Data Import in QuickBooks Online Standard Payroll

• You can only import one file with the highest number of employees and it must not contain multiple payroll schedules.

For example, the file needs to contain employees with weekly or monthly schedules, but not both. If you are running both weekly and monthly payroll, select the FPS file with the highest number of employees. You can add the missing employees later.

• During the move to QuickBooks Online, payroll liability and expense accounts should be renamed to be easily identified once imported.

For example, Payroll Expenses could be named Payroll Expenses (imported) and Payroll Liabilities could be named Payroll Liabilities (imported). This ensures QuickBooks Online can create new payroll expense and liability accounts when running your first payroll.

The old payroll accounts can also be renamed in QuickBooks Online after migrating, if you have not done so already, please do this now.

• When you run your first payroll, you will be asked to select a ‘Net Pay’ account.

This is the bank account to which QuickBooks Online Standard Payroll will post the net wage expense for each individual employee. Please set up your bank account before creating your first payroll.

When you have your FPS file ready, you can watch the video below and use the following instructions to import into Standard Payroll.

1. Log in to QuickBooks Online Standard Payroll.
2. Go to Payroll, then select Let's go.
3. When prompted, select Yes, import my data.
4. On the next page, select your previous payroll software, then select Next.
5. Export a Full Payment Submission (FPS) with the highest number of employees. This needs to be in XML format. Note: It's important to ensure you select the most recent FPS with the most amount of employees to ensure that you're able to pick up where you left off with no or limited manual entry.
6. Select Upload file on the next page, then select your exported XML file.
7. On the last page, select Next to start the import. If we're unable to import your file, you'll see a message explaining what action you need to take.
8. Log in to your previous payroll software.
9. Save it somewhere safe, such as your Desktop or My Documents on your computer.

Note: If you're signing into QuickBooks Online for the first time, you can watch this video to learn how to import employee data, post-import tasks (including completely employee data), tax and pension information. 

If you need to set up a pension your provider click here.