Create a New Payroll Withholding Formula
  • 19 Dec 2023
  • 3 Minutes to read

Create a New Payroll Withholding Formula


Article Summary

Create a new payroll withholding, known in Procare as a General Withholding, for things like health, medical or dental insurance, employee child care, retirement plans, uniforms, garnishments, city income tax, etc.

Getting There

  1. From the Procare Home screen click Configuration > System.
  2. Go to Accounting Management > Payroll > dbl-click Payroll Formulas.

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Download Health Insurance and other “General Withholdings”

You may Download & Import Formulas for common General Withholdings like health insurance, child care, retirement, garnishments, California SDI, city income tax, etc. or you may create your own formulas (keep reading).

Create your own withholding (make a new formula)

  1. Begin at the Payroll Formulas screen and select the Category “General” from the list (upper left).
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  2. If an existing formula is close to the new one you wish to create, click once on that formula to select it. This may be used as a starting point for your new formula. If you intend to create the new formula from scratch, it doesn’t matter which existing formula is selected.

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  1. Click New Formula (bottom left).

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  1. Answer Yes or No depending on whether you wish to use the existing formula as a template.

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  1. At the Create New Payroll Formula screen:

    1. The Category and Class Name will automatically be set to “General”.
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    2. Click Add to create a new Subclass.
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    3. Enter a New Subclass Name, like “Health” and click Exit. The Subclass is what you will assign to individual employees and is limited to 15 characters.
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    4. Choose whether this new formula will be a Withholding – money deducted from a check (yes, in most cases) or a Credit – money added to a check (not common).
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    5. Type a short abbreviation for the Group Name (name that will appear on the pay stub) like “hlth” and click Next.
      Important! The Group Name may contain letters and numbers only (alphanumeric); no spaces, dashes, punctation symbols, etc., are allowed.

    6. Type a longer formula name (like “Health Insurance”) and choose a Start Date; for example, this formula may take effect as of Jan. 1st, then click Finish. You’ll return to the Payroll Formulas screen.
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  2. Dbl-click the name of your new formula to edit it. If you chose a Start Date in the future, be sure the Show All In Category box (upper right), is checked, in order for it to be visible.

  3. At the Payroll Formula Builder screen, type your formula from scratch or make any necessary changes (if you started with a template). For example, you may wish to withhold an amount that varies per employee:

    1. Enter a name for your variable on line 1, using the syntax Var[nameofvariable], like Var[amount]. See Additional Examples.
      See Additional Examples.
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    2. Tap Enter (on your keyboard) to move to the next line or click Save.

    3. When the Variable Not Defined message appears, click Yes to define the variable.
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    4. Enter a Description for the variable and choose a Mask, like the Money format #####.##.
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    5. Enter a default Value to use for everyone to whom this withholding is assigned or leave it zero. You’ll assign the actual amount to each person on the Employee Withholdings screen. Note: You may enter a Value temporarily for testing the formula, but usually you’ll want to set it back to zero when you’re finished testing, so the default for each person will be zero.

    6. Click Save > Exit to return to the *Payroll Formula Builder *screen.

    7. Continuing entering any additional lines for your formula and then click Save > Exit to return the list of Payroll Formulas.
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  4. If this withholding is exempt from certain taxes (also known as a “pretax” or “pre-taxed” withholding):

    1. Click once on the Formula Name to select it.

    2. Click the Exempt From button (lower left).
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    3. Check off any items from which it is exempt then click Save > Exit to return to the list of Payroll Formulas.
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    Note: A “pretax” withholding means the amount is deducted from gross pay prior to taxes being calculated. The amount withheld is not taxed. Be sure to check with your tax adviser before marking a withholding as exempt. See: Pre-Taxed Withholdings

  5. When you are finished adding and editing formulas click Exit again.

What’s Next

The next step is to Assign Withholdings to an Employee.


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