UPDATE - I found 4 employees that worked briefly in 2019 whose payroll transactions did NOT experience this calc error on the employer's side. They were NEW employees, and I see that the EI Factor in settings refers to "new employees". Am I totally misunderstanding where the Employer's EI factor should go? Should the individual employee profiles actually contain a rate of 1.4 (the employer factor) rather than the employee rate of 1.62?

I want to make sure I get this right since the EI rates have changed in 2020 and I'll need to update all the employees and the Employer rates, and now I'm confused as to what goes where? Am I alone in this?

The rate you have on the Employee Ledger, Taxes tab is for the calculation of the Employer portion of EI, not the employee.  It should be 1.4 not 1.62.

thanks for the quick reply Richard, I was starting to come to that but wasn't sure it made sense. Just so I'm clear, there is NO NEED to enter Employee EI rates every year? Even though I am entering the rates in the Employee Ledger profile, that is actually used to calculate the Employer's portion/expense?

Technically you shouldn't need to enter the Employer portion rate either because you send for new employees you have the proper 1.4 set up in Setup, Settings, Payroll, Taxes.  If the rate never changes, you don't have to make any changes.  The Help on these screens could be improved quite a bit.

BTW, the employee rates are what you are paying Sage for every year.

Open the sample file and play with an employee's ledger settings.  Setup a paycheque and check out the journal entry on the Report menu without posting so you can see how the rates you change will affect the amount of the expenses and the payable amounts.

Haha yes I just sort of did that (going back thru my January2020 payroll) and I totally see what you mean. Turns out the EI rates were in fact calculating at the correct rate of 1.58 for January, which made it clear that the number I was inputting in the employee ledger wasn't affecting the worker, just the employer expense. It makes sense to me now, although I do find it a little mis-leading having it set up that way. But I guess it's good to know the Updates I pay for are working for the employees' side, i should just leave it alone and trust the computer updates! Thanks again, much appreciated :-)

The reason it is set up for the employer's rate on each employee is because there can be reduced rates depending on  the benefits package when short term disability is included. The employer has to apply for the discounted rate and it may apply only to employees with the specific coverage and not all employees. I am aware of a company with three factors for the employer's portion as they have a varying plan for employees in different groups.

Aahhh, that makes more sense to me now, I wasn't aware of that, our payroll has always been pretty simple. Here's to continuing to learn things after 40! thank you :-)