I want to Opt out of the Workforce completely.. How do you do this?

Welcome and thank you for posting here in the Community, @BLL1.

I'd like to share what I know about workforce access and make you will not be charged. 

You can't opt out workforce. To ensure you will not be using the workforce, I suggest do not invite an employee. 

The workforce is a free feature. As long as you don't invite an employee, then you are not using the workforce. There is no need to cancel this feature. 

Also, refer to this article to know more about what you can do with the workforce: QuickBooks Workforce. 

Click the Reply button if you have any other questions about the workforce. I'm more than happy to help. Have a great day!

We just received an email stating that my employees would be automatically invited. How can I opt out?

You indicated that since there is no option to opt out of Workforce to just not invite employees.  In the email I received from QuickBooks, it states the following I have copied and pasted from that email:

Do I need to do anything else?
No. We'll send invites to employees automatically and tell them everything they need to know.

How do I make sure QuickBooks does not send these automatic invites to my employees?

Hello there, @ToniK and @CC65.

Allow me to provide additional information about opting out of QuickBooks Workforce.

As mentioned by my colleague LollyNino_C above, you can choose not to invite your employees if you don't want to use the Workforce feature. However, if your employees received an email invitation, you can inform them to ignore it.

In addition, you might want to run and customize payroll reports in QuickBooks Online. This helps you view valuable information about your business and employees.

I'm always here to listen if you need further assistance managing your employee. Have a good one.

I am also wanting to OPT OUT of Workforce - and their invites.  Perhaps QB/Intuit will add that option with enough interest?!

Thank you all for your Q & A's.

I also want to opt out!

I don't use online payroll and don't provide electronic payments for my employees. I don't need this service. 

Not a good enough answer. Accountants and bookkeepers who purchase your product should have the ability to opt out of workforce or turn off your ability to invite employees to mess with the program. A better idea is for intuit to automatically send a new W2 electronically to the employee for them to then automatically return to the bookkeeper. Where, we, the bookkeeper and owner of the license, make the necessary changes.

We want to opt out of Workforce. We run our payroll on a standalone desktop, we do not use online payroll, we do not do direct deposits and do NOT want our employees logging in to our system to play with their information.

The fact that you are taking away our option to control the security and privacy of this data has me questioning what is Quickbooks getting out of this deal and how much are you going to reimburse us, when the data is stolen or compromised by a third party.

Just how much information is Quickbooks sharing with others and how does Workforce obtain this information?

We want to opt out of Workforce. We run our payroll on a standalone desktop, we do not use online payroll, we do not do direct deposits and do NOT want our employees logging in to our system to play with their information.

The fact that you are taking away our option to control the security and privacy of this data has me questioning what is Quickbooks getting out of this deal and how much are you going to reimburse us, when the data is stolen or compromised by a third party.

Just how much information is Quickbooks sharing with others and how does Workforce obtain this information?

To Lolly and Mark,

**You obviously don't know what the email we all received says...here is part of it:

To save you time and give your employees electronic access to their pay info, we'll be turning Workforce on automatically to give employees greater access to their pay, banking, and employment info. We expect to begin inviting employees to Workforce on or around September 20, 2021.

What has changed?
Instead of you having to manually invite employees to Workforce, we'll automatically invite employees to create a Workforce account. We'll invite employees using their contact information from QuickBooks Payroll. We'll start inviting current employees who are set to active and getting paid, and when you add new employees, they'll be invited automatically.

This change will allow employees to view, edit, and manage their personal, banking, and payroll withholding information, keep on top of their pay details, and access important documents like paystubs or W-2s. There's no additional cost for you or your employees to use Workforce.

**You have in a few hours many people that do NOT want to participate in this.  I actually find it offensive that Quickbooks would automatically do anything having to do with MY EMPLOYEES that you have no right to contact, in any fashion.  I do not need any employee to have an 'account and make any changes' of things that are management responsibility. 

Neither Lolly nor you answered my question or addressed the email that was sent out (above).

You better re-consider this asap Quickbooks - DO NOT SEND MY EMPLOYEES ANYTHING. They do not

need an account.  I need a reply and an assurance that QB will not follow thru as your email suggests.

BLL

Hi, BLL1. 

Thanks for bringing this to our attention, and this is not the kind of thing we want you to experience while using QuickBooks.  

Though, QuickBooks Online employer are receiving an email to let them know that their Terms and Conditions are being updated to include Workforce being turn on automatically. 

Currently, this only being targeted to all active employees who have email address in their employee profile.  

However, if you want to opt out of the workforce, but do remember turning off workforce will remove access to the workforce for all of your employees. You can also check the article: How to toggle the status to OFF. 

Also, let me share this article for additional resources. It provides an overview of the tasks you can do using the Workforce feature. Also, it contains answers to common questions: QuickBooks Workforce. 

Please know that you're always welcome to comment below if you have other concerns or follow-up inquiries about managing your Workforce. I'm just around to help. Take care.

