1.

As a general rule, the 'exclude benefits' format should only be used when the entire prevailing wage rate (base rate plus fringe) is paid directly to the employee.  This would include any miscellaneous pays that represent the various benefits but are NOT withheld from the employee's check.  If the miscellaneous pays are withheld from the check, this would indicate that the amounts are then paid into a benefit fund.  If the benefits are paid into a fund, then the 'include benefits' report option should be used and the benefit funds should be itemized.

2.

The certified payroll reports will now include the 'under penalty of perjury' clause on the Statement of Compliance by default.  If you are currently using a report substitution (prrep6ap.rpt, Prrep6bp.rpt) to print this clause on the statement, you will need to delete the substitution in order to prevent a print error message.  If you would prefer to exclude the 'under penalty of perjury' clause, then you will need to click on the 'Exclude Under Penalty of Perjury Clause' check box each time that you print the report.

3.

As part of the 'behind the scenes' changes, the two primary report files (prrep06a.rpt and prrep06b.rpt) have been modified to include parameters which will allow the suppression of the employee name, address and social security, if selected.  Therefore, the following report formats have been discontinued:  Prrep06e.rpt, Prrep06f.rpt, Prrep06g.rpt, and Prrep06h.rpt.  In addition, the two primary reports also contain new parameters which will allow the printing of the statement 'No Payroll For This Reporting Period' on the reports if no data is found for the selected job and week ending date.  Therefore, the following report formats have been discontinued:  Prrep06c.rpt, Prrep06d.rpt.

4.

Simple cosmetic changes to the certified payroll reports include the design of the report header, the print layout of the employee address and social security number, the elimination of the employee gender and ethnicity fields, and the elimination of the 'Total Pays' amount field on the 'include benefits' format.  The elimination of fields was based on the information 'suggested' by the state and federal governments.

5.

Overtime hours (x 1.5) will now be printed separately from double time hours (x 2.0).

6.

The 'Total Other Pays' under the 'Gross Amount This Project ' column has been replaced with 'Total Hourly Fringe' on the 'include benefits' format.  This format will also include a separate line for 'Total % of Gross Fringe' for those who have such benefits.  Both fields will include the rates as pulled from the current benefit schedule.  This should make it easier for other parties to verify that the full prevailing wage requirements have been met. Note: Consideration was given to print the total hourly rate for the 'Total Earnings Including Benefits', however, the rate would have been inaccurate when overtime was included.

7.

To accommodate benefit packages that include multiple employee options for such things as health insurance or pension plans, AccuBuild has devised a method of entering this information into the employee's file as a miscellaneous pay withheld (an amount paid on the check, taxed, and then deducted from the check).  Please note that with this method the miscellaneous pay can be marked as exempt from specific tax calculations as well as marked as exempt from the workers compensation accrual.  This method will decrease the number of union codes that were previously necessary to accommodate all of the various options.  Depending upon your current set up of miscellaneous pays and deductions, this set up may not be feasible for your company until January 1st.  Please refer to the documentation titled 'Prevailing Wage – Paying into an Approved Fund' for complete set up information.

8.

Due to the fact that the benefits can be set up as miscellaneous pays in the employee file, the 'mapping' of the miscellaneous pays and deductions to the certified payroll report (Payroll | Properties | Certified Payroll) have been modified so that the rates are pulled from the employee file.  If you wish to have a miscellaneous pay or deduction print on a 'total check' basis on the certified payroll report, such as for garnishments, then use numbers 1 through 10 to map to the corresponding accumulator description.  If you wish to have a miscellaneous pay print on a 'per project' basis on the report, such as for pension, then use numbers 21 through 30 to map to one of the accumulator descriptions.  For example, if MiscPay3 is set up as 'Pension' and is only applicable to work performed on a certain job, then the Pension field is mapped to the Pension accumulator on the Certified Payroll Tab using number 21.  This will pull the rate from the employee's file and calculate the pension based on the number of hours worked on the specific job rather than for all hours on the check.

9.

For those companies that are required to submit their payroll data to TRS Consultants,  an XML Export button has been added to the Certified Payroll Report Screen.  Although Crystal Reports allows us to export to various file formats that TRS could use, the data did not always convert consistently.  AccuBuild has stripped out the normal formatting so that the data can be exported into the format preferred by TRS Consultants.  This option will automatically save the data to a file in the user's directory with a file name consisting of the job number and the payroll week number (ie. J4001W1.xml). This file can be viewed with NotePad to view the data in the XML format.  For your convenience, AccuBuild has also added the 'XML to Screen' option to view the raw payroll data using Crystal Reports (click the XML to Screen option and then click the XML Export Button.  This format is easier to view than the true XML format.