Year-End Processing Steps

FarmBooks Year-End Processing Steps

Complete ALL Year-End Tasks

Version 4.0.6.6 or greater otherwise follow Year-End Processing via Advance Steps Instructions below.

The Year-End Tasks wizard simplifies the three steps into one step by analyzing your data to determine the steps that are necessary to complete all of your year-end tasks. It will describe the actions needed to complete each step and if you agree that the actions are as expected, then you will press the finish button to start the process.

For instance, if your fiscal year is a non-calendar year, then it may skip the New Fiscal Year step and only execute steps 2 and 3 if you do payroll. Then when it is time to create your new fiscal year later in the year, just run the Year-End Tasks wizard again to complete step 1 and it will skip steps 2 and 3. If you don’t do payroll, then it may only execute step 1 if and when it is necessary. The Year-End Tasks wizard may be run multiple times in a given year. The wizard will test for an internet connection if it is time to obtain a new tax table and if no connection is found, it will remind the user to install the tax table before running the wizard.

Should you find that you did not like the outcome of the New Fiscal Year or the Payroll Calendar Year-End steps, you may re-run them from the “Advanced Steps” options of the Year-End menu and select your desired options by answering the questions of each respective wizard.

Year-End Processing via the Advanced Steps
(Recommend using the Complete ALL Year-End Tasks menu option instead)

Use instructions if version number is prior to 4.0.6.6

From the Year-End menu, the user can see the steps necessary to prepare FarmBooks for paycheck entry. Step 1 to 3 indicates the order in which the processes need to be run. For instance, Step 1 is for New Fiscal Year. If the user has setup their fiscal year as a non-calendar year, then it may not be necessary to run this step in order to continue with the step 2 and 3 for payroll. Payroll is a calendar year activity so it only requires that the new fiscal year exist for the new calendar year. The Update Tax Table process requires that user close their farm database before the update can be run so that is why it is a grayed out or disabled menu option when the database is open.

Step 1: New Fiscal Year Run this wizard to copy all your codes from the current year to the new fiscal year. It is important to be aware that running this process will copy all your ending balances for inventory, loans, and bank accounts to the new fiscal year as the beginning balance. If you need go back after the new fiscal year has been created and enter a check, then it may be necessary to manually adjust the beginning balances in the new fiscal year for loans or bank accounts.
Step 2: Update Tax Table Run this wizard to download via the internet or install the updated tax rates for the new calendar year. If you have downloaded the install program from the FarmBooks website and have installed it, it is still necessary to run this wizard to apply the new tax rates to your farm database. Should you want to determine if the current tax year has been applied to the open farm database, you should review "Tax Table" to determine if the current year is available from the Setup menu. It should be noted that the tax table update only needs to be downloaded once. After the download, it can be applied to the farm database at your convenience.
Step 3: Payroll Calendar Year-End It is important to open or select the previous fiscal year in the register tab before you run this process. Run this wizard to copy employees from the previous year to the new calendar year. If you did not do payroll in the previous year and want to start using payroll, it is important to run this wizard to enable payroll to be accessible for the new calendar year.

Recording Payroll Federal Tax Deposits

How do I determine the amount of federal taxes owed for my employees?
Run the Payroll Summary report to obtain the current amount owed for FICA (Social Security and Medicare) and Federal Taxes. The FICA amount reflects both the employer and employee portion of taxes due minus any payments in the column “Amount to be Deposited”. The report shows a total line “Federal Tax Deposit Required” amount for FICA and Federal amounts summarized. It is important that payments in the current year for the previous year are recorded correctly in order for the report to be accurate.

How do I apply a federal payroll tax deposit in the current year for the previous year?
Payroll withholding ATIG codes are 941x where the x value for the G-Code is 2=Social Security, 3=Medicare, 8=State, and 9=Federal. To make a tax deposit for any of the withhold use the corresponding A-Code of 0 or 041y where the y value equals the x value above for the G-Code. To designate the payment as the previous year use an External Code in the range 985 to 990. For instance, pay the federal tax deposit for the previous year use ATIG=0419 with an external code of 990 for “PRV YEAR FED INC TAX”. Run the Payroll Summary report and you will notice that the column “Amount Paid” does not reflect the payment for the previous year which allows the “Amount to be Deposited” column to be accurate for the current year.

