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 unless your 401(k) provider is our Partner Vestwell.  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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