Q: Test Totals reports a problem. What's wrong?

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A: The Test Totals processes (from the Payroll Quarterly Process and Yearly Process menus) are designed to compare the totals from paychecks with the totals found on the QTD/YTD totals screen. This will report any discrepancies found. You should correct the discrepancy or have a reasonable explanation for every discrepancy noted by Test Totals before you continue with the other reports. The most common problems are listed below:

• An invalid Social Security Number is reported.
• A problem with the Federal Filing Status is reported.
• The QTD/YTD totals have been manually changed.
• A paycheck transaction has become damaged.
• The employee had multiple Wage/Withholding screens at the time data was converted from version 2.4.

Invalid Social Security Number:

Verify the employee’s Social Security Number. Make the correction on the Employee Personal screen. Re-run the Test Totals process.

Problem with the Federal Filing Status:

Check ALL Wage/Withholding screens for the employee. Each Wage/Withholding screen for the same employee should have the same (non-blank) W-4 Federal Filing Status on the Employment and Tax Options screen. Make the correction and re-run the Test Totals process.
If the employee has several Wage/Withholding screens (or the text of the Department/Position shown on tab title at the bottom of the screen is very long) some of the Wage/Withholding tabs may not be visible on the screen. Use the right/left arrow controls that appear near the lower left corner of the screen (just above the command buttons) to view tabs that are initially hidden off-screen. If you display the Department/Position field on the Employee View Listing screen you can see at-a-glance which employees have many Wage/Withholding screens.

QTD/YTD totals manually changed:

The program uses the QTD/YTD totals for most quarterly and annual reports. The program allows you to make changes to this screen without requiring paychecks to back them up for the ledger. A common reason for this is when you start to use the payroll program during the middle of the quarter/year. Many users only enter the totals for checks created earlier in the year. This does not necessarily indicate a problem. The Test Totals process is just alerting you to the difference found. If you have a reasonable explanation for every discrepancy noted by Test Totals, you may continue with the other reports.

Paycheck transaction is damaged:

Make every effort to correct the damaged transaction. This may require the assistance of PDS or your local dealer. After correcting the damaged transaction(s), re-run the Test Totals process.

Employee had multiple Wage/Withholding screens during conversion:

Payroll version 2.4 had only one QTD/YTD totals screen per employee. Version 3 now maintains a separate set of QTD/YTD totals for each Wage/Withholding screen. When the data was converted from 2.4 to 3, all QTD/YTD totals from 2.4 were moved into the first Wage/Withholding screen for each employee.
However, paychecks in version 2.4 were linked to a specific Wage/Withholding screen. Version 3 also links paychecks to a specific Wage/Withholding screen. So, for employees that had multiple Wage/Withholding screens in 2.4 the program may report a discrepancy in the Test Totals. As long as the totals for all paychecks (for all Wage/Withholding screens combined) match the QTD/YTD totals (for all Wage/Withholding screens combined) then the data is OK.

To force the QTD/YTD totals to change to the totals of the paychecks, check the 'Allow Recalculation of Totals' checkbox located near the left of the 'Test Totals' button in the Payroll | Quarterly Proc. then, re-run the Test Totals process. Warning: Checking this box will permanently recalculate your quarter-to-date totals to match your paychecks. Any manual changes you made in the quarter-to-date and year-to-date screen will be lost! You only want to do this if the totals from the paychecks are correct totals and you want to use them.

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