Calculate tax

I need the year-to-date tax calculation for 2026 payroll for the small fleet maintenance crew. Use the wage register I sent last Friday, include gross pay, pre-tax deductions by employee, taxable income, apply the current federal withholding tables and the state withholding rate of 4.95% for California, and compute employer and employee FICA. Prepare a worksheet I can review that flags any employee with year-to-date withholding over $12,000. Sign off the sheet before I send it to payroll by Tuesday.

Before I hand this to the accounting manager, make the tax worksheet easy to audit: show a clear row for each employee with gross, pretax deduction types, taxable wages, each withheld line (federal, state, FICA employee, FICA employer), and a reconciliation column to the payroll register. Put the total withheld by type at the top, highlight any unusual deduction amounts or negative taxes, and add a one-line note explaining sources used and the withholding tables referenced.

I was reconciling payroll and saw that Diego Morales has federal withholding of zero this pay period though his gross and pretax deductions are unchanged. I can't tell if his W-4 changed, a deduction was coded incorrectly, or the tax table was applied wrong. What is the most likely cause and the best next steps to resolve before Tuesday payroll?

Every month we spend three hours fixing small tax variances between the payroll export and my tax worksheet—rounding differences, missing pretax codes, and inconsistent state-code application. I want to stop firefighting. Which habit or checklist should I put in place to cut this time in half while keeping auditability for the finance director?