It’s December and Time to Give Those Bonus Checks in Sage BusinessWorks

How to give December bonus checks in Sage BusinessWorks.

There are two ways to process a bonus check using Sage BusinessWorks.  You can use the ‘Miscellaneous pay’ earnings type or setup an ‘Other Pay’ for better paper trail.

By law, bonuses are taxable.  The employee is responsible for paying the Federal Withholding Tax (FWT).  Please check with an accounting professional for tax advice when setting up employee bonuses.

Option 1:  Use the ‘Miscellaneous Pay’ earnings type, calculate and print checks:

1. Open PR, Processing, Time Card Entry.
2. In the ‘Earnings’ field select ‘Miscellaneous Pay’.
3. If any of the deductions should be set to inactive for this check run, select Ded/Other pays in Time Card Entrywindow, and reactivate the deductions in Maintain Employees after bonus checks are printed.
4. Open PR, Processing, Automatic Payroll Calculation and calculate the bonuses.
5. Open PR, Processing, Print Payroll Checks and print the bonus checks.

Option 2: Set up the bonus as an ‘Other Pay’, assign the ‘Other Pay’ to the appropriate employees, calculate and print checks.

1. Open PR, Utilities, Maintain Other Pays.
2. Click the New button on the toolbar.
   • In the Method field select ‘Variable, entered on time card’.
   • In the Category field, select ‘Individual’.
   • Select the appropriate taxable check boxes.
   • Select the Add to gross check box (Note: Although FWT may not be withheld from the bonus, it is taxable, so ‘FWT taxable’ should be selected. Verify with your tax advisor for clarification on state withholding taxable or SWT).
   • In the Active section, select ‘From’ and define the ‘From and ‘to’ fields using the check date of the bonus check run.
3. Designate this other pay for the appropriate employees.
   • Open PR, Employees, Maintain Employees.
   • Select Other pays.
   • Select the New other pay.
   • Inactivate any others that should not be included in this bonus.
   • Open PR, Employees, Maintain Employees.
   • Select Deductions to deactivate any deductions that should not be calculated for this bonus check run.
4. Open PR, Processing, Time Card Entry.  Create time cards.
   • Do not use the standard time cards since this is a one-time paycheck. Delete all existing time card entries shown in the bottom white box.
5. In the Earnings field, select the new other pay from the drop-down list, and enter the total amount in the ‘Gross pay’ field.  Click Accept.
6. Click Save.
   Note:  Employees with standard time cards calculate any time an automatic payroll calculation is performed. To exclude these employees from the bonus check run, perform one of the following:
   • Open PR, Processing, Time Card Entry.
   • Select the employee. Hours should not be listed in the bottom portion of this screen.
   • Open PR, Processing, Standard Time Card Entry.
   • Select the employee and click the Hold in the upper right corner.
   • After bonus checks are printed, click the Release button.
7. If the posting date is not the same as the date entered for the active period, select from the Sage BusinessWorks Launcher Utilities, Change Posting Date or change the posting date in the ‘Status’ bar of Launcher.
8. Perform an automatic payroll calculation using PR, Processing, Automatic Payroll Calculation.
9. Select Yes to print the Payroll Register and verify all information before checks are printed. Remove the employee amounts for FWT or SWT if taxes are not withheld from this check.
   Notes:
   • Do not remove company, employee OASDI, or Medicare. For checks that were calculated previously, open PR, Processing, Manual Payroll Calculation.  For cash disbursements, use PR, Processing, Enter Handchecks to make changes.
   • To enter a flat amount rather than the bonus amount less OASDI and Medicare, see the attached document on ‘How to gross up a net value check’.
10. Open PR, Employees, Maintain Employees.
11. Reactivate the appropriate other pays and deductions.

If you have questions or need assistance with your Sage BusinessWorks software at any time, please contact our BusinessWorks support team at 260.423.2414.

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