Recently, a Maxwell Management Suite customer asked how to verify the number of employees that printed on Line 1 of the Quarterly 941 Report. That line is labeled “Number of employees who received wages, tips, or other compensation for the pay period including:Mar. 12 (Quarter 1), June 12 (Quarter 2), Sept. 12 (Quarter 3), Dec. 12 (Quarter 4)”. Simply stated, the count is based on the number of paychecks issued during a “pay period” encompassing the 12th calendar day of March, June, September, and December.
But the trick, of course, is knowing the date range used for those “pay periods”. A quick look at the CPR941 program showed that for the 1st quarter, if an employee is paid weekly (pay cycle), they will be counted if they received a check dated from March 12 to March 18. Of course, each pay cycle tests for a different set of date ranges as follows:
* Weekly: 12th to 18th
* Bi-Weekly: 12th to 25th
* Semi-Monthly: 1st to 17th
* Monthly: 1st to 31st
One thing to note is if an employee received two paychecks in one of those date ranges, they will be counted twice.
So if your employees are paid weekly, verify line 1 of the 941 by printing the YTD Detail PR Register, for all employees, for March 12 to March 18 and count the number of checks that print on the report.