Analyzing the Calculated Payroll: Exceptions - Error & Warning Messages: Their Meaning and Where to Fix Them

Modified on Mon, Jul 10, 2023 at 10:52 AM

Errors

Error messages mean they will not allow Payroll to run; these are all 'blocking' errors:

Message	Meaning	Where to Fix
Has a Salary Balance but no active Position Tracking Record.	The staff member currently has no Position Tracking Record. A Position Tracking Record is required in order to pay a contracted employee and to properly charge their payroll to an account or accounts. When this error appears, it means they are showing a "Salary Balance" on their Payroll > Summary screen. The discrepancy of having a salary balance and no PTR is causing the error.	Do one of these fixes - remove the salary balance from the Payroll > Summary screen if the employee is an hourly employee or substitute who does not need a Position Tracking record create a Position Tracking Record for the employee if they are a contracted employee with an annual salary. Then be sure to update the salary balance and pays left on the Payroll > Summary screen.
Net Pay is <= 0	So many deductions are taken from the staff member's Gross Pay for the pay period that the result is a negative net value.	Disable any unnecessary deduction(s) until the net is greater than zero. Or - refund the amount being taken from those deductions if you don't want to disable them.
Gross Pay is <= 0	The staff member's Gross Pay for the pay period is less than or equal to zero.	Review the employee's salary balance and pays left to find out why the gross is not being calculated.
New Jersey income tax deduction cannot be calculated because Staff Payroll Summary is set to PA	The employee has a state income tax deduction for NJ, but their W4 setting on their Payroll > Summary screen is set to PA	Either change the Payroll > Summary screen to NJ to match the NJ deduction, or - disable the NJ deduction and add the PA income tax deduction to match the W4 setting
Could not calculate. The percentage field is not filled in for (Medicare)	This message is saying that the deduction indicated is set as a "Percentage of" type of deduction, but no percentage amount is filled in on the deduction setup	Go to the indicated deduction and fill in the percentage to be deducted
Staff does not have a date of birth. Some deductions will not calculate without it.	Staff member does not have their date of birth filled in on their Demographics screen	Go to the employee's Demographics screen and enter their date of birth
Staff does not have any enabled bank accounts defined	There are no bank accounts entered on the employee's Payroll > Bank accounts screen	Go to the employee's Payroll > Bank Accounts screen and enter the direct deposit bank account information or enter "Check" if the employee is receiving a live check
Staff does not have any enabled bank accounts with a percentage defined.	The employee has a bank account entered, but no percentage is defined	Go to the employee's Payroll > Bank Accounts screen and make sure the account(s) equal 100% total
Payroll not Verified for Staff	The employee's payroll record is set to unverified. You will see the yellow Unverified banner on their record.	Go to the employee's Payroll > Summary screen and click the "View # changes that automatically unverified this employee's payroll setup" button to review what caused the record to become unverified. Once reviewed and all is OK, click the "Set Payroll Status Verified" button.
Could not locate pension data on the employees pension tab	The employee has a different pension group on their Payroll > Pension screen than the pension deductions on their Payroll > Deductions screen (for example, they have PERS on the Pension tab and TPAF in deductions)	Either change the deductions to match the pension group on the Payroll > Pension screen, or - change the pension group on the Payroll > Pension screen to match the deductions
Invalid formula on budget assignments for casual earning:	The casual earning on the employee's Other Earnings screen has a charge account assigned, but does not have a percentage or amount entered.	Go to the employee's Payroll > Other Earnings screen, click Edit for the casual earning indicated in the error. You will notice the Amount field is blank. Click Edit for the Charge To and enter 100 in the percent field if the whole earning goes to one account. If it is charged to more than one account, distribute the earnings properly between the accounts.
PositionTracking is using account 11-000-222-177-9 in the wrong school year [2021-22]	This means that the account number indicated is not set up properly for use in this year	Go to the Financial Tab and look up this account and make sure it is setup up for use in Salaries in this year. Make sure it is the correct account number to be assigned to those staff members.

Warning Messages

These conditions do not block Payroll from running, but may make an individual's computed payroll amounts incorrect.

Message	Meaning	Where to Fix
Message	Meaning	Where to Fix
Casual Earning XXXX is not billed to any accounts.	The casual earning this employee is being paid in this pay period does not have any charge-to accounts entered	Go to the employee's Payroll > Other Earnings screen and click Edit on the Casual Other Earning and enter the charge-to account number
No Health Benefit Tracking Records	The staff member does not have any health benefit records	Go to the employee's Healthcare screen and either enter the health care they have chosen OR click the button to mark the employee as not receiving health care.
Has a salary balance but no active position tracking record	The staff member currently has no Position Tracking Record. A Position Tracking Record is required in order to pay a contracted employee and to properly charge their payroll to an account or accounts. When this error appears, it means they are showing a "Salary Balance" on their Payroll > Summary screen. The discrepancy of having a salary balance and no PTR is causing the error	Do one of these fixes - remove the salary balance from the Payroll > Summary screen if the employee is an hourly employee or substitute who does not need a Position Tracking record create a Position Tracking Record for the employee if they are a contracted employee with an annual salary. Then be sure to update the salary balance and pays left on the Payroll > Summary screen.
Position is not billed to any accounts.	The employee's Position Tracking Record does not have any account numbers entered	Go to the employee's Position Tracking Record and enter a Charge-to account(s)
Bill To on position tracking does not have an amount or percentage.	The employee's Position Tracking Record must have an amount and/or percentage entered in the Charge-to account	Go to the employee's Position Tracking Record and enter an amount (if more than one account number) and/or percentage. If there are multiple accounts, one can have an amount, but the other must be 100% (meaning 100% of what's left after the amount goes to that account)
Staff does not have a Social Security #	The employee's social security number is missing from the employee's Demographics screen	Go to the employee's Demographics screen and enter the social security number
Staff may require a DCRP deduction because their TPAF/PERS deduction may go over the max annual wages this or next pay period	The employee is close to reaching the max wages for pension	If the employee wants to contribute to DCRP after they've reached their TPAF or PERS pension max, add the DCRP deduction so the system will switch to that deduction. Be sure to add another Pension record on the employee's Payroll > Pension screen.
Staff has deduction TPAF Pension but does not have the pension TPAF	The employee has a different pension group on their Payroll > Pension screen than the pension deductions on their Payroll > Deductions screen (for example, they have PERS on the Pension tab and TPAF in deductions)	Either change the deductions to match the pension group on the Payroll > Pension screen, or - change the pension group on the Payroll > Pension screen to match the deductions
No casual earnings and Salary Balance is 0	The system sees that this person has something in the employee's record prompting it to include the employee in this payroll.	Most of the time this occurs when an 10 month staff member has a refund in a deduction and the person is not included in the payroll for any earnings. The system wants to include them due to the refund. If the refund should be there, leave it and let the system pay them for it. Otherwise, remove the refund if it should not be there.