Year-End Slips turns a year of pay runs into the slips each employee is owed and the return you file with the government. In a Canadian company the screen is titled T4s; in a US company it is W-2s. You can review every box for every employee, open or print the slips, and build the electronic return file, which you then upload to CRA (or the Social Security Administration) yourself.
Open it
- Employees ▸ Year-End Slips
The screen opens on last year, the year you are filing. Use ◀ year and year ▶ to move between years.
Which year pay belongs to
Slips are built from what each employee was actually paid in the year, by the pay run's payment date, not by when the work was done. Pay earned in December and paid in January belongs on the next year's slip. Only approved, posted and paid runs count.
Before you file
Work through these first:
- Run the PIER review for the year and fix any CPP or EI shortfall. See PIER Review.
- Check every employee has a SIN on their page. The Employee Centre's Missing column shows who does not. See Employee Centre.
- Check the employer account (payroll program account and legal name) in Payroll Setup.
- Record every remittance for the year. See Pay Payroll Liabilities.
When something would make CRA reject the return, the note at the top of the screen says so, for example 2 thing(s) would make CRA reject this return. followed by each problem (a missing or invalid SIN, a missing program account). Fix them and reopen the screen.
The slips table
One row per employee paid in the year, and one column per box that appears on anybody's slip. Columns are built from the data, so a Quebec employee's QPP and QPIP boxes appear only when you have a Quebec employee.
The T4 boxes SeroBooks fills in:
| Box | What it holds |
|---|---|
| 14 — Employment income | Gross employment income, including taxable benefits. |
| 16 — Employee's CPP contributions | CPP deducted (outside Quebec). |
| 16A — Employee's second CPP contributions | CPP2 deducted. |
| 17 — Employee's QPP contributions | QPP deducted (Quebec). |
| 17A — Employee's second QPP contributions | QPP2 deducted (Quebec). |
| 18 — Employee's EI premiums | EI deducted. |
| 22 — Income tax deducted | All income tax withheld, including tax on bonuses. For a Quebec employee this is federal tax only. |
| 24 — EI insurable earnings | Earnings EI was calculated on. |
| 26 — CPP pensionable earnings (or QPP pensionable earnings) | Earnings CPP or QPP was calculated on. |
| 55 — Employee's QPIP premiums | QPIP deducted (Quebec). |
| 56 — QPIP insurable earnings | Earnings QPIP was calculated on (Quebec). |
Benefits and deductions you defined with a T4 box (for example 40 for taxable benefits or 44 for union dues) are reported in that box. See Payroll Items.
Double-click an employee's row to open their slip as a PDF, titled with the slip, year and name. For a Quebec employee the PDF includes their RL-1 as well as their T4: Revenu Québec administers Quebec income tax itself, so a Quebec employee gets both slips.
Buttons
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Print all slips | Builds one PDF with every employee's slips for the year, to print or save. |
| File with CRA (File with IRS in a US company) | Builds the electronic return file. It is highlighted when the year is ready to file. |
| ◀ year / year ▶ | Moves to the previous or next year. |
Build the return
An employer filing more than five slips must file electronically. SeroBooks builds the file; nothing is sent from SeroBooks.
- Press File with CRA. If anything would make CRA reject the return, SeroBooks lists it instead of continuing (Not ready to file: …). Fix those first.
- Fill in the File the year T4 return window:
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Transmitter name (required) | Usually the business filing it. |
| Contact (required) | The person CRA calls about the return. |
| Area code (required) | For example 604. |
| Phone (required) | Seven digits, for example 5551234. |
| Email (required) | The contact's email address. |
| Kind of return | Original, Amendment or Cancellation. An original filed twice is two returns, so use Amendment to correct one already filed. |
- Press Build the return.
- Choose where to save the file. It is named
t4-year.xml. - Upload it to CRA through Internet File Transfer with your Web Access Code.
If SeroBooks cannot build the return, The return was not built window shows the reason, for example an employee with no SIN. Fix it and try again.
The file this screen builds is the T4 return for CRA. It does not include the RL-1 return, which is filed with Revenu Québec separately.
In a US company
The window explains that SeroBooks builds the EFW2 file the Social Security Administration accepts. It is saved as w2report-year.txt. Check it with the SSA's AccuWage tool, then upload it through SSA Business Services Online.
Owed to CRA for the year
Below the slips, Owed to CRA for year shows what the year's payroll required you to remit, grouped by form (the PD7A in Canada; Form 941 and others in the US). Each form lists its lines, such as income tax, CPP and EI with the employer's share, and a Total on this form.
The totals are withheld money plus the employer's own contributions, because both are remitted together. Compare them with what you actually remitted during the year; a difference is what the PD7A reconciliation on the T4 Summary will show.
Permissions
File with CRA needs the Build the Year-End Return permission under Payroll ▸ Year-End Slips. Without it, SeroBooks asks someone whose role has it to approve.
Common problems
- An employee is missing. They were not paid in the year by payment date, or their pay runs are not approved.
- Box 26 is empty or lower than expected. Check the employee's CPP exempt setting and date of birth; then run the PIER review.
- A Quebec employee's T4 shows much less tax than their pay stubs. Box 22 holds federal tax only for Quebec; Quebec tax is on the RL-1.
- CRA rejects the file. Correct what CRA reports, then build the return again with Kind of return set to Amendment if the original was accepted.
- Contractors are missing. T4A and T5018 slips for people who are not employees are on a different screen. See Contractor Slips.