You say in your response "However, if you want to opt out of the workforce, but do remember turning off workforce will remove access to the workforce for all of your employees. You can also check the article: How to toggle the status to OFF.", but you don't really say how to opt out.  You seem to hint that you can, but I don't see where you actually can do that.  Your link does not go to any information about how to toggle the status to off. Please explain in more detail.  I, like many others, do not want my employees logging in to my information and changing things. 

Thank you

kln

You say in your response "However, if you want to opt out of the workforce, but do remember turning off workforce will remove access to the workforce for all of your employees. You can also check the article: How to toggle the status to OFF.", but you don't really say how to opt out.  You seem to hint that you can, but I don't see where you actually can do that.  Your link does not go to any information about how to toggle the status to off. Please explain in more detail.  I, like many others, do not want my employees logging in to my information and changing things. 

Thank you

This is not a resolution, the link you provided does not go to an option to opt out at all....

'However, if you want to opt out of the workforce, but do remember turning off workforce will remove access to the workforce for all of your employees. You can also check the article: How to toggle the status to OFF. '

Please provide correct information on opt out, not a runaround. No one from QuickBooks has addressed this.  Employers have spoken, we do not want this, please respond QuickBooks.  This should not be turned on automatically, or be an option that we as owners and paying for the service do not have control over.

BLL

QUICKBOOKS! This is absolutely absurd that you are doing this! This is an ACCOUNTING NIGHTMARE for the payroll process. When an employee decides to change something at the same time you are in the middle of processing a payroll, imagine the backlash the EMPLOYER is going to get when their changes don't reflect the current payroll. I email many of my employees their paystubs and now I have to delete their email addresses to avoid this workforce invite! QUICKBOOKS, you work for me! Not my employees. You get paid by me, not my employees. You will lose many customers if you do not figure out a way for employers to OPT OUT. Matter of fact, make it so employers have to OPT IN if they choose to do this. Leave us small companies alone.

The only way to OPT OUT is to remove any email addresses for employees. I use these addresses myself to send employees their pay stubs. That is my choice! IF AN EMPLOYEE NEEDS SOMETHING, I PROVIDE IT!

I do not appreciate a system that we pay for, telling us what to do with it. It seems like you want to get all the email addresses to try to sell them items in the future, or at least get Turbo a few new clients. That is abuse of power. We pay for the system and we like it. Why does Intuit think they can pry and take over our company business. Really not happy!!

You nailed it, LWhit.  This intrusive service should be set to Opt In!  I have also deleted our employee's email addresses.  I cannot believe this is even legal.

I was just chatting with Workforce support.  They've already starting turning on Workforce, but will not send invites to employees until Sept 20.  She checked mine and since it is turned on, I was advised to do the following:

1. Go to Employees Menu and select Manage Payroll Cloud Services.
2. In the Payroll Cloud Services window, under QuickBooks Workforce, toggle the status to OFF.
3. When prompted, create or confirm a PIN used to send payroll data.
4. 4. Select Save Changes. 5. Select Return To QuickBooks

She said they will no longer advise companies to delete email addresses.  She also said the email is misleading, and employees can only view the W-4 info, it must still be changed in the office. 

I haven't tried this yet since I'm out of the office for the next week.  If it works, I will however keep checking it through Sept 20 to make sure it doesn't turn back on.  

I followed instruction in Diane's email, and workforce was already turned off in my case.

We received an earlier email from QB on August 2nd, indicating a new automatic service regarding automated income and employment verification.  I opted out of that automatic service by following direction included in that email.  I do not know if this is why my 'workforce' was turned off.

I will continue to monitor if workforce stays turned off....

Thanks so much for sharing Diane!!!

Absolutely correct - this is a completely unacceptable intrusion on the part of Quickbooks!

You do not have the right to tell people how to run their business and certainly no right to intrude on the employees!!!

STOP THIS!!

Well, QuickBooks is now wasting our time - despite what the email says... now we have to check our account everyday to make sure that the Workforce option is NOT turned on... this is a REAL pain.

1. Go to Employees Menu and select Manage Payroll Cloud Services.
2. In the Payroll Cloud Services window, under QuickBooks Workforce, toggle the status to OFF.
3. When prompted, create or confirm a PIN used to send payroll data.
4. 4. Select Save Changes. 5. Select Return To QuickBooks

WE DO NOT WANT INTUIT USING OUR PRIVATE DATA> WE ARE TRUSTED TI KEEP PAYROLL DATA CONFIDENTIAL.  THIS IS A MAJOR,  MAJOR INTRUSION OF PRIVACY.  DOWNRIGHT SHAMEFUL AND PUTS OUR PAYROLL DEPARTMENT IN A VERY BAD LIGHT....WE CAN"T BE TRUSTED WITH PRIVATE, CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION...NEITHER CAN INTUIT APPARENTLY.