Sunburst Software Solutions Inc

Certified Payroll Solution - Work Classifications Not Showing As Desired 

While a normal or familiar error message box will not appear when employees are not classified correctly, it will be easily recognized when you preview or print your certified payroll reports.

While the information shown below is provided as a basic overview, the program help and the manual contains a more detailed section on dealing with Work Classifications, which includes 8 different examples on how you might need to set things up - both in QuickBooks and Certified Payroll Solution.  Please feel free to download a copy, by clicking here.

Dealing with Work Classifications
There are many ways that different contractors deal with employee Work Classifications in QuickBooks when those employees work on prevailing wage projects; and there are many ways that Work Classifications can be dealt with in Certified Payroll Solution.  Here are three examples of how contractors may need to classify their employees.

Simple:  All the employees for this company are Traffic Flaggers, and that is the only type of work this company does. Their work classification and pay rates do not change from job to job.

Medium:  Each employee has one Work Classification; they are either a Journeyman, Equipment Operator, or Foreman.  Their Work classification or pay rate will not vary within any given week or by any given job.

Complex:  Joe, usually a Carpenter, worked on 3 jobs this week, on one particular job, he worked as a Carpenter, Equipment Operator, and a Foreman.

How these are handled in QuickBooks and CPS:

• Simple:  In this case, each employee has 1 rate of pay and all the employees in the company are "Traffic Flaggers", the "Hourly Rate" payroll item from QuickBooks is linked , or will be linked, to a new Work Classification in CPS called "Traffic Flagger".
• Medium:  While it is preferable to deal with this case as the complex example does below, this is not always the way your existing QuickBooks file has been setup.  If you have been using the "Hourly Rate" or other generic payroll item in the time sheets for all of your employees; this payroll item is linked, or will be linked, to a special Work Classification in CPS, called "Defer to Employee".  This Work Classification then tells CPS to use what the employee is classified as in his/her CPS linked Employee Record, and not any specific payroll item.  The "Defer to Employee" Work Classification is set up on new installations.
• Complex:  Since Joe, in the example above, needs to be reported on the job in particular, under 3 separate Work Classifications on the report; Joe's time sheet is entered for this job with 3 separate or different "Payroll Items", for example: "Carpenter", "Equipment Operator", and "Foreman".  Usually, these tasks will each have a different rate of pay, and this payroll item, with the rate of pay, would be setup in Joe's Employee Record - Payroll & Compensation Information section in QuickBooks.  When QuickBooks creates the paychecks, details will correspond to the time sheet entries.  In CPS, each payroll item is linked, or will be linked, to a Work Classification that will print on the final reports.  Hence, the QuickBooks payroll items for "Carpenter" and "Carpenter Overtime" will be linked to the "Carpenter" Work Classification with the appropriate "Type of Wage" (Straight or Overtime).  Ditto for "Equipment Operator" and "Foreman".

This Work Classification tells CPS to use the Work Classification that was assigned to the employee in the CPS Linked Employee record, instead of any particular Work Class for a payroll item, from QuickBooks.  Remember, that there will be a Work Classification assignment for each payroll item from QuickBooks; as well as, one for each employee. QuickBooks Payroll Items that are assigned to the "Never Report/Defer to Employee" Work Classification in CPS will always look to the CPS Linked Employee Record for the correct Work Classification to print on the Certified Payroll Report.  Employees who have a work classification that has a Federal EEOC Code of "Never Report/Defer to Employee" will not be reported on the EEOC reports. To omit certain work classifications from the Certified Payroll Report, check the box to "Omit Employee Entirely" in the "On the Certified Payroll Report" section.  Clerical employees are often omitted, and can be removed from the report, by simply checking, the "Omit Employee Entirely" box on their work classification.

Some states, such as Alabama and Tennessee, do not wish to show the wages or hours of employees classified as "Foreman".  For these situations, you can check the "Omit employee's Wages & Hours" or "Omit Employee's Wages (Show hours)".

It is important to note that on the EEOC/Work Utilization reports, all employee hours are classified by the work classification assigned to the payroll item that was used in the QuickBooks time sheet.  All Employee counts come from the Work Classification that is assigned to the employee in the CPS Linked Employee Record.  This is because the employee may only be counted once.  In other words, using the example above, where Joe works as an equipment operator, a foreman, and a carpenter on one job during the week, the hours are split according to the hours entered on the time sheet using the different payroll items, but his "employee" count will be based on the Carpenter Work Classification that was selected in the CPS Linked Employee record.

It is recommended that nearly everybody use or move, to the "Complex" method.  This is because pay rates and employee classifications change over time.  As Joe moves from an apprentice to a journeyman, you would need to change his employee Work Classification in his CPS Linked Employee Record, so that the proper classification would print on older reports without changing his classification in CPS.  It is also worthy of note, that Wage Manager Solution can be of assistance when dealing with employee's payroll wage items and changing rates of pay, as it allows you to add, change, delete, and view all employees and their payroll wage items, in a spreadsheet format.