Meet the New UKG Pro Tax Setup Capabilities

In this episode, we're joined by Ray McLane and Ilias Terki-Hassaine from the UKG Specialty Product Support team to cover the ins and outs of the new Tax Setup (Company) business rule for UKG Pro Payment Services customers to add and update U.S. state and local tax codes with ease. We review:

• The benefits of using the new business rule
• The types of tax codes compatible with the new functionality
• Tax code exceptions
• Plans for future enhancements
• And a lot more!

For more information on the new Tax Setup (Company) business rule, review the Configure Company U.S. State and Local Tax Codes, Request SUI Tax Rate changes, and Tax Code Exceptions job aids. We also recommend you review our Payment Services Gateway job aid for a step-by-step guide on viewing up-to-date payroll tax filing data. 

Transcript

Tax Setup Business Rules Podcast

ASHLEY:  The beginning of the year can be a pretty hectic time, and for our UKG Pro Payment Services customers, we have a new business rule to help you manage your tax code changes, especially those state unemployment insurance rates that are probably coming in right about now.  The tax setup company business rule offers you the ability to enter tax as your company needs and to do so on your own time.  Hi, everyone.  I’m Ashley Gordon at the Working Smarter Café, and on today’s episode I’m joined by two people who are instrumental in bringing this new capability to you. Let’s meet them and learn more.

[Musical intro]

ASHLEY:  Hi, everyone.  I am joined here with Ray McLane and Ilias Terki, senior manager and manager of specialty product support for payment services.  Thank you both so much for joining.  

ILIAS:  Thanks for having us.

ASHLEY:  Of course.  Well, we are here today to talk about the new tax code setup business rules that are available in UKG Pro for our payment services tax filing customers to use.  If you can talk a little bit about the process before for tax code adds and changes and what the new capabilities now allow customers to do directly in the product.

RAY:  Absolutely.  Thanks, Ashley.  Yeah, super excited about this new capability.  It, frankly, has been a long time coming.  Historically whenever you needed to make a profile update in the payment services, you would have to create a case and hopefully select the guided workflow option where we would ask you specifically for which tax code, what’s the frequency, what’s the effective date, and kind of giving us that kind of information right within the [inaudible] community, and then if you needed it set up in payroll, you would mark an option there in the community case, and then if you wanted the information, you know, set up in payroll, it would typically happen within 24, 48 hours, and then it would take a lot longer for us, frankly, in payment services to be able to get it set up for you for the purposes of the employer tax filing.

            So with this new capability, that work that you used to do in the community, you just do it right in the business rules, so being able to go right into UKG Pro, turning on the business rule if it’s not already on, and then adding the information right in payroll, so that way in Pro, if you needed to pay somebody, say, that very next day or that afternoon, being able to now update that information in Pro.  If you had any information that was missing because you  maybe hadn’t registered with the agency yet, being able to now get that information to us whenever you get it, but then having reminders in Pro reminding you of the information that needs to come over.  That’s for tax code adds as well as changes, and really a big one is I think unemployment insurance rates, so right now at the beginning of the year, there’s a lot of, you know, agencies that are sending out unemployment insurance rates and you’re now able to just make those changes directly into Pro, and as long as you complete all the information in the business rule, that information will sync right over into the payment services system within 24 hours.

ASHLEY:  That’s great, Ray.  And just to make sure we touch on it, the information being entered into the product is very similar to what would have been entered into a case, correct, it’s just in a different location now.

RAY:  You got it, yeah.  It really is, you know, the information that we need in order to set up a customer’s tax code for employer tax filing purposes really comes down to a couple key fields or a couple key data elements, which is what’s the ID for that particular tax code, what’s the deposit frequency, is there any other kind of personal identifiable information for that employer in that particular agency.  What comes to mind is like, you know, a PIN number in certain states or like a county code in like Texas, so that’s very unique information for each different employer, and we would ask for that information in a case.  And typically if we didn’t get it in a case, then that would lead to the back and forth and the case says, hey, we need this information in order to get this set up for you, so we really are kind of moving the information where it’s now self-service for our customers to be able to do it right in Pro, instead of getting reminders from a team through a case that, hey, you’re missing information, that’s going to be much more systematic within Pro, that’s going to tell you, hey, I can’t set this Texas tax code for you yet because you’re missing a county code.  Once you get the county code set up, then we’ll be able to file this return on your behalf. 

