May 2026

What is the improvement?

The California Pay Data Reporting AQ templates for both the Employee Pay Report and the Labor Contractor Report have been updated to capture three new required data fields for the 2025 reporting cycle: Exemption Status (Exempt or Non-Exempt), Work Schedule Type (Full-Time, Part-Time, or Intermittent), and Weeks Worked during the reporting year. The updated templates also capture remote employee data, including total remote CA employees, those located within California, and those located outside California.

Both AQs are due to the California Civil Rights Department on May 13, 2026.

Why?

California's Civil Rights Department expanded its pay data reporting requirements for the 2025 reporting cycle, adding new mandatory fields to both the Employee Pay Report and the Labor Contractor Report. Failure to report the required fields — or submitting incomplete data — can result in penalties. These AQ updates ensure your submissions include all required data before the May 13, 2026 deadline.

How does this impact you?

Use the updated AQ templates when generating your 2025 California Pay Data reports. The new fields will populate based on data already in your system, but you should verify that Exemption Status, Work Schedule Type, and Weeks Worked are accurately recorded for all California employees before running your reports. Remote employee counts will be captured automatically based on work location data.

For step-by-step instructions, see the updated KB articles:

• Standard AQ - California Laborer Contractor Report
• Standard AQ - California Pay Data
• Assignment Detail

System Setting/User Permission Update: None

What is the improvement?

Classic Back Office now correctly collects and reports Social Security and Medicare taxes when an employee's net earnings are insufficient to cover the full tax amount. Previously, if total taxes exceeded net earnings, no taxes were withheld at all. Now, required taxes are collected up to the available net amount, and any uncollected Social Security and Medicare taxes are properly recorded for W-2 and 941 reporting.

Why?

Employees with large cash tip amounts frequently have a taxable gross that exceeds their net earnings — meaning the system previously collected nothing, leaving payroll administrators to manually track and adjust uncollected taxes each pay period. Social Security and Medicare are required by the IRS to be collected whenever possible, and any uncollected amounts must be reported on the employee's W-2 and the employer's 941. Without this fix, agencies faced non-compliance risk and ongoing manual workarounds every week.

How does this impact you?

No action is required for existing payroll configurations. Going forward, when net earnings are insufficient to cover all taxes, Classic Back Office will automatically collect the full Social Security and Medicare amounts if available, and record any uncollected portion for W-2 and 941 reporting. Federal withholding will continue to be handled on an all-or-nothing basis as required.

System Setting/User Permission Update: None

What is the improvement?

Classic Back Office now includes full tax reporting support for the tip transaction type. When tip income is processed and a talent's net pay is insufficient to cover the resulting tax liability, withholding is skipped rather than generating a negative check. Any uncollected Social Security and Medicare taxes are automatically tracked and surfaced at year end — reported in W-2 Box 12 (IRS codes A and B), on Form 941, in the Greenshades file, and in the ADP quarterly W Record.

Why?

Tip income carries unique IRS requirements, and previous workarounds required pairing tip transactions with manual deductions to trigger withholding — adding setup complexity and risk of error. This update handles the full lifecycle automatically: taxes are calculated and withheld when net pay allows, skipped gracefully when it doesn't, and any shortfall is tracked and reported accurately at year end — no manual intervention required.

How does this impact you?

If you process tip income in Classic Back Office, this update ensures your payroll, quarterly, and year-end reporting are handled correctly without additional configuration. Specifically:

• W-2 Box 12 — Uncollected tip taxes are reported using:
  • Code A — Uncollected Social Security or RRTA tax on tips
  • Code B — Uncollected Medicare tax on tips
• Form 941 — Uncollected tip tax amounts flow to line 9
• ADP quarterly file — Written to positions 123–138 (QTD Uncollected Tip Tax) of the W Record
• Greenshades — Included in the quarterly file output

System Setting/User Permission Update: None

What is the improvement?

The Standard Time Card Import in Classic Back Office now displays a warning when an import batch includes a talent record linked to an assignment that has already ended. Users can review the warning and choose to bypass it and proceed if the submission is intentional and valid.

Why?

Previously, import batches containing ended assignments would process silently with no indication that an ended assignment was included. This change adds a clear confirmation step so users are aware when that situation exists, while still giving them the flexibility to continue when the submission is valid — preventing accidental or mistaken submissions from going unnoticed.

How does this impact you?

When an import batch includes a talent record tied to an ended assignment, a warning displays during the import process. Review the flagged record and confirm the submission is correct before continuing. Confirming the warning allows the batch to proceed as normal.

