Bank account created when running payroll

Good day, @Kerri1999.

I'll help you trace where this new account might come from and redirect your transactions to the correct account.

QuickBooks won't automatically create a bank account for you. It could be that someone has created it and access your payroll settings. This can be the reason why your payroll transactions are posted to a different account.

To check, use the audit log to track the activities in your account. This will show you the user's name who created the bank account. Just follow these steps to review your audit trail:

1. Go to Settings and click Audit Log.
2. Select Filter.
3. Use the fields on the Filter panel to choose the appropriate User, Date, or Events filter to narrow the results.
4. Click Apply.

Please take note that you need to sign in as an admin to access the audit log. You can ask your primary admin's permission in case you don’t see it.

If the account was system generated, I'd recommend reaching out to our phone support. This way, they can investigate why the program is still creating this account even though it was already merged.

I'm also including our Help articles for related references in managing your account and transactions. 

Please know that our doors are always open to help you with any QuickBooks-related concerns. Take care and enjoy the day! 

I have access to the audit log. I found "System Administration" under the user who added the account. What would be the username if the system generated the account?

Glad to have you back, @Kerri1999.

Allow me to provide some information about the System Administration showing in the Audit Log.

QuickBooks Online (QBO) creates special users for a few specific situations. And when there's an update to your bank feeds, a System Administration event may appear in the Audit Log. Here's an article you can read for more details: Use the audit log in QuickBooks Online.

Going back to your original concern, QuickBooks doesn't generate accounts automatically unless someone created them. Since this is an unusual issue that needs to be checked, I suggest reaching out to our QuickBooks Support Team. This way, they can look into this matter further and check why QuickBooks creates a new account when you run payroll. They can also provide some troubleshooting steps to get this resolved. To reach them, you can follow the steps below:

1. Sign in to your QuickBooks Online account.
2. Click the Help button.
3. In the QuickBooks Assistance chatbox, select Talk to a human and choose I still need a human.
4. Hit Contact Us.

You can also check out this article for another way of reaching out to our support team and its support hours: QuickBooks Online Support.

Keep in touch if you need any more assistance with this, or there's something else I can do for you. I've got your back. Have a good day.

Raymond, you're wrong. QuickBooks does create a fake bank. 

@anyone elseis correct.
I had recently updated my chart of accounts and edited the name of my bank account. The following payroll in Payroll Settings > Accounting was set to the old name. QB auto-generated this new account in my chart of accounts and put all my payroll transactions there as well as related tax payments. I was able to merge as the original user explained, but recognized that the problem would repeat if a setting wasn't changed. We'll find out next payroll if this edit to the updated account keeps QB from auto-generating the old account in my chart of accounts.

Did merging the two accounts end up solving the problem? I have the same situation on my hands. 

Just wanted to let you know that the information you are providing your customers is incorrect. Quickbooks does in fact create accounts in the chart of accounts relating to payroll specific transactions. 

RedmondO,

I have to believe that you do not know what you are talking about regarding accouts being created by Quickbooks.  You say that "QuickBooks won't automatically create a bank account for you". Well, that is absolutely incorrect.

We just "upgraded" in May (actually forced to change to Quickbooks Online due to agregious price increases impletmented by Intuit) from Quickbooks Desktop 2020.  We have been running payroll through the same bank account in the chart of accounts.  However, low & behold the first payroll run that we did in Quickbooks Online, a new, unnecessary, duplicate, checking account was automatically added to the chart of accounts. Now the payroll checks, which were done direct deposit, cannot be moved to the proper account.

So is there any new "wisom" from Quickbooks Support regarding this issue. @Kerry1999 noted this problem over 2 years ago.  Please advise ?????????

Greetings, @JourneyMT. We appreciate your participation in the Community forum, and the additional information you have provided regarding the bank accounts that QuickBooks creates automatically and how to deposit payroll checks to the proper bank account.

You'll want to review the accounts you've set up in the accounting preferences. This will ensure that the payroll checks you processed are posted to the proper accounts.

Here's how:

1. Click the Gear icon at the top. 
2. Choose Payroll Settings. 
3. Hit the Preferences link at the top.
4. Select Accounting Preferences.
5. Pick the Customize button to edit. 
6. Go to the Bank Account section and choose the correct account in the drop-down menu. 
7. Once done, click OK.
   
   
   

From there, once you've process payroll, it will be taken out based on the account selected. For additional reference, you can check this article on how to set up Payroll account preferences. 

Then, you can now create a bank transfer to move the payroll checks to the correct checking account. To do so, follow the steps below:

1. In the left menu, click the + New button.
2. Select Transfer.
3. From the Transfer Funds From dropdown list, select the bank account that the money is coming from.
4. From the Transfer Funds To dropdown list, select the bank account that the money is going to.
5. In the Transfer Amount field, enter the amount being transferred.
6. Edit the Date field.
7. Enter a description of the transfer in the Memo field (optional).
8. Select Save and close or Save and new to complete the transfer.
9. Choose Yes if you double checked the date.

For more details about the process, see the below article: Transfer funds between accounts.

Once finished, run a payroll report to verify that the figures in your QBO are correct. I also recommend visiting our article on employees and payroll taxes. You may read some of our excellent articles there and get some advice on how to manage your payroll.

Please let me know in the comments below if there's anything else I can do to assist you besides adjusting your payroll settings. I'll be here to offer support. Be safe.

This isn't just payroll for me. It does this with any transaction that QBO generates automatically.  I've had my normal bank account linked to QBO for almost a year now.  Since December, I noticed that when payroll ran, a new bank account was created with the same last 4 digits as my linked bank account and the withdraws are debited from there.  I've also noticed that any tax payments I make are also debited from this phantom account.  I chatted with the helpdesk folks and they fixed it last month only for it to occur again this month. 

I just checked the accounting settings for payroll and sure enough, there is this phantom bank account that the paycheck is being debited from. I'm not sure how it got there or how it was created but I changed it back to my linked bank account. We'll see if this works next month, however, when I pay taxes from the payroll tax center and click the mark as paid button, I double and triple check that I select my linked bank account as the "record to" account, and it still shows up in this phantom account. It's beyond maddening at this point because everything was running smoothly until December.

Hello there, preyes102.

I understand that things have been challenging for you as payroll expenses and tax payments were deducted from an unknown bank account. I can also see how important it is to post your transactions to the correct one. I'll provide additional details on how accounts work in QuickBooks and ensure someone helps further with this to fix it efficiently.

Please know that QBO automatically sets up a few of the same standard accounts in the chart of accounts based on your business entity. However, you can tailor it to your business by adding additional accounts. It could be an authorized user who created it, then accessed your payroll settings and managed your tax transactions. To verify this, I recommend visiting your Audit log page. From there, you'll see the list of the company's activities, the changes made, and who made them. 

Here's how:

1. Click the Gear icon in the upper right corner.
2. Select Audit Log.
3. Select the Filter panel to filter User, Date, or Events and narrow the results.
4. Hit Apply.

For additional information, you can click this article: Use the audit log in QuickBooks Online.

Once confirmed that the issue isn't from user activities, I suggest reaching out to the QuickBooks Payroll Support Team once more. They're the best support group for such inquiries as they can request account information. They can also look into the root cause of your payroll and tax entries being posted to the wrong account.

In case you need steps on how to run several payroll reports in QBO that you can use to view useful info about your business and employees: Run payroll reports.

Don't hesitate to tag me in your reply if you have other concerns or questions about your payroll or tax payments in QBO. I'm always here to back you up at any time, preyes102. Take care.