What a letter means
Letters are category judgments from (1) Unemployment Insurance Code and Labor Code text, (2) dated EDD and DIR pages, and (3) the vendor’s published California help article. They are not averages of Trustpilot stars. We would rather publish a conservative C with a citation than a precise 8.4 we cannot defend. We do not publish aggregate ratings.
| Band | EDD / UI account | CA returns | New-hire DE 34 |
|---|---|---|---|
| A–B | Vendor help describes a registration path that can open the California account, and still names the eight-digit EDD number the employer must hold. | Vendor help names the California wage and deposit forms it claims to file. | Vendor help claims the DE 34 / New Employee Registry filing. |
| C | Vendor help tells the employer to register at EDD. We do not upgrade that to a registration service. | Filings are claimed only on a higher-tier plan, or only after TPA paperwork the vendor names. | Vendor help puts DE 34 on the employer. The 20-day clock is still the statute. |
| D–F | We cannot cite a current official help page, or the product is sold as if it erased the EDD clock. | We cannot cite which California returns the vendor files. | New-hire reporting is omitted or contradicted by the EDD NER page. |
EDD / UI account
California sources we use: UIC § 675, § 1086, and EDD’s registration and Step 3 pages. We ask who opens the eight-digit Employer Payroll Tax Account Number and what the employer still has to enter. We do not invent a registration fee EDD did not publish.
CA returns
We print form numbers a vendor’s own help article lists. We label that vendor copy. We do not rename EDD forms to match a software glossary.
New-hire DE 34
The clock is EDD’s New Employee Registry and UIC § 1088.5: 20 calendar days from the start-of-work date. A vendor that claims the filing gets credit for the claim. A vendor that puts DE 34 on the employer is graded as leaving that clock on you.
What we refuse to publish
- A new-employer SUTA percentage copied from vendor help as if EDD wrote it.
- An invented EDD registration fee.
- A single blended score that hides an employer-owned registration behind a pretty filings grade.
- Aggregate star ratings.