Can Sage not simply add an additional Pay Type? Or can we have our Sage business consultants do this?

Hi Jolyn Grant 

Thank you for your question. Pay Types are hard-coded and a consultant won’t be able to add them to the program. Our product team discussed how to solve for this recent challenge, and determined the best and quickest method is the one covered in the article. A report to use in conjunction with the new absence fields will be announced soon.  

A report is now available and attached to KB article 104171 (link is in the above post). You can also download the report and instructions for using it from KB article 104238. 

Terry, 

I am not versed in using absences within Sage100. Can you point me to a source for that? And, I am not understanding how we are to use absences to pay (and track) for days worked under a Payroll Protection Program PPP loan?

We can help you if you are still not sure how to implement. 

I spoke with Sage Support person yesterday and they are still working on instructions for the Payroll Protection Program loans in Sage 100 contractor.  And they are recommending using the Absences field in the grid of 5-2-2 for the Paid Sick Leave & Extended FMLA.  You might try doing a chat session and they can help you with how to use the absences field.

Hi Jolyn Grant - I forwarded your question to our subject matter experts for a reply. Thank you for your question!

Is Sage going to create a report or different Pay type so that payroll taxes are handled correctly for COVID related paid absences?  As opposed to having to correct with a JE each time?  I would think they need to in order to have W-3s print correctly at year end.

Hello everyone

Yes you certainly can use the absence column to document the paid time off.  But if you want a total value of that paid time off, we are recommending that you set up a job called Covid 19 sick pay.  Charge the time to that job. This will track the burdened cost of those wages.

Also, contact your Workers Comp Insurance co to verify that you won't have to pay workers comp on those wages since it is for non-worked time.  If they agree, you  will want to also create a new WC code in 5-3-2 called Covid 19 exempt.  I would number it something like 9999 or if you already have one of those for the owner, make it 9998.  You will need to select that exempt code when you charge the time to the Covid 19 job because by default Sage will want to assign the employees regular WC code or the code that is assigned to the cost code you have chosen.  

I like this idea much better than using the absence field.  I've actually been contemplating using an entirely separate payroll for the Paid Sick leave.

The only part that remains unknown is what kind of report Sage is coming out with for the Covid 19.  So technically you could combine using the new job #, new WC code, AND creating the absence types and using them as well.  That way if the report only pulls from that field you are covered.

To add absence choices:  click in that field and press the F6 key to bring up the table. Add as suggested by the link for the KB article at the very top of this post

We have created a report that will track absence hours and wages. The report file and instructions can be found in KB Article 104238

I agree this works as a band-aid. However, payroll and all it's records should be running through payroll and not projects. There will be consequences for using piecemeal methods as we get to the end of the year and need to complete all the current and yet to be produced federal forms.  I would like to see Sage come up with an actual solution. 

I disagree with the idea of creating a new job.  That does not fix the problem that Sage is not incorrectly calculating tax on COVID wages.  They are taxed differently than other wages.  Having to fix it by doing a JE leaves this open to many errors and miscalculations.

And there will be solutions that Sage and Aatirx need to work out together for credits on tax forms in the very near future, so the sooner the better so we can report correctly, and not over pay taxes or under pay taxes. if guidance is available I don't see the need to wait or use trial and error.

Let's cut Sage some slack, here.  I'm sure they're working on solutions as fast as they can given the daily information/changes that are coming out, as is EVERY software company out there.

Then don't charge it to a job, and just use the absence column as originally suggested.  This is all new to everyone and the info from the government keeps changing just like it did with the loans.  So please be patient

https://wcirb.com/news/wcirb-classification-and-rating-committee-consider-regulatory-changes-response-covid-19

Thanks everyone.  Recording absences is fine, but not all PPP pay is paying for absent workers, so what is the best way to record PPP pay that is actually worked? It seems like we are dealing with two different types of pay recording and reporting.  I'm not a Sage super user by any stretch, so I tend to make up whatever works.  In this case, given the uncertainty of what the specific reporting requirements will be, I'm inclined to hedge my bets and use Pay Type, Absence, Pay Group, and Notes.  I would either use Pay Type Regular for worked time or Misc for unworked time.  I would create two PPP pay groups, one for worked time and one for not worked time.  I would use the Absence column to report unworked time as PPP.  I would use two Notes, probably with the same names as the Pay Groups I create.  Unfortunately the payroll reports don't show Pay Group wages for salaried employees, it would be nice if it could do that calculation (easy enough to do by hand for a small company though).  

I have a customer who is paying $2/hr more for hazard pay.  That is taxable, and WC applies, but we didn't want to over-report hours so we are using pieces and piece pay for the extra $2/hr and coding it to the original job or to a separate hazard pay job.  We also set up a new absence type for the hazard pay.  

Feel free to reach out directly to your Sage Certified Consultant to determine what works best for your company