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About Common Deduction Limits

About Employee Selection

Common Deduction Limits Report

Using Common Deduction Limits

Before you start

  • Make a backup of your data. You will then have a backup to restore your data if necessary.
  • Have all of your deductions (to which combined limits apply) setup in advance.
  • If some of the deductions limits should apply only to individual employees or only to sets of employees, create unique Selection Lists for relevant individual employees or for relevant sets of employees prior to defining Common Deduction Limit Groups. Learn more About Employee Selection and Selection Lists by clicking the link in the More Information box on this page.
  • Print or save the Earning/Deduction Codes Report (available in Payroll Setup Reports) to reference and validate existing single deduction limits.

Creating a Deduction Group

  1. . Select Setup > Payroll > Earnings/Deductions/Taxes > Common Deduction Limits.
  2. In the Deduction Group field, enter a Common Deduction Limit Group code of your choice.
    • A deduction cannot be included in more than one Common Deduction Limit Group.
  3. In the Description field, enter a description for the Common Deduction Limit Group.
  4. The Last Maintained and Inactive as of fields are for informational purposes.
    • To inactivate a Common Deduction Limit Group and prevent the limit from applying to the payroll calculation, select the Inactive check box.
  5. Choose a Selection List for which you want to setup the deduction group limits, or leave the Selection List field blank to have the deduction group limits apply to all employees. This process does not add deductions to employees, but instead defines limits so that if the employee is assigned the relevant deduction at a later time the deduction group limits will be in effect.
    • Use predefined Selection Lists to define limits for specific or individual employees. Using a Selection List links the Selection List used to the Common Deduction Limit group when it's created.
  6. In the table on this window, select and add the Deduction codes that should be included in this Common Deduction Limit Group.
    • For example: If you are defining a combined deduction limit for two different union dues deductions and one retirement plan deduction for a single employee, so that the annual maximum does not exceed a specific amount, select and add all three deductions to the table.
    • Use the insert key on your keyboard to add additional deductions to the group.
    • Double click a cell in the Deduction column to use the Finder Image of Finder button. and select from the list of available deduction codes.

Note: Common Deduction Limit Groups use the level assigned to the deduction codes to determine the order each individual deduction is withheld to reach the combined limit during payroll calculation. This level exists at the deduction code (setup) level. Sage HRMS Payroll calculates the level for each deduction by checking the employee level first then respects the level assigned to the deduction code in the Common Deduction Limit Group.

Defining Limits for a Deduction Group

  1. Consider that each deduction added to the table in the Common Deduction Limit group will be in effect, as defined in the deduction code setup, until the limit is reached.
    • For example, if an employee belongs to two unions and is required to pay $10 per paycheck to the International Electrician Union Dues deduction and $20 per paycheck to the National Electricians Coalition Dues deduction, but the combined deductions should never exceed $300.00 in a calendar year, each deduction will be included (in the order defined in the Deduction Group) in payroll calculation until the annual $300 limit is reached. If an employee is paid biweekly, the limit will be reached on the tenth paycheck of the year in this example.
  2. Enter an Annual Maximum for the Employee and Employer in the appropriate fields. These annual maximums define the total limit amount for all of the deductions assigned to this Common Deduction Limit group.

Note: Individual deduction limit amounts defined on the Deduction setup code or on Employee Payroll Pay tab will be overridden during the Calculate Payroll process if the deduction is part of a Common Deduction Limit group and the common deduction amount is less than the defined limit amount for the individual deductions.

Assigning Employees to a Common Deduction Limit Group

For a Common Deduction Limit to apply to an employee's deductions:

  • The employee must have at least one deduction assigned, and
  • The employee must be assigned to the Selection List if a Selection List is specified when creating the Common Deduction Limit Group.

The employee is not required to have all deductions that make up a Common Deduction Limit Group in order for the limits to apply in payroll.

Adding an Employee

  • Use a Selection List when creating the Common Deduction Limit Group.
  • Assign the employee to the Selection List and the employee will automatically be included in the Common Deduction Limit Group.

After Defining your Common Deduction Limit Group:

To verify that the assignments were made to your specifications print or save the Common Deduction Limits report from Payroll Setup Reports. The system updates the Last Maintained Date of each deduction group modified so printing the report is an effective way of verifying changes.