Payroll setup: Payroll preferences in QuickBooks Online Payroll

Need to map your chart of accounts, or align your printer to print paycheques? Under payroll preferences you can modify these settings and more:

1. Go to Settings ⚙.
2. Select Payroll Settings.
3. From the Setup Overview screen, you can access other windows to set up the following information:

• Pay policies (including pay schedules and vacation policies)
• Tax Setup (information required to ensure tax payments are captured and applied properly)
• Deductions (set basic information that’s common for all employees, like health insurance and retirement plans)
• Preferences (for accounting and cheque printing selections)

Note: If you set up items like pay policies and deductions here, they will appear as default selections when you set up your employees. You can also set them up when you add employees. You will be asked a series of questions to take you through the process and the choice is yours. If you want to set them up when you add the employee, you can skip those steps in this guide.

4. From the Setup Overview screen, select Accounting under the Company and Account.
5. In the Accounting Preferences screen, assign new accounts to track payroll expenses. If the account you want to use is not listed in the drop-down list, you will need to add it to the Chart of Accounts.
6. Click OK.

For more details, watch our video on setting up payroll.