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Change your primary principal, payroll admin, or other payroll contact

by Intuit•22• Updated 5 days ago

Learn about the different types of payroll contacts and how to update them in QuickBooks Online Payroll and QuickBooks Desktop Payroll.

Payroll is a big part of running a business, and it's important to keep your payroll contacts up-to-date.

In this article, you'll learn about:

Payroll contacts in QuickBooks Online Payroll
How to change or update the Principal officer
How to change or update the Primary admin
How to change or update the Company admin, Standard user, or Reports only user
How to change or update Payroll contact
Payroll contacts in QuickBooks Desktop Payroll
How to change or update the Primary principal user

Note: Not sure which payroll service you have? Here's how to find your payroll service.

QuickBooks Online Payroll

Payroll contacts in QuickBooks Online Payroll

Here are the different types of payroll contacts and their role in QuickBooks Online Payroll.

User roles for Payroll products	Role in your business	Provides authorization	Discuss/make changes to account	Access to payroll reports
Principal officer	Owner/authorized signer on payroll bank account and auth forms	Yes	Yes	Yes
Primary admin**	Can do everything	Yes	Yes	Yes
Company admin	Can run payroll, add users, and manage payroll info)	No	Yes	Yes
Standard user (all access)	Limited*	No	Limited*	Yes
View company reports	All reports, except the ones with payroll or contact info	No	No	No
Payroll Contact	Receives emails and reminders for payroll	No	No	No

Footnotes:

*Depending on the user settings, this user can or can’t manage users, company info, and subscriptions.

**Primary admin is a role in QuickBooks Online for the main payroll contact. Should there be any changes with the payroll contact, this role must be updated or transferred to someone else.

Select the role you would like to change or update:

Change or update the Principal officer

Go to Settings ⚙, then Payroll settings.
From the Bank accounts section, select Manage payroll principal officer information.
Select Edit ✎ to change your principal officer info.
From the dropdown ▼, choose the reason for the change.
Update your principal officer info, then select Save.

We’ll send you a verification code to double-check the principal changes. Once verified, your changes are applied immediately to your account. We may contact you if we need additional info.

Note: We'll only apply the change to your payroll account. If you need a new principal for your QuickBooks Payments account, you may need a new Quickbooks Payments account.

Change or update the Primary admin

Update the admin’s personal info and sign in credentials

Select the icon of your name’s initial at the top right.
Select Manage your Intuit Account.
You’ll be directed to accounts.intuit.com page.
From there, you can update your personal info.

If you want to update the admin’s personal info only

Go to Settings ⚙ and select Manage user.
From the Action column, select Edit.
You can update the name or email.
Select Save changes, then Update info to confirm.

If you want to transfer the Primary admin role to another payroll contact

If you’re looking to transfer the Primary admin rights to another payroll contact, check out Change the Primary admin user in QuickBooks Online.

Change or update the Company admin, Standard user, or Reports only user

Go to Settings ⚙ and select Manage user.
From the Action column, select Edit.
You can update the name, email, or the role.
Select Save changes, then Update info to confirm.

Change or update Payroll contact

Go to Settings ⚙ and select Payroll settings.
From Contact information, select Edit ✎.
Update your payroll contact info.
Select Save then Done.

QuickBooks Desktop Payroll

Payroll contacts in QuickBooks Desktop Payroll

Here are the different types of payroll contacts and their role in QuickBooks Desktop Payroll.

User roles for Payroll products	Role in your business	Provides authorization	Discuss/make changes to account	Access to payroll report
Primary principal or Principal officer	Owner/authorized signer on payroll bank account, auth forms	Yes	Yes	Yes
Secondary Principal	Owner/authorized signer on payroll bank account, auth forms	Yes	Yes	Yes
Payroll administrator or Primary payroll contact	Primary contact for payroll	Yes	Yes	Yes
Other payroll contact	Ask general questions about QuickBooks	No	No	No

Change or update the Primary principal user

Complete the Primary Principal change form.
Have the current and the new principals sign the request letter. If the current principal isn't available to sign, indicate the name on the letter. Explain the reason for the change.
Get a photocopy of the new principal's government-issued ID.
Contact QuickBooks Desktop payroll support to submit the form, request letter, and ID via Intuit File Exchange.

If you’d like to add a secondary principal:

Complete the Primary Principal change form.
Have the primary and secondary principals sign the request letter. On the letter, state that they’ll add another principal.
Get a photocopy of both primary and secondary principals' government-issued ID.
Contact QuickBooks Desktop payroll support to submit the form, request letter, and ID via Intuit File Exchange.

The principal change takes 3–5 banking days from the date we receive the documents. You’ll get a status email from us.

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