Troubleshooting - Year-End

The focus of this section is to provide you with answers to common year-end questions.

Details on the set up of earnings, deductions and benefits can be found on the Earnings and Deduction/Benefit matrix provided in your preliminary and final year-end balancing reports.

Reasons for CPP/QPP deficiencies:

  • Birth dates - If an employee turned 18 or 70* in the year, a CPP/QPP deficiency will display on your reports. If the birth date is correct and the exemption status was updated at the correct time, an adjustment is not required.
  • The Applicable Period of Time on the timesheet was incorrectly selected.
  • Bonus Run
    • CPP/QPP was not deducted or was incorrectly calculated
    • No time taken - Bonus Tax Method was not selected for Applicable Period of Time on the timesheet.
  • Vacation Payments
    • Vacation pay was paid in advance and the time off was less than a regular pay period. When the employee is paid for the remainder of the same pay period's earnings, the exemption was applied again causing the individual’s recorded weeks in the year to exceed 52.
  • Manual payment entries during the year - CPP YTD maximum was not met:
    • CPP/QPP exemption applied in error
    • CPP/QPP calculated amount was incorrect
  • Second payments - issued on the same pay period as regular cheque - pay period exemption applied twice.
  • Year-end adjustments to gross pay or taxable benefits did not have a corresponding adjustment for CPP/QPP.
  • CPP/QPP was refunded due to exempt status not being put in place on time. Pensionable earnings were not adjusted.
  • Employee made exempt or subject to CPP in error (timing issues associated with the completion of a CPT30 election)
  • Incorrect code set up (Earnings or Taxable Benefits)

* Quebec employees receiving pensionable earnings are subject to QPP contributions even if they are over 70.

Note: Employees who are exempt from CPP will appear on the deficiency report. No action is required.

Reasons for EI deficiencies:

  • Owners (may look like they are deficient)
  • Year-end adjustments to gross pay or taxable benefits did not have a corresponding adjustment for EI.
  • Incorrect code set up (Earnings or Taxable Benefits)
  • Employee is Exempt (will appear on the balancing report as X, N, or B)

    • X = Exempt from EI

    • N = Exempt from EI; 1.4 Rate

    • B = Exempt from EI; 1st Reduced Rate

  • Any payments made that had EI overridden to zero or calculated incorrectly.

Note: Valid employees who are exempt from EI will appear on the deficiency report. No action is required.

Reasons for QPIP deficiencies:

  • Year-end adjustment to gross pay or taxable benefits did not have coinciding adjustments for QPIP.
  • Incorrect code set up (Earnings or Taxable Benefits)
  • Any payments made that had QPIP overridden to zero or calculated incorrectly.

Note: Valid employees who are exempt from QPIP will appear on the deficiency report. No action is required.

Note: Once an employee reaches the maximum contribution for CPP/QPP and/or EI/QPIP, our system will automatically stop deductions; there is no reason to mark an employee who has reached the maximum as exempt.

If you have reviewed the information above and are still unsure of why you have deficiencies, email your Customer Support Team at [email protected]. Provide your payroll number, which employee has a deficiency and a description of what you have already validated.

Total Gross Pay includes all money paid to employees, including Pension income and Other income that is not reported in Box 14 on the T4. Box 14 should only include earnings and taxable benefits to be reported to Box 14 as required by Revenue Canada, for example, company paid life insurance.

To understand the difference:

  1. Calculate the difference between Gross pay and Box 14.

  2. Review your company setup to determine if taxable benefits are included in Box 14 and if earnings are excluded from Box 14.

  3. Review the Earnings Matrix or the Deduction\Benefit Matrix. This report displays each code and the box values are directed to on the tax form.

    • If tax forms were requested, open the most recent Tax Forms Package. Go to the Year-End Reports page.Closed From the Reports menu, select Year-End Reports.

    • If tax forms were not requested, open Additional Reports from the last pay of the year.  Go to the Payroll Reports page.Closed From the Reports menu, select Payroll Reports.

  1. Calculate the difference between Gross pay and Box 14.

    Gross pay 1,309,279.97
    Box 14 - 1,369,963.60
    Difference 60,683.63

  2. Review the Matrix report to find the answers.

In this example, all earnings are included in Box 14 so earnings do not account for any of the difference. However, the Matrix report reveals the following taxable benefits are reporting to Box 14:

  • 41R – AD&D

  • 43R – LIFE IN

  • 63R – SL RRSP

Validation:

Gross pay 1,309,279.97
41R – AD&D 803.52
43R – LIFE IN

3,213.51
63R – SL RRSP + 56,666.60
Box 14 1,369,963.60

Due to the large volume of payroll information being processed by Dayforce at that time of year, and Dayforce’s internal validation procedures, this lead-time is required to meet the processing deadlines set by CRA and Revenu Quebec.

