how to turn off payroll

Hello Janpier,

Making sure you're only using the features you need in QuickBooks Desktop is a great way to keep your workload manageable. I'll guide you with turning off your payroll module.

Turning off payroll is just a few simple steps.

1. Select Edit.
2. Choose Preferences.
3. Select Payroll & Employees from the left menu.
4. Go to the Company Preferences tab.
5. Click No payroll.
6. Select OK to save.

Once you've done this, you'll no longer see the Payroll Centre or have the ability to run payroll. Your payroll information will still be available in your company file for bookkeeping purposes. This means if you select Employees from the top menu and choose Employee Centre, you'll still see a list of employees and their related pay cheques.

Give that a shot and let me know if those are the steps you were already taking. I'm here to help!

I am doing exactly this on a company file on QuickBooks Premier Accountant Edition 2020 but it seems to not stick and resets to "Full payroll" when I reload the company file in QuickBooks.

If I make the change and go out of the preferences window after saving, when I go back in, it shows "No payroll" which is good. However, when I close the company file and then reopen it, I get the message that the payroll tables are out of date (because QB2020's last payroll table update expired June 30, 2021) and the preferences show "Full payroll".

I'm hoping it will suppress the caution about the payroll table being out of date anytime we use a company file that has not yet been updated to the latest version of QuickBooks. It's not as simple as just upgrading the file to the latest version of QuickBooks to stop the warning message as we've still got some computers that have not yet been updated from Windows 7 to  Windows 10, and any version of QuickBooks newer than QuickBooks 2020 refuses to install on a Windows 7 machine (presumably due to Microsoft ending support nearly two years ago which seems like a good reason). But as stated already, why keep a feature turned on in a particular company file when it is not being used in that company file.

Hi SgtNumbers,

Thanks for joining us here.  QuickBooks Desktop allows you to turn off payroll when you're logged in as an Admin on the account.  In addition to the steps previously posted, ensure that you're opening the correct company file as there could be some confusion if you have backup files with similarities to the main company.  I hope this is helpful!

If you continue to experience the same outcome and 'Full Payroll' still shows up after closing and reopening the company file please contact us.  We'd be happy to work with you independently and get this resolved as soon as possible.

If you have any other questions, feel free to reach back out.  We'd be glad to assist!

Thank you Trish_T.

This time, it is not a case of opening up a different file. I select the first file from the MRU (most recently used) list which is the one just closed.

I'll call the support line as suggested. Sometimes it's the necessary way of getting a solution.

Hello SgtNumbers. Feel free to keep us posted on how you make out. I'll be one message away in case you need anything else.