Software Specifications and Edits for Quarterly Unemployment Compensation Wage and Information Reporting

This booklet contains the specifications and instructions for reporting Connecticut Unemployment Compensation Insurance Wage and Tax Reports by File Transfer Protocol.

LEGAL REQUIREMENT

Section 31-225a(j)(2) of the Connecticut General Statutes requires each employer or employer agent who reports wages in employment for Connecticut employees to submit such required reports by electronic means which the administrator may presrcibe.

REGISTERING EMPLOYERS & AGENTS

We require that each employer or agent reporting tax and wage information via electronic files to complete and return the appropriate application form – (see the application forms at the end of this booklet). There is one for employers and another for agents. The reason we require you to register is so that we have the name and address of a person we can contact if any problems arise with regard to your electronic file submission of tax and wage information.

If there is a change to your application information please resubmit an application form to update it. You must submit your application and satisfactory test file before you send in your first production file.

AGENTS PLEASE TAKE NOTE. Before an agent may file electronically, they must complete a Memorandum of Understanding with the Connecticut Department of Labor. This is in addition to registering with us. The Memorandum of Understanding will be mailed to you after we receive your application for registration.

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SUBMITTING ELECTRONIC FILES

TEST SUBMISSIONS

An employer newly registered to submit tax and wage information electronically may submit a test file first. A test assures both parties that you can properly format your submission and it allows us a vehicle for spotting any problems and correcting them before your first production submission is due. Files used for testing purposes must be correctly identified. Your FTP (File Transfer Protocol) test file should be named as follows: start with the quarter (1,2,3 or 4); a two digit year (e.g.01 for 2001); the letter "t"; then your seven digit employer registration number or agent number. Thus a file named 101t9999999 will designate a test file for 1st quarter 2001 for employer/agent number 99-999-99.

AGENTS PLEASE TAKE NOTE. A newly registered agent must submit a test file before we will process its first returns.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS FOR AGENTS

Agents must not include Zero Wage Reports in their electronic files. If they wish to report they must contact the Employer Tax Accounting Unit at (860) 263-6470.
Agents must present their electronic file in ascending numerical order using their clients' seven digit Employer Registration Numbers. Records containing an improper Employer Registration Number will not be processed, potentially resulting in late filing fees, interest, and penalty to the employer's account.
An agent’s representative must be identified and available for communication and problem resolution.

PLEASE NOTE: If your file contains one employer, the file should be identified with that employer's registration number. It should not have your agent number on it.

FILING DEADLINES

All files that include data for TAXABLE METHOD EMPLOYERS must be forwarded on or before the last day of the month following the end of the calendar quarterly period. All files that contain only data for REIMBURSABLE METHOD EMPLOYERS must be forwarded on or before the 15^th day of the second month following the end of the calendar quarterly period.

RETENTION RESPONSIBILITIES

CT-DOL requires each agent and employer who files electronically to retain copies of all of their submitted files, or to be able to reconstruct the files, for at least three years after the due dates of the report. An agent or employer who files electronically must be able to recreate, and to correct as necessary, a complete duplication of a submitted file and a duplication of one or more employers or records.

FILE REJECTION

If CT-DOL is unable to process a file or a file segment, the FTP filers will be notified via email along with an explanation, identifying the problem(s) that were encountered.

Rejections will require the employer or agent to correct the errors and resubmit the corrected file. NOTE: Rejected files do not extend any legal due dates.

CORRECTION TO ELECTRONIC FILES

Correcting Wage Information

Whenever an employer or its agent is correcting wage information for individual employees (i.e., correcting under reported wages, over reported wages, adding missing wages, or correcting Social Security Numbers) the employer or the agent must submit a new electronic file that will completely replace the original file. It must report all employees (correctly) for that employer for that quarter.

Correction files via FTP must be named as follows: start with the quarter (1,2,3,4); a two digit year (e.g. 01 for 2001); the letters "CORR"; then the seven digit employer registration number of the employer. Thus a file named "101CORR9999999" would designate the first quarter 2001 wage correction for employer 99-999-99. Each wage correction file is for one specific employer so the registration number for the agent should not be used.

Whenever changes to the employee wage information result in any change to the tax information (Total Wages, Excess Wages, and/or Taxable Wages), the correction file must reflect the new, correct tax information as it should have been originally filed. The tax data in the correction file must completely replace the original, incorrect tax data (it should not be data which adds to or subtracts from the previously file tax data).

Correcting Tax Detail Only

Corrections to only the tax data (e.g. a change to Excess and Taxable Wages) with no corresponding change to wage data must be done using form UC-2CORR.

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II. DATA RECORD DESCRIPTIONS

The following describes the data records necessary to complete a magnetic report for Connecticut Unemployment Compensation. Use only the information provided in this booklet to prepare reports on magnetic media.

Each media submission must present only one (1) calendar quarterly period.
Files with signed fields cannot be processed.
Financial data fields are numeric only – include dollar and cents with decimal point assumed.
Identify all Connecticut employees with the state (FIPS) code, 09.
Generate an employer file – only once – for each employer.
Multiple employers may be included on the same media by maintaining a complete record sequence for each file segment.
Negative Sums are not acceptable. (see correction procedures)
Numeric fields are right justified with zero-fill.
Use data fields only as identified herein – NO alterations or additions are acceptable.