ASHLEY:  I think that’s great.  And I think this is a good segue into explaining a little bit about what the new business rules do support, so can you explain a little bit about that?

RAY:  They support essentially all the state and local tax codes, with some small exceptions.  I would say the exceptions that come to mind, you know, if you have a [inaudible] FEIN configuration, still not there yet where you’re able to self-serve for those particular types of company setups.  You’ll still want to be able to create a case so that we can make sure your systems are synced up.  Worker’s comp is actually a separate business rule in Pro, so as you get worker’s comp rates for 2024, those will still also be cases that we’ll need in order to make sure that we can sync up the worker’s comp rates in both the payroll system and the tax system on your behalf, again, work that’s [inaudible] that we hope to have some time in the next, you know, six to 12 months.  And Family Medical Leave is another one where you just certain kind of configurations that were a little bit different as they were added throughout the years, and so it’s just going to take us a little bit more time to get those integrations in place between payroll and tax.  But if it’s anything related to, you know, any [inaudible] local tax code, if you’re trying to add it, if you’re trying to change a rate on an unemployment insurance, if you’re in an applied for ID status and you finally get an ID, you can add that ID information in, and so really you’re going to be able to now add all that information on your own right in Pro and a big, big, big advantage is that if you didn’t previously have access to update information in Pro for the purposes of paying employees, selecting that work location right away, everybody will now have that capability to now be able to go right into Pro, add the tax code that you need in order to pay that employee, and then get again those reminders that, okay, you’re good in payroll but we still need this additional information in order to be able to complete your employer tax filing profile, so again, we can deposit those monies for you to the appropriate agency and then file the appropriate returns when they come due.

ASHLEY:  Awesome.  And then the entering of the data, too, the information compliance requirements are built in, correct, to ensure that the data is entered in the correct format?

RAY:  That was probably one of the things that we were working the hardest on, Ashley, was, for those of you that use that guided workflow capability, I know there is a lot of customers that made this recommendation and we were really trying hard to get this squared away through the community.  It will make sure that as  you’re adding a tax code the system is intelligent enough to tell you that this is the appropriate ID for this agency, these are the available deposit frequencies for this agency.  These are the additional required data elements for this agency.  So as you’re going through the experience in Pro, it’s much more comprehensive than what we were asking you to do through the community.  Through the community it was really kind of a, it gave you options for the states but it didn’t give you any validations.  There was no validations on the ID or the frequency.  It was really just kind of a drop-down list of what was most common.  Now there’s a lot more kind of protection for you as you’re adding information into Pro, to make sure that the information entered is in the [inaudible] format, so that way, as you’re setting this information up for the first time or as you’re making modifications because you had to set it up and then had to wait for information from an agency, we’re wanting to make sure that you know exactly what that agency requires in order to make sure that you’re all set up and you don’t get any, you know, notices down the road for anything that was not set up correctly or we have do an original filing down the road for something that was late, so really wanting to make sure that you get all that information up front as part of the setup.

ASHLEY:  Yeah.  And I think it provides a level of comfortability, too, in terms of adjusting to this new process, right, to know that some of those compliance requirements are built in.

RAY:  Absolutely.  Yeah, we wanted to try to make sure that we had those kind of checks and balances in place, those guardrails, if you will, as customers started entering this information on their own.

ASHLEY:  For sure.  So when they are entering these changes and updates, what types of materials, documentation, agency information is helpful to make sure they have on hand?

ILIAS:  Well, I can take that one.  So when you’re going in there to enter the particulars for any of these tax codes, we always recommend that you have any of your agency registration documentation because it usually contains all the pertinent information on there, your account number, your frequency, your unemployment insurance rate, if there’s a supplemental rate that’s associated with it, all of that’s usually included on any agency documentation.  Or if that agency has maybe an online portal, you can go look up your account and get that information from there.  Otherwise, I know sometimes papers get lost in the shuffle.  You know, you registered for it two years ago and you can’t find it but you had it written down somewhere, that can work and, once again, as Ray was just saying, we do have those validations built into the system, so we could let you know if it’s the correct format, if it’s going in the correct field, but if it’s a number that’s different, that may end up having some downstream effect, so we always recommend that any agency documentation that you have, copy it off of there to ensure that we have the correct information.

