401k Liability Discrepancy

You've reached the right place for help, tracemetals.

I'll make sure you'll be able to fix the discrepancies on your 401K liability in QuickBooks Desktop.

Overpayment can be corrected by creating a liability adjustment. To start, I suggest you pull up a payroll report to view all outstanding balances that need to be adjusted such as the Payroll Liability Balances report.

Here's how to pull it up:

1. Go to the Reports menu.
2. Choose Employees & Payroll.
3. Select Payroll Liability Balances.

You may also change the date and customize the report by adding the filter by item to show 401k amounts only.

Once you've reviewed and figured out the needed adjustment. you can follow the steps in this article to start making adjustments: Adjust payroll liabilities in QuickBooks Desktop.

You might also want to visit our help page to browse articles that can guide you with your QuickBooks tasks. To get started head to our QBDT help articles at this link.

I'm just a post away if you have any additional questions about doing the liability adjustment or anything about QuickBooks. I'm more than willing to help. Have a great day!

Good morning,

Thank you for your reply, but I'm not sure you even read my question. It is not how do I make a liability adjustment, but how do I fix the discrepancy in the first place. If you even looked at the document that I attached you would see what is going on. I will make an adjustment after the originating issue is fixed, otherwise I'll be making an adjustment every week.

Doe anyone have a helpful suggestion?

I appreciate your efforts in trying to fix the discrepancies on your 401K Liability report, @tracemetals.

Let me share some insights on why Payroll and Liability reports don't match.

If taxes or payments are overpaid or underpaid, QuickBooks will auto-correct them. That's why the Payroll and Liability report, as well as the details on the Liabilities screen, may not always match.

To remove negative balances caused by deposits made through Make Deposit, do the following:

1. Proceed to the deposit made under 'Make Deposits' in QuickBooks Desktop, copy the details, and then delete it.
2. Recreate the deposit using Deposit Refund of Liabilities with the same deposit date. For directions, see Record a payroll liability refund check. If the report shows any unpaid liabilities (positive amounts), they must be paid using Pay Scheduled Liability or Custom Liability Payment.
3. Correct liability payments made in Write Checks instead of Pay Liabilities if you selected Write Check or Bill Pay to make payments.
4. Adjust payroll liabilities for further information on clearing non-payable obligations or payroll liabilities not paid to a third party, such as personal use of a business automobile or taxable group term life insurance.
5. If you need to modify payroll liability to zero out the amount, choose Company Adjustment as your alternative to avoid affecting the year-to-date payroll data of your employees.

For more information about the fixes, see this helpful guide: Payroll Liability and/or Balance Sheet Report shows incorrect amounts for payroll liabilities.

Please keep in touch by replying to the thread. You can always count on us, we're here to back you up. Keep safe and have a good one!

I must not be making myself clear. There are no deposits, so I have no idea why you even replied with those instructions.

I'll try to break it down. Here are my steps on payday:

1. Run payroll and print checks

2. Run Payroll Summary Report   -   here all withdrawals and contributions are correct

3. Send this information to our 401k provider  (among other steps that are not relevant to my issue)

4. Based on this (correct) information, I make the payment through their portal

5. Go back to QuickBooks - Pay Liabilities - select the 401k liabilities -View/Pay

6. QuickBooks pulls up that "check" and THESE AMOUNTS ARE INCORRECT AND NEVER HAVE BEEN

7. I change the amounts to the correct ones - this is where my discrepancy ends up, not where it started

I'm here to help you figure this out, tracemetals.

It could be that the payroll item isn't properly set up. This could be the reason for the discrepancy.

You'll want to review to double-check and ensure the setup. I'll show you how:

1. Go to Lists > Payroll Item List.
2. At the lower left of the Payroll Item List, click Payroll Item, and click New.
3. Select EZ Setup and click Next.
4. Follow the onscreen instructions. Note: If you have an employee who has a local income tax that is not reduced by retirement benefits such as 401(k), you will need to deselect that local tax item in the Taxes window of the payroll item set up. Also, there are help topics to assist you on the right side of each screen.
5. After you create a payroll item, edit the payroll item to make sure all necessary vendor information has been entered.

To learn more about this process, here's an article for reference: Set up a payroll item retirement benefits (401k), Simple IRA, etc.)

If everything is set, yet you're still getting the same results, I suggest reaching out to our Payroll Support team to have this better checked and help you from there.

You can always get back to the Community if you have any other concerns.

Thank you for that. I have already checked and both payroll items are correct. I probably should have said that in my original post. I have done everything I could think of before coming here. 

1. Checked payroll items in lists

2. Checked that the dollar amounts, for both deductions and contributions, is correct. I went through every paystub and checked that total against the total in the Payroll Summary report. I also went through each employee to make sure that the deduction was correct there (even though it was showing correct in all other reports)

3. Checked for updates (even though we are set up for automatic updates)

Why is the total correct in every payroll report I can run, and not correct in the "check" when I pay liabilities?

Thank you for your prompt reply, @tracemetals.

I appreciate you for considering all the resolutions that my colleagues provided above. Also, we will take note of the details that you posted here. This way, it will help us determine how we can further assist you.

On the other hand, to check on why your payroll report isn't matching in check when paying liabilities. I suggest you contact our Technical Support Team. Our phone representative has tools that pull up your account in a secure environment. 

Also, reaching out to them will give you an option to share your screen so that they can look into every detail that might cause the discrepancies.

Here’s how to get in touch with them:

1. Open QuickBooks.
2. Go to the Help menu at the top.
3. Select QuickBooks Desktop Help.
4. Type Contact Us in the search box. Then, click on Contact Us at the bottom.
5. Select the way you wish to connect with support.

Kindly review their business hours to know when agents are available. This way, you can contact them at a time that is convenient for you.

Keep me posted if there's anything else that I can assist you with payroll. The Community always has your back. Have a great day!