2024 Year-end for Sage 100 - FAQ

It is recommended to finalize all postings for the 2024 payroll year and complete the year-end processing before making any entries for 2025. This is important because the year-end processing in the new Payroll 2.X (Sage 100 v2018 and newer) triggers essential calculations and rollovers, such as time off accruals, deduction goals, and Direct Deposit year-to-date amounts.However, it is possible to run payroll in the new year before running year-end, but it's not the best practice.

It is not necessary to run W2's before running period-end processing. Sage 100 has partnered with Aatrix for forms processing since MAS90 4.50. The data tables that store e-filing and tax reporting information maintain detailed records year-over-year in all versions. While some recent versions of the program may display a pop-up message warning that W-2s need to be run before year-end processing, this is no longer accurate.

If you are running Sage 100 2018 or newer (“Payroll 2.X”), there is no need to create a copy company, as the new payroll program keeps many detailed records year-over-year (according to the setting in Payroll Options). The exception is if you are running Sage 2017 or older (“legacy payroll”), in which case a year-end copy company is required for record keeping in these retired versions.

Tax reporting and e-filing forms, including W-2s, should be run in the "live company" and not in a copy company. This ensures that the forms archive is maintained together in the same database.

Reopening a closed payroll year should be avoided whenever possible. Certain amounts, such as benefit accruals, are reset during year-end processing (unless the anniversary date reset option is used). Therefore, prior payroll years should not be reopened.

If checks were processed incorrectly, they should ideally be reversed and re-entered correctly. If this isn't possible, you can manually edit the wage and tax history. For detailed instructions, see How to edit employee wage and tax history in Tax Summary.

Year end processing can be run before or after updating payroll to 2.25.0 and/or running W2s

Yes, an active payroll subscription is required for processing any new Tax Reporting forms in payroll. Have questions about your subscription? Call 1-888-721-8989, open 9 a.m. - 8 p.m. ET, Monday-Friday unless otherwise noted.

Aatrix efiling forms update independently from the Sage 100 version, so even older versions may be able to run the 2024 W-2 after updating the forms. However, only supported versions will receive the necessary year-end updates to ensure data is correctly routed from Sage 100 files to the Tax Reporting forms. Sage 100 support cannot assist with any issues running W-2s or other Tax Reporting forms in unsupported versions. If needed, corrections can be made directly in the Aatrix form processor. See Payroll and Accounts Payable 1099 compatibility for Sage 100 for tax year 2024 for details. 

The W4 form is completed by employees to instruct their employer on which filing status and dependent settings to use. In 2020, the IRS issued a new W4 form that calculates a dollar value for the dependent amount, instead of using a dependent count as the previous form did. There have been new versions of the W4 form each year since then, and all current Sage 100 versions support these versions of the form. See How to use 2020 W4 settings in Sage 100 for details. 

The NEC (Non-Employee Compensation) version of the 1099 is supported on all currently supported versions of Sage 100, from v2021 to 2024.

For any questions regarding the 1099 NEC on older versions, please see 1099 NEC form new for year 2020 for Accounts Payable Nonemployee Compensation. The 1099 NEC form was introduced in 2020 for Accounts Payable Nonemployee Compensation.

Most forms can be printed on plain printer paper, but some require a pre-perforated 4-part blank page. The official red ink forms for certain government copies of W-2/W-3, 1099/1096, etc., are no longer required when printing forms from the Aatrix Federal and State Tax Reporting. For more details, see What forms do I use to print W2s, 1095s and 1099s in Sage 100?.

Access to the payroll module requires an active payroll subscription plan. 

Regular customers: Please see Error"Payroll Expiration Date is Invalid. Your payroll subscription will expire in xx days."

Channel Partners / Sage Accountants Network (SAN) members: Please see Unable to access Payroll module (for Business Partners and SAN Customers with NFR keys and Customers with Read Only Access). 

 NOTE: Channel Partners and Sage Accountants Network (SAN) members receive NFR (Not For Resale) activation keys and programs. The payroll expiration date in NFR versions is hard-coded and cannot be changed. For those running the 2021 version of Sage 100, access to the payroll module will expire on 12/31/2024, starting a 45-day lockout timer. They must upgrade to a supported version. NFR versions of Sage 100 2022 will expire on 12/31/2025, Sage 100 2023 on 12/31/2026, and so on.  

Users may experience issues with installing Aatrix Federal and State Tax Reporting Updates such as:

• eFile not loading
• Aatrix not loading
• "Update Problem. There was a problem during the update process. Error writing file C:\program files(x86)\common files\Sage\Aatrix\xxxx.dll"

Please refer to this article for helpful tips on environmental settings and resoltution options: Unable to Install Aatrix Federal and State Tax Reporting Updates