Each employer file MUST maintain an ‘E-S-F’ record sequence. A correctly formatted single employer file will appear as an ‘E-S…..S-F’ sequence; while a multi-employer file would appear as ‘E-S…S-F – E-S…S-F – E-S…S-F’ etc.

EMPLOYER RECORD: CODE ‘E’

Identifies the employer whose employee wage and tax information is being reported.
Develop magnetic media only for employers with a valid ‘Unemployment Insurance Registration Number’.
Generate an ‘E’ record only if at least one employee is reported for the subject quarterly period.
Generate a new Code ‘E’ record each time it is necessary to identify a different employer.

EMPLOYEE RECORD: CODE ‘S’

Used to report employee wage and other related personal data.
At least one (1) ‘S’ record must follow its related ‘E’ record.
Consolidate each employee’s earnings and report data for each employee only once per calendar quarterly period.
Only generate an ‘S’ record for an individual who did receive wages for the subject period
Report only Connecticut employees.

NAME FORMAT

1. Use UPPER CASE letters, only;

2. Submit only Surname and First-Name;

3. Separate name segments with one (1) blank-FILL field position;

4. Omit all titles;

5. Omit all middle names and initials;

6. Omit all punctuation;

7. Omit all sequential heredity identification

	Example: Roland R. O’Leary Jr., MD Preferred: OLEARY RONALD (code ‘S’ in ‘E’ record for Surname FIRST) Acceptable: RONALD OLEARY (code ‘F’ in ‘E’ record for First name FIRST)

	Example: Dr. Karen Ann L. De Grazia-Smith Preferred: DEGRAZIA-SMITH KAREN (code ‘S’ in ‘E’ record for Surname FIRST) Acceptable: KAREN DEGRAZIA-SMITH (code ‘F’ in ‘E’ record for First name FIRST)

FINAL RECORD: CODE ‘F’

Contains summary data of the ‘S’ records and research data.
The last record of each file segment.
It must be the last data record on each media.

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III. FTP – Technical Requirements

GENERAL PREREQUISITES

Each file may contain data for only one (1) report quarter.
File must be recorded in the ASCII-1 Character Set.
Record data in UPPER case letters only.
Naming Convention: It is imperative that you name the file you submit via FTP as follows: start with the quarter (1, 2, 3 or 4) and a two-digit year (e.g., 01 for 2001) followed by a letter identifying this as a first, second, or third submission for that quarter (e.g., an A designates a first submission) followed by the employer's registration. Thus, a file named "101A9999999" would designate the first submission (A) of the 1st quarter 2001 data (101) for employer 99-999-99 (9999999.) If you FTP a file not properly named as instructed, there is always a danger that it would be overlaid.

RECORDS

Each logical record must be a uniform fixed length of 275 (or 276) characters, 275 is preferred.
Compressed files are not acceptable.
Record delimiters are required: a record delimiter must follow each record in the file. The record delimiter must consist of two characters and those two characters must be a ‘carriage return’ and ‘line feed’ (CR/LF). The ASCII-1 hexadecimal value for the ‘carriage return’ character is ‘0D’ (zero and letter D); the ASCII-1 hexadecimal value for the ‘line feed’ character is ‘0A’ (zero and letter A). A record delimiter should appear immediately after the last character position of each record; delimiters are not counted in determining record length.
No field position should exist after the end of file.

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IV. RECORD FORMAT TABLE

DATA TYPES:
A=ALPHA character
N=NUMERIC character
A/N=BOTH

JUSTIFICATION:
L=Left
R=Right

RECORD LENGTHS:
275 (276)

‘E’ EMPLOYER RECORD

LOCATION	FIELD NAME	LENGTH	JUSTIFY	TYPE	DESCRIPTION and REMARKS
001-001	Record Identifier	1		A	Constant ‘E’
002-003	Data QUARTERLY Period	2		N	Identify by last mo. of qtr (‘03’ ‘06’ ‘09’ ‘12’)
004-005	Data YEARLY Period	2		N	Last 2 digits of year
006-014	Federal EIN	9		N	Employers Federal Identification Number
015-023	RESERVED	9		A/N	Blank-Only-FILL
024-073	Employer NAME	50	L	A/N	Legal NAME of Employer – Blank FILL
074-113	STREET Address	40	L	A/N	STREET Address of Employer – Blank FILL
114-138	CITY Address	25	L	A/N	CITY address of Employer – Blank FILL
139-148	STATE Address	10	L	A	Postal Abbreviation of STATE – Blank FILL
149-149	Hyphen	1		A/N	Constant ‘-‘
150-153	ZIP CODE Extension	4	L	N	Zip Extension or Blank FILL
154-158	ZIP CODE	5		N
159-159	Employee Name Format CODE	1		A	‘F’ (First name First) ‘S’ (Surname First)
160-160	Type of Employment	1		A	Enter: ‘A’ Agriculture, ‘F’ Federal Government, ‘H’ Household, ‘M’ Military, ‘X’ Railroad, ‘R’ Regular (all others)
161-162	BLOCKING Factor	2		N	Zero FILL
163-168	RESERVED	6		A/N	Blank-Only-FILL
169-170	Connecticut FIPS Code	2		N	Constant ‘09’
171-175	RESERVED	5		A/N	Blank-Only-FILL
176-182	CT-NUMBER	7		N	Employer’s Unemployment Compensation Number
183-275	RESERVED	93		A/N	Blank-Only-FILL
276-276	SPECIAL USE	1		A/N	Reserved/use only as instructed

