Thanks for joining the thread, @IPM2511.

To have the Worksheet 1 populate when opening Form 941, you should claim a credit under the Family First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). Also, ensure if these payroll items are set up correctly, including their tax tracking type in the system. 

To verify payroll items, check out this article: How to track paid leave and sick time for the coronavirus.

You may also see below links from the US Department of Treasury to know more about the Employee Retention Credit:

• How to calculate the Employee Retention Credit 
• Employee Retention Tax Credit 

Let me know in the comment section if you have further questions. I'm always here for you. Have a nice day.

THANK YOU !!!    Your instructions were very clear & very helpful.     Too bad this Intuit issue took hours to deal with, and I share others' frustration for them not offering a way to just override fields on the Form 941.  It's not worth going back & re-creating a bunch of payroll checks that were already paid way before the 941 issue came to light months later.   I see no reason that we NEED to reflect the Employee Retention Credit in the payroll records, if we are using other means to keep track of each employee's $10,000 wage/health insurance annual limit of qualified pay.

Not sure how the work-arounds I did for the 2nd quarter & now the 3rd quarter will affect the W-2's at year-end, if at all, but hopefully there will be a reasonable work-around for them, too, if really needed.

THANK YOU !!!!

So all the BS from intuit is a waste of time.  The easy solution I found was to set up the retention credit addition like they say.  Then go to 1 single paycheck in the quarter you are working on and add it for $.01, reduce your wage/salary by $.01 so the net paycheck remains the same and all other payroll tracking (work comp. etc.) is unaffected.  When you do the 941 the worksheet 1 pops up (with the $.01) and you override line 3a and the rest of the form populates.  You'll need to figure out the correct wages to use and whether they qualify based on gross income reduction outside of slow books.  One penny on one paycheck and it works just fine, how hard was that?

Thanks for the advice, unfortunatly the override doesn't work. When is worksheet 1 going to be available?

I'll ensure you're able to see Worksheet 1 in your 941 form, @ahncpa54.

First, you'll need to update your payroll tax table to ensure Worksheet 1 will populate. 

Then, you'll have to claim a credit under the Family First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) act. Also, make sure to set up your payroll items correctly as mentioned by my peers above.

In your case, it looks like you've already performed the said steps. Thus, I'd recommend contacting our support team. They have additional tools to check why Worksheet 1 won't populate in your 941 form.

Before diving in, please review our support hours guide to ensure they can assist you on time.

Also, please note that we've made some changes to our support options for QuickBooks Desktop. Our representatives are available through chat or messaging to accommodate all our customers' concerns effectively. 

Here's how to contact them:

1. Open your QuickBooks, and then click the Help menu.
2. Select QuickBooks Desktop Help.
3. On the pop-up screen, choose Contact us.
   
4. Click Search for Something else.
5. Enter your concern on the Tell us more about your question box, like "Worksheet 1 won't populate in my 941 form."
   
6. Click the Search button, and then select the Start a Message button.
7. Fill out the needed info, and then click Submit.
   

After resolving the said issue, you can now file your 941 forms to stay compliant. After that, you can view and print them to keep a copy.

You can tag me in the comment section if you have more payroll concerns. I'll be around to extend a helping hand.

@ChristopherHSM THANK YOU so much for this post! I just followed your steps and was able to override the fields in Worksheet 1. It worked perfectly.

Can't thank you enough.

Victoria 

THANK YOU for posting this work-around! It worked perfectly. Really appreciate it.

Victoria

GREAT workaround, however, we shouldn't have to do a work around at all.  Intuit needs to fix this.

When will it be updated to 70%

The increase to 70% is for 2021.   Q4 for 2020 is still 50%.

Maybe I'm to old to do all that workaround, although I remember trying in Qtr 3, but I have done overrides for a number of years.  It really frustrates me that Quickbooks ignores all of our requests to allow this.  Have had ProSeries Tax programs forever and overides are used constantly.  It's like this Qbooks people think they're smarter than us practitioners so it's their way or the highway.  I will seriously consider leaving Qbooks payroll when mine expires. There is no way it will get better with 2021 ERC and there is no way their program can handle new PPP interplay with ERC and the non-eligibility of forgiveness wages for the credit. But we can figure it out with our excel worksheets.  Just open the door and allow the overrides and availability of using Worksheet 1.

The problem with your thinking is that not all employers will have COVID pays and with the new legislation, they can now claim the ERC along with PPP Loan advances, however, you will not know if they qualify for the ERC until the end of a quarter. If they qualify, your system does not allow the credit to be calculated the way it is right now. We should be able to enter an amount on page 3, Line 21 of Form 941 to have Worksheet 1 opened and populated with Steps 1 and 3 without having a Form 7200 or Covid pays entered. When will this be fixed, as this will continue through 1st and 2nd Quarter of 2021?

Leoma Brehmer

CPA Consulting Group LLP

Same issue with all COVID credits.  Trying to get a clients payroll to populate for the National paid sick and family leave.  Entered all the codes and set-up in the actual paychecks which date back to q3.  All worked fine but when I pull up q4 941 there is NO WORKSHEET 1.  Very fruastrating as I held up this client's 941 so they could get the credit faster.  What is strange other clients 941 did ;include the worksheet 1.  I've tried updating the file, download payroll updates and nothing.

I will say I've heard many payroll companies (even some of the larger one's) are really screwing this up.  Back in the Spring I tried to file a form 7200 for a client to get an ERTC advance and the payroll company freaked.  Said it would screw up their books!

I believe I know why the worksheet 1  of 941 won't populate.  It is for the 4th quarter and all my clients but 1 have backdated credits which the IRS stated could be added to the 4th qtr 2020 since too late to file form 7200.   However, since there is no override on QB 941 the previous quarter amounts can't be added.  I guess the alternative is to paper file OR wait and file a 941x later.  Was trying to avoid the 941 X as those can be a royal pain and I dislike to paper mail anything.  Also, 941X adjustments take awhile to complete so the clients will need to wait much longer for the credit refund to be processed.

I've just spent 3 hours on the phone with Intuit with them trying to set up all sorts of stuff in my payroll but still can't get it to work to automatically calculate the ERTC. They can't even make it work properly. It would be SOOOOOOOO much easier if I could just override line 13d on page 2 of the 941. Even if they figure out how to get my payroll set up for ERTC calculations in the future how do I fix the paychecks already done in 2021?  The absolute easiest way to handle this is a simple one line entry on the quarterly 941 - WHY CAN'T WE OVERRIDE THIS?

Let's ensure that you set up the items correctly, reliablemichele.

I'll show you how to review your payroll items: 

1. Go to the Employees menu.
2. Choose Manage Payroll Items.
3. Double-click on the first retention credit payroll item.
4. Look into the tax tracking type. 

Feel free to use this link that will further guide you in checking your payroll items and set them up correctly: How to set up and track the Employee Retention Credit under the CARES Act.

After you've checked the payroll items needed in tracking employee credits, you can edit or delete and recreate the existing paychecks so the updates will automatically flow to the payroll forms. 

I'd still highly suggest reaching out to our Phone Support Team to help you with correcting created paychecks. 

Keep me posted on how this works. Take care!

I have been trying find the worksheet on Quickbooks online. Is it available

Hi @Jackkk.

Your state may not be supported for Electronic services. We can figure it out by checking the E-services offered by states table. Find your state from there and check if it's supported for electronic tax payments and form filings.

If you've found out that your state is supported E-services, you should have seen the worksheet in your QuickBooks Online account. To guide you further, you can go to Taxes on the left panel. Then, click Quarterly Forms in the Forms section.

For additional information about it and running payroll reports soon, you can check these articles:

• File quarterly tax forms.
• List of payroll reports.

Let me know if you have other questions with QuickBooks Online. Always take and stay safe!

I have the employee's wages set up properly per Quickbooks instructions but the 941 form is still incorrect for calculating the ERTC refund amount.

According to the IRS, the ERTC is 70% of wages up to $10,000 for first and second quarters for each employee. So for the 1Q21 941 form, the max for each employee for the ERTC refund should be $7000. Quickbooks is calculating the credit as 70% of wages, but it's missing the $10,000 cap per employee. So for my 3 employees the ERTC should be $21,000 ($7000 x 3), but Quickbooks is showing it as over $25,000.

I've called Quickbooks three times in the past two weeks and this has not been resolved yet. We desperately want to file our 941 to get the refund as soon as possible, but can't until this is resolved.

HELP! I can't possibly be the only person who has this problem!

I have the ERTC set up properly per Quickbooks instructions and have recorded wages that way. But the problem is the 941 is not calculating the ERTC properly for the refund amount.

Per IRS guidelines the ERTC is capped at $7,000 per employee per quarter. Quickbooks is calculating 70% of wages but ignoring this cap, so for my 3 employees the 941 for 1Q21 shows over $25,000 in ERTC refund, which is wrong.

I've called Quickbooks multiples times in the past couple of weeks to discuss this but it has not yet been resolved - case [removed].

I want to file my 941 asap so we can get our $21,000 refund, but I'm being delayed because you guys haven't addressed the fix for this. Every time I call someone assures me they will get it resolved and call me back but then I never hear from you again.

HELP - this is really poor support!

Hi @reliablemichele,

I hear what you're saying, and I'd want to submit my 941s at the earliest time I can as well. 

Given that the issue at hand requires an exchange of account information and the Community is a public forum, I suggest you contact our Technical Support team for assistance. I understand that you've contacted them before, but they are the ones who can pull up your account information within a secure environment. They're also the ones who can provide you a resolution for this issue.

See this article for the steps: Contact Payroll Support. Kindly take note of our Technical Support team's operating hours, so you know when they're available. 

In case you need to move your Social Security tax payments to a later date, check out this article for the steps: Track your deferral payments for Social Security tax payments. There are brief descriptions of how this tax deferral works, along with the steps on how you can set it up in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT). 

Know that we always have your back here in the Community. Post a reply below if you have other concerns about your payroll in QBDT, and I'll get back to you. 

I have updated and done all of these steps. Still sadly no Worksheet 1. Where is it supposed to appear? I presume at the end of the 941. Am I looking in the wrong place? This might be the most frustrating thing I have ever done. I am ready to use a IRS fil in form.

I was finally able to resolve the 941 issues - when I went all the way through the 941 form, the worksheet was at the end, and it allowed me to override the line item asking for the amount of wages that are eligible for the ERTC credit such that I could limit it to the $10,000 per employee IRS cap for the ERTC. Hope that helps you too!