Can I enter negative hours for a specific pay type in payroll entry?

Thanks for checking this with us, @dave156,

At the moment, QuickBooks does not allow adding negative hours into the employees paycheck. The system uses these hours to calculate the employees compensation for the payroll run.

Instead, you only need to input the actual hours worked by the employee to get the correct YTD amount. Otherwise, if you need to deduct an amount from their pay, set up a deduction item for it.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Workers or Payroll menu, then select Employees.
2. Click the employee's name.
3. Tap the pencil icon in the Pay section. Scroll down on the deductions section, then select +Add deductions.
4. Choose Deduction/contribution.
   
5. Enter the details of the deduction then click OK.

To learn more about this, see the following links about the supported pay types in QBO: Add or change pay types.

Let me know if you have any more questions about this. I'll be right here to guide you with your payroll processing. Have a nice day!

OK. I understand QB will not allow negative hours. As an alternative, is it possible to enter a negative pay amount on a specific pay type in payroll entry? The gross pay amount for the employee would be a positive number. I just need a way to allocate costs between different pay types. For example, on payroll entry:

Pay type 1 = 100.00

Pay type 2 = (50.00)

Pay type 3 = 50.00

Total gross pay for employee = 100.00

Will QB accomodate this?

Thanks for keeping in touch with us here, @dave156.
 

The only way to reduce paycheck wages is to deduct the number of hours you overpaid to the next payroll run. Otherwise, you can follow the steps provided above by my colleague to create a miscellaneous deduction to change the gross wage amount using non-taxable deduction. I'd suggest reaching out to our Customer Care Team to help you with the tax adjustments. They can run a remote-viewing session to walk you through the steps. 

Here's how:

1. Click the (?) Help icon in the upper right-hand corner of the Dashboard.
2. Select Talk to a Human.
3. Enter a short description of your concern and press Enter.
4. Click I still need a human.
5. Select Contact Us to connect with our live support.
6. Choose Get a callback.
   

To ensure we address your concern, our representatives are available from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM on weekdays and 6:00 AM - 3:00 PM on Saturdays, PST. For more information, check out our support hours and types.  

Here are some articles that you can refer about to dealing with payroll issues in QuickBooks Online:

• Resolve payroll problems.
• Pay a regular paycheck.
• Reduce paycheck wages for an employee who has been overpaid.
• Employee was overpaid or underpaid.

Keep in touch if you need more help with this, I want to make sure you're taken care of. Thanks for reaching out, wishing you all the best.

Hi,

Any way Quickbooks configuration team could allow negative hours. I would like to keep track of hours in the bank and be able to deduct those hours when they are taking...

Hi there, jblai011.

Thanks for bringing your question forward here in the Community. I'd be glad to point you in the right direction about employee hours in QuickBooks Online.

As you may have already found, there isn't currently a way to enter negative hours for your employees within QuickBooks Online Payroll. However, I do see how having that ability could be useful and I recommend sending a message to the Product Development Team. This can be done directly through your account. Here's how:

1. Click the Gear icon in the top right corner.

2. Select Feedback.

3. Enter your suggestion in the panel that appears and then send the message.

You can check the Firm of the Future site for these types of product updates and feature releases. If you have any other questions or concerns in the mean time please don't hesitate to reach back out.

For others who find this post looking to do something similar (like I did)... Assuming you still can't add negative hours or compensation amounts to correct for past payroll runs.. I believe you need to request a "payroll correction" from QBO support. We've had to do this a couple times due to issues caused by QBO payroll (which is why we're switching to Gusto soon).

To request a payroll correction:

1. Call into QBO Support - wait on hold, speak to someone who takes 30 minutes to find out how to do what you're needing.
2. Support will eventually tell you they've submitted a correction to another department, and you'll get an email confirmation.
3. You should get an email confirmation. Sometimes it's less than 24 hours, sometimes several days. That email will be a generic message about receiving your payroll correction request.
4. Wait the "20-30 days" for them to work on the payroll correction.
5. If you provided enough info originally, and they're able to fix it, they will. Otherwise, they'll have questions and you'll need to work through that.

Our first one took 6 months to correct. I'm told other large payroll providers have much better processes for dealing with things like this.