ASHLEY:  That’s great, [inaudible], thank you.  And then as we look to updated rates for 2024, I know many of those will continue to arrive through March.  What should customers do as they start preparing for those changes?

RAY:  Well, as they start, you know, receiving those rates in the mail, or via e-mail, whichever it is, they’re going to want to go into those business rules for their tax setup and enter in those new rates, and the great thing about this new functionality is we have effective dating in there.  So if you’re, if this rate’s not going to go into effect until the next quarter, you could enter the effective date for the next quarter and continue to process, clean and smooth, for the quarter you’re in.  And then obviously if it is during the quarter that you are processing, once you do update that tax rate in the system with the correct effective date, all of your reporting in Pro, as well as in payment services, will update to account for that new updated tax rate.  So as long as that’s handled before the quarter end deadlines, we will be able to file correctly using that updated rate.  It’s most commonly used for unemployment insurance rates, which are due at the end of the quarter, after we close, which is great so there’s no penalty or, you know, possible incorrect payments due to an incorrect rate.  So as long as you get it handled by the end of the quarter, we’ll be able to get that process for you correctly.

ASHLEY:  Thank you.  And then you mentioned reports.  So what reports should customers be leveraging to confirm the accuracy of their tax filing profiles?

RAY:  Well, there are some reports, and then there’s also some great places directly within Pro where they can get this information, so from a reporting standpoint, the collection detail, the tax liability grand total report, the summary payroll register, those are all great payroll reports to show what has been processed in payroll, but the number one tool and where we really recommend customers go to is the payment services gateway, because it’s a combination of a lot of these reports all in one place that’s delivering a view where you can cross reference your liabilities against your collections and payments and even export those reports individually.  So from that page, you’ll even be able to see if a tax code is missing some of the information required for tax filing purposes, if it’s missing an EIN, if it’s inactive in the system, we have a filter where you can even filter for these items calls exceptions, and it would fit into a couple different categories, [inaudible] where it’s not set up, it’s inactive, we have insufficient information, and you can see that right there and then go directly to your business rules thereafter if you have that information to set it up.  So balancing periodically after every payroll is the best thing you can do to make sure that you’re maintaining a clean tax profile, and that way when you get to quarter end, it’s really seamless and everything gets handled really, really efficiently.

ASHLEY:  Sounds good.  And the next thing, for those who know sometimes things are not inputted correctly.  They may find it in the report.  So how does this, these new business rules impact the fallout process?

ILIAS:  Well, the business rules and the fallout process really go hand in hand because it’s cutting down the turnaround time to resolve these items.  So after payroll is ran and you go to balance in the gateway and you see that there’s an exception there saying a tax code is not set up that was on that payroll, you can now go directly to the business rules, make the needed changes, you’ll be prompted to which fields are missing information or required for tax filing that are blank or incorrect and be able to update them there, and within about 24 hours, that is active in your tax profile and good to go, where now we’re able to collect any of those liabilities that were in fallout and get the payments out the door or schedule them accordingly.

RAY:  And something I would add to that as well, Ashley, is that with fallout, just as ILIAS mentioned, like all the capability is in there and the reporting to tell you, like, hey, here’s what you need to do in order to correct this, so that way we can collect the monies and file on your behalf.  I think fallouts are going to happen in payroll.  I think for those of us that have been in this space a long time, you know that you’re going to have situations where you have to process a payroll before you have an agency ID.  It’s going to happen.  And so the moment that you process liabilities without that agency ID, that equates to a fallout, right, because we don’t have the information necessary to be able to deposit those monies on your behalf, but [inaudible] as soon as you see that, as soon as you get the information that he talked about earlier, where you get all the agency ID information, you could correct that and really we’re working on some things to help you prioritize that in the future as well, where, you know, some of these agencies aren’t due until the end of the quarter, so you have until the end of the quarter to be able to get fallouts corrected.  Some of them are monthly, so you have until the end of the month to be able to get it.  So being able to help you not only identify your fallouts through reports, as ILIAS was referring to, have to use the technology on payment services gateway, but then eventually getting to the point where we can help you prioritize, that’s also coming in 2024, where you’ll be able to leverage some of these capabilities that are self-service to help your prioritize your fallout when they happen.  Ideally you’d like to prevent them, as ILIAS referred to, the cleaner your payroll is, the cleaner your quarter is, but that’s in a perfect world.  If you know that you’ve got everything ready for every single payroll, but when you get those curveballs, know that there’s ways to prioritize those curveballs to protect you at the end of the quarter.

