Entering in employee payroll in the QB program without using the payroll service

I can show you how to set up and use payroll without a subscription, Critter-3.

If you'd like to do your payroll manually, you can track it in QuickBooks Desktop. Then, you'll need to calculate and enter payroll taxes and file your tax forms yourself.

To start, let's make sure to update your version of QuickBooks so you get the latest fixes and improvements. You can follow these steps on how to turn on manual payroll without subscription: 

1. Click the Edit menu and select Preferences. 
2. From the left menu, click Payroll & Employees.
3. Select Full Payroll and check the Manual Payroll box.
4. Click Next and then Activate.
5. Select OK to apply the changes and then OK to exit out of the preferences window.

Once done, you can now create the manual payroll. Let me walk you through the steps:

1. Click Help at the top, and then select QuickBooks Help (or press F1 on your keyboard).
2. In the Search field, type manual payroll and press Enter on your keyboard.
3. Select the topic Calculate payroll manually (without a subscription to QuickBooks Payroll).
4. Under Set your company file to use the manual payroll calculations setting, click the manual payroll calculations link.
5. Select Set my company file to use manual calculations link. When your company file is set up for manual payroll computation, QuickBooks inserts a zero amount for each payroll item associated with a tax.
6. Close and reopen QuickBooks Desktop.

You can also see this article to learn more about QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) payroll: Get started with Payroll.

You’re always welcome to post in the Community if you have other questions about payroll in your QBDT software. Take care!