Set up and manage payroll schedules for QuickBooks Desktop Payroll

Overview

As a business owner, managing payroll schedules can seem like a daunting task. Fortunately, QuickBooks Desktop 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 new payroll schedule
• Assign a payroll schedule to an employee
• Manage payroll schedules
• Deactivate a payroll schedule

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 new payroll schedule

1. Go to Employees and select Payroll Centre.
2. Select the Pay Employees tab.
3. From the Payroll Schedules drop-down menu, select New.
4. In the What do you want to name this payroll schedule? field, give a descriptive name to the schedule.
5. In the How often will you pay your employees on this schedule? field, select how often you want to pay your employees.
6. In the What is the pay period end date? field, select the time period you are paying your employees for.
7. In the What date should appear on pay cheques for this pay period? field, select the day you want the cheques to go out.
8. After you are done adding the details, select OK.

Assign a payroll schedule to an employee

1. Go to Employees and select Employee Centre.
2. Double-click the employee's name.
3. Select the Payroll Info tab.
4. Select the Payroll Schedule drop-down.
5. Select the payroll schedule that you wish to assign to this employee.

Manage payroll schedules

Note: If you change the dates from the Enter Payroll Information window, the changes only affect the current pay period. They won't affect the next upcoming pay period dates. You can see your pay schedule on the Payroll Centre's Pay Employees tab.

If you want to update all upcoming payroll schedules, edit or update it from the Edit Payroll Schedule window:

1. Go to the Employees menu, then select Payroll Centre.
2. Under the Create Pay Cheques table, select the payroll schedule you want to update.
3. From the Payroll Schedules drop-down menu, select Edit Schedule.
4. Make the necessary updates in the Edit Payroll Schedule window.
5. Select OK.

Next time you go to the Transactions tab in the Employee Centre and select Pay Cheques, you'll see the new payroll periods based on the updated pay schedule. QuickBooks will adjust your employees' compensation and taxes to calculate for the new payroll period.

Deactivate a payroll schedule

Instead of deleting a payroll schedule, you can make it inactive. This way, you can always make it active again if you need to do so without setting up a new payroll schedule. To deactivate a pay schedule:

1. Go to Employees and select Payroll Centre.
2. Under the Create Paycheques table, select the payroll schedule you want to update.
3. From the Payroll Schedules drop-down, select Edit Schedule.
4. Mark Schedule is inactive, then select OK.

If you decide you want to completely delete a payroll, there are 2 steps. First, remove any employees who are on the payroll schedule you want to delete:

1. Go to the Employees and select Payroll Centre.
2. Double-click the employee's name.
3. Go to the Payroll Info tab.
4. Make sure the schedule in the Payroll Schedule field isn't the one you need to delete. If it is, select another payroll schedule for the employee, or clear the field.
5. Follow these steps to check the payroll schedule for all your employees.

Next, delete the payroll schedule.

1. Go to the Employees menu, then select Payroll Centre.
2. Go to the Pay Employees tab.
3. Under the Create Pay Cheques table, select the payroll schedule that you want to delete.
4. From the Payroll Schedules drop-down, select Delete Schedule. If you see a prompt saying you can’t delete or inactivate a schedule, you still have employees on it. Follow Step 1 to check all of your employees.
5. Select OK.