System Setting/User Permission Update: None

What is the improvement?

The Qualifying Children field on the W-4 form in Classic Back Office is now a free-text numeric input. Previously, the field used a fixed dropdown that only supported $2,000 increments — which no longer aligned with the current W-4's $2,200 increment, and made it impossible to manually correct records for older W-4s that didn't sync properly from AviontéBOLD. The field now accepts any valid numeric value, and the Total Dependents amount updates automatically to reflect any changes made.

Why?

The IRS updated the Qualifying Children multiplier to $2,200 on the current W-4, but the old dropdown only offered $2,000 increments. That mismatch meant records for talent completing a new W-4 couldn't be entered accurately. It also meant that when an older W-4 didn't sync correctly from AviontéBOLD to Back Office, there was no way to manually set the value to match what was on the form — leaving the system out of sync with the legal document on file. This update resolves both issues.

How does this impact you?

The Qualifying Children field now accepts direct numeric input instead of a dropdown selection. Enter any whole-dollar amount — the field accepts numbers only, so letters, symbols, and decimals are rejected automatically. Zero and blank are both accepted as valid entries.

When you update the Qualifying Children amount, the Total Dependents field recalculates automatically to reflect the change. No existing records are affected — all previously saved Qualifying Children amounts carry over as-is.

For more information on Federal Income Tax setup in Classic Back Office, see the Federal Income Tax Overview.

System Setting/User Permission Update: None

What is the improvement?

A new Qualified OT Premium recalculation tool is now available in Admin Tools under Employer. If transaction types were not updated in time for 2026 processing, administrators can run a recalc to correct year-to-date qualified OT Premium amounts. The tool includes a year drop-down (2025–2028), a progress bar, and a full audit log on each recalculation.

Why?

Without a recalculation option, users who missed the transaction type update window had no way to correct their YTD qualified OT Premium amounts. This tool gives administrators a reliable way to resolve those discrepancies without manual intervention.

How does this impact you?

Access the recalculation tool in Admin Tools under Employer. Select the applicable year using the year drop-down, run the recalc, and monitor progress with the built-in progress bar. Each recalculation is audited for accuracy and accountability.

KB article coming soon.

System Setting/User Permission Update: None

What is the improvement?

The Get Missing SOC AQ in Avionté Classic Back Office now validates SOC code detail level for Washington (WA) and South Carolina (SC). If any records in your results include a major, minor, or broad category SOC code — which WA and SC will not accept — an error message displays in the results section prompting you to update those records with a detailed SOC code before filing.

Why?

Washington and South Carolina require detailed SOC codes for state unemployment insurance (SUI) filings. Major, minor, and broad category codes are too general for these states' compliance requirements, and submitting records with non-detailed codes can cause filing errors or penalties. This validation surfaces those records within the AQ results so they can be corrected before submission.

How does this impact you?

When you run the Get Missing SOC AQ and results include talent assigned to WA or SC worksites with a non-detailed or missing SOC code, the results section displays one of the following errors:

Washington (WA)

• Missing Code. WA will not accept major, minor, or broad category from the SOC code list.
• Invalid Code. WA will not accept major, minor, or broad category from the SOC code list.

South Carolina (SC)

• Missing Code. SC will not accept major, minor, or broad category from the SOC code list.
• Invalid Code. SC will not accept major, minor, or broad category from the SOC code list.

Use these results to identify and update affected talent records with a detailed SOC code before running your state SUI filing reports.

System Setting/User Permission Update: None

What is the improvement?

A new Minimum Wage Rate AQ lets you pull all locality minimum wage records into a single, filterable view and export them as CSV or Excel. You can filter by state, staffing supplier, and active status to get exactly the data you need.

Why?

Managing minimum wage rates across multiple states has meant hours of manual work — opening records one by one, cross-referencing dates, and hoping nothing was missed. For agencies operating in dozens of states, a single rate change cycle could consume an entire day.

This report gives you a complete picture of every wage rate record in one place, so you can quickly audit rates, spot outdated entries, and catch placeholder records (like $0.00 values) before they cause compliance issues. Instead of clicking through individual records, you export everything at once, review it in the spreadsheet tool you already use, and act on what needs attention.

How does this impact you?

Navigate to the Minimum Wage Rate AQ to access the new functionality. From there you can:

• Run the report with no filters to see all wage records across every supplier, state, and city
• Filter by one or more states, by staffing supplier, or check "Active Records Only" to narrow results
• Export filtered results to CSV or Excel with all visible columns preserved

System Setting/User Permission Update: none