Range options for reports, overview

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There are various range options to choose from when running reports. The results you get from your reports, pre-existing or custom-made, can vary a great deal depending on which range options you choose when gathering the report information. Most importantly, some range options will pull information from actual payroll checks, while others pull information from earnings history. The following list is intended to help you determine which may be the most appropriate range option to use in order to retrieve the information you need.

For more information on reports and their options, you can refer to the Report Options for Payroll CS and the Payroll Compliance module (PDF).

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Check-based range options

  • Latest check date. This data range retrieves information for the latest check date in the system. Note, however, that if you are running reports with both payroll and vendor checks, such as the Check Register, and have vendor checks with a later date than the payroll checks, you will receive only vendor check information.
  • Selected ranges. The Selected ranges option retrieves information with the specific check date, period end, or check number range regardless of the payroll period in which the checks were entered.
  • Current month. The current month date range option will look for all checks entered in the current payroll period month. This option does not look at the period beginning, period end, or check date as entered on the check, but at the payroll period month the client was in when the check was entered. For example, a check entered in the March payroll period with a check date of April 5th will show up on a payroll journal for March when the Current month data range is selected.
  • Current year. The current year date range option will look for all checks entered in the current year. This option does not look at the period beginning, period end, or check date as entered on the check, but at the payroll period the client was in when the check was entered to determine which year the check is in.
  • Current month by check date. The current month by check date option will look for all checks with a check date that falls in the current month, regardless of when it was entered.
  • Current month checks. The current month checks option will look for all checks processed in the current month, regardless of the check date.

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Earnings-based range options

Any information not stored in the Earnings history, such as employer portions of FICA, FUTA, and SUTA, is not available on custom reports based on earnings. Reports such as the Payroll Tax Summary will calculate these amounts at the time of printing.

  • Current quarter. The Current quarter option retrieves values from the employee earnings history entered in the payroll periods included in the current quarter.
  • Month to date. The month to date option retrieves values from the employee earnings history entered in the current month.
  • Quarter to date. The quarter to date option retrieves values from the employee earnings history entered in the payroll periods included in the current quarter.
  • Previous Quarter. The Previous quarter option retrieves values from the employee earnings history entered in the payroll periods included in the previous quarter.
  • 1st-4th Quarter. The 1st-4th quarter options retrieve values from the employee earnings history entered in the payroll periods included in the selected quarter. If prior-year earnings data has been entered, you can choose to retrieve either current or previous year values.
  • Year to date. The year to date option retrieves values from the employee earnings history entered in the payroll periods included in the current year.
  • Jan-Dec. The January through December options retrieve values from the employee earnings history entered in the periods included in the selected month. If prior-year earnings data has been entered, you can choose to retrieve either current or previous year values.

Detailed payroll period range options

Current detail period/Previous detail period/Specific detail period
These options are only available if detailed payroll periods are active for the current client (these are activated using the Calculating Payroll tab of the File > Client Properties dialog). The detail period options include check records created during the current, previous, or a specified detail payroll period.

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