Quarter End Balancing

Posted on by wallun

This tip and trick is to help you when balancing your quarter end reports. The steps are as follows:

  1. Run an Earnings detail report for the check dates of the quarter: Ex. First quarter run 1/1/YY through 3/31/YY, second quarter run 4/1/YY through 6/30/YY, third quarter 7/1/YY through 9/30/YY, fourth quarter run 10/1/YY through 12/31/YY. Run the report in Summary or totals only.  Be sure to check the include deductions box.  Your gross wages should match the gross wages on the quarter end reports and the 941 report.
  2. 941 – Federal/FICA Report
    • Go to Payroll, Reports, Quarter end report. Select the 941 report.  Click change.  Make sure the options are correct: Select the correct quarter and year; report type needs to be Federal Form 941.  Do not check include tax deferred in gross and do not check Year to Date is current for selected quarter.
    • Click Ok and click print
    • Make sure the quarter and year are correct on the Header tab.
    • Click on the schedule B tab. The amounts on this tab should be the liability you owed, not what you paid.  However, if you paid the amounts from your payroll posting, they should match.  Verify that the amounts on the schedule B are the same as what you paid in weekly.  If not, you need to verify the amounts against your posting reports.
    • Click on the Lines 1-8 tab. You will have a fraction of cents difference between the schedule B and line 6.  Enter this fraction of cents on line 7, can be a positive or a negative, preferably not more than $1
    • Click on lines 9-14. Enter the total amount you paid on line 13a.
    • Click on lines 15-25, if you have Health plan wages, credits or Covid credits, you will enter those on this tab. At the top of this tab, it also shows your overpayment, if applicable.
    • Click on parts 4-5 tab. Enter the contact information, click print 941.
    • If your report does not match, run the earnings detail report. Take each person’s gross minus non-tax deductions and multiply the amount by 6.2%.  Make sure the amount of Social Security deduction matches the amount you calculated.  When you locate the person which is off, you can go back to the posting report or run their earnings detail in detail to figure out why it is off.
  3. 940 (FUTA/FEDERAL UNEMPLOYMENT) 1st-3rd quarter:  go to payroll, reports, quarter end report.  Run the federal quarter end report for the correct quarter and year.  The first report it prints out will be the FUTA report.  At the bottom of this report is the total wages subject to FUTA.  You will be paying the Quarter To Date Amount Owed.  This can be paid online at eftps.gov.  Be sure to only enter the quarter amount, not the year to date amount.
    • For the 4th quarter, go to payroll, reports, quarter end reports. Select the 940, select the fourth quarter and the correct year.
    • Verify the header information. On the part 1 tab, if you only paid state unemployment in OK, enter OK in line 1a.  If you pay state unemployment in more than one state, check the box on box 1b.  Use the Schedule A to verify if your state is subject to credit reduction.  If so, check the box in line 2.
    • Part 2-7: Using your end of quarter reports, verify the totals on these tabs.  Make sure to verify schedule A.  The system should fill in the totals from your payroll postings.
  4. State withholding: Use form WTH10001, Oklahoma Quarterly Wage Withholding Tax Return or enter online through your OK TAP account.  This can be found at: https://oktap.tax.ok.gov/OkTAP/Web/_/   Enter the total wages and total tax withheld.  This should be a recap of the state amounts paid in each month.
  5. State Unemployment (SUTA): go to payroll, reports, quarter end reports.  Select the State Report type.  Select the Standard report format.  Use the state unemployment taxable wages column to fill out the form on https://oklahoma.gov/oesc.html .  Once on the website, click on the EZ Tax Express option.  Follow the screens.  If you are not setup to pay online, be sure to print the voucher to send in with the check.
  6. Run the w-2s and an earnings detail for the check dates of 01/01/YY-12/31/YY. Be sure to run this in summary and include the deductions. Subtract the non-tax deductions to get your gross amounts.

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