Entering Prior Payroll History

Purpose

If your company ran payroll with another provider earlier in the same calendar year, UZIO needs that year-to-date history. Without it, tax calculations that depend on year-to-date wages (Social Security wage caps, FUTA and SUTA wage bases, additional Medicare) will be wrong, and year-end W-2s will be incomplete. This is a required setup step for mid-year switchers. New companies starting fresh complete it with a single answer.

When to use this: only for a mid-year switch to UZIO. Companies starting payroll fresh in January, or newly formed, answer "No" to the gate question and are done. This screen is not for correcting UZIO-processed payrolls. For those, see Reviewing Past Payrolls and Requesting a Void (Payroll History).

Who can do this: Any user whose role includes the Payroll permission. This is usually the Employer Admin, but other admin roles can be granted the same access. Your UZIO implementation contact usually works through this step with you.

Prerequisites

• Final payroll reports from your previous provider covering January 1 through your last run there, broken out by pay period, with per-period earnings, deductions, employer contributions, taxes withheld (employee and employer portions), and net pay. Summary year-to-date-only reports are not enough. UZIO enters each historical pay period as its own record.

Steps

1. Go to Payroll > Payroll Setup > Employees Prior Payroll.
2. Answer the gate question "Has your group run payroll earlier this year?" with Yes or No, then click Submit.
• No: the step completes with nothing to enter. Brand-new companies stop here.
• Yes: a readiness checklist appears: "Here's what you'll need to get started."
3. Work through the three readiness items:
1. Confirm if all employees are added to Uzio: "If any prior payroll includes employees that haven't been added to Uzio, you will need to first add them." Use the Add Missing Employees button.
2. Ensure work and home address history of all employees are up-to-date on Uzio: "Employee and Employer Taxes are populated as per employee's home location and work location during that pay period." Use the Update Employee Address button.
3. Keep required document(s) handy: "Keep employee's earning reports handy from a previous provider or pay stubs associated with this payroll."
4. Click Continue to start the prior-payroll entry wizard.

[Screenshot: Employees Prior Payroll gate question and readiness checklist]

What UZIO enters

Prior payroll is entered one historical pay period at a time, not as a single year-to-date lump sum. For each employee and each prior pay period, UZIO captures a full paycheck record:

• Pay period dates: pay period start, pay period end, and pay (check) date
• Earnings, deductions, and employer contributions for that period
• Taxes withheld, itemized by each tax that applied to the employee's home and work locations for that period (federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare, plus every applicable state and local tax), split into employee and employer portions
• Net pay

You can enter periods manually or upload them with UZIO's Excel template. The template's mandatory columns are Pay Period Start Date, Pay Period End Date, and Pay Check Date. UZIO then derives each employee's year-to-date totals by summing these prior paychecks together with any UZIO payrolls.

Entries are added and then approved, per employee or in bulk. Approval is what makes the data count. Only approved prior paychecks are included in the year-to-date wage-base and tax calculations your live payrolls rely on.

Tracking entry progress

A per-employee tracking grid shows where each employee stands:

Filter the grid by Employment Status or Pay Stub Status, or search by employee name or code.

Per-employee row actions (availability depends on current status):

• Approve Pay Stubs: approves that employee's entered periods (available when Started)
• Restart: re-opens an already-approved employee's prior payroll for editing
• Not Required: marks an employee as not needing prior history (available when Not Started)
• View that employee's pay stubs

Prior Payroll Data Import: upload or download the Excel entry template directly from this screen.

Bulk actions:

• Approve All Employees' Pay Stubs approves every Started employee's periods in one action. It runs in the background. The screen shows an in-progress banner until it completes, and approval-related row actions are disabled while it runs. If bulk approval finds a tax variance, you are prompted to review it on a tax-difference screen before it is finalized.
• Bulk Revert returns every Approved employee's prior payroll to editable, in one action (also in the background).
• A Prior Payroll Register Report can be downloaded for the prior-payroll data entered so far.

Expected outcome

• Year-to-date totals from your prior provider are reflected in UZIO's tax calculations. Wage-base caps pick up where your old provider left off.
• Year-end W-2s combine prior-provider and UZIO wages into one correct form.
• The Employees Prior Payroll step shows complete on your setup checklist.

What goes wrong if the data is wrong

• Under-reported prior wages make UZIO keep withholding Social Security or paying FUTA and SUTA after the employee has already hit the annual cap. The employee is over-withheld and the W-2 is wrong.
• Over-reported prior wages stop those taxes too early. The shortfall surfaces at quarter-end or year-end filing.
• Wrong tax jurisdictions (stale addresses) put prior wages on the wrong state's returns.

Corrections after live payrolls have run are support-assisted (see Common problems). Getting the data right before approval is far cheaper than correcting it later.

Common problems

Why can't I add pay stubs?

A live payroll is in flight. Prior-payroll entry is locked while any run is initiated. Approve or cancel the in-flight payroll first, then return here.

Why is Bulk Revert blocked?

Same root cause as above. Reverting prior history while a Draft run exists would change the year-to-date numbers that run depends on. Clear the Draft first.

Why is Bulk Approve disabled?

Two possibilities. Either nobody is in Started status (nothing to approve), or the employees already have approved UZIO payrolls. Once live payrolls exist, changing their prior history is support-assisted, not self-service.

I am warned about proceeding for an employee who already has UZIO payrolls

This is the late-entry path. Prior history entered after live payrolls have run only affects future calculations. The already-approved runs stay as they were until a tax reconciliation recalculates them. Tax reconciliation is run by UZIO, not from your portal. Contact UZIO Support after you finish entering the history.

Approval prompts me about a tax difference

When your entered taxes differ from what UZIO calculates for the same wages, the variance prompt appears. It ends with: "…If you click Accept Adjustments and Approve, the calculated amounts will be submitted. If you wish to approve with the entered amounts, please reach out to support@uzio.com. However, we strongly recommend you approve with calculated amounts to avoid any corrections during quarter or year-end tax filing and payment."

Take the recommendation unless you have a documented reason the prior provider's figures are right. Approving with entered amounts requires UZIO Support and risks quarter-end and year-end corrections.

When do PTO balances and garnishments carry over?

PTO balances and standing garnishment orders are not part of this screen. They are loaded during implementation after your previous provider's final payroll, so that the balances are final. If they look missing mid-migration, confirm the cutover date with your implementation contact before assuming an error.

Still stuck?

For a prior-payroll correction after live payrolls have run, approval with entered (not calculated) tax amounts, or a tax reconciliation, please reach out to us at support@uzio.com or call +1-571-601-1752. Include your company name, the affected employees, the pay periods involved, and the prior provider's final register for those periods. Do not include SSNs in the email body.

Related articles

• Payroll Setup Overview
• Setting Up Employee Payroll
• Understanding the UZIO Tax Payment Process
• Managing Qualified Overtime: mid-year switchers also import prior-period qualified overtime for W-2 Box 12 Code TT
• Year-End W-2s and Tax Documents