This appendix contains the following topics:
Organization of Magnetic Media Reports
This appendix describes the general organization of state electronic reports.
You should have your state’s electronic reporting specifications on hand when reading this appendix.
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Note |
Because the PBS Payroll module only handles a single employer’s payroll, state electronic reporting does not handle reports for multiple employers. In other words, a report file contains information for one employer only. |
Definitions of terms related to electronic reports are provided below.
Magnetic media refers to the method of storing and transporting the file. Examples include tape and compact disk. The Federal reporting is not done by media, but uploaded to a location via the Internet. Some states may still require that you submit your file via a specific media format.
Most employers are required to file two reports with their state agencies. One of these reports, made to the state Department of Labor, is done on a quarterly basis. The other, made to the state Department of Revenue, is done on an annual basis. This is the general rule. There may be exceptions to this where the report to the Department of Revenue is required every quarter.
In the past, the Passport Business Solutions Payroll module could only produce these reports on paper forms. With the onset of federal electronic reporting for W-2 information, many states have provided specifications for the reporting of the above items by all employers above a certain size (meaning usually the number of employees).
In accordance with this, the Passport Business Solutions Payroll module allows electronic reporting for all state Departments of Revenue and Departments of Labor.
| • | The report that is made to a state’s Department of Revenue is usually an annual wage report similar to the W-2 wage report made to the Social Security Administration. |
| • | The report that is made to a state’s Department of Labor is a quarterly report and is generally a list of employees showing their names, social security numbers and wages. |
There are a variety of electronic report formats. Some states provide only one specification, i.e., report format, while others support several alternative formats. Many prefer that you file via the Internet. Contact your state to determine the method and media types they accept and prefer.
This is a report that is output to disk and which is eventually transmitted to a state Department of Revenue or Department of Labor.
These reports consist of a file containing either just one record type or more than one record type. All of these report files can be viewed as a multi-level organization of record types into one or more record classes. The terms, record class and record type, are defined next.
These reports are output according to formats that are entered using Magnetic media formats.
State electronic reports use a wide variety of formats, but all of them can be viewed in terms of one general scheme of organization.
This organization consists of record classes, each of which contain various record types. Up to ten record types may be entered for each record class. This allows all of the record types for each record class to be output in the sequence in which they have been entered in the general appearance record, see the section General Appearance, in the Magnetic Media Formats chapter. When a record class is processed, all of the record types defined for it are output and they are output in the sequence in which they have been entered as just described.
Record classes are processed in a fixed sequence as illustrated in the diagram on the next page.
There are seven record classes: File headers, Group headers, Intermediate headers, Employee, Intermediate totals, Group totals, and File totals. Each of these record classes is defined later.
In this context, a record type is an individual element of an electronic report file. Such a file can consist of one or more record types and each record type consists of one or more fields that are output together.
This section gives a general description of how the Payroll module produces a state electronic file report.
An electronic file report consists of a series of records organized by record class in the following manner. Up to ten different records may be output for each record class. These are called record types. The general sequence and occurrences of record classes is shown in the following table:
| File headers | |||
| Group headers | |||
| Intermediate headers | |||
| Employee | |||
| Employee | |||
| Intermediate totals | |||
| Intermediate headers | |||
| Employee | |||
| Intermediate totals | |||
| Group totals | |||
| Group headers | |||
| Intermediate headers | |||
| Employee | |||
| Intermediate totals | |||
| Intermediate headers |
|||
| Employee | |||
| Intermediate totals | |||
| Group totals | |||
| File totals |
Each of the above lines is called a record class. The organization as shown above is the result of analyzing the electronic requirements of all states.
Each line in the table above represents one or more logical records within the file. As many as ten different records, each with its own layout, may be defined for each class. The different layouts are recognized by different record types. The record type is a code by which the state recognizes each record on the file. Typically this code is emitted into the same position of each record, usually at the beginning of the record layout.
| • | Be aware that the record type is not automatically emitted to the record. You have to define it (as text) along with all the other fields in that record. |
| • | You must assign a name to each type of record so that the programs can recognize it on the different screens where it is referenced. The state recognizes the records by a certain code which it expects to find in certain positions of each record. We strongly recommend that you make these two names be the same. This is not however a requirement, and may not even be possible if the state’s code is more than three characters long. |
The following example illustrates the use of record types.
Many states base their formats on the Federal electronic format. In this case, employee information is reported in supplemental records. There are several supplemental records.
The following items describe the kind of information each record class contains. The following descriptions contain examples only and are not intended to match any particular electronic file report format.
This record class is used for those records that appear once at the beginning of the file. Some states specify 1 record type while others specify more than 1. States that follow the Federal W-2 format have up to 6 record types in this class for diskette reporting, 1A, 2A, 1B, 2B, 1E, and 2E records.
This record class is used when a state has specified that employee records are grouped by a field such as plant number. All employees for one group are reported together,. Then, all the employees for the next group, and so on.
This class allows reporting header or lead-in records at the beginning of each group.
Although this record class is included, it is not currently used by any state electronic file report specification. This record class corresponds to the intermediate totals record class in the same way that the group header class corresponds to the group totals record class.
This record class and examples of its record types have already been described above. It is used for reporting employee information. The records contained in this class are output for every employee being reported.
Intermediate totals are totals that are reported after a specified number of employees are reported. This is similar to paper unemployment insurance reports that sometimes have page totals.
For example, the Federal W-2 format specifies that intermediate totals are reported after each set of 41 employees are output. There are two record types for intermediate totals in the Federal W-2 diskette format; i.e., 1I, and 2I records.
Some states may have similar requirements.
This record class allows reporting group totals. As with all other record classes, up to ten record types can be specified.
For example, as described above under Group headers, states can specify that employees be grouped by plant number, in which case plant totals could be reported with this record class.
This record class is used for reporting totals for all employees reported in the file, and also for records used to signify the end of the electronic file report.
There are 3 record types in the Federal W-2 format; i.e., 1T, 2T, and 1F records.
An electronic report format specifies how an electronic file report is output.
In the Passport Business Solutions Payroll module, electronic report formats are entered using Magnetic media formats. From this selection, the two options, General appearance and Record formats, are the ones used to enter electronic report formats.
First, the general appearance of a format is entered. This includes specifying:
| • | which record classes are used by the format, and |
| • | for each record class specified, names for each of the record types required. |
Up to ten record types may be named for each record class. The order in which you enter the names determines the order in which records corresponding to these named record types will be output. Only records for named record types are emitted.
Using the example for the Employee record class above, two types of records must be reported for each employee, the 1S and 2S record. For this case, the record types could be named 1S and 2S and would be the first and second record types in the employee record class. The third through tenth record types would not be used.
Now, having defined which record classes are used and the names of the record types included in those classes, the Record formats option is used to enter all the data fields and their beginning and ending positions for each record type given a name in the electronic report format. This option is designed so that data entry follows the electronic media specifications as provided by most states.
Both of these options, General Appearance and Record Formats, are explained further in the Magnetic Media Formats chapter.