How to set up a unionized company

Hello Diane18,

I hope you're having a great week so far! As always, I appreciate the details you've shared about what you're looking to do. Seeing these, I can tell that you're going to need to create Company Contribution items in payroll. In doing this, you'll be able to keep track of these items and the amounts owed to the various places, whether it's the CRA or a union organization. Here's how to set up a Company Contribution item.

1. Go to the Lists menu and choose Payroll Item List.
2. Select Payroll Item from the bottom of the window and click New.
3. Select Company Contribution.
4. Give the item a name (Example: Pension) and click Next.
5. Choose the agency the the contribution is being paid to (Example: the union. Note the agency gets set up as a vendor in your books).
6. Choose the appropriate Liability and Expense accounts.
7. Continue with the setup to configure ROE Tracking, tax form tracking, tax setup, and calculations.

Go through this setup with each contribution the company is making toward employee pay cheques. Once you've got them set up, here's how you add them to the employee profile.

1. Select Employees from the top menu and choose Employee Centre.
2. Double-click an employee name to bring up the Edit Employee window.
3. Click the Payroll Info tab.
4. Add the items created to the Additions, Deductions and Company Contributions section.
5. Click OK to save.

Repeat this for each employee that gets these contributions. Once you have, they'll automatically be calculating when you run payroll.

When it comes time to pay them, you'll simply go to the Payroll Centre (accessible from the Employees menu) and then the Pay Liabilities tab. Click Pay Liabilities, choose the appropriate date range, and then OK to see what you owe. Learn more about this process here: Pay or adjust payroll liabilities

For more information about payroll items and how to set them up in the program, I recommend reviewing the in-product help articles. Find them by following these steps.

1. Select Help and choose QuickBooks Desktop Help (Hint: Use the F1 key as a shortcut to skip these two steps).
2. Click the Help tab, then the Search button.
3. Use the search bar to enter keywords (Example: payroll items).
4. Hit Enter on your keyboard or click the arrow key to search.

That should get you on your way, but don't be afraid to ask more questions. I'm here to help!