Is it possible to prevent Intuit's payroll services from handling my payroll taxes automatically?

Yes it is possible but you will have to downgrade your payroll subscription to Enhanced. 

Thanks for the reply John.

Is there a payroll subscription option less than "Core"?

Thanks for the reply John!

We're using "Core" payroll subscription. I don't see an "enhanced" option available. Where do I find it?

Hi tyler-wright,

QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll is available in the Onlne and Desktop version. Let me share with you a few information about this. 

However, for QuickBooks Online Payroll, we have new payroll product options that are available for new customers. Here are the following:

• Core: 
• Premium: 
• Elite:

These include improved features so you and your clients use.

You'll want to check this article for additional information: QuickBooks Online Enhanced Payroll.

I have included these help articles for more information about payroll: Employees And Payroll Taxes.

Keep me posted if you have any other concerns. I'll make sure to get back to you.

Thanks for the reply Maria!

We just switched to QuickBooks Online from Desktop this last February. When we switched from Desktop to Online, Enhanced Payroll for Online was not available in my accountants purchase options. The smallest option we could choose was Core.

How can we switch to Enhanced Payroll Online now?

I can help you get that subscription, @tyler-wright. 

To subscribed to our Enhanced Payroll subscription, you'll have to contact our Customer Support team. They have the tools to add this subscription to your account. You can do it by going to the Help icon at the top right of your QuickBooks Online (QBO) account.

Follow the steps below: 

1. Go to the Help icon to connect to a live support agent. 
2. Click on the Contact Us button and provide some details about this concern.
3. After adding some insight, click on the Let's talk button. 
4. Lastly, select the Get a callback button to arrange a call from them.

See this article for detailed guidance: Contact the QuickBooks Online Customer Support team.

Keep me posted if you still any other concerns with your account. I'm always here to assist. Have a great rest of the day!

Hi Mary!

We contacted support and they said we couldn’t change, that the full support couldn’t be removed because everything was going to full support and they were moving all existing customers to that.

Hi tyler-wright,

I appreciate your time and effort in reaching out to our support team on this matter.

The reason why you have to make your decision right away it's because you can't just automatically downgrade or upgrade your payroll service or subscription. You'll want to contact them again for future updates.

On the other hand, QuickBooks Full Service Payroll is good for businesses that want to process their own payroll and have their taxes paid as well as their payroll tax returns filed for them. While in QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll, you'll have to do your own efile and pay for federal, state taxes, quarterly and annual payroll tax returns including year-end processing of W2s. 

I have these articles in case you want some reference about payroll: Employees and Payroll Taxes.

Ping me if you need further assistance. I'll just be one post away if you need help.

My ProAdvisor Accountant and I have been contacting QuickBooks support multiple times since my last post here. It has been an absolutely fruitless & frustrating endeavor.

Intuit's Core Payroll has already messed up my payroll twice in less than one pay period. They posted & withdrew the Direct Deposit from the wrong account and would have over-drafted my account had I not been checking on it before it was actually withdrawn.

Next they scheduled my State & Federal taxes incorrectly and created an entirely new bank account as a duplicate of an already existing account and posted it wrong there as well.

I'm so frustrated and support has been abysmal.

Does anybody have any suggestions to what I can do as support hasn't been helpful so far?

Here's a couple excerpts from my accountants chat transcript today.

-----------

You at 15:56, Apr 27:
We are having major issues with the full service part of it and I would like to handle to payroll filing myself.

Bryce A at 15:57, