If the State Unemployment Insurance, otherwise referred to as SUI, does not calculate correctly on your employee’s paycheck, the following guidelines will help you determine what may be causing the error. The assumption this article takes is that your employee is already setup for SUI to be deducted from their paycheck and that you have downloaded the most current Payroll Tax Table in QuickBooks. If not, click this link before you proceed: http://www.qbexpress.com/how-to-download-the-most-current-payroll-tax-table-in-quickbooks.
There are numerous possible reasons why the State Unemployment Insurance does not calculate correctly on your employee’s check:
- The employee could have reached the SUI yearly limit
- The employee has not been marked properly as being subject to SUI in their Employee Profile
- The SUI rate (or calculated percentage) is not correct
- The program is automatically adjusting the figure to correct the wage base
- A date integrity issue exists
To resolve the issue:
Verify the State Employment Insurance is setup in an employee’s record by:
- Clicking on the Employee menu/Employee Center
- Then double click on the specific Employee name
- Now click on the drop down arrow under Change Tabs and choose Payroll and Compensation Info. QuickBooks 2013. Next, click on Payroll Info
- Click on Taxes – a button located at the right
- Now click on State and ensure that the SUI Company Paid is marked correctly
Verify you entered the right SUI rate:
- On the Payroll Item list, find the State Unemployment item
- Now double click your specific SUI item
- In the Edit Payroll Item window select Next and forward to the screen showing quarterly rates. The rates are entered in QuickBooks as percentages.
- If the rate is not correct, make edits and then click on Next until your reach Finish in order to save changes.
- Important to note: QuickBooks will mark a payroll item subject to and also exempt from State Unemployment insurance by default, in accordance with the state’s guidelines.
Determine if a manual adjustment has been made to an SUI amount by looking at your Payroll Reports. A manual adjustment to SUI figures entered directly to a paycheck may cause errors in the calculation:
- Create a Payroll Summary Report – Select Reports/Employees & Payroll/Payroll Summary Report
- Enter the year to date calendar
- Locate the SUI for the employee and then double click on the accrued dollar amount. This opens the Transaction by Payroll Item report. – Adjustments will show in the report and will show the Liability Adjustment type
- If this adjustment is not found to be the main cause of your SUI calculation error, void or delete the liability adjustment
- Multiply the SUI rate by the wage base figure
- Now compare the results from your manual calculation with the report
- If a discrepancy exists, make corrections or adjust totals in the next step
Make necessary corrections to your SUI wage base or tax amount:
If you have worked through all of the steps above and are still getting an error, contact our local QuickBooks expert in your area for help by clicking the Find a Trainer tab above.