Payroll Help

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Preview W-2 Forms

Background

You can preview W-2 forms before you create and download the final version for your employees. This is a snapshot of the data at the time of generating the preview. It will be helpful at the end of the year to review all data to date and address any potential issues early before you finalize your employee W-2s. When previewing W-2 forms you’ll have one copy of each employee’s W-2 watermarked “Preview.”

To view a preview of your employee W-2 forms:

  1. Reports > Payroll Year-end Forms > Preview W-2s.
  2. Select the year.
  3. To download a preview of all employee W-2s, click the Download Preview of W-2s button.
    • To preview only selected employees, click the Employees’ W-2 Status link, check the employees you want in the report, and then click the “Download Preview of Selected W-2s” link.
    • If you have under 50 employees, your preview report will download immediately. Companies with 50 or more employees will receive an email when your preview report is available for download.
  4. Download the preview as a PDF file.
  5. Review the preview carefully and identify any issues.
  6. Correct any issues and generate a new preview.
  7. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you are satisfied with the preview.

Once you are satisfied with the preview, you can finalize your employee W-2s.

To create your final employee W-2s read our help article “How to Download and Print W-2 Forms in Patriot Software, and “W-2 Print Options in Patriot Software.”

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