📝 Overview

If you've already paid workers through Paychex this calendar year, we need that payroll data before your first run with us. This guide walks you through how to download and send the reports we need to complete your migration.

⏱️ Before You Begin

Keep your Paychex account active while your payroll data is being transferred. Maintaining access allows you to:

Download additional reports if needed
Run additional payrolls if necessary

Do not close or cancel your account until we confirm it's safe to do so.

🧠 Why We Need Your Payroll Data

Migrating your historical payroll data ensures that worker tax payments and reporting are accurate. Without it, tax filings and year-end forms could be incorrect, which affects both you and your workers.

This applies to both active and terminated workers who were paid during the current calendar year.

📊 Data Requirements by Worker Type

Here is what we need from you, broken down by worker type:

W-2 Employees

Wages broken down by type (hourly, salary, commissions, etc.)
Both employee and employer taxes broken down by type
Deductions broken down by type
Employer contributions broken down by type
Pay period for each check date
A year-to-date report for all payrolls run in the calendar year

⚠️ Pay stubs don't always show employer taxes, so they may not be usable for migration purposes. Make sure your reports include employer tax data.

1099 Contractors

Check dates and associated pay periods
Payment amounts by type (service, commission, tips, etc.)

Download contractor reports as a CSV or PDF.

🛠️ How to Download Your Payroll Reports

For Paychex, you'll download reports directly and email them to us. The reports you need depend on where you are in the calendar year.

What Reports Are Needed

Current quarter: A separate payroll journal for each employee, for each individual payroll run within the current quarter
Prior quarters: One report showing year-to-date totals for each closed quarter

🧠 Example: Your first payroll with us is planned for 8/30. You've processed payroll in Q3 with check dates of 7/15, 7/31, and 8/15. You'll need individual payroll journals for each of those dates, plus summary reports for Q1 totals and Q2 totals.

Steps: Download Payroll Reports from Paychex Flex

Click the arrow to learn more

Sign in to Paychex Payroll.
Navigate to Analytics & Reports.
Go to the Quick Reports section on the main dashboard.
Click View All Reports.
Download the SUI Return.
Click on Payroll Journal, then click Create Report.
For each payroll run processed during the period you are reporting on, download a separate payroll journal for each employee, for each pay date in that date range.

⚠️ It is critical that payroll journals are downloaded per employee, per individual pay run. This ensures that the correct tax amounts are captured for each pay date.

Once all individual journals are downloaded, pull one final Payroll Journal covering the entire date range for all employees:

Navigate to Analytics & Reports, then View All Reports, then Payroll Journal
Set the Date Range to Current Year
Set the employee parameter to All Employees
Run and download the report

Email all reports to [INSERT EMAIL HERE].

📆 Weekly Payroll Employers

If your business runs payroll on a weekly schedule, follow this two-step process:

Submit initial data: Send us all payroll data accumulated so far for the calendar year. This lets us start the migration on our end right away.
Submit final payroll data: After your last weekly payroll with Paychex, send us that final payroll report as soon as possible.

🧠 Example: You run payroll every Monday for a Friday check date. Send us all payroll data except for the current week's run. We'll get started on the migration. Once your final weekly payroll has been run, send us that payroll report no later than Friday so we can complete the migration and have you ready to run your first payroll the following week.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Find answers to common questions or additional details that may not be covered in the main instructions.

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