Improved control over annual estimated earnings calculations

We have introduced an enhancement that gives you greater control and accuracy when calculating annual estimated earnings. Estimated earnings are used for ACA reporting and certain benefit calculations.

You have the ability to specify exactly which pay codes should contribute to each employee’s estimated earnings. This ensures that reported and calculated totals reflect true expected earnings.

At the master code level, regular earning codes can be marked as contributing to the estimate. When you set this value on the master code it serves as the default for all employees who use that code. However, you can customize this behavior on the employee level if needed.

Within each employee’s pay code setup is an option to either Use master code setting, explicitly include the code, or exclude it from the annual estimate. This flexibility allows you to fine tune calculations for specific employees, while maintaining consistent standards across your organization.

To make large scale updates simple, the spreadsheet import for pay codes includes this field. You can bulk assign which pay codes should or should not contribute to estimated earnings, and reimport the updated spreadsheet to apply changes throughout your system.

There is also a display of estimated ennual earnings on the employee pay code setup. This section provides clear visibility into how an employee’s annual earnings estimate is being calculated. Selecting See Details opens a breakdown showing which codes contribute to the total, the year to date earnings for each, and the last check date used in the calculation. This level of transparency helps ensure that you always understand how the amount is calculated.

The estimated earnings field is editable, allowing you to override the system’s calculated value if you believe a different amount better reflects the employee’s expected earnings. Any manual override you enter will remain in place until you edit or remove it. If you clear the field and save the system will automatically repopulate it with our recalculated estimated total. Even when an override is in place the system’s calculated total will still appear for reference beneath your custom amount.

Once finalized, the estimated annual earnings value flows directly into the Benefits module, ensuring that both benefit calculations and ACA reporting are based on the most accurate and intentionally defined earnings data.

This feature brings more accuracy, transparency, and flexibility to the way annual earnings are calculated and reported, thus helping you to maintain cleaner data and make better informed benefit and compliance decisions.