Compare Truing

Six ways an employer gets codes TT and TP handled for 2026, sorted by whether each one reaches periods already run, which is the question a forward-looking payroll setting cannot answer on its own.

The five, compared

Route	Reaches periods already run	Published price	Scope
Truing	Yes, from the payroll register you already have	$3/employee, $99 minimum, one-time	Codes TT and TP, both
Ryan (advisory)	Not described	Not published	Qualified overtime strategy, going forward; code TP not addressed
FinRep.ai	Not described on its published guidance	Not published	Publishes W-2 code TT and TP guidance; no reconstruction engagement or price described
Payroll provider setup (per Warren Averett)	No, forward-looking category only	Varies by provider, not published here	Turns on 2026 tracking categories for TT and TP going forward
Local CPA, by hand	Yes, at the firm's own effort	Firm's own rate, not published	Depends on how the firm reads the Notice
Reading IRS Notice 2025-69 yourself	The text is free; the adjudication is still your work	Free	The primary source every other row is built from

Truing alternatives covers all five in prose for a buyer who has decided against Truing specifically, and the full who-can-do-it guide quotes each named position in its own words.

Is FinRep.ai a replacement for Truing?

No: FinRep.ai's published pages are reporting guidance, not a described payroll-register reconstruction service. Its July 7, 2026 code TT guide explains that employers should separately track the qualified overtime premium and configure a dedicated earnings code; its August 10, 2026 update discusses what to fix before year-end. Neither page publishes a reconstruction workflow or a price for applying the rules to periods already run. Truing's published scope is narrower and operational: reconstruct the qualified amounts from an existing payroll register, at $3 per employee with a $99 minimum.

The underlying fields are not interchangeable. The IRS instructions fetched on September 12, 2026 define code TT as the total qualified overtime compensation and code TP as the total cash tips reported to the employer. A buyer comparing FinRep.ai's educational material with Truing should therefore ask whether the provider will apply both rules to historical payroll, not just explain how a payroll system should be configured going forward.

What stays true regardless of the route chosen

Codes TT and TP first appear on the W-2 for tax year 2026, filed by 1 February 2027, whichever route produces the number. The penalty for getting it wrong applies to the employer regardless of who did the reconstruction.