Help has arrived, @kpovolny.
Let me provide you with how health insurance items work in QuickBooks Desktop.
Yes, QBDT allows you to set up pre-tax health insurance deduction items. Once you're ready, here are the steps on how to do so:
- Go to the Lists menu, then Payroll Item List.
- Click the Payroll Item ▼ dropdown, then tick New.
- Select Custom Setup, then click Next.
- Choose Deduction, then Next.
- Enter the item name, such as medical, vision, or dental, and select Next.
- Choose the name of the agency to which liability is paid (or add it) and the account number. Then select Next.
- Set the Tax Tracking Type to Premium Only/125 (for pre-tax) and None (for after-tax).
- Hit Next three times.
- Leave the default rate and limit fields blank. You can add the rate and limit when the item is added to the employee profile.
- Tick Finish once done.
If you want to add the item to the employee's profile, you can follow the next steps in this article: Set up and manage payroll items for your insurance benefit plan.
In case you need to run various reports to track insurance benefit plans for your employees, check out this handy guide: Create a payroll summary report in QuickBooks.
If you still have trouble setting up payroll items in QBDT, please let me know, and I’ll do everything I can to help here in the Community.
