Notes from the President

Ken Hilton - President Red Wing Software

Every day, we all make important decisions that affect how our business will operate, and those decisions determine the path we want the business to follow. The same holds true for our local, state, and national elections. You get to determine your community, region, and country’s direction by exercising your right and responsibility to vote.
These decisions can be difficult because of all the confusing messages we hear, but we need to sift through the noise and try to get to the facts. We must look past the bumper sticker messages and look at the underlying philosophy of the candidates. What direction do they want to take the community, country, and world? We need to ignore the pundits that try to tell us what a candidate means from their perspective. After an interview, speech, or debate, one way to do this is, change the channel to something non-political, and decide for yourself whether the candidate is the kind of leader you would like to see guiding their respective geographic area.
Remember, whether your candidate wins his/her race, or the opposition comes out victorious, know that you will get another chance to vote in two more years. However things turn out, there is not a better place in the world to call home.

Third Quarter 2020 Form 941

Payroll Tax Holiday
The Federal/State Tax Forms (Aatrix) third quarter 2020 update was recently released. This version includes a draft of the third quarter 2020 Form 941 that is acceptable to eFile/file for the third quarter as long as there is no employee Social Security tax deferral amount to report. The IRS has not released the final version of the third quarter 2020 Form 941 that includes payroll tax holiday additions based on the executive orders that President Donald Trump signed on August 8, 2020. The final version IRS approved third quarter 2020 Form 941 will include the ability to manually enter employer and employee Social Security deferrals. If you need to report employee Social Security tax deferrals, they will need to be reported on the final version of the form. When the form is released by the IRS/Aatrix, you will be notified via email if you are on a Customer Care Plan. Alternately, you will also be prompted to update Federal/State Tax Forms (Aatrix) as updates become available.
COVID-19 Paid Leave Update
Red Wing Software recently released CenterPoint Payroll version 15.12 the week of September 28, 2020, that will more accurately report COVID-19 paid leave amounts on Form 941. CenterPoint Payroll can be set up to track COVID-19 paid leave so it can accurately be reported on Form 941. Click here to view documentation on CenterPoint Payroll and COVID-19 Paid Leave. If you have not been tracking COVID-19 Paid Leave in CenterPoint, but still need to report it on the third quarter 2020 Form 941, you can do so now with the currently released software and tax forms by manually adjusting Form 941 in Aatrix.

CenterPoint Payroll Classroom Training (Online)

Due to COVID-19, Red Wing Software converted our in-person CenterPoint Payroll Classroom Training to an online format. Classroom training (online) is the most comprehensive way to learn how to use CenterPoint Payroll and will include:
 
Payroll Setup
Learn how to maintain the setup of employees, earnings, deduction and taxes. The training will examine the setup and use of vacation and sick leave and discuss everything you need to know to set up Direct Deposit, Publish Pay Advice, and the CenterPoint Time Clock.
Payroll Processing, Reports and Taxes
We’ll take you through the details of time-entry and payroll processing. Learn how pay defaults can help you save significant time and create more accurate payroll entries. There will be a discussion of all the payroll reports available and how to take advantage of them. CenterPoint Payroll includes tax forms to allow printing and electronic submission of payroll tax forms including W-2s. You will learn how to process, review and edit these forms as well.
The training will be offered as two 4-hour live online sessions on consecutive days and will be limited to 10 participants.
  October 20, 2020 and October 21, 2020
9:00 am – 1pm CST
Cost: $150.00
  Click Here to Register
  December 8, 2020 and December 9, 2020
9:00 am – 1pm CST
Cost: $150.00
  Click Here to Register

Coming Soon – Online Payroll Classroom Training

Due to COVID-19, Red Wing Software is converting our in-person CenterPoint Payroll Classroom Training to an online format. The training will be offered as two 4-hour live online sessions on consecutive days and will be limited to 10 participants. Be on the look-out for registration information coming soon!

Behind the Scenes - August 2020

Mike (Quality Assurance Manager) and his family visited the Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island, UP Michigan.
Ashley (Accounting Software Support Specialist) is excited to announce the purchase of her first home. Ashley, her daughter, Paytin, and pet dog, Bandit, are all settling in nicely.
Allison (Accounting Software Support Specialist) had a fun time at a bachelorette party. (Allison is standing to the left of the bride-to-be.)