How do I create an active employee if it says the SSN is in already in use by another employee but there are no active employees and inactive generates an error?

If I try to show inactive (or all) employees, I get the message:

We're having some trouble on our end.

Give us a few minutes and come back.

... even if I come back later.

I can help you create a new employee, briank5. 

We can look into the inactive employees if there are SSN that is similar to the new one you'll be creating. Then, we can edit the SSN to a different one. I'll show you how: 

1. Go to the Payroll or Workers menu and click Employees. 
2. From the selection drop-down, select on Inactive Employees. 
3. Click on an employee's name. Then, click the pencil icon under the Pay section. 
4. Go step 5 under the employee's withholding, click the pencil icon so you can edit the Social Security Number into a different one.
5. Click Done and then Done.

After that, we'll enter the SSN of the new employee. If you get the same thing, stored cache files might have caused unexpected behavior and error. We can verify that by logging into a private browser since they don't store cache files. Then, enter the new employee and see if you still get the error. If everything looks fine, we can refresh the system by going back to the main browser and clearing its cache. You can also use other supported browsers like Google Chrome Internet Explorer, or Mozilla Firefox that can help us get rid of the behavior. 

Keep me posted on how this works. You take always and have a nice day!

Hi Catherine. QBO will not allow me to follow the procedure you suggest. Selecting Inactive Employees generates the following error:

I have tried coming back later, logging out, clearing the cache, and logging in from an anonymous session and nothing helps.

I appreciate you performing some troubleshooting steps to resolve the error, briank5.

At this time, I'd recommend reaching out to our Phone Support team. An agent can do a screen share with you so this will be further investigated. 

Here's how to contact them:

1. Click the Gear icon, and then click Contact Us.
2. Enter I've got an error when trying to modify my employee's SSN.
3. Click Let's talk.
4. Select either Start Messaging or Get a callback.

Once everything's fine, let's try editing your employee's SSN again. Feel free to follow the steps shared by Catherine_B.

Don't hesitate to get back to me if you still need help. Keep safe!