Produce File and Forms
The BusinessPlus Year-End Update includes three utilities to produce W2s and/or the electronic submission file to the federal government. Depending on what process is run (produce Fed file, paper W2s, or electronic W2s), the W2 Update Report Definition (PYW2UP) page may need to be updated before launching the job.
The following four settings on the PYW2UP General Information tab control the output of each W2 processing utility:
Produce Forms on Laser Printer?
Produce File for Federal?
Produce File for State?
Produce Forms?
The table below offers an overview of the different settings per utility. Running W2s to EO overwrites the Fed file on the App server if the Produce File for Federal? box is selected on PYW2UP.
Process | Mask/Utility | PYW2UP Settings | |
|---|---|---|---|
Produce Fed (/State) file | PYW2PW | Produce Forms on Laser Printer? | [blank] |
Print paper W-2s | PYW2PW | Produce Forms on Laser Printer? | Y |
Produce electronic W-2s | PYW2PW / | Produce Forms on Laser Printer? | Y |
Paper vs. Electronic W2s
When printing W2s, you must decide how to differentiate between employees who will receive paper W2s vs. those who will receive an electronic version within Employee Online. For BusinessPlus build 7.9.10.101 and up, Employee Online users can select to opt out of receiving paper W2s by selecting Opt-out of receiving paper W-2s on the W2 page in Employee Online. When this box is selected, the Payroll Employee Definition (PYUPEM) page, Switches tab, will be updated with a Y in Switch #31 – Suppress W2 Prt. If the box is left cleared in EO, Switch #31 will be blank.
For BusinessPlus build 7.9.9 and older, Employee Online does not offer the Opt Out setting. However, all supported versions in the Year-End Update check the Switch 31 setting, so clients may use that switch to mark employees that have opted out of receiving paper W2s (populate the switch with a Y). Alternatively, a work-around method that involves the use of Skill Code fields in PYUPEM can be used to mark Opt Out employees; the Skill Code settings can then be referenced in selection criteria when processing W2s.
In the example below, Skill Cd 1 is used to mark employees to receive paper W2s (PW2) or electronic W2s (EW2). Run the SQL statement for whichever scenario is more prevalent at your site, then hand-update the others:
"PW2" in Skill Code 1 for paper W2s
"EW2" in Skill Code 1 for electronic W2s
update hr_pe_mstr set py_emp_skill_cd01 = "EW2"
When producing paper or electronic W2s, reference the Skill Cd settings in your selection criteria before launching the job.
Produce Fed/State File
1. Check the following boxes on PYW2UP:
Produce File for Federal?
State?
2. Run PYW2BT and review for errors/warnings.
3. Run PYW2PW to create the Fed file. For How would you like employees selected? use the default PC (select entire pay cycle) setting to create the file for all employees.
4. The electronic file will be named W2FEDxxA (where xx = last two digits of the tax year) and is saved to the /admin/data directory on the App server. Keep in mind that the file will be overwritten each time PYW2PW is run with Produce File for Federal? selected on PYW2UP for the definition file that was used. Therefore, save a copy of the file outside of the /admin/data directory after verifying the data is correct.
5. Review the file using AccuWage (review the AccuWage Software section for more information).
Print Paper W2s
1. Check the following boxes in PYW2UP for the definition file:
Produce Forms on Laser Printer?
Produce Forms?
2. Run PYW2BT and review for errors/warnings.
3. Load ELF Form (if using).
4. Load blank (ELF) or pre-printed (no ELF) paper.
5. Specify the Forms printer.
6. Run PYW2PW. If Skill Cd fields are used on PYUPEM (review Paper vs. Electronic W2s), use the selection criteria to print paper W2s for selected employees. To check alignment of the data on the W2 form and/or to check overflow data, it is recommended to print a few W2s first, before submitting the entire print job.
Produce Electronic W2s
Check the following boxes on PYW2UP:
Produce Forms on Laser Printer?
Produce Forms?
Use either of the following to process W2s to Employee Online. A single step process or a two-step process.
1. PYW2PW only: Run PYW2PW and select Also send forms to DO?. Enter the name of the definition file as defined in PYW2UP. The process includes both those who opted out of a printed form as well as those who will receive a printed copy. You can skip running PYW2EOSE because the process will send the forms to EO. If the Mask SSN option is selected, all social security numbers on the form will be masked as **-*-1234 and only show the last four digits. The full SSN will be reported to the IRS no matter what option is selected to send to EO.
2. PYW2PW and PYW2EOSE: Run PYW2PW and do not select Also send forms to DO?. Enter the name of the definition file as defined in PYW2UP. The process includes both those who opted out of a printed form as well as those who will receive a printed copy. Run PYW2EOSE to send the forms to EO and also attach them to the employee. If the Mask SSN option is selected, all social security numbers on the form will be masked as **-*-1234 and only show the last four digits. The full SSN will be reported to the IRS no matter what option is selected to send to EO.
Documents Online Options
Under Options for PYW2EOSE, users can select if they would like to process Individual Employees or create an Archive Copy. The default is set to EM (Individual Employees), and the system generates a W2 for each employee that was included in the PYW2EOSE process. When AR (Archive Copy) is selected, a next question, Who to include in the Archive appears. Select one of the following options:
AL: All selected employees
NP: Those who opted out of print
PR: Those who wanted printed copy
When submitted, BusinessPlus stores an archive copy of the selected W2s into a single document (ID) in Documents Online. The process will also attach the documents to the employees.
Use the Document ID to view the file in the Administrative Console by entering the ID in the DocId field of the Document Search plugin.
Display W2 Forms in Employee Online
Log into Employee Online and go to the W2 Info link under the Pay Information section. The W2 form for the year is located there. The name of the link is identical to the name of the form defined in Documents Online.
Known W2 Limitations in Employee Online
These are known limitations with displaying W2s in Employee Online:
The W2 in Employee Online only shows the form with W2 data. It does not show a W2 instructions page.
When an employee is employed by multiple tax reporting Entities within the BusinessPlus system (for example, an Office of Education setup), the regular printing of W2s will produce a W2 per tax reporting entity, as it should. In Employee Online, only one of these W2s will show.