NOTE: You only need to copy the necessary file once; regardless of how many companies you have for processing payroll, the same program files are used by all companies.
Two new
DD Cost
of Employer-Sponsored Health Coverage
Reporting this information is OPTIONAL for 2011 reporting. It will be mandatory for employers with 250 or more W-2s a year from now when reporting 2012 wages. Refer to the IRS website for more details.
EE Designated Roth Contributions Under a Governmental Sec 457(b) Plan
These amounts also transfer in the EFW2 electronic file for reporting to Social Security.
Additionally, a new field has been added to the Employer record (RE):
Kind of Employment
Everyone will need to manually edit the Employer record and enter the correct code for this field (see instructions below).
These changes necessitated changing 3 program related files. EVERYONE should perform this update to be in compliance with the new reporting standards. Details on how to install the update are found below.
The trick is to download the file described below, and get it into the correct location on your server. Your system already has the outdated version of this file in the payroll directory. To update your program we will not go through a formal install process through the Resource Manager. Instead, you will simply download a ZIP archive that contains the updated files from this web site, extract the files in place and replace the old files with the new ones. In order to be successful in your update, you must know exactly where your payroll programs are located.
The link below will prompt you to download and save the update file. But before you do that, you will need to know where your payroll directory progPA is located. On what drive is your payroll system located? What is the base subdirectory for your OSAS system? In recent years, with the new client/server version of OSAS, it is not easy to explain where to look. The good news is that most people already know where to look. In many cases, you use a mapped drive to be able to access the location on your server where OSAS resides. You may do this to retrieve direct deposit files, or other report files. So look for the location on your server where OSAS resides. The drive will most often have the OSAS folder in plain sight. The OSAS folder usually also includes a version number, so you may see folders like: OSAS65, OSAS7, or OSAS752. In fact, there may be more than one OSAS folder. This is common because when we do an upgrade, we often keep the old version still in place for a while. Look for the OSAS folder with the highest number that would be the live system, while the lower number is the old version. So go exploring through My Computer and find the live OSAS folder and the progPA folder underneath it.
So if your base location is O:\OSAS65, then you want to save your update to O:\OSAS65\PROGPA. If your base location is O:\OSAS752, then you want to save your update to O:\OSAS752\progPA.
Click on the link below to download the new update, and save it in your payroll subdirectory:
Click here to download the 2011 W2 program update.
Note: If you do not have access to your payroll system while you are on the internet, you may need to save this program update file on to a floppy disk. You may save this file on a floppy, and use Windows to copy the file into your payroll directory later.
By clicking on the link above, you should receive an option to SAVE this file W2UP2011.zip. When you select to save the file, you should have a browse window where you can navigate to the desired location you have identified as your payroll folder and save it there.
Now go through My Computer, to the folder where you saved the update: select the drive location where your payroll system is located, select the base location, then select the folder PROGPA. When you are in this folder you will see dozens of files. Look for the file you just downloaded: W2UP2011.zip. The extension .zip may not show. The .zip file most often will have an icon that looks like a folder with a zipper on it. Once you have found the file, <Right-Click> on the file, and then select: Extract All. When you go through the wizard, you will need to edit the directory location the wizard provides. Remove the \W2UP2011 from the directory location. The location should end with progPA. You should say YES to overwrite the existing 3 files:
PAXW2DEF.TXT PAXW2ER PAXW2MM
In fact, if it does not ask you to overwrite the existing file, you must not be in the right location. Your update should now be complete.
The easiest way to tell if your program has been updated is by going into the Create MMREF1 Disk File function. In the new version, the title at the top of the screen will say: Create EFW2 Reporting File YYYY. I have changed the title of this program to reflect the replacement of EFW2 for what was called MMREF-1. Note that while the menu still may say MMREF, the program title now uses EFW2. So if you see the new title on the program screen, your update should be in place. Of course, you will also be able to tell readily when you go to edit the employer record. You should see the new field for Kind of Employer.
If you have any problems with your update, please give me a call.
The top menu item on the W-2 processing menu is the: Extract/Edit Employer Information. Everyone will need to edit this record for the change below. When you come into this program, you are prompted to select the year. After you set the year, the first record is displayed.
Because a new field has been added to the employer information, a special conversion of the data to add this new field must be made by the system. This conversion will happen automatically when you move from page to page in the employer information screens. So the first time you come into this function, you should simply use the (N)ext key to page through all the employer information screens. You will come back a second time and proof and edit the data. For now, just move through the employer screens until you get back to the menu. You only need to do this once. This will convert the data and setup the new field. After you have come back to the menu, you can go back in to this function and edit the employer record as described below.
If you receive an error (red screen) while editing the employer information:
Basic error = 47 line = 2610 Program = PAXW2ED.PUB
This is caused by not doing the conversion. Simply go through all the screens as described above and the system will fix the error automatically.
So on your second time through the Employer Information screens, the first record is displayed. This is the SUBMITTER (RA) record. There is no change to this record, but you should check it to make sure your contact name and phone number are included. When you press N for next page, the EMPLOYER (RE) record is displayed. If you use the down-arrow, to scroll down the page (keep going), you should see near the bottom the new field: KIND OF EMPLOYER. This is a single character using one of the following:
F Federal Government if your name is Uncle Sam, use this
S State
and Local Government
T Tax Exempt this is a non-governmental 501(c)
Y State and Local Tax Exempt this is a dual status government/501(c) like a school
N None of the above if none of the above apply, use this code
You should enter the appropriate code for your business.
Many users keep very exact notes on this process. In the past, when you created the file, the name of the file for reporting to SSA was named: W2REPORT. That name goes back to the days of diskette reporting, when that specific name was a requirement. But diskette reporting is no longer accepted, and when you upload the file through the website, you can use any name you like. So I have now chosen to change the name of the file to be: EFW2yyyy where yyyy represents the year you are reporting. So this year, the file name will be: EFW22011. By automatically including the year in the file name, this will help prevent users from accidentally overwriting last years file. Its a good idea to keep these files for a few years.
So be sure to change your notes to look for the new file!
Each year, the Social Security agency makes available free on the web, a program that can be used to check your disk file prior to submission. It is strongly recommended that all companies use this program each year. You can download this program from the government site:
http://www.ssa.gov/employer/accuwage/index.html
You should save this file to your workstation, install it; then you can use it to test your W2REPORT file after you have created the file for this year. It is helpful in discovering errors that the payroll system does not test for, such as invalid punctuation in employee names.
The government no longer accepts diskettes. You should use the government website to submit your file electronically. Use the BSO (Business Services Online) site at:
http://www.ssa.gov/employer/bsohbnew.htm
From this site you can find information to register your company and receive a User ID if you have not already done so.