Contents:

Welcome!
Upcoming Events
What's New
GrandMaster Update

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Welcome!

March 2002 - Welcome to the latest edition of The Payroll News. As always, please feel free to forward this newsletter to your friends and associates who are interested in keeping up with the latest changes in the Payroll industry. Or better yet, subscribe them for free using the Tell Someone About Us link.

Upcoming Events

Listed here are recent changes in legislation on Federal and Provincial levels that may impact your payroll calculations. Please view the following list for changes that affect your region.

FEDERAL:

February 5, 2002 - Legislation Introduced Includes EI Amendment for 2001 Budget Initiatives - Secretary of State (International Financial Institutions) John McCallum, on behalf of Finance Minister Paul Martin, today introduced legislation to implement provisions of the budget tabled in the House of Commons on December 10, 2001. The legislation includes a measure to implement amendments to the Employment Insurance Act related to maternity and parental benefits in certain situations. View the backgrounder (on the page at the following link) for more information. (Full Story - 879 Words)

Alberta:

February 23, 2002 - Alberta leads debate about use of EI training funds - Alberta is sponsoring a national conference to discuss how Employment Insurance (EI) retraining funds are being used to support workers, employers, and the needs of a changing economy."The Alberta economy needs more skilled workers," said Alberta Human Resources and Employment Minister Clint Dunford. "With a growing surplus in the national EI account, we need to ask the tough questions: whether more people should be eligible for EI training support, whether programs for persons with disabilities and aboriginal Albertans should be expanded, and why Albertans should wait until they are unemployed before receiving funding to upgrade their skills". (Full Story - 340 Words)

February 22, 2002 - Alberta’s job creation leads the country - More than one quarter of the jobs created in Canada were created in Alberta last year, according to the province’s annual labour market review. The number of jobs rose by 43,900, compared to the national growth of 167,000. The 2001 Annual Alberta Labour Market Review also confirms that the province’s employment rate of 69% hit a 20-year high. Alberta’s 2001 unemployment rate of 4.6 per cent was the lowest in Canada. (Full Story - 340 Words)

Halifax:

February 1, 2002 - Labour Ministers meet in Nova Scotia - Conclusions have been released from of a meeting of federal, provincial and territorial Ministers responsible for Labour held today in Halifax. Issues of common concern were discussed including workplace safety and health for youth and the increased exchanges and consultations among governments and with the Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada to pursue this critical issue. (Full Story - 482 Words)

Nova Scotia:

February 1, 2002 - Public Input Wanted on Nova Scotia Minimum Wage - The Nova Scotia government wants public input on the province's minimum wage and has set up a Web site to make it easier for people to have their say. The province's minimum wage, presently $5.80 an hour, is reviewed every year. The wage was increased in October 2001, but is still among the lowest in Canada. "This is the first time we've used our Web site to gather information on this issue," said David Morse, Minister of Environment and Labour. (Full Story - 235 Words)

Saskatchewan:

February 4, 2002 - Fostering Safety and Prevention in Saskatchewan Workplaces - Worksafe Saskatchewan will form partnerships with Saskatchewan organizations and agencies to pool programming, education and training resources to help prevent workplace illnesses and injuries. The initiative is being led by the WCB and Saskatchewan Labour. “Worksafe Saskatchewan’s goal is to foster a culture of ‘safety and prevention first in Saskatchewan workplaces’,” said Labour Minister and Minister Responsible for the WCB Deb Higgins. (Full Story - 256 Words)

Yukon:

February 6, 2002 - Joint Statement from YWCHSB and Government of Yukon - Yukon Workers' Compensation Health and Safety Board (YWCHSB) Minister, Sue Edelman and Chair, Dale Schmekel announced today that the YWCHSB will not be part of the governance legislation that is being brought forward by the Yukon government. Recognizing that although significant improvements have been made in recent years, a number of issues remain outstanding which include the reporting relationship of the President of the YWCHSB to the Yukon government and the board of directors, the efficiency of the system and accountability to stakeholders. (Full Story - 283 Words)

The latest release of GrandMaster Suite (3.50.11) incorporates a number of changes that make it even easier to use the program and perform your payroll tasks. Some recent changes to the program include:

