Printing W-2 Forms

W-2 Forms can be printed for the past year after the payroll year is closed and payroll has been entered and processed within the new year. To order preprinted W-2 forms fax an order sheet to Eagle Solutions listing your company name and the number of forms that are needed. Order a few extra forms in case any W-2 forms need to be reprinted.

The user should verify the employee’s general information as well as tax deductions and gross pay before W-2 forms are printed. Proceed with the following steps to verify payroll information.

  1. Go to Payroll > Employees – General tab and verify the employee’s Name, Address, and Social security number.

  2. Click on the Personal tab and verify that the Head of household, deceased, and Legal Representative options are properly set. See W-2 instructions or contact your accountant for detailed explanations of these options.

  3. Review the employee’s withholding taxes and deductions recorded within the Employee Taxes tab.

  4. Click on the Properties button for each tax to review the amount withheld, taxable gross, and gross amounts. The history is found on individual year history tabs.

  5. The Employee Earnings Record may be a valuable tool to use to verify all the taxes withheld from all the employee’s pay.

  6. Print the Employee Earnings Record, go to File > Reports > Payroll > Employees folder and select the report.

Review the Year End Payroll Adjustments section to adjust an employee’s gross pay, workweeks, amount of tax withheld, and taxable gross amounts.

Some deduction totals printed on the W-2 form can be manually adjusted such as EIC payments, benefit adjustments, dependent care benefits, etc. Any tax or deduction that is listed on the W-2 form must be listed within the Employee Tax tab of the employee window. For example, if benefit adjustments need to be listed on the W-2 form but no benefit adjustments have been processed for the employee, the user must complete the following steps:

  1. A deduction must be created and classified as a Benefit Adjustment if it has not already been created. Review the Payroll > Taxes and Deductions > Adding New Taxes/Deductions section for details on creating new taxes.

The benefit adjustment deduction must be listed in the employee’s Employee Taxes tab.

The amount can be entered or adjusted by going to Payroll > Employees > (the year tab identifying the W-2 calendar year) and clicking on the W-2 Adjustment button. The following window will open:

  1. Tax or deduction adjustments can be entered into the Adjustment column to adjust some taxes or deductions. Many taxes such as Federal Withholding or Medicare cannot be adjusted directly in this screen. An adjustment journal must be entered for these taxes, which is explained in a previous section - Year End Payroll Adjustments. Additional information can be manually typed into box 13 and 14 of the W-2 form by entering information within the W2MEMO13 and the W2MEMO14 memo fields.

  2. All taxes and deductions are placed within the W-2 forms based on the deduction types. To view the position of a specific tax amount on a W-2 form go to Payroll > Taxes/Deductions > General tab and click on the lookup button to the right of the Type field. The following list will appear:

The W-2 Position column identifies the specific box within the W-2 form that will display the tax total. For example, any deduction that has a tax type of Medicare will be displayed within box 6 or the form. The W-2 Prefix code is displayed when a deduction total is listed within box 13 or 14.

The W-2 Position, W-2 Prefix code, and the manual adjustment option are set within the PYTXTYPE.DBF file and must be changed with a dbase file editor. Contact an EBMS consultant if you wish to change these options.

The following company information should be verified before W-2s are printed:

NOTE: The state income withholding tax ID code must equal the state abbreviation entered in the State column. This is required to properly print the W2 forms.

The W-2 forms may be printed after all employee data has been verified. Go to File > Reports > Reports > Payroll > Year End folder and select the appropriate W-2 report.

After the W-2 forms are printed the W3 form should also be printed. See W3 form listed in the File > Reports > Reports > Payroll > Year End folder.