Process a PIER report

Process a PIER report

Let’s look at an example of a PIER report and how we go about reconciling the information based on what is within the Rise system. 

1. Open your Pensionable and Insurable Earnings Review (PIER) documentation that you have received from the CRA.


2. Search for the employee that appears on the PIER documentation within Payroll.


3. In the employee’s profile, navigate to the Reports tab and select the Employee Payroll History Report.


4. Change the date range to reflect the pay year in question and click View Payroll History Report.


5. Once the report has run, down at the bottom of the report, click Export to Excel.


6. Format the Excel spreadsheet and only keep the following columns:

  1. Employee

  2. Pay Date

  3. Pay Number

  4. EI Earnings

  5. Employment Insurance Contributions 

  6. Employer Employment Insurance Contribution

  7. Pensionable Earnings

  8. Canada Pension Plan Contribution


7. Insert and add additional columns to cover the following:

  1. Calculated EI – add next to Employment Insurance Contribution column

  1. Difference – add next to Calculated EI column

  1. Pensionable Earnings w/ Exemption – add next to Canada Pension Plan Contribution column

  1. Calculated CPP – add next to Pensionable Earnings w/ Exemption column

  1. Difference – add next to Calculated CPP column



8. In the “Calculated EI” column, use the following formula to calculate the EI amount (EI Earnings x rate), in this example, the calculation will be based off column D (EI Earnings) x rate (1.66%, in excel it will be entered as 0.0166).

9. In Column G, the “Difference” column, you’ll want to subtract Column E (Employment Insurance Contribution) from Column F (Calculated EI) (=E2-F2).


10. Under the “Pensionable Earnings w/ exemption” column, you’ll need to subtract the per pay period exemption amount (this amount is based on your organization's pay period frequency) from the pensionable earnings.  In this example, the organization has a bi-weekly pay period, making the exemption amount $134.62 per pay period. (For this example, the pensionable earnings for this period was $1576.92, minus $134.62 will give you the total $1442.30, this will be the amount that the CPP deduction is calculated off.)


11. Use the column K (Pensionable Earnings with Exemption) to calculate column L CPP deduction under the (Calculated CPP). In this example, the rate was K4 * 4.95% and for the purposes of the excel formula, will be displayed as 0.0495. 


12. In Column M (Difference column), you’ll want to subtract Column J (Canada Pension Plan Contribution) from Column L (Calculated CPP) (=J4-L4).


13. Once this has been done for each pay period, the totals can be calculated, and any difference will appear under column G (Difference column) for CPP or EI.

 In the instance that you find a discrepancy, you will need to contact the CRA to explain the deficiencies or pay any overdue amounts as well as any penalties and interest that apply. 
This may have been caused by the reasons listed below: 

  1. Payroll instructions with the wrong statutory deduction setup i.e. no CPP or EI boxes checked
  2. You may have overridden the statutory deductions within the input sheet may have been overridden 
The CRA will be responsible in modifying the T4 slips and will send the employee copies to them directly. For additional information visit the CRA website. 

    • Related Articles

    • Process tax form runs

      Prior to processing year end tax forms, you must complete the following steps: 1. Close the previous year. For details on how to close the previous year, check out our article on How to close the year. 2. Find your T4 remittance balance from the CRA. ...

    • Payroll reporting functions overview

      How to customize a Custom Report Custom reports provide a large amount of information, and there are functions provided to help narrow down the report to just the data required. We highly recommend using the functions available to make the ...

    • Generate the 75% Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) report

      Before following the steps in this article, ensure that you've read the Government of Canada's latest updates on the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy program. Your eligibility may have changed. The Government of Canada continues to support Canadians ...

    • Custom Payroll reports overview

      Opening a custom report Select Reports on the side menu and choose the Custom Reports tab. Click on any custom report to view or edit. Exporting a custom report to Excel 1. Once you open your report, adjust your filters and press Submit. The filters ...

    • Standard Payroll reports overview

      Departmental Payroll Register This report breaks down your register entries into department sections. Each department will have a departmental total, and the report shows a company total at the bottom. You can export this report to a pdf. Employee ...