Payroll 2.0 | Schulz Consulting

Form 941 For Q2 2021 Includes 23 Changes

July 7, 2021 by Wayne Schulz

eFiling and tax solution provider Aatrix has outlined the 23 changes to the IRS form 941 for Q2 2021. These changes impact part 1 and part 2 of form 941 which is required to be filed for payroll periods ending on or after June 30, 2021.

The changes to the 941 form include 10 new lines and 13 updated lines. Aatrix provides the tax filing integration used by Sage 100 and allows for both printing and e-filing of payroll returns using the most up-to-date forms.

For a complete list of the changes which Aatrix has made to their 941 forms / e-filing for Q2 2021 visit this link.

Follow these instructions to update your Sage 100 payroll forms via Aatrix. Please note that you must be on one of the Sage 100 versions below in order to update to the latest forms from Aatrix:

Sage 100 2019.5
Sage 100 2020.2
Sage 100 2021

Sage 100 Aatrix e-Filing Bug Erroneously Reports Bad SSN Matches for 2020

January 6, 2021 by Wayne Schulz

Early e-filers of W2 forms may have erroneously received a notice from Aatrix that their 2020 Sage 100 payroll files contained erroneous social security information.

The message indicated that the employee SSNs could not be verified by the IRS and that the company submitting the file should verify that the correct SSN were submitted.

Later in the day Aatrix began to notify users that the message had been sent to some in error and there may not be any issue with the social security number validation.

Aatrix advises that if you have received a message indicating SSN mismatches that you can use the following instructions to verify your filing:

To view Filing Status:

Navigate to https://efile.aatrix.com/ 2. Click on Log In in the upper right corner 3. Login with your eFile username and password 4. Click on the Filings Tab
a) Open Status: One or more parts of the filing are not complete.
b) Closed Status: All parts of the filing has been confirmed as complete or the filing was manually closed through the Aatrix online account.
c) Deleted Status: The filing is deleted and no part of the filing will be processed.
Click on the Details Link for the appropriate AFID number in the filings list.
In the additional details for the filing, each part of the filing will be listed with a status:
a) Awaiting Batch Processing: Not yet submitted to agency.
b) Rejected: Reason for rejection will be displayed.
c) Not Confirmed: Submitted to agency, but not yet confirmed.
d) Accepted: Submitted to agency and confirmed as received/processed.

There is No Sage 100 IRD for 2020

January 6, 2021 by Wayne Schulz

Sage has updated their support knowledgebase to make it clear that there is no separate IRD ( Interim Release Download ) for Sage 100 2020.

These downloads are typically released in December and include updates to accommodate year-end tax changes.

According to Sage:

There is no end of year IRD (Interim Release Download) for the year-end 2020. This update was not needed for the 1099s as the changes for 2020 were made in the latest versions released with changes to the NEC (NonEmployee Compensation) Forms.

Make sure you have versions 2020.1, 2019.4, 2018.10 installed and the Aatrix forms have been updated.

If you have 3rd party modifications for Production Management or IRP see kb 107739

Changes to the Payroll versions are no longer done for year-end through the IRD but rather the Product Updates for Payroll. Latest version for year 2020 is Payroll v2.21.0.0.

Is Your Sage 100 Payroll Year-End Processing Slowly?

January 5, 2021 by Wayne Schulz

Are you closing your Payroll module in Sage 100 and notice that it’s taking a long time? This may be even more pronounced if you were previously using an older version of Payroll and upgraded to Sage’s Payroll 2.x.

According to Sage:

In “legacy” Sage 100 payroll (versions 2017 and older), data tables holding quarterly and YTD numbers were simply reset by the program and completely cleared out. Only the Perpetual History and the efiling data tables would retain detailed information on prior-year payroll amounts.

In “Payroll 2.0” (Business Framework coding, versions 2018 and newer), all data tables track much more detailed information and it is retained in all tables year over year. When year-end processing is run in these newer versions, the program must comb through the many detail records and purge only those records older than the required retention setting as set in Payroll Options. Large amounts of employee data and history will cause a lengthier processing time, and many customers have reported longer processing time the first year-end that is run in the new version.

Sage further advises you not stop any period end while it’s in processing. You should allow the process to finish because stopping midway through risks data corruption.

The latest Sage 100 Payroll 2.21 may be downloaded from here ( login required )

How Does Sage 100 Payroll Count Active Employees?

May 16, 2020 by Wayne Schulz

The Sage 100 payroll subscription is priced annually based upon the number of active employees. Since August 1, 2017, there have been two tier schedules depending upon whether you are a new or existing ( purchased before April 2016 ) user of payroll.

The on-going price paid for a payroll subscription is based upon the number of active employees paid by your company.

Here is Sage’s definition of an active employee via their knowledgebase.

Tier Count Calculation

The tax calculation process is what populates the SY_Metering.m4t table.

It does not matter if you have printed or updated checks.

If they were in payroll when the tax calculation was run they count. If payroll data entry was cleared after-tax calculation was run, they were already counted.

The count is cleared on the first of every month and starts over.

Each employee is counted once based on their encrypted EmployeeKey$. No matter how many times you pay that employee in a month they are only counted once. The tier limit counts all Company Codes in the installation for that account. Usually, test companies are a copy of live data so it does not increase unless new employees are added to that company code.

The messages you receive depend on the timing and status below.

You are given a grace period of 45 days after you first exceed your tier count limit.
In the 45 days grace period, you are allowed to exceed the 100 until the expire date.
After the expiration date, you are able to continue to perform tax calculation for your tier limit.

Once the unique employee ID’s reach the tier count, tax calculation will be unable to perform tax calculation.

There are 2 solutions:

Remove extra employees in Payroll Data Entry.
Contact the sales team to purchase a higher tier.

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