Payroll How-To
How to generate W-2 forms
Get the year right first
W-2 accuracy is set during the year, not in January. Because Fintra tracks taxable wages per basis on every check, W-2 generation is a direct read of year-to-date accumulators: no reconstruction. Your job is to confirm the year is clean before you generate.
Pre-generation checklist
- All runs for the year approved and processed
- Any voids/reversals settled
- Benefit and 401(k) deductions bucketed correctly all year
- Employee names and SSNs valid (the SSN gate helps here)
Understand the box relationships
| Box | Source | Sanity check |
|---|---|---|
| 1: wages | FIT-taxable YTD | Lower than 3/5 if there’s any 401(k) |
| 3: SS wages | SS wages YTD | Capped at the wage base |
| 5: Medicare wages | Medicare wages YTD | Lower than gross if there’s S-125 |
| 12D / 12DD | 401(k) / health cost | D = deferrals, DD = health |
| 16 / 17 | State wages / withheld | Per work state |
Generate and file
Give employees access
Employees can check their my-W-2-status in the portal, which reads the same accumulators, so what they see matches what you file.
Questions people ask
Where do W-2 boxes come from?
From the year-to-date accumulators the engine maintained on every paycheck, so W-2 generation is a direct read rather than a year-end reconstruction.
Why is Box 1 lower than Box 3 and 5?
A 401(k) elective deferral reduces federal-taxable wages (Box 1) but not Social Security (Box 3) or Medicare (Box 5) wages. Section-125 reduces all three.
Does Fintra e-file W-2s?
It produces every box in the w2-summary report. Official PDF rendering and EFW2 e-file are documented stubs, so filing is done from Fintra’s figures.
Can employees see their W-2 data?
Yes: the portal’s my-W-2-status view reads the same accumulators, so employee figures match what you file.
Keep reading
Guides
One finance briefing a week
New guides, checklists and benchmarks, by email. Unsubscribe from any issue.
W-2s without the rebuild
Generate every box from year-round, per-basis wage tracking.