Assigning An Employee's Payroll Costs to Multiple Classes

You’re right, we can only assign a single class per employee, @dbirke. I'll go over how we can work around this so you can organize a way of tracking your payroll costs.

I understand how useful it is to have the option to assign multiple classes to an employee. This way, you’ll be able to track their work and process their paycheck with ease.

You’ll want to share your idea to our product development team by sending feedback. They can then review your suggestion and possibly include it in future updates.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Gear icon.
2. Select Feedback.
3. Enter your comments or product suggestions.
4. Then select Next to submit feedback.

Alternatively, you can consider using a third party app that can handle the function you're looking for. Please know that we’re unable to recommend which ones to use. However, you can compare their features, rating, and read other user’s comments.

For the 3rd party apps that you integrate with QuickBooks, check this page: QuickBooks Apps.

You can also seek additional advice from your accountant. This way, you can avoid any errors and ensure the accuracy of your payroll. 

For additional reference about classes, check out these articles:

• Create and manage classes in QuickBooks Online
• Create and assign employee classes

I'll be available if you require additional assistance with your payroll and QBO. Please leave a response and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Thank you for the response.  My organization is a tiny nonprofit and most third-party apps are too expensive for our budget.  However, if any QBO users out there know of an inexpensive app that adds this functionality, I'd appreciate hearing about it. 

I'd also like to hear from users if they have devised routine journal entries to "divide up" employee payroll costs among the appropriate classes.  I'd prefer not to try to "reinvent the wheel" if someone has already developed a solution using journal entries.

I'd also like to add my voice to the chorus of users who are asking for this functionality to be added to QBO as soon as possible. The use of classes to track expenses in QBO is of little value if the only option available is to "dump" all of an employee's payroll cost into a single class.  That simply does not reflect the reality at my organization (where employees contribute to multiple classes), and I suspect the same is true at most other organizations.  And if payroll expenses (which for most organization comprise a large -- if not the largest -- share of total expenses) cannot be accurately tracked through classes, then the class functionality QBO offers has little "real world" value and makes QBO a far less desirable product.

I assume the same goes for worksites?  I have employees that may work 2 or 3 different work sites within the same pay period.  I have been issuing separate checks for the employees based on where they work.  I would process the first work site for the employee and then go into the employee information and update to the next work site and process the hours for that work site, and so forth.  I thought that would allow me to pull reports based on the worksite to show what payroll costs were related to what work site.  Now I feel frustrated that I have been going through the hassle of processing the payroll this way but still may not have the ability to pull the expense based on the work site!

Hi - 

We are also consulting for a tiny non-profit using QBO and need to allocate our payroll across multiple classes.  The only work around we have been able to devise is using a JE to split the payroll (basically debiting and crediting the same category allocated during payroll and adding the classes).  We would be happy to hear any other work arounds and do hope that QBO addresses soon (might I suggest allowing Payroll transactions to be accessed and split while not allowing the overall totals to be adjusted?)

Thanks

For Quickbooks Desktop I am able to split payroll costs across jobs&classes by populating each employees earnings in the paycheck detail. The key is to not assign employees to a class by person. When running payroll I follow these steps: 

1. Start Scheduled Payroll

2. Open Paycheck Detail

3. Enter each earning Payroll Item with hours, customer: Job and Class. Multiple lines allows you to specify different job/class.

4. Save & Next.

I have 32 employees with several jobs to split each payroll so it is a necessary process & ultimately does not add too much time to payroll process.

For this to work completely, the company preferences in payroll & employees needs to indicate "job costing, class and item tracking for paycheck expenses" and "assign one class per - earnings item"

I am a CPA and am working with a small non-profit.  We were forced to go to QBO as the Desktop package was so expensive and Intuit is essentially forcing everyone to the cloud...even though QBO is not quiet ready for prime time yet.

We were able to use multiple classes in Desktop.  We need that because employees work on several different grants each week.  If we could do it in Desktop...why can't we use it here? 

There needs to be an immediate fix to this.

Our workers compensation is based on classes.  We need the different classes to run a proper report.  I have been making the journal entries to distribute hours to the correct class.  However, my payroll report does not reflect this and that is what is turned into our workers compensation reporting.

Desktop version works beautifully. However, it is not an option for this company.

I found this online - hopefully it will help you out:

I had come into the same problem when we transferred to QuickBooks online in September 2022. So after lots of research and looking online and talking with support, they said the same thing that you can only assign one workers comp code per employee. We have some employees in our shop who use 4-5 different codes depending on the type of work they are doing. This seems to be an issue I've seen people complain about for years. But QB has not tried to resolve it, just suggesting providing feedback to their software team.... Others have had to manually use spreadsheets to separate the time/wages to the correct code, which is very time consuming they complained.

I had to find a way to do this without spending hours separating the time between the 

We use QB Time.I made classes in QBO each class I made was all the codes we use in our shop.  This at least allowed our employees to separate their time by the right code. We still came into the issue of how we would then get the amount of payroll used per code, cause all these classes did was separate the hours by the codes. 

I did as you were asking @rachelleclif  I made a different Pay type for each comp code. And assigned these different pay rates to each employee.  Which seemed to work, but since I'm using QB Time for our timesheets I had to get it to work in QB Time as well. I used the Map Classes in the payroll item mapping tools which allows you to assign pay types to classes. You can get there by: (Under preferences in QB Time, then click payroll item mapping tools, Map overrides, Add Override, then click the class and what pay rates you want to assign per class). Make sure your employees have these pay rates assigned to them otherwise it will not work for them.

