Add Payroll Balance Forward allows you to enter year-to-date amounts for employees. This is primarily used to (but not restricted to) enter year-to-date payroll, deduction, and withholding totals for employees after going "live" on StaffSuite. This ensures that the end-of-year W2's are correct.

If you are entering information from another system into StaffSuite, you have various options: You can enter the information check by check, you can summarize for a month/quarter, or you can simply enter one balance forward amount.

Balance forward can also be used to correct withholding errors on checks. For example, if an employee's wages were withheld from the wrong state and the check has already been cashed (if it has not been cashed, the best path is to void the original check and reissue a new one), then payroll balance forward fix the withholding so that the correct state is used.

Tips: When tips are recorded for an employee, a balance forward transaction is entered using a "Tip" wage code where the gross check amount equals the tip amount and the net check amount is zero since the employee already received the money.

Adding a Payroll Balance Forward

1. There are two ways to find an employee. In the Social Security # field, enter the social security number of the employee for whom you are adding this payroll balance forward. Conversely, in the Employee ID field, you can enter the ID of the employee.

NOTE: Permission to view social security numbers is set up in the Staffing Service Rep Basic screen. A staffing service rep that does not have permission to view social security numbers will be able to enter a social security number but, as soon as results are displayed, the numbers will be masked with only the last four digits revealed. If you do not know the employee's SSN, you cannot use that field to add a balance forward.

2. Employee Name, Employee ID (if Social Security # was used to find the employee), Social Security # (if Employee ID was used to find the employee) and Check Date default automatically. If there is only one Bank Account associated with the corporation, Bank Account also defaults. While the employee name cannot be edited, you can use to edit the bank account, and to edit the check date.

For more information on using StaffSuite's calendar control, click here.

3. In the Gross Total field, enter the gross amount on this balance forward. If you are entering an individual check, this would be the gross amount (before deductions and withholdings) of the check. If you are entering a summary amount, this would be the total gross earnings for that summary period (month, quarter, etc.).

4. In the Check Number field, enter the payroll check number if you are entering information from a single check. If you are entering summary information, you should still enter a number for tracking purposes.

Note: If you allow the system to assign a check number, it assigns the next check number in sequence. For those of you using pre-numbered checks, this could result in your checks being mis-numbered during your next check run. Therefore, when creating a Balance Forward transaction to make a correction to a check generated within StaffSuite, manually enter a check number that will not interfere with your current check stock.

5. In the Net Amount field, enter the amount that the employee actually received (after deductions and withholding). If you are entering an individual check, this would be the amount of the actual check. If you are entering a summary amount, this would be the total net earnings for that summary period (month, quarter, etc.)

6. In the Earnings grid:

7. In the Wage Code column, use  to select a PayBill code(s) for the balance forward transaction

8. In the Unemployment State column, use to select the unemployment state associated with the PayBill code

9. In the Total Hours column, enter the total hours worked for this balance forward (for example, if this balance forward is for a month, enter the total hours worked for the month)

10. In the Gross Earned column, enter the total gross amount earned (not including withholding and deductions) for the balance forward (for example, if this balance forward is for the quarter, enter the gross amount earned for the quarter)

11. In the Period End column, enter the period ending date for this paybill code for this balance forward (for example, if this balance forward is for the quarter, enter the quarter ending date). The date format is MMDDYYYY.

12. You can not enter information directly into the Eligibility cell. Instead, click to display the Eligibility Participation screen and add information to the Eligibility column. Eligibility programs are added through System Administration, employees are added to a program through Operations and eligibility is calculated here on the PayBill side of StaffSuite.

IMPORTANT: In order for eligibility calculations to be affected, the wage code must be added through this button. Just adding the wage code to the timesheet will not associate this timesheet to eligibility calculations.

Click here for more information about associating eligibility programs to a balance forward.

7. In the Deductions grid:

8. In the Deductions column, use to select the various deductions associated with this balance forward transaction

9. In the EE Amount column, enter the amount deducted from the employee's pay for this balance forward (for example, if this balance forward is for a month, enter the total amount deducted for the month). If there is an employer matching amount for this deduction, enter the amount in the ER Amount column.

8. In the Withholdings grid:

9. Click the button to add withholding information for this balance forward

10. Select a row and click the button to change withholding information

11. Select a row and click the button to delete withholding information

For more information about the Withholding Add window, click here.

9. When you are satisfied with the information you have entered, click the button to save the Payroll Balance Forward transaction.

NOTE: The system will check to see if the gross earnings amount minus total deductions minus total withholdings equals the net amount. If not, the system displays a warning message and allows you to edit your current information.

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