Troubleshooting Payroll Tax Calculation Errors during Payroll Entry

What to do if Sage 50 calculates zero or inaccurate amounts during payroll entry

If you just installed Sage 50, federal, state, and most local payroll taxes will not calculate automatically for you during payroll entry. (In some cases, payroll tax amounts will be inaccurate or zero.) To calculate these tax amounts within Sage 50 and to stay current with regulatory changes, you should subscribe to a Sage Business Care plan and install the latest update. Otherwise, you will have to manually calculate and enter your payroll taxes and other deductions on your paychecks.

If you have subscribed to a Sage Business Care plan and your formulas are still calculating incorrectly, you need to verify that the latest update is installed.

To determine which version of the Sage-maintained formulas you have currently installed, select About Sage 50 Accounting from the Help menu. This identifies the current version of the Sage-maintained formulas that are installed.

If you have the latest update installed, the first four digits of the version represent the current payroll tax year (for example, 20120101). If you have the latest installed, the first four digits of the version represent the current payroll tax year. (For example, 20120101 represents the year 2012 payroll tax formulas, version 0101.) If the first four digits of the tax formula version do not match your current payroll tax year or the tax table version is 19000101 (a generic tax formula), you should install the latest update.

If you have set up your formulas manually and taxes are calculating incorrectly:

Please review your tax formulas and compare the information to the tax information from your federal, state, or local government

Tell me more about setting up formulas.

What to do if Sage 50 displays error messages during payroll entry

If Sage 50 runs across an error while calculating or displaying a paycheck, it displays an error message that attempts to explain the problem and provide you with information regarding the error so that you can fix it.

The problem may be that a formula existed last year, but hasn't been updated for this year. You would need to get the latest tax update if you subscribe to one of the Sage Business Care plans.

Another problem may be that the filing status is incorrect. This primarily happens with state tax calculations. You would need to change the filing status for the employee to a valid status for the state.

Troubleshooting Example

For example, Sage 50 might display, "An invalid Filing Status is selected for a Payroll Field Name on the Withholding tab of an Employee record." The employee ID, payroll field name, and filing status will be displayed on the message as well. In this case, let's say it is the GA state income tax calculation and the filing status is Married.

You should check to see if there is a "Married" filing status for the state of Georgia.

Tip: See a list of filing statuses by state.

Georgia does not have a "Married" state filing status. Georgia currently only accepts "Married/2 Incomes," "Married/Jointly," and "Married/Separately." To correct the problem, change the employee's state filing status to one of the three valid choices in the Maintain Employees/Sales Reps window.

Common Reasons Sage 50 Displays Payroll Formula Errors during Payroll Entry

You must subscribe to a Sage Business Care plan to access payroll formulas within Sage 50.

If the message states that a formula existed last year, but cannot be found this year, then the formulas for the current year are probably not set up. There are two ways to establish tax formulas 1) to subscribe to a Sage Business Care plan and install the latest update, or 2) to set up the calculation in User-Maintained Payroll Formulas. If you are a current subscriber to Sage Business Care, and this message just started appearing, you can reinstall the tables. . Tell me more about setting up a user-maintained tax calculation.
If the message states that an invalid filing status has been selected or that the state/locality doesn't exist, then the employee might not have been set up correctly. Make sure that you have entered the correct state's initials in the employee's State/Locality box in the Maintain/ Employees window. For example, Georgia's State field is GA, not GE or GR. Some states require unique filing statuses. You could have set the employee up with an invalid filing status. Check your state's valid filing statuses here. The employee could have been set up with a filing status that is not valid for the state. For example, with the NJSIT calculation, an employee cannot have a simple "Single" or "Married" filing status. New Jersey uses "Special A-E" as filing statuses.

Valid state filing statuses in employee setup

If the calculation is for a local income tax, check the Locality field in the Payroll Formulas and compare it to the Locality field entered in Maintain Employees/Sales Reps. These must match exactly (including character spaces). Examples of localities for New York City (NYLIT) are "NYC Res" (New York City proper) and "YONK Res" (Yonkers). Please note that locality codes are case-sensitive.
If you desire to create new payroll calculations, they must be set up in user-maintained formulas. Make sure the new tax formula is listed in the formula list and the employee is set up properly to use the formula. If not, you must set it up.
If the message indicates that a tax formula you created cannot be found, make sure that at the end of the tax name there is a space followed by the current calendar year (for 2012 example, K401 12 or VAC_Rem 12).
If you just started a new payroll tax year and can't find the state unemployment (SUI) tax table, then you need to update this to the new payroll tax year. SUI tax formulas are maintained by you in the user-maintained tax formulas and are not updated with your payroll tax solution.

Update the employer state unemployment (SUI ER) formula to a new payroll tax year

If the error persists after trying all of the above, contact Sage 50 Customer Support.