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ridgeview
July 18, 2024
Question

Sudden jump in weekly pay

  • July 18, 2024
  • 3 replies
  • 0 views

While running weekly payroll, there were 3 employees that had fairly large jumps in their take home pay, from $250-$500. I'm not getting why. I input the number of hours correctly and their hourly rates were not changed. Any clue why?

    3 replies

    FishingForAnswers
    FishingForAnswers
    July 18, 2024

    @ridgeview  A good first place to look would be the withholdings. If the hours and/or salary hasn't changed much from usual, then the deductions must be lower.

     

    As to why that would be, it depends on which deductions were lowered. For instance, if a state were to drop their withholding tables in the middle of a year, that would cause the calculated state withholding tax to be lower.

     

    In short, you'll probably need to supply more details to get a full answer.

    R
    ridgeviewAuthor
    July 19, 2024

    No changes were made to withholdings. No changes were made at all I started to run it just like I always do inputting the correct hours and QB calculated it.

    FishingForAnswers
    FishingForAnswers
    July 19, 2024

    @ridgeview  I don't mean to be repetitive, but there's really only so many ways an employee can end up with significantly higher pay than usual.

     

    The first option is for them to have more gross pay than usual. This can be done in several ways; they could have gotten a payraise, or significantly more hours, or a bonus, or any other of a dozen ways to have higher gross pay. You indicated in your original post that it wasn't the hours or the hourly rate, so it's probably not this.

     

    The second option is for the deductions from the paycheck to be smaller.

     

    That's pretty much it. A (Gross pay) - B (Deductions) equals C (Take-Home Pay).

     

    In some way, either there's a problem with A, or with B. Full stop.

    C
    CharleneMaeF
    July 18, 2024

    Paying employees accurately is crucial to have correct payroll reporting, ridgeview. I'm here to help you sort this out.

     

    Before submitting payroll in QuickBooks Online Payroll, I recommend clicking the Preview payroll details button to check if the tax amounts are correct and review if there are bonuses that caused this sudden increase.

     

    If you locate the incorrect amount, click the X button from the Preview payroll details page and close the window. Once done, update your federal and state taxes, contributions, and deductions accurately in QuickBooks Online Payroll settings and employee's tax withholding info.

     

    Here's how:

     

    1. Go to Payroll and then Employees.
    2. Choose the employee.
    3. From Deductions & contributions, select Start or Edit.
    4. Hit Edit next to the deduction you want to modify.
    5. Edit the information as needed.
    6. Click Save, then Done.

     

    On the other hand, here's how to change the tax withholding:

     

    1. Go to the Payroll menu.
    2. Select the Employees tab.
    3. Click the name of the employee.
    4. Select Edit under the Tax withholding section.
    5. Make the necessary changes.
    6. When done, click Save.

     

    You can check this article for more information about updating the state tax SUI rate, employee info, and tax withholding:

     

     

    Once the home pay is correct, submit the payroll.

     

    Finally, I suggest running payroll reports to see your employees and payroll data to monitor how your business is doing.

     

    Please let me know if you need assistance paying your employees or running payroll reports. I'm always here to help.

    T
    Teri11_2
    July 18, 2024

    Most payroll taxes have an annual limit per person.

    Compare deductions to see what has changed.

    For example, as I recall, but check for latest:

    Just Google and they will pop up.

     

    Federal - Check IRS website:

    FUTA $42 per employee per year (ER paid)

    FICA - SS 6.2% of limit changes each year (last I saw was $147k, so was 6.2% of $147k) EE & ER paid

    FICA - Medicare 1.45% of gross pay. No limit but when gross pay hits $200k, must pay additional .9%

     

    State - Check State website:

    State Unemployment: CA $245 per year (ER paid)

     

    Most payroll services calc all for this automatically based on proper setup of employees.

     

    Here is my payroll tax cheat sheet to compute payroll taxes but need to update amounts in red & blue.

    Sorry, would not let me attach Excel to calc.

     

     

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