee resides. |
Foreign Country Code | The two-character foreign country code where the employee resides. |
Wages Tab
Use this tab to identify the Federal, Social Security, Medicare, State, and Local taxes and wages reported for the current employee. Tax and Wages fields are provided for each category. The tab also includes State and Locality fields. These are the four sets of unlabeled fields the bottom of the tab.
The W2 form only accommodates two states and two localities. If you need to report tax data for other states and localities for an employee, you must prepare an additional form, depending on state and local reporting requirements.
Field | Description |
---|---|
Federal | Federal taxes withheld and wages received in the tax year. |
Social Security | Social Security taxes withheld and FICA wages received in the tax year. |
Medicare | Medicare tax withheld and Medicare wages in the tax year. For employees who earn $200,000 and over, this will include the *AM deduction amount taken for the year. |
State 1-2 (unlabeled) | Two fields with drop-down lists, the first for the employee’s current state and the second for an additional state. State taxes withheld and wages received for tax year. |
Locality 1-2 (unlabeled) | Two fields, the first for the employee’s current locality and the second for an additional locality. You may abbreviate the names as needed. Local taxes withheld and wages received for the tax year. Character/8 each
|
Tips Tab
Use this tab to enter certain designations and to report amounts for tips, income credits, dependent care, and deferrals.
Field | Description |
---|---|
Statutory Employee | Checkbox for identifying a statutory (942) employee. A statutory employee is subject to Social Security or Medicare but not federal income tax. For additional information, refer to the IRS Circular E, Employer's Tax Guide. |
Retirement Plan | Checkbox for identifying an employee who is an active participant in a retirement plan. The system selects this box if the employee has one of the deduction codes identified in the W2 Workfile Pension page. |
Third Party Sick | Checkbox for indicating that the employee has received third-party sick pay. Leave the box blank if this does not apply. |
Dependent Care | Amount paid or incurred for dependent care benefits under Section 129 of the IRS Code. |
Allocated Tips | Allocated tips subject to federal taxes. |
Social Security Tips | Tips subject to Social Security taxes. |
Nonqualified Section 457 | Distributions from non-qualified section 457 plans. |
Nonqualified Non-Section 457 | Distributions from non-qualified nonsection 457 plans. |
Deductions Tab
Use this tab to enter codes and amounts related to employee deductions and benefits, as required for Box 12 of the W2 form. If an employee has more than four of the deductions identified in the W2 Workfile Box 12 page (Create Employee W2 File option), you must submit separate W2 forms to report the additional deductions.
Field | Description |
---|---|
Box 12 A-D | Four lines of two fields each. In the first field, select a code identifying Box 12 income as defined in the IRS Circular E, Employer's Tax Guide. In the second field, enter the amount. Following are the IRS codes. Note that the descriptions are spelled out here, whereas they are abbreviated in the drop-down list. A - Uncollected Social Security Tax on Tips |
Box 14 | Five lines of two fields each for entering Box 14 information, as defined by the deductions and pay codes entered in the W2 Workfile Box 14 page (Create Employee W2 File option).
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Importing Box 12-DD-Employer-Sponsored Health Costs
The W2 Employee File Update page's Import item enables you to load DD-Employer-Sponsored Health Costs amounts into Box 12 from files stored either on your personal computer or network server.
The Import item launches a wizard that will take you step-by-step through:
Loading the file.
Mapping the columns on the file to the fields in the database table.
Mapping static columns that are required by the Employee W2 File Update option, but not defined in the file.
Saving the mapping created to be used for future file imports.
Generating a list of warnings and/or error messages found during the data validation.
File Requirements
The ability to import a file depends on the following:
The data in the file's fields must comply with the field requirements in W2 employee records. For example, if a field requires numeric data and the field in the external file contains characters, the system cannot import the file.
The file must be formatted as XML Spreadsheet 2003, Comma Separated (CSV), Tab-Delimited (TDF/TXT), or Pipe-Delimited ("|").
The extension on the file must be *.xml, *.exml, *.csv, *.txt, or *.unl.
You have the appropriate security resource to access the Import item.
