Year-End Processing

Dear Valued Customer,

It has come to our attention that the states of Arizona and Kansas are rejecting the W2 electronic file for the following error message:

Error Code#: 4200 Line or Position#: 1406 Record: RS Field Position: 320-330. Incorrect field

The field length is incorrect in position 320-330 of the RS record. Positions 328-330 are coming in as blank, and they need to be zero if there is not another value that populates in that field.

This error message may not be limited to Arizona and Kansas.  You need to receive updated program PRP440.  This will be installed as Quick Fix 552 (QF552).

This program fix will be installed automatically for hosted customer.  If you are enterprise customers, please create an on-line ticket to request the install of QF552.

Customer Support Website

The majority of the states have state specific programs and will not be affected. A handful of states use the “generic” PRP440 program which include Arizona and Kansas.

Thank you!

Dear Valued Customer, An additional change for Year-End Processing was needed for electronic filing under the FIRE system for 1099 electronic filing. The Golden Parachute is no longer reported on Form 1099-MISC. Program APP140 was changed so that the “A” record no longer includes the “B” value in positions 26–45.Quick Fix Q551 (QFQ551) will be installed automatically for hosted customers. For Enterprise/On-Premise customers, please create an online ticket to request the updated program APP140. Customer Support Website Online Ticket This updated program is only needed if you report 1099-MISC forms. If you only have 1099-NEC forms, then you should not experience this problem.Here is an example of the error message you may receive from the IRS if you do not have the updated program APP140 and you process 1099-MISC forms.

Dear CGC Customers:

The 2025 Year End Update # 2 (Q55) is now available for all Production and Test environments.
The Q55 Update contains changes for 2025 ACA and W2 fixes for Michigan and Alabama.

The minimum eCMS Release level for (Q55) is 4.2 Fix Pack 3 – Hot Fix 311.
This is the same minimum release level required for the 2025 Year End Update (Q54).

The (Q55) update does not require users to be logged out of eCMS. All changes will take effect immediately.

The eCMS v.4.2 F03 2025 Year End Update #2 (Q55) Release Notes document is located on the CGC Portal/Knowledge Center. 

Please review the documentation and schedule installation as soon as possible.

For hosted customers:
Since the (Q55) update can be installed while your users are logged into eCMS. 

The Software Delivery Team will be logging onto systems, in the days to come to install the (Q55) update.

For those customers who have already informed us to notify them before updating their production environment, you will be contacted by Software Delivery soon.

If you prefer a specific date/time for these updates or have any questions.
Please submit a ticket, requesting to be contacted by Software Delivery.

For non-hosted customers:
Please submit a ticket requesting the installation of 2025 Year End Update (Q54) into your Production / Test environments. 

Following the install of updates and after nightly processing, the updated eCMS Release Level will display in the lower right hand corner of the eCMS menu. Thank you! 

Dear CGC Customers,

The purpose of this communication is to assist with explaining the Federal Exempt Overtime Premium that is starting this year. In this email, we will discuss the premium and the equation used to calculate the premium credit. Useful links are included at the bottom of the email.

Informational video and PDF are available in the Knowledge Center under the Quarter-End and Year-End section at https://cgcportal.computerguidance.com/.

The Overtime Deduction will be for 2025 through 2028, “individuals who receive qualified overtime compensation may deduct the pay that exceeds their regular rate of pay – such as the “half” portion of “time-and-a-half” compensation – that is required by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and that is reported on a Form W-2, Form 1099, or other specified statement furnished to the individual.”

“Employers and other payers are required to file information returns with the IRS (or SSA) and furnish statements to taxpayers showing the total amount of qualified overtime compensation paid during the year.” This year, the W-2 box 14 is used.

This information came from the One, Big, Beautiful Bill link below.

The calculation as per the government:

Add all Hours Worked for the week.

Add Gross Pay (use reg rate for ALL hours. Since the premium is only for over 40 hrs/week we start with the reg rate).

Divide Gross Pay by Hours Worked to get the Average Worked Rate.

Divide Average Worked Rate by 2 to get the Premium Rate (divide by 2 to get the half portion of the rate).

Multiply the Overtime Hours Worked (hours over 40) by the Premium Rate to get the Premium Paid.

What the calculation means is that the Overtime Premium Deduction is not based on the type of pay a qualified person received during the week. It is based on the number of hours they worked in that week.

Because the calculation is based on per week, if the hours were entered on a biweekly basis there will be manual editing that must be done. The recommendation is to export out the weekly view and use that to manually calculate the overtime premium paid and then export the summary view and edit the amounts appropriately. Going forward it is recommended to discuss the change in entering the hours weekly vs editing the amounts at the end of the year on the spreadsheet.

Links with more information:

One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act: Tax deductions for working Americans and seniors

Overtime Pay

Fact Sheet #23: Overtime Pay Requirements of the FLSA

If you need further assistance beyond the information provided here, we will need you to please submit an incident. Customer Support Site .

Thank you! 

The 2025 Year End Update (Q54) is now available for all Production and Test environments.

The minimum eCMS Release level for (Q54) is 4.2 Fix Pack 3 – Hot Fix 311.
This is the same minimum release level required for the 2025 3^rd Quarter Update (Q53).

The (Q54) update does not require users to be logged out of eCMS. The changes will take effect immediately with the exception to eForms changes. They will need to be restored as usual.

The 2025 Year End Update (Q54) Release Notes document is located on the CGC Portal/Knowledge Center. 

Please review the documentation and schedule installation as soon as possible.

For hosted customers:
Since the (Q54) update can be installed while your users are logged into eCMS. Focusing on Production environments, the Software Delivery Team will be logging onto your production environment in the days to come to install the (Q54) update.

If we discover that your system is not at Hot Fix 311 or higher, we will bring your environment up to HF311 sometime after 5:00pm local time.

If you prefer a specific date/time for these updates or have any questions.
Please submit a ticket, requesting to be contacted by Software Delivery.

For non-hosted/on-premise customers:
Please submit a ticket requesting the installation of 2025 Year End Update (Q54) into your Production / Test environments. 

Following the install of updates and after nightly processing, the updated eCMS Release Level will display in the lower right hand corner of the eCMS menu. Thank you! 

2025 Year-End Processing Webinar Presentations, Webinar Recordings and User Guides for the United States and Canada are available and can be viewed on the CGC Portal/Knowledge Center under the eCMS Quarter-End and Year-End Documentation. 

…

2025 Year-End Processing Documentation

2025 Year-End Processing Webinar Recordings and User Guides 

For year 2025 only a presentation for changes for Year-End Processing are recorded. Year 2022 webinar recording, webinar presentation file and user guides both for US and Canada remain the bases for the 2025 YE Processing documentation. Customers may also want to review the 2023 and 2024 YE Processing changes for US and Canada. These are all posted on the CGC Portal. 

Please also note that we have additional documentation available on the CGC Portal under the Quarter-End, Year-End and Federal Reporting Documentation webpage:

• Federal Exempt Overtime Premiums Reporting – Overview Video
• Federal Exempt Overtime Premiums Reporting – User Guide
• Minnesota State Paid Family Leave – User Guide

We are diligently preparing the Year-End Processing Update and the accompanying Release Notes. We will share an additional communication next week.