‘S’ EMPLOYEE RECORD

001-001		Record Identifier	1		A	Constant ‘S’
002-010		Employee’s Soc.Sec.#	9		N	If Unknown – Nine-FILL
011-037		Employee NAME	27	L	A/N	See Name Format Section Legal Name- Blank FILL
038-077		STREET Address	40	L	A/N	STREET address of Employee – Blank-FILL
078-102		CITY Address	25	L	A/N	CITY address of Employee – Blank-FILL
103-112		STATE Address	10	L	A	Postal Abbreviation of STATE – Blank-FILL
113-113		Hyphen	1		A/N	Constant ‘-‘
114-117		ZIP CODE Extension	4	L	N	Or Blank-FILL
118-122		ZIP CODE	5		N
123-123		RESERVED	1		A/N	Blank-Only-FILL
124-125		CT FIPS Code	2		N	Constant ‘09’
126-131		RESERVED	6		A/N	Blank-Only-FILL
132-140		Period GROSS WAGES	9	R	N	Earnings BEFORE any deductions – Zero FILL
141-149	TAX	Period TAXABLE WAGES	9	R	N	Quarterly earnings subject to CT Unemployment Tax
141-149	Reim	RESERVED USE	9	R	N	Zero-Only-FILL
150-275		RESERVED	126		A/N	Blank-Only-FILL
276-276		SPECIAL USE	1		A/N	Reserved – use only as instructed

‘F’ FINAL RECORD

001-001			Record Identifier	1		A	Constant ‘F’
002-008			Employee COUNT	7	R	N	Total of ‘S’ Records in File Segment – Zero-FILL
009-009			RESERVED	1		A/N	Blank-Only-FILL
010-025	TAX		Total TAXABLE WAGES	16	R	A/N	Amount per File Segment – Zero-FILL
010-025	REIM		RESERVED USE	16	R	A/N	Zero-Only-FILL
026-026			RESERVED	1		A/N	Blank-Only-FILL
027-042.		TAX	Total EXCESS WAGES	16	R	A/N	Amount per File Segment – Zero-FILL
027-042.		Reim	RESERVED USE	16	R	A/N	Zero-Only-FILL
043-043			RESERVED	1		A/N	Blank-Only-FILL
044-059			Total GROSS WAGES	16	R	A/N	Amount per File Segment – Zero-FILL
060-060			RESERVED	1		A/N	Blank-Only-FILL
061-071			REMITTANCE Amount	11	R	A/N	Amount per File Segment – Zero-FILL
072-072			RESERVED	1		A/N	Blank-Only-FILL
073-077			1^st Month Count	5	R	N	Number of Employees on 12^th of 1^st month – Zero-FILL
078-078			RESERVED	1		A/N	Blank-Only-FILL
079-083			2^nd Month Count	5	R	N	Number of Employees on 12^th of 2^nd month – Zero-FILL
084-084			RESERVED	1		A/N	Blank-Only-FILL
085-089			3^rd Month Count	5	R	N	Number of Employees on 12^th of 3^rd month – Zero-FILL
090-275			RESERVED	186		A/N	Blank-Only-FILL
276-276			SPECIAL USE	1		A/N	Reserved – use only as instructed

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ACCEPTABLE CHARACTER SETS

ASCII-1
ASCII-1 Character	Hexadecimal Value	Decimal Value
0	30	48
1	31	49
2	32	50
3	33	51
4	34	52
5	35	53
6	36	54
7	37	55
8	38	56
9	39	57
A	41	65
B	42	66
C	43	67
D	44	68
E	45	69
F	46	70
G	47	71
H	48	72
I	49	73
J	4A	74
K	4B	75
L	4C	76
M	4D	77
N	4E	78
O	4F	79
P	50	80
Q	51	81
R	52	82
S	53	83
T	54	84
U	55	85
V	56	86
W	57	87
X	58	88
Y	59	89
Z	5A	90
Blank	20	32
Apostrophe	27	39
Hyphen	2D	45

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INSTRUCTIONS to complete EMPLOYER APPLICATION FORM

Employer Instructions

Employer’s Unemployment Compensation Number.
Employer’s Federal Identification Number.
Employer’s Name and Physical Address.
Person authorized to resolve magnetic media submission problems.
Phone Number.
E-Mail Address.

Get Employer Application Form Here!

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INSTRUCTIONS to complete AGENT APPLICATION FORM

Agent Instructions

Agent’s Name and Physical Address.
Person authorized to resolve magnetic media submission problems. Contact title, telephone number, e-mail address and fax number.

Get Agent Application Form Here!

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