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AmericanRV
AmericanRV
New Member
August 12, 2026
Question

I need help adjusting a 941 report discrepancy

  • August 12, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 30 views

When I filed my Qtr 1 941 report in April I had a discrepancy of $131.83. I hadn’t realized there was an error and was against the wall to file my report so I simply did an override. I thought wow, that was easy. And it was - until Qtr 2 came along.

I know where the discrepancy occurred. For some reason the company contribution on one employee’s paycheck (3/20/26) had been set at $0.00. I received a CP161 notice and paid it through EFTPS on 6/2/26. Now QB shows I have a CREDIT of $131.83. I can’t find an adjustment or anything anywhere. I’ve tried every kind of adjustment I can think of and nothing changes. I tried adding the deduction back onto the employees paycheck (careful not to change the net pay) and it didn’t work. I even deleted the payment  I made through EFTPS but the “credit” remains. I’m now almost 2 weeks late on filing the Qtr 2 report. All I can find online is that you need to make an adjustment -- I find nothing about HOW to do it. I ran a payroll checkup and of course it shows this discrepancy but all it says is you must make an adjustment. No idea how to do it and make it stick.

I really need help.

2 replies

C
ClarenceCort_BQuickBooks Team
QuickBooks Team
August 12, 2026

To fix the $131.83 credit from the missing company contribution on the 03/20/2026 paycheck, adjust the payroll liability in QuickBooks and re-enter the EFTPS payment.

Here’s how:
 

  1. Go to Employees, select Payroll Taxes and Liabilities, then Adjust Payroll Liabilities.
  2. Set the Date and Effective Date to 03/20/2026, the date of the affected paycheck.
  3. In the Adjustment is for section, select Employee Adjustment.
  4. Choose the affected employee.
  5. In the Item Name column, find the company contribution payroll item recorded as $0.00.
  6. Enter 131.83 as a positive amount in the Amount field to increase the liability.
  7. Click Accounts Affected, choose Affect liability and expense accounts, then hit OK.
  8. Select OK again to save the adjustment.  


Since the EFTPS payment was deleted, re-enter the payment through Pay Liabilities so QuickBooks can apply it to the corrected liability.  

Once completed, run Payroll Checkup and review the 941 report to confirm the discrepancy has been resolved.

For more details, refer to this article: Adjust payroll liabilities in QuickBooks Desktop Payroll.

Feel free to chime back if you need more help.

    AmericanRV
    AmericanRVAuthor
    New Member
    August 12, 2026

    Okay, I first went and made sure all adjustments and payments were gone (they were). Then I followed the steps provided above, and it did make the balance zero on my Payroll Liabilities Summary report. But other than that, nothing changed. Payroll checkup is also unchanged. Everything shows an overpayment of $131,83. I went to the link provided, which has the same instructions provided above.

    At this point all I can think is there has to be some glitch happening here since I can't find a single transaction for $131.83, except on the Qtr 2 941 report showing as an overpayment (I’ve created a new report each time -- but it stays the same).

    Do I need to do anything with regard to the Qtr 1 amounts? I don’t need to file a corrected 941 quarterly report since the IRS has already billed it and it’s been paid. It’s just QuickBooks. Should I enter the CP161 I got as a bill and pay it? I might add, I did the whole “Create Custom Liability Payments” and it also did not work.

    I don’t know where to go from here.

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