Payroll tax deductions after adding 2017 tax tables

[LizAA]

Hi, I'm new to Powerchurch and trying to get the tax table updated and run payroll.
I just updated the Tax tables for 2017 (Table 7 on page 46). Then ran Payroll and none of my tax deductions are being applied. I should have fed, state and local tax taken out.
Any ideas why?

[NeilZ]

Hi, I'm new to Powerchurch and trying to get the tax table updated and run payroll.
I just updated the Tax tables for 2017 (Table 7 on page 46). Then ran Payroll and none of my tax deductions are being applied. I should have fed, state and local tax taken out.
Any ideas why?

Did you create the Tax Item Descriptions, and added these as Pay Items to the employees ??

On page 289 of the Powerchurch Manual, as well as the PDF that is located in the \powerchurch\pcplus115 directory, how to Maintain Item Descriptions is covered.

Once you create the proper item descriptions (some are already setup for you if you use the Payroll Setup Assistant), you need to add them as PAY ITEMS to each employee. This is done through the Maintain List of Employees function of Payroll, and is covered starting on page 301. Pay Items[/i] are covered starting on page 303. The manual will lead you through adding stuff like Income and Tax items.

If you've done this already, verify that the Tax Deduction Pay Items are setup correctly.

Let us know what you find.

[LizAA]

Yes, they are all there: Federal, State and local taxes, and selected as pay items for the employee. Yet when I run the payroll, the taxes aren't deducted.
I had run a payroll already this year before realizing I needed to update the tax tables. That first payroll included the deductions. So today I updated them just before generating payroll...
I've closed out of Powerchurch to see if that made a difference. Same result.

[NeilZ]

Yes, they are all there: Federal, State and local taxes, and selected as pay items for the employee. Yet when I run the payroll, the taxes aren't deducted.
I had run a payroll already this year before realizing I needed to update the tax tables. That first payroll included the deductions. So today I updated them just before generating payroll...
I've closed out of Powerchurch to see if that made a difference. Same result.

OK .. so you're not getting ANY taxes deducted, which means it may not have anything to do with the Federal tax table update, since state & local taxes are also affected.

So the tax deduction pay items are listed for each employee, and each tax deduction has a checkmark next to it. The title says you 'added' the tax tables. Did you actually 'add' them, or just update the existing FITW tables ??

[NeilZ]

FWIW .. the tax table should look like this (Married shown):




The first tab should look like this:




The Pay Item List should look like this:



And the FITW Pay Item for each employee should look like this, this employee is having an additional $10 taken out:

[LizAA]

Oops, sorry. I modified the 2017 federal withholding tax tables, and changed the wage cap.
When I check an employee's Pay items under Maintain List of Employees, the correct items are checked, and the amounts on the right include gross salary and correct tax deductions. But when I go to process payroll, that same employee doesn't have their taxes deducted

[NeilZ]

Oops, sorry. I modified the 2017 federal withholding tax tables, and changed the wage cap.
When I check an employee's Pay items under Maintain List of Employees, the correct items are checked, and the amounts on the right include gross salary and correct tax deductions. But when I go to process payroll, that same employee doesn't have their taxes deducted

Hmmm ... ok, before you look at the paragraph below, do this first; Run a REINDEX of the entire database. Sometimes this fixes a few things. Then restart the program, and try to process Payroll again. As you can tell, this is a strange one, as I've not seen this issue come up, at least not that I can remember.

If the reindex did not work, one more question.

When you process, do you have the checkbox for Suppress specific items from being processed checked? If so, when you get the screen with the list of Pay Items, are they all checked and only the ones you do not want to process are unchecked?

If the answer to this is yes, then you may have to call Powerchurch support, as it may be something that we can't fix via the forums. If you have to do that, let us know what happened and why (if possible).

[LizAA]

Reindex the database???!! I'm a temporary fill-in for our book keeper with not a lot of book keeping knowledge and about two weeks experience with Powerchurch. reindexing sounds scary to me. Shd I take a backup first? (Although, I've never done a restore backup before)
Do you think I might be doing 'process payroll' incorrectly somehow, to cause this? This actually only the second time I'm doing payroll ever.
I'll work on it again in the morning and see if
I get anywhere.

[LizAA]

I do NOT have the checkbox for Suppress specific items from being processed checked? And on the employee record I have the three tax boxes checked along with salary. Is this correct?

[NeilZ]

Reindex the database???!! I'm a temporary fill-in for our book keeper with not a lot of book keeping knowledge and about two weeks experience with Powerchurch. reindexing sounds scary to me. Shd I take a backup first? (Although, I've never done a restore backup before)
Do you think I might be doing 'process payroll' incorrectly somehow, to cause this? This actually only the second time I'm doing payroll ever.
I'll work on it again in the morning and see if
I get anywhere.

Reindexing is not scary, just head to the menu: Utilities -> Reindex keep the default of all files and click on OK. It will then start to reindex the database. What this is doing is resetting the pointers in the database so that the data can easily be found.

Once that's done, try to process the payroll.

[NeilZ]

I do NOT have the checkbox for Suppress specific items from being processed checked? And on the employee record I have the three tax boxes checked along with salary. Is this correct?

Well, I'm assuming that you're talking about the FITW, State & Local tax items, if so, that is correct.

[LizAA]

I did the Reindex and then tried the Process Payroll with same results.
I double checked the "maintain list of Employees" 'Pay Items" and it turns out that the Federal tax is not using the federal tax tables at all. The employee is a clergy and has opted to have 2% withheld so there's a "AP Federal" that has Federal Withholding as it's tax type. That's the one being used in the "Pay Items' ... So it seems it's not to do with the tax tables... Rather it's not recognizing the checked items from the "Pay items" list for this employee. (BTW there are only two employees, both clergy, one chose to have federal tax withheld and the other chose no tax to be withheld). It seems both are being processed as if they both have no tax withheld.

Thanks for the help so far!

[LizAA]

I FIGURED IT OUT!!
I am soo sorry. It was processing correctly after all. I thought the screen titled "Enter Salary Payroll" was supposed to display the deductions BUT it just shows the salary. I did not go all the way to "Verify Payroll" which shows the actual amount on each check. I just did that and voila!! I found my 'missing' deductions! 2nd pay period done and hopefully no problems next time.

Thanks for ALL your help!
Blessings!

[NeilZ]

I FIGURED IT OUT!!
I am soo sorry. It was processing correctly after all. I thought the screen titled "Enter Salary Payroll" was supposed to display the deductions BUT it just shows the salary. I did not go all the way to "Verify Payroll" which shows the actual amount on each check. I just did that and voila!! I found my 'missing' deductions! 2nd pay period done and hopefully no problems next time.

Thanks for ALL your help!
Blessings!

No problem ... glad that you figured it out