Creating a File for Import
Users can create the file to be imported in any manner they choose. The easiest way is to use a spreadsheet program. The database table used to store W2 employee records is w2employee. The file that is created can contain any of the following fields, in any order. Once the file is created, it needs to saved with the extension of *.xml, *.exml, *.csv, *.txt, or *.unl.
w2employee.batch_no (Control Number) - Required
Required, must be included in the file or entered in the Static Column Value Mapping page of the wizard.
Note
If importing multiple box 12 DD amounts that should have different control numbers, the control numbers must be in the file. When the control number is set on the Static Column Value Mapping page, all box 12 amounts will be linked to the same control number.
w2employee.taxyr (Tax Year) - Required
If the tax year is not in the file, the tax year will default on the Static Column Value Mapping page. The default is from the Tax Year field on the the Set Up W2 Parameters page.w2employee.empl_no (Employee Number) - Required if employees' social security numbers are not in the file.
w2employee.ssn (Social Security) - Required if employees' employee numbers are not in the file.
w2employee.amt_b17a (Box 12 Amount) - Required
w2employee.b17a (Box 12 Code) - Required
If the box 12 code is not on file, the code will default to DD on the Static Column Value Mapping page.
Following are the procedures for importing a file. At any time in the import wizard, clicking Next will advance you to the next page. Clicking Previous will take you back to the previous page. Clicking Cancel takes you back to the W2 Employee File Update page. For information on the individual fields for the pages in the Import wizard, refer to the Fields below.
Select Human Resources > Periodic Routines > Year End > W2 Processing, and then click Employee W2 File Update to display the W2 Employee File Update page.
Click Import to display the File to Import Data and Selection page.
Click Browse... in the File to Import field to locate the file that you want to import from your personal computer or network server.
Once the file is located, select it and then click Open. The file will appear in the File to Import field.
Click Load to load the data from the file into the Import File Data section of the File to Import Data and Selection page.
In the Import File Data section, select the line that will be used for the Column Titles and then click Set Column Titles. The data selected will appear in the column headings of the Import File Data section. If the incorrect line was selected, click Reset Column Titles to put the line back into the list section, select the correct line and then click Set Column Titles again.
Click on Set Column Titles.Once the column titles are set,select the lines of the file to be imported. This can be done by clicking the first line, then holding the <shift> key down and clicking the last line, or you can click each line individually by using the <ctrl> key.
Click Select All to select all the lines of the file to be imported. Note that selecting blank rows will prevent the import process from completing. Remove blank rows that are selected by holding down the <ctrl> key on the keyboard and clicking the blank row.When all the lines have been selected, click Next to display the Define Column Mapping page.
In the Define Column Mapping page, select a mapping from the drop-down in the Saved Import Mapping field or tab into the Table Field column for the first Import File Column to map the file column to the appropriate field in the database table. The Field Description column will default to a user-friendly name and cannot be changed.
Once the columns in the file have been mapped to the fields in the database table, click Next.
If there are errors where the data in the file does not meet the requirements of the database table, the Import Errors page will appear. You will not be able to proceed until the file or mapping is corrected. In the example below, on the Define Column Mapping page, in step 9, the Box 12 Label field on the file was mapped to the w2employee.amt_b17a. The Amount field on the file was mapped to the w2employee.b17a field. Since the field in the database is numeric and in the file for the column the data contained letters, the Import Errors page appears.
If there are no errors with the requirements between the data in the file and the database table, the Static Column Value Mapping page will display.In the Static Column Value Mapping page, required fields from the database table that are not mapped on the Define Column Mappings page will display. In addition, non-required fields that are in the database table and not in the file can be selected using the Append Row button. When the w2employee.taxyr (Tax Year) and w2employee.b17a (Box 12 code) are mapped statically, the values will default. Refer to the Creating a File for Import section for more information. Values entered in the Static Column Value Mapping page will be used for every line number in the file being imported.
Once the Static Column Value Mapping is complete, click Next to display the Save Import Mapping page.
In the Save Import Mapping page, you can save the mapping that has a unique identifying name. If you select to make the mapping Public, anyone who can import a file can use the mapping. If you select to make the mapping Restricted, users other than the owner of the mapping will not be able to update the saved mapping.
Note
The ability to add and update an import mapping on the Save Import Mapping page is dependent on security in addition to the Restricted field.Once the selections on the Save Import Mapping page have been completed, click Finish. This will take you out of the Import Wizard.
If Box 12 labels exist for employees, the following confirmation will display:
Select Add to add the amount from the import file to the value that exists for the duplicate label(s).