Your tax forms are automatically produced with your final run of the year, unless you select No on the Intent page with your final pay of the year. If your payroll requires further adjustments before tax forms are produced, review Create a Year-End Run.

Note: Click here to view the deadline for processing adjustments. After adjustments are processed you may call Dayforce’s IVR system at 1-800-667-7867, between January 2 and February 21, 2025, to request your tax forms, see Request tax forms after the last pay of the year.

  1. In Powerpay, go to the Year-End Reports page.Closed From the Reports menu, select Year-End Reports.
  2. Open the Tax Forms Package report.
  3. Search for T4/T4A Employee Totals.

For employees with an S to the right of the Province, the form is delivered to Powerpay Self Service.

For employees without an S, review instructions for Powerpay customers without Self Service.

  1. In Powerpay, go to the Year-End Reports page.Closed From the Reports menu, select Year-End Reports.
  2. Open the Tax Forms Package report.

  3. Look on the first page for the Form Count chart.

    1. Go to Year-End Reports page.Closed From the Reports menu, select Year-End Reports.
    2. Click Tax Forms - Employee Copy.

    3. Print the forms for distribution to your staff.

    If they were not received, contact your Customer Support Team.

No. Since tax forms are filed electronically, CRA does not require a Summary. The T4 recap report in your year-end package contains all of the information required on the Summary. For this reason, Dayforce does not print actual summaries. Another reason is that, in the past, customers have inadvertently sent the copy of the Summary provided by Dayforce, resulting in calls from CRA looking for their tax forms which had already been sent by Dayforce. If you require an actual Summary, CRA’s fillable T4 and T4A Summaries can be completed at https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/payroll/completing-filing-information-returns.html. CRA no longer sends paper summaries to employers via the mail.

Dayforce produces the following year-end forms:

  • T4
  • T4A
  • RL1
  • RL2
  • NR4

Dayforce does NOT produce the following year-end forms:

  • Provincial WCB/WSIB Reports
  • Provincial WCB/WSIB Remittances (except Nova Scotia remittances and Quebec CNESST)
  • Newfoundland - HAPSET - the Annual Declaration Return
  • Quebec - RL-1 Summary
  • Quebec - RL-25
  • Quebec - CNESST Reports
  • Quebec - CNT Levy
  • Ontario - EHT Annual Return
  • Manitoba - HET - If the 2024 Payroll gross is over $2,250,000, this must be reported to Manitoba Ministry of Finance by the customer. A copy of the T4/T4A recap report will need to be sent along with the annual return.
  • British Columbia – EHT Remittances or the Annual Return
  • T4A-NR
  • T5 – Investment Income slips must be generated by the companies that hold the investment.
  • T2200

The original tax form must be cancelled, and a new tax form produced with the new province code. A late filing penalty may be applied by CRA. For more information, see Cancel tax forms sent to CRA/RQ.

If required, you can reprint an individual employee’s tax form from the Tax form PDF File found in Powerpay, available on the Year-End Reports page.Closed From the Reports menu, select Year-End Reports. Simply access the file, search for the employee and print.

If you have printed a copy for the purpose of distribution to an employee, ensure you:

  • Blank out your Company Business Number
  • Mark “Duplicate Copy”
  • Sign and date the form.

In your Year-End Balancing Report on the T4/T4A Employee Totals page. To access the report, go to the Payroll Reports page.Closed From the Reports menu, select Payroll Reports.

Even though Dayforce files your RL-1 information electronically, you are still required to submit this Summary to Revenu Quebec. Revenu Quebec automatically sends a blank form to all employers who have a registered Quebec Provincial taxation number.

Even when Dayforce electronically files your year-end information for you, there may still be circumstances where you could receive a late filing letter from CRA and/or Revenu Quebec. If you do receive such a letter, please contact your Customer Support Team immediately for assistance.

If a new employee is added or reactivated on any type of payroll run, and:

  • that run has been closed, skipped or cancelled and not rerun. That employee will show as "No Employee Name" on any subsequent runs.

  • a new run is opened, thereby suspending the run the employee was added on, the new opened run will show "No Employee Name" for the individual on the preview.

    Contact your Customer Support Team for assistance.