• When you export a Cheque Register report to an ASCII file using the Export File option, the resulting file did not include the cheque amounts. The program now exports these values correctly.
• When you created your T4s using the Laser Printer option, the company's CCRA Business Number was appearing on employee copies 2 and 3. The BN no longer appears on these printed forms.
• When you exported a Cheque Register report to an ASCII file using the Export File option, the resulting file did not include the cheque amounts. The program now exports these values correctly.
• When importing YTDs into GrandMaster Suite and you had a payroll with no current pays (e.g. a new payroll), the employer portion of EI was not recalculating. The program has been adjusted so that it calculates the company benefit portion of EI regardless of the how many pays have been run.
• If you marked an employee as Terminated and issued an ROE, the ROE would allow you to enter the proper Last day worked, but set the pay period to the most recent one (thus inserting nil pay's). Also, the information was not being changed when you inserted the correct ending pay period. In certain cases, you were not able to issue the ROE. These problems have been corrected and ROEs are now processed correctly under all circumstances.

Stay tuned to CanPay's Product News page to receive the latest changes and release information for all GrandMaster products!

• • •

February 28, 2002 - Patch Program Now Available! - The CanPay Development Team is happy to announce that GrandMaster Suite version 3.50.11 is now available as a downloadable patch program. This patch is much smaller in size than the complete installation program (it will even fit on a floppy diskette). It saves you the time of having to download the entire installation program.

March has arrived and the 2001 tax-filing season is now complete. If your organization is filing more than 500 T4 slips, you are probably already taking advantage of the CCRA's Magnetic Media filing service.

Until last year however, companies with less than 500 employees could not take advantage of a computerized filing method, but rather had to print their T4s and submit them manually. Thankfully, the CCRA has provided another method.

T4 Internet Filing

For the 2001 Tax Filing year, the CCRA has implemented T4 Internet filing. This online method gives businesses the option of filing their T4 information returns on the Internet and of creating T4 slips for their employees. For the 2001 tax year, T4 Internet filing is limited to businesses that file 70 paper slips or less. Employers can file returns for the 2000, 2001, and 2002 tax years.

Already this year, many Canadian companies used the new T4 Internet filing and took advantage of many of the benefits associated with the new service:

• Immediate Confirmation - You receive electronic confirmation of receipt within minutes of sending your information return via T4 Internet filing.
• Data Security - The T4 filing site uses the latest SSL encryption methods, the most secure form of encryption commonly available in North America. They have also implemented other measures to ensure data security and confidentiality such as firewall protection and individualized T4 Web access codes.
• National Availability - Your T4 filing can be carried out from anywhere in Canada.
• Environmentally Friendly - T4 Internet filing is a paper-free program -- you do not have to file a paper copy of your T4 return. The only exception to this is cases where documents are requested in standard follow-up procedures.

The CCRA is committed to developing electronic options that better serve Canadians and Canadian businesses. T4 Internet filing allows you to file your information return over the Internet in a fast, easy, secure, and convenient way. Many businesses already use a computer to prepare their information return. Using the Internet to file a T4 information return represents one more option for Canadian businesses.

Who Can Use the Service?

For the 2001 tax season, businesses that file 70 paper slips or less will be invited to use T4 Internet filing. Eligible employers will receive a Web Access Code printed right on their personalized T4 Summary. This Web Access Code is required to access the secure T4 Internet filing website.

Businesses not invited to participate in this pilot project can consider the other electronic option, magnetic media. If you are already filing on magnetic media (e.g. diskettes, cartridges, tapes), the CCRA suggests you continue to do so. Internet filing cannot be used to file magnetic-media-formatted returns.

T4 Internet filing is being implemented in phases to better manage and control the project. This restriction will allow the CCRA to study and evaluate the results. They anticipate that in Phase 3, in January 2003, T4 Internet filing will be offered to all T4 filers.

To use the service, you require the T4 Internet filing Java application and T4 Web form (both of which are available at no cost). The only costs to you are the fees you may pay for commercial software, to your Internet service provider (ISP), or to your service bureau.

Presently, the only restriction on using T4 Internet filing is that you must use the service to file original returns only. If you would like to make a change to your return, you'll have to file an amendment on paper.

Computerized filing helps everyone all because it eliminates errors that can occur when data is transferred from paper to computer format, and is environmentally friendly. To learn more about this new service, please visit the CCRA website at: http://www.ccra-adrc.gc.ca/tax/business/t4internet/about-e.html