How do I apply a federal payroll tax deposit in the current year?
Use the same ATIG codes 041x where the x value for the G-Code is 2 through 9 as described in the previous question related to recording a tax deposit in the current year for the previous year. However, use an external code in the range 991 to 999 to denote a current year deposit. Run the Payroll Summary report and you will notice that the column “Amount to be Deposited” will have the amount for Social Security, Medicare, and Federal Taxes. The FICA (Social Security and Medicare) amount reflects both the employer and employee portion of taxes due minus any payments. Also, the report shows a total line “Federal Tax Deposit Required” amount for FICA and Federal amounts.

Recording Payroll State Deposits

How do I determine the amount of state taxes owed for my employees?
Run the Payroll Summary report to obtain the current amount owed for state taxes. Notice that the column “Amount to be Deposited” will have the amount for state taxes minus any payments for the year. It is important that payments in the current year for the previous year are recorded correctly in order for the report to be accurate.

How do I apply a state payroll tax deposit in the current year for the previous year?
Payroll state withholding ATIG code 9418 is used for state taxes. To pay the state tax deposit for the previous year use ATIG=0418 with an external code of 989 for “PRV YR STATE INC TAX”.

How do I apply a state payroll tax deposit in the current year?
Payroll state withholding ATIG code 9418 is used for state taxes. To pay the state tax deposit for the current year use ATIG=0418 with an external code of 998 for “STATE INCOME TAX”.

Filing IRS Forms

FarmBooks does not directly e-file your forms for you. However, it does provide reports that allow to you to do your filings. Most of the forms phrase the IRS forms.

W-2 Use the Payroll Analysis - (Single Employee or All Employees) to generate a report that will allow you to complete the W-2 wage and tax statement. Box 3 & 5 are generally the same for farm workers. However, if you have a highly compensated employee, then box 3 may be the social security limit allowed amount for the calendar year. Medicare (Box 5) does not have a limit and may need to be adjusted to reflect wages above the social security limit. This would be gross wages - pretax health for Box 5.
Other Forms

Form 943 The Form 943 report is a preliminary Employer's Annual Tax Return for Agricultural Employees. This wage report shows the amount of wages paid, federal income tax withheld from wages, and the total amount of social security and Medicare tax owed. Total deposits made during the year as well as the remaining balance due or overpayment are shown. A summary of the monthly federal tax liability is included in the report. Also, the user has the option to include 943-A which breaks down the Federal (social security, Medicare, and Federal) tax liability per day for semiweekly payers.
Form 941 Quarterly Report The Form 941 report is a preliminary Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return. This wage report shows for the specified quarter the amount of wages paid, federal income tax withheld from wages, and the total amount of social security and Medicare tax owed. Total deposits made for the quarter as well as the remaining balance due or overpayment is shown. A monthly summary of federal tax liability for the specified quarter is included in the report.
Form 944 Annual Report To reduce burden for certain small business taxpayers, employers who have an Employment Tax liability of $1,000 or less for the year will now file Form 944, Employer's Annual Federal Tax Return, instead of Form 941, Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return. The IRS will notify eligible taxpayers by mail.
Form 940 The Form 940 report is a preliminary Employer's Annual Federal Unemployment (FUTA) Tax Return. The amount of FUTA tax owed is calculated based on the amount of taxable FUTA wages. A record of quarterly federal unemployment tax liability is also included in the report.
Quarterly State Wage Report The preliminary Quarterly State Wage Report and Contribution Return lists information on total wages and taxable wages paid for the specified quarter. The report does not compute the contributions due unless you define the state unemployment rate in the tax table setup. State unemployment insurance tax applies to the first $8,000 (Kansas base) of wages for each employee. The starting rate for new companies varies and is generally higher for the first year of operation depending on the type of business (it is highest for construction). After the first year, the rate depends on your past employment history.

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Year-End Processing Steps