AccuWage Simplifies Wage Reporting to the SSA
AccuWage Online provides a user-friendly experience for testing wage reports before submitting your formatted wage file to the Social Security Administration (SSA).
Accuwage can be used by companies to submit accurate data more quickly and easily than ever before! This blog article will cover the basics of Accuwage reporting with the SSA.
What is Accuwage Online Reporting?
AccuWage Online is a part of the Business Services Online (BSO) suite of services offered by the SSA.
BSO allows employers, individuals, organizations, and others to exchange information with the SSA safely over the Internet. BSO allows users to report wages to the SSA, view name and Social Security Number errors, and verify the names and Social Security Numbers of employees, among other things.
Accuwage Online is a free internet application that allows businesses to check wage data before electronically submitting files to the SSA.
AccuWage is used to check the accuracy of Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement and Form W-2c, Corrected Wage and Tax Statement, before you file.
AccuWage is only for federal reporting; the information is not forwarded to the states. You will have to file separately with the appropriate states. Although most states use the same formatting, verify with the states to ensure proper processing.
The deadline for sending out Form W-2 to your employees is January 31. You have until February 1 to file Form W-2 with the SSA. Failure to file accurately and on time could be costly.
The SSA informs the IRS of the date they received the file. The IRS may impose a financial penalty for late filing based on different criteria.
AccuWage is accessed by logging into BSO. If you do not have an account with BSO, you will need to register for an account to gain access. Your username will never expire, but passwords need to be changed every 90 days.
How does AccuWage work?
If you have 50 or fewer Form W-2s, you can directly key the information into W-2 Online, which is part of the SSA’s BSO Suite of Services.
If you have 250 or more Form W-2s to file, you are required to file them electronically.
AccuWage Online will help ensure you have no errors. AccuWage won’t catch all errors, but it will catch the most common errors such as formatting mistakes.
Also, AccuWage Online does not verify names and Social Security Numbers (SSN). To ensure accuracy of names and SSNs, consider using the Social Security Number Verification Service (SSNVS) in the BSO Suite of Services.
AccuWage Online is relatively straight-forward and easy to use. To start, your AccuWage file should be saved only as a flat file with a .txt extension and must be less than 350 megabytes.
Although there are no restrictions for naming the file, we recommend something descriptive such as “202X W-2s.txt.” Be sure to name the files separately in case you need to go back to them in case of an audit.
You can upload multiple files, but not at the same time. We also recommend that you not open multiple browsers or tabs to upload multiple files–doing so could interfere with the file processing.
To speed up upload times, files can be compressed (.zip) before being uploaded. Compressing a file may reduce transmission time by up to 80 percent. Failing to compress a file could cause the session to time out before it finishes checking all the reports.
Compressing a file is as easy as right-clicking the file, then selecting Send To, then selecting Compressed (zipped) folder. To upload files to AccuWage, it must be in the proper format (EFW2 / EFW2C).
When you are finished verifying the accuracy of your Form W-2s and Form W-2Cs, be sure to print and save your confirmation from SSA that shows when submitted your electronic file.
Also print the submission details with Form W-3, Transmittal of Wage and Tax Statements totals from BSO. Hold onto your confirmation page for at least four years. You should also keep a copy of the Form W-2 information, or at least be able to reconstruct the data for at least four years after the due date of the report.
Both the confirmation and the Form W-2 information will be imperative to have in case you are ever the subject of a compliance audit.
Why should you use AccuWage?
The business world is evolving at a rapid pace. To stay competitive, you have to be on the cutting edge of all things modern and efficient.
When you are reporting hundreds of employees’ wage information to the federal government, Accuwage is exactly what you need. It’s free and easy to use–even entry-level employees can figure it out without any help.
