If you are a Washington state employer, you need to enter your Washington workers' compensation information (also called Industrial Insurance) before you run payroll in Patriot Software. You should have received a WA Workers Compensation Rate Notice that lists your business's class codes and hourly rates for both employer and employee withholding.
For more details, see the Employers' Guide to Workers' Compensation Insurance in Washington State (linked in the original article).
How to add company WA workers comp codes and rates
You need to set up your workers comp codes at the company level before you can assign them to each employee. To set up codes at the company level:
Go to Settings > Payroll Settings > Workers' Comp Settings.
Click Add Code.
Add each six-digit code, an optional description, your employer hourly rate, and your employee hourly rate as listed on your rate notice.
Click Save.
Note: You can choose to pay both the employer and employee share so your employees have no payroll deductions for these premiums. To do this, enter the entire total rate (employer + employee) in the employer rate box, and enter "0" in the employee rate box.
Next, add a workers comp code for each employee. See "Add Washington Employee Workers Comp Information" for step-by-step instructions.
How to edit a company workers comp code
Go to Settings > Payroll Settings > Workers' Comp Settings.
Click the edit icon at the end of the row for the code you want to change.
Make your updates.
Click Save.
How to delete a company workers comp code
Go to Settings > Payroll Settings > Workers' Comp Settings.
Click the Delete icon in the row for the code you want to delete.
If the code was already used in a payroll, it will still appear in the Workers Comp Report and the Tax Liabilities report.
How to mark non-worked hours exempt from Industrial Insurance
When Patriot calculates Washington Industrial Insurance, the hours worked should not include non-worked hours such as vacation or holiday hours. The default hour types Vacation, Sick, and Holiday are already set to "Non-Worked Hours," so they are not included in the calculation.
To set up other custom hour types so they are excluded from the workers comp calculation:
Go to Settings > Payroll Settings > Hours & Money Types.
Click the name of the hour type.
For the question "Is this a non-worked hour?", click the Yes radio button.
Click Save.
How to mark your company exempt from WA Industrial Insurance
If your company is exempt from carrying workers' compensation coverage for all of your employees, you need to mark your company exempt.
Go to Settings > Payroll Settings > Tax Exemptions.
Click Add Workers' Comp Exemption Status.
Change the status to Exempt.
Enter an effective date.
Click Save.