How Child Support Orders and Garnishments are Handled
Receiving a child support order or garnishment for an employee can feel like a lot to manage — but with BerniePortal, the heavy lifting is done for you! Courts and child support agencies can require employers to automatically withhold payments from an employee's paycheck, and whether it's a child support order, garnishment, or tax levy, our team handles the setup, calculations, and payment submission as part of our standard payroll services- All you have to do is send us the paperwork!
What should I do when I receive a Child Support Order or Garnishment?
- Send the Garnishment Order issued by the associated Agency to your Account Manager at help@bernieportal.com
- The Employer Success team will configure the correct withholding amount based on the terms of the order and handle submitting payment to the agency on your behalf.
- The complete Garnishment Order must be provided in order to ensure that the deduction is configured accurately and in compliance with the order requirements.
- Please Note: Employers remain responsible for submitting any additional documentation requested by the garnishment agency, such as employer/employee response forms or calculation worksheets
When editing payroll, child support and garnishment fields within the deductions area will appear greyed out.
- This is expected! These fields are locked because our team has already configured the deduction to apply automatically — leaving them editable could result in duplicate deductions.
- No action is needed on your end here!
- The deduction amount won't appear in the employee's pay information until you reach the Payroll Summary page, where you can view the full breakdown in the Pre-Process Register.
Click “Save & Review” on your Payroll Edit Screen to view the Garnishment deductions.
- BerniePortal will automatically calculate and apply the correct withholding amount for the affected employee.
- From the Payroll Summary page, you can review the Pre-Process Register to audit the details and confirm everything looks accurate before submitting.
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