Delete a paycheque in QuickBooks Online

Deleting a paycheque will completely remove it from your account. Typically, you can only delete a paycheque if it's the most recent cheque for an employee. When you delete a paycheque, our system will automatically recalculate your tax liabilities.

Delete a paycheque

Here's how to delete a paycheque:

1. Go to Payroll and select Employees (Take me there).
2. Under the Run payroll button, select Pay cheque list.
3. Select the cheque to delete and click Delete.
4. When prompted to confirm the action, select Yes or No.

Things to note

• You cannot undo a paycheque deletion. To restore a paycheque, you would need to recreate it.
• Voiding a paycheque does not reverse money movement if the cheque was provided to the employee. This process only adjusts your payroll records for accounting purposes. You generally need to have the employee reimburse you for the net pay amount.
• There are a few things to keep in mind when deleting paycheques in prior periods (that is, in prior quarters for which you have already paid taxes and filed forms):
  • Deleting cheques will change your tax liabilities for those periods. You may owe additional late tax payments that are subject to penalty and interest. You may also need to prepare and file amended forms, which is not supported by QuickBooks Online.
  • If you intend to delete paycheques and then re-enter them, you may be unable to do this yourself. In that circumstance, Payroll Support would need to do it for you.
  • If you intend to delete paycheques for a prior year, you will need to prepare and file amended annual forms.

Delete an older paycheque (not the most recent)

To delete an older paycheque, you will first have to delete any paycheques for that employee that came after, in order. Delete the paycheques working backwards from the most recent cheque until you get to the cheque you need to delete.

Recreate paycheques

After you've deleted paycheques, you should recreate the ones you need in pay date order from the earliest date to the present. When you recreate paycheques, our system automatically recalculates taxes and forms.

Note: To recreate a paycheque, you need to rerun your payroll for the previous period(s). Because of this, it is recommended that you contact us or an accountant to help with that.

When to contact us

There are some types of paycheques you can't delete yourself. Please contact us for help deleting/negating any of the following types of paycheques:

• A direct deposit paycheque after the money has been transferred (We process paycheques 2 banking days before the pay date, at 5 pm PT). After we negate the paycheque for you, you'll need to collect the net pay from the employee.
• ​An adjustment cheque (adjustment cheques are typically created automatically when a tax rate changes).

Note: If you delete or recreate paycheques for a period in which tax payments have been made or forms have been filed, you may have additional tax payments due or credits owed. You may need to prepare and file amended tax forms.

Now you know how to delete a paycheque and what to be aware of when deleting one. You also know when it’s best to contact us.