Payroll in Multiple States

What if my employees work or live in multiple states?

If you collect withholding for more than one state or province, you'll need to do some additional setup when you first start using Goldenseal payroll software. Once the setup is completed, the payroll process is almost as simple as for a single state.

Importing Tax Tables for Multiple States

To download payroll tax tables for more than one state or province, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the link for US Payroll Tax Tables or Canadian Payroll Tax Tables, and follow instructions.
  2. Open your company file with Goldenseal.
  3. Choose Import from the File menu, and choose Payroll Update from the submenu.
  4. "Navigate" to the place where you saved the import file, and choose the payroll file for the first state or province.
  5. Click OK.
  6. Goldenseal will automatically replace your current tax tables with the new info.
  7. Repeat steps 3 to 6 for each additional state or province.

Tax AGEnCY Setup

To set up an additional tax agency, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Other Costs from the Accounts menu.
  2. Locate the State Employment Taxes account. Use that for one state, and fill in details if you'd like.
  3. Click the New button.
  4. Fill in details for the second state's tax agency.
  5. If necessary, repeat steps 3 and 4 for any other tax agencies to which you pay payroll taxes.

To set up tax collections for additional states, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Payroll Setup from the Costs menu, and choose Tax Items from the submenu.
  2. Select a tax item paid to the second state's tax agency, then click the Edit button.
  3. Enter the appropriate tax agency into the Pay To Account clairvoyant field.
  4. Click OK.
  5. Repeat steps 2 to 4 for each tax item paid to the extra state.

Tax Package Setup

If you need to deduct tax withholding for more than one state on the same work, you'll probably need to set up an additional tax package for the combined deductions. To do so, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Payroll Setup from the Costs menu, and choose Tax Packages from the submenu.
  2. Click the New button.
  3. Check off all withholding and employer tax items needed for the combined work.
  4. Click OK.
  5. Click Close to leave the Tax Package list.

NOTE-- In most cases, you'll only deduct for one state at a time. The Tax Packages that you previously imported will be sufficient for that.

Employee Setup

In each Employee account, fill in the Tax Package for the state/province where they work most frequently. To do so, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Employees from the Accounts menu.
  2. Click the Payroll Setup button.
  3. Enter the appropriate state's taxes into the Tax Package clairvoyant field.
  4. Click OK.

Wage Schedule Setup

If some employees work in multiple states during the same pay periods, you'll need to set up one or more Wage Schedules so you can "mark" which work applies to each state. To do so, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Payroll Setup from the Costs menu, and choose Wage Schedules from the submenu.
  2. Click the New button, or select an existing Wage Schedule and click the Duplicate button.
  3. Enter a name for the package (you might want to name it for the state where the work occurs).
  4. Turn off the Use Employee Tax Package checkbox, and fill in a Tax Package for that state.
  5. Fill in any other details that apply to this Wage Schedule.
  6. Click OK.
  7. Repeat steps 2 to 6 for each state.

NOTE-- This setup is only necessary if some employees work in multiple states. If each employee always works in the same location, entering the appropriate Tax Package into each Employee account is suffucient.

Entering Hours

If employees always work in the same state, you can enter their hours normally.

If some employees work in more than one state, then do the following to enter work outside their usual location:

  1. Choose Labor Hours from the Costs menu.
  2. Click the New button.
  3. Enter an employee into the Employee clairvoyant field.
  4. Enter the hours worked.
  5. Enter the state's wage schedule into the Wage Schedule field.
  6. Enter job costing information, and any other details that apply to this work.
  7. Hit the Enter key to save the record.

Writing Payroll

Once you have entered hours for multiple states or provinces, just use the Write Payroll command as normal. It is not any different, even when employees work in multiple states.

Paying Tax Agencies

Use the Pay Bills command to pay tax agencies for your taxes due, just as you normally would. Each state tax agency will be listed, and you can select which to pay now.

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