Payroll Help

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Company-Level Deductions

Background

A payroll deduction is an amount of money that is withheld from an employee’s paycheck in order to make a payment to a third party. Examples could be pre-tax deductions, such as insurance premiums and 401k savings, or after-tax deductions such as loan repayments, wage garnishments, and employee purchases.  For a full definition, see Deductions in our Payroll Glossary.  For further reading about using payroll deductions, see our blog article An Overview of Payroll Deductions.

A deduction is different than a contribution.  In Patriot Software, a contribution is a company-paid amount that appears for informational purposes only and does not affect the paycheck.  See Company-Level Contributions in Patriot Software.

Note that Patriot Software does not send your collected deductions and contributions to a third party, such as your 401(k) provider or health insurance carrier.  You are responsible for sending these funds directly.

To set up company-level deductions in the Payroll Software:

Before you can set up specific deductions for individual employees, you must first set up the deductions under the Company level.

Settings > Payroll Settings > Deductions & Contributions

To add a new deduction:

To edit a deduction:

  • Click the “Edit” icon in the row. You can now make changes in the appropriate fields for that deduction. Note: if a deduction has been assigned to an employee and/or used in a payroll, the Deduction Type and Method cannot be changed. All other fields may still be edited.  For details, see Why Can’t I Edit a Company-Level Deduction?
  • Click Save.  If the field you edited is a company default field used on an employee’s record, the employee’s deduction will be automatically updated.

To delete a new deduction:

  • Click on the “Delete” icon in the row.  You may only delete a deduction if it has not yet been used in a payroll. If the deduction has been used in a payroll, the delete icon will not be visible.
  • Click either Yes or No.

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