Once I did this, it all worked how I needed it to! I know your situation may not be exactly the same, but I figure this may be a good solution for anyone running into this problem who use both QBO & QB Time and have employees who use multiple workers comp codes.

I am running into the same issue. Would you be open to speaking more about how this is going, and what adjustments need to be made, so that we can properly track everything. Please do keep us posted. Thanks so much for your help and look forward to touching base with you soon.

Hi davidhmb,

Thank you for joining the conversation. I can see how useful it is for your to be able to assign multiple payroll costs to different classes. While this isn't a feature at the moment, I'm gonna have to let you send feedback, as well. You can use the same steps that my colleague shared above.

1. Go to the Gear icon.
2. Select Feedback.
3. Enter your comments or product suggestions.
4. Then select Next to submit feedback.

If you have other questions about payroll, please don't hesitate to go back to this thread. Take care and have a good one!

I am having the same problem. I need to know total payroll $ under each class code. I've been asking this for 2 years now.  I wish they'd fix this.

I can see how useful it is for your to be able to assign multiple payroll costs to different classes, kross1.  

Currently, this feature is not available in QuickBooks Online (QBO). However, I suggest that you send us your feedback as it will help us to improve our services and make your experience with QBO even better. Here's what you need to do to submit your request: 

1. Go to the Gear icon.
2. Select Feedback.
3. Enter your comments or product suggestions.
4. Then select Next to submit feedback.

For additional information about classes, you can check out these articles: 

• Create and manage classes in QuickBooks Online
• Create and assign employee classes

We are always here to answer any follow-up questions you have about payroll in QBO. Just leave a comment below, and we'll get back to you. Have a great day!

Yes, I have sent in many requests, and so have other people. We are looking for a way that we can work around this issue. Thanks so much and talk to you soon.

I am a third party bookkeeper with multiple clients who have employees working multiple classes in a work week and sometimes day.  The fact that QBO Time does allow for time tracking and cost by multiple classes for employees and DOES not integrate that information is extremely frustrating.  Furthermore, if you use QBO Payroll, the payroll checks cannot be edited after the fact to add the class breakdown.  QBO Online staff are not trained in QBO Time so getting a solution is often unavailable.  One client recently upgraded their QBO to include QBO payroll and QBO Time based on the advice of QBO help - they were told QBO Time Tracking would break out the wages by class on the profit and loss and allow them to edit the paychecks.    This did not happen and based on what I found there is not a solution to provide the simple task of recording employees wages by the classes those hours were assigned in QBO Time.  The extra cost of having payroll and QBO is adding more time and not the benefit Intuit said he would receive.  Before he would receive the payroll import from the third party payroll processor which allowed him to at least edit the payroll checks.  I continue to research and call Intuit to see if they have a work around or perhaps I am missing something.  Any guidance or direction would be greatly appreciated.  The goal again is to have the employees payroll cost tracked by multiple classes and properly allocated on the profit and loss.  Thank you for your time and suggestion. 

Hi there, davidhmb.

I can see the importance of being able to assign payroll costs to different classes. However, the option to do so isn't an option in QuickBooks Online (QBO), even if you set up different pay types and assign them to multiple classes. It's because you can also assign one class to an employee.

We recognize that each company has unique needs, and I know how the feature you're looking for would benefit and empower your business. Here at Intuit, our goal is to address the needs of every QuickBooks user around the globe and ensure you get the best experience possible. While we continue to make your experience with us even better, in the meantime, I recommend sending this request straight to our product engineers through feedback. It helps us improve the features of the program.

To send feedback, follow the below steps:

1. Go to the Gear icon at the top.
2. Select Feedback.
3. Enter your comments or product suggestions. 
4. Then select Next to submit feedback.

To be updated with the recent and upcoming changes for QuickBooks products, visit this link: QuickBooks New Features and Innovations.

If there's anything else you need help with, please let me know by commenting below. I'm always here to answer any questions you may have. Take care.

Thank you for the response.  Could you explain the reason or ability for QBO Time to even be attached to QBO Online if the reporting does not update the payroll costs by class?  Seeing how the Intuit team are the ones who advised clients to sign up for QBO Time as a solution to showing payroll costs by classes on the profit and loss.  Is this something that can be if he tracks by projects?  I will submit a request to the engineers however seeking a solution or work around now.  Thank you.  

For a long-term solution, your idea of submitting a feature request to our engineering team is indeed valuable, Twocan.

Currently, QuickBooks Online (QBO) Payroll integrates with QuickBooks Time mainly for tracking hours, and there is a limitation pertaining to class tracking.

Regarding your question about project tracking as a potential solution, tracking by projects does facilitate better job costing, as it allows you to assign time worked to specific projects. However, it may not fully resolve the issue if you're looking to break it down by class in the Profit and Loss (P&L) report. For now, I suggest exporting Payroll Cost and P&L reports outside of QBO and manually manipulate data from there. 

To further check available workarounds that might work for you, let me add this link: QBO Payroll other resources.

You're always welcome in the Community should you have further questions about QBO Payroll-related concerns. We'll do our best to assist. Take care.