Step 1: Review General Payroll Information
General Year-End Rules
1. You must close payroll for 2025 and set up payroll for 2026.
2. Do not close 2025 payroll until all 2025 checks and adjustments are finished.
3. If the check date or ACH date is in 2025, it must be included in 2025 payroll.
4. Closing the year does not delete employee history. You can still run reports for 2025 and any earlier year.
5. Do not start W2 processing before closing payroll.
Accounting Period Master / Fiscal Year
The 2026 Accounting Period Master may need to be created.
- If your fiscal year ends on 12/31/2025, fiscal staff must create the new 2026 fiscal year before you can process a 2026 pay date.
- If you see the error “Accounting Period Problem for Pay Date” when processing the first 2026 pay, the 2026 fiscal year is probably not created.
- Contact your Fiscal staff to set up the year so you can continue.
When to Process the Year-End Close
Run the Payroll Year End Process AFTER your last 2025 pay is fully processed and BEFORE your first 2026 pay.
ACH Date Warning
- Do not change your ACH upload date between years.
- W2s must match the year when employees received their pay.
- If the ACH upload date does not match what Payroll processed, W2 reporting can be incorrect.
Payroll Management System Update (Required)
- The latest Payroll Management software update is REQUIRED to:
- Close the 2025 payroll year
- Start processing 2026 payroll
- Print 2025 W2 forms
- Check your version and update if needed:
- You must have Payroll Management version 16.201.27.2 or later.
- Check your version in Payroll using the About option in the top right
12/2025