Select Replace to replace the value that exists for the duplicate label(s) with the amount from the import file.
Select Continue to proceed to the Import Status page to review the employees and the duplicate labels. You will not be able to import with this selection.
Select Cancel to abort the import.If there are any errors or warning messages during data validation when the file is imported, the Import Status page will display.
In this page, all errors and warning messages will display. The Line # column represents the line number in the actual file, to make it easier to find the data that needs to be corrected before it can be imported.
The Summary Information section will display the number of Errors, Warnings, and Successes. If there are no Successes, the Import item will not appear on the page.
You can choose to display Warnings Only, Errors Only, Warnings/Errors Only or Show All information by making the appropriate selection in the Display Results field. You can print the listing of errors by clicking Print.
You can choose to import any successes by clicking Import or choose to correct the file and run through the import process again. To exit without importing any records, click Back.If there are no errors with the data validation or if the Import item is selected in the Import Status page, the Confirmation dialog will display.
Click Yes to import the file. This will generate a final Confirmation dialog.
File Import and Data Selection Page
This page allows users to select the file and records to import into Box 12. It also initiates the Import wizard.
Field | Description |
---|---|
File to Import | The location of the file on your personal computer or network server, in addition to the name of the file. |
Line # | The number representing the line in the file to be imported. |
Column 1 - Column 30 | Represents the column headings for the file to be imported. |
Define Column Mapping Page
This page allows users to map the columns in the file to be imported with the fields in database table.
Field | Description |
---|---|
Saved Import Mapping | This lists the mapping you created or mappings set to public. When a saved mapping is selected, the table field mapping defaults into the Column Mapping section of the page. |
Import File Column | Lists the Column Titles set on the File to Import Data Selection page. |
Table Field | Lists the table and field names from the database table. You will select from the list the field that you can to map the Import File column to. |
Field Description | User-friendly name for the value in the Table Field column. Display-only. |
Import Errors Page
This generates a list of errors where the data in the file does not match the requirements of the fields in the database table.
Field | Description |
---|---|
Line # | The number representing the line in the file to be imported. |
Import File Column | Lists the Column Titles set on the File to Import Data Selection page. |
Table Field | Lists the table and field names from the database table. |
Value | The data in the field that is generating the error. |
Error Message | The error message explaining why the value does not meet the database requirements. |
Static Column Value Mapping Page
This page allows users to statically map required fields in the database table to a value. This value is used for all lines of the file to be imported.
Field | Description |
---|---|
Table Field | Lists the table and field names from the database table that have not been mapped on the Define Column Mapping page. Required fields will default in this field. Non-required fields can be added by selecting Append Row. |
Field Description | User-friendly name for the value in the Table Field column. Display-only. |
Value | The value that will be used for all rows in the file to be imported. |
Save Import Mapping Page
This page allows users to save the mapping created in the Define Column Mapping and Static Column Value Mapping pages.
Field | Description |
---|---|
Mapping Name | The identifier to be used for the mapping. |
Owner | User that created the mapping. If a user updates the mapping, the user ID, date, and time will display next to this field. Display-only. |
Public | Select this box to allow all users access to use the mapping. The mapping will appear in the Saved Import Mapping field of the Define Column Mapping page. Clear the box to prevent users from using this mapping. Only the Owner will have access. |
Restricted | Select this box to prevent users from updating the mapping if selected in the Saved Import Mapping field of the Define Column Mapping page. Only the Owner will be able to update. Clear the box to allow users to update this saved mapping. |
Save Options | Selection to determine how the mapping should be saved. Save options are:
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Import Status Page
This page allows users to see error and warning messages generated during the data validation of the Import.
Field | Description |
---|---|
Number of Errors | The count of errors found during the data validation that will prevent the data from being imported. Display-only. |
Number of Warnings | The count of warnings found during the data validation. Warnings will not prevent the data from being imported. Display-only. |
Number of Successes | The count of successes found during the data validation. Display-only. |
Display Results | Allows you to decide which records you want to display in the list and on the Import Status Report.
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Indicator | This column displays the indicators for warnings, errors, and successes. |
Line # | The number representing the line in the file to be imported. |
Status | Displays the error and warning messages during the data validation. Also displays successes if Show All is selected in the Display Results. |