Historical Payroll Data refers to all wages paid within the current calendar year, encompassing detailed accounts of earnings, deductions, and taxes. It is essential to ensure that wages for all active, inactive, and terminated employees are accurately recorded in Atto before activating your account. This accuracy is crucial for proper tax filings and ensuring that workers W-2 or 1099 forms reflect correct amounts at year-end.
Key Elements of Contractor Payroll Reports
For contractors, the data requirements are streamlined. We only need:
- Contractor Name
- Gross Amount
- Period Start Date
- Period End Date
- Pay Date
Note: At the end of this page, you will find an example illustrating how contractors historical payroll data should be formatted.
Key Elements of Employee Payroll Reports
When generating historical wage reports, ensure they include the following details:
- Employee name
- Gross amount
- Earnings (broken out by amount and hours)
- Deductions (broken out by amount)
- Benefits (broken out by amount)
- Employee taxes by tax code (e.g., FITW, FICA, Medicare, State, and Local)
- Employer taxes by tax code (e.g., FICA, Medicare, Federal unemployment, State unemployment, and any ancillary employer unemployment surcharges)
- Net pay
- Pay date
- Period start date
- Period end date
Note: At the end of this page, you will find an example illustrating how employee historical payroll data should be formatted.
Reports Needed for Submitting Historical Data
Most payroll systems offer functionalities that enable the generation of custom reports, simplifying the extraction and formatting of required data for easier import into Atto Payroll:
- Closed Quarters: Generate reports quarterly to facilitate the balancing process.
- Open Quarters: Break down reports by each pay date to accurately assess and address outstanding tax liabilities and ensure correct tax reporting.