Enter After-the-Fact Payroll Information to Print Employee W-2 Forms

Payroll can be a little more complex than just entering payroll checks, printing reports and forms, and closing the payroll tax year. For example, if an employee needs a W-2 form at the end of 2011 but no payroll checks have been entered for that particular employee during 2011, you must enter after-the-fact payroll information to print the form. The same can be true of 1099 vendors. If you have vendors that need a 1099 form printed but they are not entered in the system and payments have not been made to the vendors, this is considered after the fact.

Note: Before printing payroll and 1099 forms, install the latest Sage 50 tax service update. This ensures that your forms will be in compliance with current federal regulations.

To enter after-the-fact payroll information for employees

  1. Verify the default information for your employee W-2 forms.
    • From the Maintain menu, select Payroll, then Payroll Settings.
    • Select Taxes in the left column. Then, select Assign Tax Fields, which appears just below Taxes.
    • Click the W-2 Fields button.
    • Verify that the appropriate payroll fields are assigned to each box on the W-2 form.
  2. Set up the employee's record (if it is not already).
    • From the Maintain menu, select Employees/Sales Reps.
    • Enter the information needed to establish a new employee record. Then, select Save.
    • Repeat the above procedure for each new employee.
  3. For each employee who needs an after-the-fact W-2, enter the calendar year payroll balances. This information is to be entered on the individual's employee record.
    • From the Maintain menu, select Employees/Sales Reps.
    • Enter or select the employee ID. Select the Employee Beginning Balances button on the General tab.
    • In the Date field of the first vacant column, enter the last date of the current payroll tax year. For example, if you are printing 2011 after-the-fact W-2 forms, enter 12/31/11 in column 1.
    • In the new year-end column, enter each payroll field's year-to-date total for this one employee. For deductions, include a negative sign (-) at the beginning of each amount that is to be subtracted from gross pay. To record the W-2 totals, select Save.
    • Repeat the above process for each new employee who requires a W-2 form.

    Note: Employee beginning balances do not affect Sage 50's general ledger. They are only used to update employee year-to-date earnings and print quarterly and annual payroll forms.

  4. Print the Yearly Earnings report.

    This report will help to verify that correct beginning balance amounts were entered in Maintain Employees/Sales Reps. These amounts will be printed on employee W-2 forms.

  5. If any adjustments need to be made for the employee's year-to-date earnings, return to the employee's record in Maintain Employees/Sales Reps, and edit the beginning balances.

To print after-the-fact employee W-2 forms

After verifying that the employee's payroll information is entered correctly (see above), you can print W-2 forms through the Payroll Tax Form Selector.

Note: You must subscribe to one of the Sage Business Care plans to print W-2's from within Sage 50.