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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2025-05-30
Steps: Set Up a Single Legal Entity (USA)

Steps: Set Up a Single Legal Entity (USA)

Create the managing or legal entity company, and the related companies. See: Steps: Set Up Companies.
Create Organization Hierarchies to create consolidated financial statements for the legal entity and related companies. Then add the single legal entity company and related companies.
Security:
  • Manage: Company
     domain in the Organizations and Roles functional area.
  • Set Up: Payroll (Tax Filing/W-2s) - USA
     domain in the USA Payroll functional area.
Set up a company relationship where multiple companies roll up to a single managing company that serves as the reporting legal entity.
When you set up a Single Legal Entity (SLE), define each company that's part of the company relationship separately. Then create the SLE relationship. For each company in the SLE relationship, set up and separately maintain:
  • Employer ID Number. This is the Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN)
    Tax ID Type
     you select or edit on the
    Edit Company Tax Details
     task. For the length of the single legal entity relationship, all related companies must use the same
    Employer ID Number
     Tax ID type.
  • Tax authority information.
  • Company-specific information.
  1. Access the
    Create Company Relationship
     or
    Edit Company Relationship
     task.
  2. From the
    Company Relationship Type
     prompt, select
    Single Legal Entity
    .
    Once you create a relationship and complete a payroll, you can't modify this relationship type.
  3. As you complete the task, consider:
    Option Description
    Reporting Tax Year
    The tax year in which the SLE relationship begins and is applicable for the entire specified tax year. The year must be 2014 or later.
    Inactive as-of Tax Year
    (Optional) The company relationship ends at the beginning of the tax year entered.
    Related Companies
    Parent and child companies in a single legal entity relationship:
    • Must have the same Tax ID. (Only companies with the same tax ID will be available to select.)
    • Can't be part of another legal entity relationship.
    • Can be in different countries or in the country listed for the legal entity.
    Periodic Tax Reporting
    Select whether to report taxes for related companies separately for each company or combined for all companies.
    When combined, you can't review and return tax data for individual companies in the company relationship.
    Quarterly Tax Reporting
    Select whether to report taxes for related companies separately for each company or combined for all companies.
    Your selection also applies to monthly tax reporting to ADP for Illinois State Unemployment Insurance (SUI).
    When combined, you can't review and return tax data for individual companies in the company relationship.
    Withholding Order Types to Carry Forward
    Select the withholding order types that you want to copy with the
    Copy Withholding Orders
     business process. Workday automatically displays previously selected withholding order types.
    Affordable Care Act (ACA) Reporting
    Select the
    Combined ACA reporting for all companies
     check box to enable ACA reporting for a single legal entity.
You can use the SLE company relationship to:
  • Generate balance sheets statements for the related nonlegal entity companies that are using the balancing worktag for other purposes.
  • Produce consolidated financial statements for all companies in the single legal entity company relationship that are part of a company hierarchy.
  • Run the
    1099 MISC Report
     report, which includes transactions from the single legal entity company and its related companies.
    All other reports run for the SLE company and don't include transactions from the related companies.
  • Process W-2s and W-2Cs. Impacted employees receive a single W-2 from the managing company (the legal entity).
You can add new related companies to the SLE relationship if the companies don't have any prior related pay calculations. If you need to add a company, consider:
  • Creating a new company.
  • Moving related workers into the new company.
  • Adding the new company to your SLE relationship so that there's no prior calculations.
Workday Payroll for the USA only applies tax elections and income withholding orders entered under the single legal entity. To add:
  • Tax elections, use the
    Copy Tax Elections
     business process.
  • Income withholding orders, use the
    Copy Withholding Orders
     business process.
You can use the
Delete Single Legal Entity
 task as long as there are no completed payroll results for the legal entity.