Troubleshoot your Auto Payroll in QuickBooks Online Payroll

Learn how to troubleshoot auto payroll issues in QuickBooks Online Payroll.

To use auto payroll, make sure your employee and tax setup is complete, and you’ve run your first payroll. If you’ve done that and auto payroll still isn’t working, here’s a few things to check.

Unable to enroll or turn off auto payroll for an employee

Only Primary admin users can set up and assign auto payroll. Make sure you’re signed in to QuickBooks Online as the Primary admin.

Employee is ineligible

Your employee may be ineligible due to the following reasons:

• Employee’s pay setup has no default hours set.
• The employee is a commission-only employee.
• Employee isn't active or is a 1099 contractor.

To set default hours:

1. Go to Payroll, then Employees (Take me there)
2. Select your employee.
3. From Pay types, select Start or Edit.
4. Enter the Hours per day and Days per week.
5. Select Save.

Employee is commission-only or a 1099 contractor

Only hourly or salaried T4 employees are eligible for Auto Payroll. You’ll need to pay commission-only or 1099 contractors manually.