Getting Started
Part 1 of 3
This introduction will guide you through the general flow of a payroll calculation in the Symmetry Tax Engine (STE).
This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all STE functionality. Some elements of the engine will be glossed over for this introduction and will be covered in other articles in our Client Support Center for current Symmetry clients.
As described in our introduction to basic concepts in the STE, the general flow of the engine has three main parts. Each of these will be covered in this guide:
- Find applicable location codes
- Find potentially applicable taxes
- Calculate payroll taxes
Introducing our example employee
Throughout this introductory guide, we'll be navigating each of these sections using a hypothetical example employee named Olivia. She's just started a new job in Arizona and is receiving her first paycheck.
We'll need to first find the location codes for Olivia's home and work addresses, then find the federal and Arizona taxes that are applicable for her this pay period. Finally, we'll actually calculate those payroll taxes and figure out Olivia's net pay.
Finding applicable location codes
If you're a currently licensed STE client, please see the following section in our Client Support Center for more information on translating addresses into location codes: Location and Tax Determination
For now, let's assume that Olivia lives and works in Arizona, and that our translation of addresses resulted in the following two location codes:
- 04-000-0001: The location code for Olivia's work address in Arizona
- 04-000-0002: The location code for Olivia's home address in Arizona
Additionally, we'll need to use 00-000-0000 as the location code for all federal taxes.
In summary, we now have location codes that represent Olivia's home and work addresses. We'll need these for all future steps in this tutorial!
Updated about 7 hours ago
Next we'll take an in-depth look at how we can use these location codes to find applicable taxes!