Update for first quarter 2015 payroll reporting

An update for The Farmer’s Office and The Labor Contractor’s Office is now available through the Check for Updates option on the Tools menu.    We recommend that all customers download and install the latest version when possible.  (As always, you’ll need to install the update when all users are not using the program.)

The update includes the new forms and programming changes for the 2015 Federal Form 941.  (As usual this form is not finalized by the IRS before we publish the Year End Update, so another update is normally required.)  If you need to file this form, this update is required to print this form correctly.

This update also includes an adjustment to how the total number of employees that worked during the pay period that include the 12th of the month is calculated for multi-state employers only.  (This change does not affect you if you only have payroll in a single state.)

Under certain conditions, some customers found that incorrect employee counts could be reported.  After installing this update, the Fix Employee Totals option can be used to make sure that the employee counts reported to each state are correct.

During the archive quarter to date totals process, the program will automatically check to see if there may be a problem with the employee counts and display a message indicating that the Fix Employee Totals option should be used.  The program will automatically open the Fix Employee Totals window and enter the correct dates and other settings.  You can then click on the Fix Totals button.  Once this is done, you can re-archive the first quarter totals using the Payroll->Quarterly Tax Reporting->Archive Quarterly Totals option and proceed with your quarterly workflow normally.

If you have already archived the quarter to date totals and want to make sure that the employee totals are correct, go to Payroll->Utilities->Fix Employee Totals and use the Change Qtr/Year button to move the current quarter back to 1/2015.  (This should be done of course when no other users are printing checks.)  You can then re-archive the first quarter (using the Payroll->Quarterly Tax Reporting->Archive Quarterly Totals option).  Finally, use the Change Qtr/Year button one more time to change the quarter back to 2/2015.

Sick Pay Leave Act Program Enhancements

Starting July 1st, 2015, a new sick pay leave act goes into effect for California.  In order to help our customers comply with the new requirements, we have decided to make some enhancements within our payroll module.  Programming is currently in progress and more details will come as options are being implemented.
This information is provided to answer questions about how Datatech programs will help you to handle the new sick pay leave laws.  Specific questions about how your business should develop and implement sick pay policy should be directed to your legal counsel.

Here is a list of planned changes:

Plan Set-Up

• Employers will be able to set up multiple sick pay plans with different rates and rules.  A sick pay plan will be assigned to each employee who qualifies.
• In the sick pay accrual rules, two different caps will be set.  You will set a maximum number of hours to accrue and a maximum number of hours available to be used within a year.  Any unused hours accrued will carry over to the next year up to the maximum accrual cap.  If an employee has accrued the maximum and takes sick pay, the accrual will resume until it has reached the maximum accrual amount.  However, sick pay they are allowed to use is always based on the rule for sick pay allowed within a year.  You can accrue beyond the obligatory 6 days/48 hours, as specified in the law.
•  In the plan setup you can determine your measurement period based on a calendar year or the plan year you determine in your policy.  We are not planning on supporting the option to base the year on the individual employment dates.
• We will have the ability to accrue sick pay by State worked for multi-State employers who have workers who need accruals based on only California wages only. (If you are a multi-state employer and are not sure how multi-state rules affect your company, please consult legal counsel.)
•  We will be adding a tool to initially assign a plan to current employees so that you do not need to do this one by one.

Check Stubs

• Sick pay will accrue and appear on check stubs in hour increments as well as the sick pay available to the employee for the year.

Eligibility Periods/Data Entry

• We will have an eligibility date field in the employee file.  This will be for the 90 day employment waiting period before sick pay can be taken.  It will be the responsibility of the employer to enter this date when the employee is hired or re-hired.  A warning will pop up in payroll entry when the sick pay wage type is used prior to the end of that 90 day period. The program will allow an over-ride by the user so you have the ability to advance an employee their accrued sick pay.
• We will not be tracking the 30 day California employment period since the accrual needs to start from day one of employment and the 90 day employment period will cover beyond that 30 days.
• If an employee leaves and returns to work at a later time, it will be up to the user to determine if any prior accrual should remain or if it is past the year period and it needs to be reset.  This also applies for the employment waiting period.

Rate of Pay

•  For piecework workers who need sick pay paid based on a 90 day average hourly wage, we are planning a simple method for calculating this rate directly from the check entry window.

Lump Sum Method

• For employers using the lump sum method instead of accruing, we will have a method for setting up lump sum sick pay values in the employee files and re-setting these each year. More details will come as we finalize the programming.

It is our hope that the above will answer most, if not all of the questions our customers have.  If you have any questions regarding the above options, please e-mail me @ damaris@datatechag.com.

Links for information about the new law:
http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/Paid_Sick_Leave.htm
http://www.calchamber.com/headlines/pages/12082014-paid-sick-leave-law-a-look-at-employer-compliance-options.aspx
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB1522