Tyler Martin CPA :: DECEMBER 2005 :: Printing W2s and W3s



	December 2005 Printing W2s and W3s in QuickBooks 2005 Sometime in early 2006, you will need to produce W-2s for every employee who worked for you at any time during the 2005 calendar year. In this article, we’ll describe the process using QuickBooks 2005. In QuickBooks, you review W2’s and W3’s as you print them. Editor’s Note: The process for preparing Form W-2 and W-3 has changed somewhat for QuickBooks 2006; since QuickBooks 2006 only became available at the beginning of December, we have chosen to assume that most of our readers are still using QuickBooks 2005 to prepare Forms W-2 and W-3. Note: Users of QuickBooks Payroll Tax Service don’t need to print these forms because the service prepares them for you. If you use other outside payroll services, you may not need to prepare these forms; check with your service. Reviewing and printing W-2s You must review W-2 information on-screen in QuickBooks before you can print the information. When you review W-2s on-screen, you can edit the information and make changes, as necessary. Before you review W-2s, we suggest that you produce a Payroll Summary report for the year to use when reviewing W-2’s. We suggest that you customize the report to make it easier to use. Follow these steps: 1. Open the Reports menu, point to Employees & Payroll, and click Payroll Summary. 2. Change the Dates field to the previous year. 3. Click Modify Report and, on the Display tab, remove the check from the Hours box and the Rates box (see Figure 1). Figure 1. Customize the Payroll Summary report so that you can use it to compare to W-2’s as they appear on-screen. To review W-2s, follow these steps: 1. Open the Employees menu and click Process Payroll Forms. 2. In the Select Form Type box that appears, click Federal form and click OK. 3. In the Select Payroll Form box, click Annual Form W-2 – Wage and Tax Statement and click OK. A message appears, explaining that QuickBooks is using current data to compute the calculated values on W-2s. Click OK. 4. In the Process W-2s box that appears, select the employees for whom you wish to review W-2s and click Review W-2 (see Figure 2). Figure 2. The Process W-2s dialog box. W-2s appear in the Employee W-2 window, which looks like the one you see in Figure 3. Compare the numbers you see on the W-2 to the values that appear on your Payroll Summary report to determine if you need to make any changes. Tip: Between January 1 and April 30, QuickBooks displays W-2 information for the prior year; between May 1 and December 31, QuickBooks displays W-2 information for the current year. Figure 3. Review your W-2s before printing them. You can make changes in all numbered boxes; if a magnifying glass mouse pointer appears as you move the mouse over a box, double-click to make a change. In the Adjustment box that appears (see Figure 4), you can enter an adjustment description and the adjustment amount. Use negative numbers to reduce amounts. Click OK to redisplay the Employee W-2 window you saw in Figure 3. Figure 4. Make changes to any of Boxes 1-11 on Form W-2 by double-clicking to display an adjustment box. In the Employee W-2 window, click Next to continue to review W-2s; when you finish, click OK. The Process W-2s dialog box reappears, showing that you’ve reviewed W-2s; you’re ready now to print W-2s. But before you print the forms, you should check the form alignment on your printer. Click Done to close the Process W-2s box; we’ll return to it later. Aligning forms Before you actually print W-2s in QuickBooks, you should test the alignment of the W-2 form in your printer. You check the alignment by printing a sample W-2; follow these steps: 1. Load blank paper into your printer. 2. Open the File menu and click Printer Setup. 3. In the Printer Setup box (see Figure 5), select W-2 Pre-Printed Form as the Form Name. Figure 5. Select the W-2 form. 4. Click the Preview button. 5. When the preview appears on-screen, click the Print button. QuickBooks prints a sample and redisplays the Printer Setup dialog box. Take the W-2 that printed onto blank paper and place it in front of a W-2 form. Then, hold the pair of pages up to light to see if everything aligned properly. If things don’t line up nicely, click the Align button in the Printer Setup box. QuickBooks displays the Fine Alignment box shown in Figure 6. Enter the amount of vertical or horizontal adjustments you want to make in 1/100 inch increments. Use negative numbers to move information down or to the left; use positive numbers to move information up or to the right. Click the Print Sample button, and QuickBooks prints a sample that contains the word “Sample” in a grid. You can compare the preprinted form with the sample and use the position of the word “Sample” in the grid to judge how much further to adjust alignment. Click OK when you finish aligning to redisplay the Printer Setup box. Click OK again to close the box. Figure 6. Enter alignment adjustment amounts. A word about W-3s You align W-3s the same way you align W-2s. You don’t need to review W-3s on-screen before you print them, but you cannot print W-3s until you have reviewed all W-2s. You should verify W-3’s by printing 941 reports for all four quarters of the year and making sure that the totals match the totals reported on the W-3’s. Printing W-2s & W-3s Now you’re ready to print W-2s and W-3s. Follow these steps: 1. Open the Employees menu and click Process Payroll Forms. 2. In the Select Form Type box, click Federal form and click OK. 2. In the Select Payroll Form box, click Annual Form W-2 – Wage and Tax Statement and click OK. Click OK again when QuickBooks displays the message about using actual numbers without adjustments. 3. In the Process W-2s box that appears, place checks next to the names of the employees for whom you wish to print W-2s. 4. Click Print W-2s. QuickBooks displays the Print Form W-2 box, in which you can select Blank Paper if you are a Payroll Service subscriber; otherwise, select Pre-printed form. Click OK. 5. QuickBooks displays the Print W-2s box, in which you can select a printer. 6. Click Print. When QuickBooks finishes printing W-2s, the Process W-2s dialog box reappears, showing the status of each employee. You’ll see checks in the Reviewed and Printed columns for all those W-2s that you have printed. Once you have printed W-2s for all employees, you can click the Print W-3 button and QuickBooks will print a W-3 for you. The steps and process for printing W-3s is the same as the preceding steps to print W-2s, where you can choose the form and a printer. Summary Now you know how to review and print W-2s with confidence.