Q&A from April 8 Webinar FFCRA and Sage HRMS

Below is a list of Questions and Answers from FFCRA and Sage HRMS webinar hosted on April 8th, 2020.  Please note, for any legal advise, please consult with your tax professional.  There have also been recent changes this week to the Sage Knowledgebase Article #104155.  Please review this article's attachment if you are on Sage HRMS US Payroll.  For any questions on what has changed, please reach out to Sage HRMS Support or respond to my post.

Question Asked Answer Given
What if a paid holiday falls within the paid sick leave, does the holiday count toward the 80 hours or no? Please check with your Tax Advisor for this information.
If an employee is out because of school or day care is closed, do they receive 2 weeks at 80 hours full pay? and then 2/3 pay for the remaining weeks? That is our understanding of the legislation but you should check with your Tax Advisor for your specific situation so that you're clear on the first 80 hours as well the 2/3 pay from there.
In Sage Abra what should you select on the Other and General Ledger tab? You should set this up to accommodate your specific GL setup and reporting.
Do you take out deductions for Health, Dental, Vision, Life and Disability?  These deductions should still apply. Please check with your Tax Advisor for guidance.
HRMS... how can you add the earning 2/3rd rate? The easiest way of doing this is to add an earning with a .66 rate adjustment to it on the employee payroll - pay tab.   Other option is in Employee Configuration link the new earning code to the employees hourly pay rate and enter conversion factor of .667.
Where is the recording? I cannot find it online It takes approximately 5 days to upload a recording. Last weeks recording was rerecorded yesterday due to number of questions that were asked. That recording (similar presentation, should be available April 13th. If it is posted earlier, we will communicate this in a Sage City Forum Post.
Will the slides be available as well Yes! Absolutely. The recordings will be posted on the registration page in about 5 working days. The handout you downloaded is the slides for the presentation.
Abra Suite....We are a government entity so does this apply to us?? While we would love to help, we can only comment on Sage HRMS/Sage Abra Suite setup items. That question would be best answered by your tax adviser who knows the law or by navigating the .gov website
is it not for Canadian ? A small portion of the webinar is for Canadian Employers. We follow the solution in the Sage Knowledgebase article #104157 Temporary Wage Subsidy. Majority of webinar is for US Payroll.
HRMS- for the med/ss tax set up would the normal pre tax deductions sec 125 be entered in the deduction side If the FICA taxes normally have pretax deductions, then yes, set these up the same. I would suggest verifying this with your tax professional.
HRMS PR - we are an ag-based business and we file an annually Form 943 instead of quarterly 941.   Will 943 be updated to include the COVID tax info? Yes, our 943 reporting will be updated to adhere to IRS regulations (once released).
I guess I'll wait for the playback - is that being emailed to everyone? The file is too large to be send through email.   An on-demand recording should be available April 13 on the Learning Series Page.
ABRA if we are using ABRA how do we get the 2/3 pay rate ? If it is a flat amount earning, enter this on the employees timesheet or Other Earning Page. You will need to manually enter the amount.
Would you recommend setting this up as an accrual? If you would like to track this using accruals then yes you can sure do that. Regarding the legislation, there is no requirement to set it as an accrual so it's entirely up to you. The earnings and taxes must be set up as we've provided here in order to be tracked properly and flow to the 941 properly.
If they are setup as an accrual, they won't flow over to the 941 properly? The important piece is the proper tax codes being attached.
How do you get to the Learning Series Registration page? https://get.sage.com/hrmslearningseries
We use Abra Suite. I added Tax Codes and Earnings codes. My problem is that the EMP1 code I did not put in Column Accumulate Wages only.   We processed a payroll so what will I have to correct? To fix the history, you would need to edit employer tax liabilities for EMP1 so no amount is remitted for this earning.   The wagebase will need to be tracked but the employer does not remit the employer portion of social security on these new earning codes.
Since we can't hear, I would like to know we just pay an employee the 2/3's rate - for example for an 8 hour day - we would pay them 5.25 EPSL and then either 2.75 lwop or a paid leave accrual of the employees. Correct? I would check with your tax professional to see if minimum wage applies in this scenario.
HRMS - we would add the 3 new earning codes to Federal, State, and local. But add the 3 earning codes to CCIDSS AND CVIDMD for Social Security and Medicare, not to our normal SS and Medicare? The 3 earning codes are taxed as any other payroll earning you pay but for Social Security you do not pay employer portion. Do not add USSS or USMED on these COVID earning codes, otherwise, employees will be doubled taxes with new COVID taxes and existing USMED/USSS.
Will there be a webinar for Sage 100 one that does cover FFCRA? Not at this time.
has anything been mentioned about these earnings still being subject to 401K? Qualified leave wages are wages subject to withholding of federal income tax and the employee’s share of Social Security and Medicare taxes. Qualified leave wages are also considered wages for purposes of other benefits that the eligible employer provides, such as contributions to 401(k) plans.
My understanding of the law is that it applies to employers up to 500 employees. Where did you get the 50 to 500 employee language regarding the expanded FMLA? You may want to verify this with your tax professional. EPSLA information was obtained from Dept of Labor website.   www.dol.gov/.../ffcra-employee-paid-leave
We are currently using Abra Suite. Should I use the codes referenced in Sage HRMS to setup in Sage Abra Suite. Have not been emailed this answer when watched previous webinar No you should use the setup guidance for Abra Suite. This is KB 104144.
If qualify for Family Medical Leave due to childcare, could you use sick leave for unpaid 10 days if qualify? I believe the answer is yes but this question should be directed at your Tax Advisor for clarity on your specific situation.
can you qualify for sick and leave credit and PPP credit? Please check with your Tax Advisor for this information.
we are a local gov't entity using abra suite did you say we are not entitled to the social security exemption? and is it for the Medicare portion only? Government entities are not entitled to the tax credit. Please verify this with your Tax Advisor for further clarification.
is the Medicare taxable for the Employer? Yes. Medicare it taxable for the employer.   The only non-tax is for the Employer portion of Social Security.
So none of this applies to government agencies...correct? You would need to check with your Tax Advisor to see if this legislation applies to your scenario.
Do we need to do these codes at all if we are a public employer and are not getting reimbursed? We are a public employer and will pay our employees the sick pay and eFMLA but we are not getting reimbursed (is my understanding). Do we need to add these codes? We are not intending to set up the codes but needed to understand if there are exceptions to when NOT to enter these codes. If you're not taking advantage of the legislation there is nothing specific you need to change. For specific tax scenarios for your "public employer" you would need to seek the guidance of your Tax Advisor. If you're not taking advantage of the legislation there's no reason to set up these earnings codes and pay as we have defined.