CARES Act Payroll Entries

What crazy times we’re in! And to add to the confusion, there are some much-needed, but very rushed instructions for payroll, Paid Sick and Family time, redefined due dates for 941 payroll taxes, and unclear reporting needs.

First things first – You will process payroll as usual, including FICA and Medicare deductions on all regular pay, Sick pay, and Family Leave pay. There are separate rules about when the 941 payments are due, so check with your CPA and continue to comb through the information as it becomes available.

We’ve received quite a few calls about tracking the Paid Sick/Family leave through Sage 100 Contractor. Since the reporting is not really clear yet, the important piece will be the consistency of your entries. We have some suggestions that will allow reports to be pulled at a later date, when we know what needs to be reported.

Some suggested tracking:

• Use a specific and unique Cost Code; even if you are not charging a job, you can use the Cost Code field in the 5-2-2 grid, then pull data at a later time;
• Use Pay Type 4-Sick for hours paid under these guidelines. You may want to make a note of any unused Sick time before using this option; just track it in the 5-2-1 employee note pad for later retrieval;
• Use the Absence field in the 5-2-2 grid; create one type for each of the scenarios, then choose from the list for the line item. For some of you, this field may be hidden. Right-click in the grid, choose Show/Hide Columns, check the box next to Absence, and Save. Then right-click again and choose Save Current Grid View;
• Another option is to use 9-Misc for these payments and enter the amount for the day being paid per the guidelines.

You can combine more than one of these ideas, too. In each of these cases, you are isolating the payment for later retrieval. Consistency of the data entered will be the key here. This is so fluid and there are just too many ‘unknowns’ to have it fully dialed in. – CMW