ASHLEY:  Sounds good.  And another area I wanted to make sure we touched on is how do these business rules, these new business rules affect the power of attorney process.

ILIAS:  Well, the power of attorney process previously used to be directly related to a tax code add case, and a code would be added and then a subsequent case would be opened to process that power of attorney.  Now with this new functionality, any tax code that is added directly through those tax setup business rules, that require a power of attorney, will automatically generate the form with all of your company’s information and send it directly to the managed tax authorization section of the gateway.  The same flow that it follows now to complete it, but now we’re cutting out another case in the process and automatically generating it.  You’ll still get an e-mail reminder letting you know which jurisdictions, the fact that we need them turned around in a certain amount of time, and you’ll get reminders for those frequently until they’re completed, so you’re still having that kind of closed-loop experience until it’s completed, but now we’re just triggering that process automatically.  Once that power of attorney is generated and completed, those reminders will stop, and you can go and review any of your completed power of attorneys right there in the payment services gateway under managed tax authorization.

ASHLEY:  The words automatic sound amazing to me, ILIAS, so that’s great news.  Can you also tell me a little bit about the current restriction period that we are currently in for customers who are looking to make any changes to their tax codes?

RAY:  Yeah, the quarter-end, year-end restrictions are always a fun topic.  So right now through January 31st, we’re in what’s called a quarter-end, year-end restriction window.  What that essentially means is that we are busy getting together all the fourth quarter 2023 filings, as well as starting to prepare the annual returns for 2023.  So during that window, and this is a restriction that has always been in place, but because in the past with profile updates, we would essentially tell you through the case, hey, you know what, we’re in a restricted window, we’re  not going to be able to process this for you until this date or, you know, we’d be able to set it up for you in the tax system with a future-dated effective date.  The reason for that essentially is that we want to make sure that we’re not generating any noise in the quarter four year-end filing by trying to incorporate prior quarter or prior year changes.  So during the restricted window, only 2024 updates are allowed, which hopefully by January those are the majority of the updates that our customers are making.  You’re making your January 2024 rate updates. You’re making your January 2024 profile updates.  If you happen to have any prior quarter updates, you just realized that you forgot about a tax code from second quarter 2023, you won’t be able to make those kinds of changes into the system until February 1st. By that point, you know, we’re beyond the deadline, essentially an analogy I can use is the plane has left the airport, right, it’s in flight now, we’re going to have to make other arrangements to be able to get that particular tax code set up for you where you’ll now need to do original filings as quickly as possible in order to try to mitigate any tax notices.  

ASHLEY:  That sounds great.  And I know this has been, there’s been a lot of information we just covered, so I do want customers to know that we will be linking to the applicable job aids, reference documentation and other useful tidbits available to you in the community in the episode show notes, so please be sure to take a look.  Ray and ILIAS, is there anything else you wanted to add?

MAN:  Really, really excited about this capability, want to really get our customers’ feedback to make sure that we are, we’re hitting the mark on the capability.  We know that we’re still not done, there’s still some things that we want to incorporate into the self-service capabilities to make it a lot more intuitive and user-friendly and we really want to continue to get customer feedback. So we’ll have some webinars that’ll be coming up, so we want to make sure that folks are attending to be able to learn more and more about some of the capabilities and have a forum to be able to share any feedback, as well as being able to share through the community any recommendations you have for us, so that way we are mindful of them as we continue to prioritize and work to create a better product for our customers.

ASHLEY:  Sounds good.  Well, thank you both so much for your time and for coming to the Working Smarter Café to share this information with customers.  Again, please be sure to check out the episode show notes for those really incredibly useful resources, and thank you both again so much for your time.

MAN:  Thanks for having us.

MAN:  Thank you.

ASHLEY:  Thanks so much for tuning in.  If you have any improvements that you’d like to share with the team on how to make the new business rule work best for you and your organization, please be sure to submit your idea through the ideas portal in the UKG Community.  Until next time, I’m Ashley.  Bye.

[Closing music]

[End of recording – 21:36 in length]