How to Set Up Workers’ Compensation in Sage BusinessWorks

Implementing Workers’ Compensation in Sage BusinessWorks

If your company tracks workers’ compensation, Sage BusinessWorks can automatically calculate the company’s liability for each payroll.

Follow these step-by-step directions to set up, assign, and verify your workers’ compensation deductions.

How to set up workers’ compensation deductions.

• Go to Payroll > Utilities > Maintain Deductions.

• Click New to create a deduction for each worker’s compensation rate your company uses.
  • For example, you might have one rate for Sales and another for Service.

• Enter an ID and Description such as WC-Sales or WC-Service.
• Set the Method to Percent of Base Hourly Pay.
• For Category, choose Company System.
  • Company System means this is a company-paid deduction, and the rate is the same for all employees who use it.
• Assign your Debit or Credit general ledger accounts.
• Enter your Rate.
• Under Taxable Categories, make sure no boxes are checked, and the workers’ compensation is not taxable to employees.
• Assign a Workers’ Comp Code number (e.g., 1 for Sales, 2 for Service).

• Click the W-2 button and mark whether you want the deduction to calculate on regular, overtime, vacation, and sick hours.

• Click OK and then Save.

How to link workers’ compensation to task codes.

If your company uses Task Codes, you can link them to your worker’s compensation codes for automatic defaulting during timecard entry.

• Go to Payroll > Utilities > Maintain Task Codes.

• Open each task code and assign the related Workers’ Comp Code.
  • Example: Task code Assembly = Workers’ Comp Code 2 (Service).
  • Task code Sales = Workers’ Comp Code 1 (Sales).

• Click Save.

How to assign workers’ compensation to employees.

• Go to Payroll > Employees > Maintain Employees.

• Select the employee and click the Pay Info

• Assign the employee’s default Task Code and Workers’ Comp Code.

• Click the Deductions

• Add all applicable workers’ compensation deductions (for example, both Sales and Service if the employee may work in either).

• Save the employee record.

How to calculate workers’ compensation on a timecard.

• Go to Payroll > Processing > Time Card Entry.

• Select your employee.
• Enter the hours worked and choose the Task Code.
  • The program will automatically default the correct Workers’ Comp Code if the task code is linked.

• Add additional lines for hours worked under other task codes.
• Click Accept and Save.

How to confirm workers’ compensation is calculating correctly.

• After saving your time card, run Payroll > Processing > Automatic Payroll Calculation.

• Select your employee and process the calculation.

• Review the Payroll Register
  • Verify the workers’ compensation amounts are shown for each deduction.

What to do if workers’ compensation isn’t calculating.

If the calculation doesn’t appear on the Payroll Register:

• Verify each deduction has a unique Workers’ Comp Code number.
• Make sure the task codes are assigned to the correct workers’ comp code.
• Check that the deduction has been added to the employee’s record.
• Confirm no taxable boxes are checked in Maintain Deductions.

Reports that are available for workers’ compensation.

Deduction Reports:

• Go to Payroll > Reports > Deduction Reports > Period Activity Report.

• Select Detail by Employee or Detail by Deduction to view workers’ comp calculated by employee or deduction type.

Employee Hours List (for audit purposes):

• Go to Payroll > Reports > Employee Reports > Employee Lists.

• Select Employee Hours List.
• Enter the date range for your workers’ comp audit (for example, one year).
• Preview or print the report.
  • This report displays each employee’s total regular, overtime, holiday, and vacation hours. A valuable summary for your auditor.

For additional help with Sage BusinessWorks, please contact our support team at 260.423.2414.

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