Set up and manage schedules for QuickBooks Online Payroll

Overview

As a business owner, managing payroll schedules can seem like a daunting task. Fortunately, QuickBooks Online Payroll provide an easy-to-use payroll feature that simplifies the process. This article guides you through the steps of setting up and managing payroll schedules.

By following these steps, you can help ensure your employees are paid accurately and on time. Keeping your payroll schedules up-to-date can help avoid any issues with payroll processing.

In this article, you'll learn how to:

• Set up a payroll schedule
• Create a new pay schedule
• Update a payroll schedule
• Delete a payroll schedule
• Additional tips

Payroll schedule options

• Weekly: Pay your employees every week on a specific, recurring day of the week. Many businesses schedule paydays every Friday, which makes 52 payouts per year.
• Every other week or Bi-weekly: Pay your employees every 2 weeks. If you schedule payday for every other Friday, you have 26 payouts per year.
• Twice a month or Semi-monthly: Pay your employees twice a month. The first pay can be in the middle of the month, and the second is at the end. The most common payouts for this schedule is every 15th and 30th of the month. That makes 24 payouts per year.
• Monthly: Pay your employees once a month on a specific recurring date. This makes 12 payouts a year.

Set up a payroll schedule

1. Go to Payroll and select Employees (Take me there).
2. Select the employee you wish to create a pay schedule for.
3. In the Employment details section, select Edit.
4. From the Pay schedule drop-down, you can select an existing pay schedule or create a new one.

Create a new pay schedule

1. Select + Add pay schedule.
2. Select a Pay frequency from the drop-down.
3. Select the Next payday.
4. Select the End of next pay period.
5. Enter an appropriate Pay schedule name.
6. Optional: Select the Use this pay schedule for employees you add after this one checkbox if you want to apply this pay schedule to the next employees you add.
7. Once you're done, select Save.

Note: You'll be able to change the pay period for each employee from the Employment details page.

Update a payroll schedule

1. On the Employment details page, select the Edit ✎ icon next to the Pay schedule drop-down.
2. Make the required changes.
3. Select Save.

Delete a payroll schedule

You currently can't delete a payroll schedule. You can rename the schedule and add "no longer in use" or something similar to avoid confusion.

Additional tips

• Once a new pay schedule is created, it can be selected for existing and new employees.
• If there are multiple employees using the same pay schedule, update the new pay schedule for each employee, in case you haven't selected the Use this pay schedule for employees you add after this one checkbox.