Intuit charging fees per employee on a desktop - how are they able to determine how many?

Hi rkkt,

Thanks for reaching out to us here.  It's important to understand how your QuickBooks Desktop payroll information is gathered, to ensure your subscription fees are accurate.  I would be happy to provide some insight here!

In addition to the fixed monthly fee, you will be charged an additional 'per-employee' fee.  After a successful payroll run, the information is sent to the billing system.  This is strictly for the purpose of calculating the per-employee fee for the billing period. The details included are the paycheque creation date and the employee name(s). The billing system only receives the details of the employees that were paid, and does not include all active employees on the company file. No other information is sent, and Intuit does not have access to any additional information on the company file.  Should you have additional concerns about your company's privacy, click here.

Please don't hesitate to reach out with other questions or concerns.  We would be glad to help!

Thanks for your reply.

We have been charged this additional fee for a few months now.  You mention somehow my desktop sends you a report with the employees name and the date they are paid?   How do I access this report that is being sent without my acknowledgement?  I'd like to see what is going on.  And if my system is supplying this info why does it look like QB has a log in to our system in place?

In a world where data hacks are becoming very prevalent I'm not thrilled that all this info is being accessed without my knowledge.  I see you've included a link to your privacy policies for every piece of software you sell but I can't find the policy that protects my personal and employee data in quickbook desktop.  Please link the specific site.

Thanks,

Karen 

Hello Karen. In order to inquire more about the privacy and access to your account, I recommend reaching out to our support team outside of the public Community. A specialist will be able to assist you by providing info pertaining to your specific account while in a private and secure support environment. You can get in touch by dialing 1-833-317-2226. To find out more about our hours and other contact methods, please follow this link here. In the meantime, feel free to ask other questions. I'm here to steer you in the right direction. 

If you delete an employee's payroll check due to errors is that also transmitted to Intuit?  If we calculate that we have been over charged for employees how do we reconcile with Intuit?

Hi KelbyR,

Thanks for joining us here.  As mentioned above, QuickBooks Payroll fees are calculated per-employee, on each pay run.  After reviewing the payroll details and submitting payroll, the calculations include the per-employee fee for that billing period.  With that being said, deleting a pay cheque after a pay run, will not affect the payroll previously submitted and therefore, does not meet the eligibility criteria for an adjustment towards your payroll service.  If you would like additional details, or wish to voice any other concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to our Customer Care team.  They would be happy to work with you directly and ensure you're on the right track with your payroll goals.

If any other questions come to mind, feel free to reach back out.  We would be happy to assist!

In several instances on this thread you and the rest of the Intuit team mention that the fees are calculated based on each payroll run.  Are you actually charging your monthly fee per paycheck or are you just looking for each unique individual, ignoring the duplicate names on multiple payrolls per month?

Hi KelbyR,

The payroll fees are calculated based on each payroll run.  There is a monthly fee, and an additional per-employee charge.  When setting up employees, you'll receive an error message indicating 'the name already exists'.  This prevents any possibility of duplicate employees, in ensuring your payroll remains accurate.

I hope this helps.  Let us know if you have other concerns.  We are here for you!

No, this doesn't help. This is much worse!  Based on your response the fee per employee isn't $6 per employee per month.  The fee would be $6 per employee, per paycheck. If we have 3 payrolls in a month, that would be $18 per employee that month.

This is not what was advertised at all on the website or by the sales team.  Somebody seriously needs to rein in the advertising and pricing policy!

Since you haven't tried to correct the your previous statement I have no choice, but to assume that we are being charge per paycheck and not per month for employees.

It appears there are problems with this method of determining the number of employees monthly.  I have gone back through my invoices and the number do not match the number of staff I had on at that time.  My business has a core staff and then hires casual employees for a few months every year.  Most casuals are paid bi-weekly and the core staff are on monthly.  First question:  on Intuit's billing is the number of employees listed from the previous month?  E.g. October bill shows 9 employees.  Was this figure determined from September's payroll.  Seems Intuit has a bit of a mess on its hands.  Either way - none of my invoices matched reality.

Hi Linda1066,

Thanks for joining this thread. Based on what you have described, I'd encourage you to contact our customer support team for more details regarding employee fees on your account. You can reach out to our team at 1-833-317-2226 from Monday to Friday between the hours of 9 AM and 8 PM EST. 

Let me know if you have questions, I'll be happy to help.

Answering the question and addressing potential misinformation in the whole from other QuickBooks team members in the whole discussion thread would be much more helpful.

Why is QBO charging per employee fee on top of basic payroll? It makes no sense. 

Why is QBO charging per employee fee on top of basic payroll? It makes no sense. 

Hello susan3rd. Your feedback about the pricing structure is important to us and I'd like to help make sure your voice is heard. The pricing structure helps us invest more into payroll tools that help you get your work done faster. In the meantime, feel free to ask other questions. I'm here to help. 

I am trying to find out how much they charge per employee on each pay run - does anybody know

Hello randy46. To learn more about our payroll pricing, I encourage to check out this link here as it provides the payroll pricing options depending on the payroll package. Feel free to ask other questions. I'm here to help.

For May 2024 we were charged $2.00 per employee.  Our June invoice shows we are now being charged $4.00 per.  We are also charged  $99 per month for QB desktop with 3 users and 50.00 per month for payroll.  WTH,  this is really getting expensive!!!  What is up with the increase QB?  And we have the constant pressure to switch to on-line version.   Anyone have any luck with Simply?  Or is there a new player in this game?  I have been a loyal user since late nineties.  It's probably time to switch.  Ugghhh

I stared getting charged $6/employee per payroll run in May 2024 when my subscription for the desktop version was renewed and reconfigured…I don’t do their online platform.  Now just got notice it’s going up to $7.00/ employee per payroll run October 1,2024.  This is ludicrous..they literally do NOTHING on a payroll run…that’s the point of the desktop version..I do all my own work and we already pay like $700 for Intuit payroll to get the payroll tax updates and some forms and then another $600 something for the desktop version annually (which also goes up year after year).  They have zero output of services to compensate for when I run my own payroll.  There should be a class action lawsuit for this overcharging.

Holy!  Ours went up to $4 per employee in June.  It was at $2 prior to that.  Seems like they just put it up to whatever they like.  How many employees do you have?   We have @ 130 now.  I called them and was told a viable solution was to switch to Enterprise.   It's @ 400 per month but includes unlimited employees and 5 users.  I agreed to it but haven't tried using it yet as I'm afraid of change

I think they want everyone to switch to the on-line version.  For those us who don't want to it, desktop will get really expensive or obsolete.

I can't find anything on the pricing section that says you won't be charged the monthly fee per employee (or paycheck, they can't make up their minds) for using the Enterprise program or Enterprise payroll. So, why they told you Enterprise was a viable option on pricing is puzzling. The monthly fee will be up to $7 by the end of the 2024. We are paying $850 per year for unlimited employees and efile. We lost our legacy payroll because of Intuit's %(&*(#$#@#, but if you call the payroll section you should be able to get an unlimited payroll license.  Be sure to specify that you need electronic filing for W-2s. Each department seems very segregated.

LOL. One employee my wife. Amazing she has not quit.

I use QB Premier Accountant Edition. 

It works for us.

I also us QB Online for 1 company as they chose to go on that. Looks like QB wants to go to Online only. 

What is the name of your company. 132 employees. Please send me a link

It is cheaper to use pay works