PeopleSoft 1099: Now Is the Time to Start Your Cleanup Process
I’m here to talk about the January 2015 1099 season. It’s not quite officially here yet, but it is fast approaching.
I always tell our clients that Oct-Dec is the time to review your 1099 data. By starting the data cleanup process now, it will give you more time in January to focus on creating the 1099’s, improve your 1099 accuracy and greatly reduce the probability of reissuing corrected 1099’s. Remember, it takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan, so this time of year is pretty important.
Speaking from experience and a PeopleSoft perspective, the software is designed with numerous tools that can help you comply with your 1099 policies and help quickly identify data that needs to be cleaned up. Typical errors that require cleanup include:
- Not having a vendor marked as a 1099 when it should be – plus the ability to retroactively convert all invoices/payments for that vendor as 1099 lines.
- The ability to review exactly which payment types are 1099-applicable and the ability to convert those invoice/payment lines where needed. Examples include payment for services vs. payment for reimbursable expenses. Not all payment types may be 1099-applicable based upon your policies.
- Are all your 1099 vendors setup with the proper Distribution codes and are all transactions to that vendor coded correctly as well?
For many organizations starting clean up in October could be viewed as a luxury, especially when staff time is competing with various other department priorities. However if your department has the time now, you can greatly reduce the January time crunch by finding and addressing those issues now.
Another added benefit to getting started with 1099 clean up now is that you will know your system better. When it comes to vendor maintenance, invoice processing and payment processing, you perform those functions all year round. However 1099 processing is different, and is mainly performed once a year. By breaking up the annual process into multiple timeframes, it will enable you to keep your skills sharp, know your data and system better, and greatly reduce any surprises and errors you might find in January.
PeopleSoft has very robust 1099 functionality that lets you manage how you set up your system and how you setup your vendor defaults. Plus PeopleSoft 1099 processing has strong abilities on the cleanup side that let you maintain your 1099 data in a structured and logical process that will save you time. Getting an early jump on the 1099 cleanup process now will allow you the time to better leverage this functionality and allow you to be a step ahead of the process now instead of a step behind in January.
Closing (reiterative) thought: If you have the time now to cleanup your 1099 data, take advantage — in January you will be glad you did. I have had the pleasure of 1099 data cleanup in the Oct-Dec time frame and the pleasure of 1099 cleanup in January. One’s a winner, the other, not so much. Hint: clearly January is much better suited for review, sign-off and printing!
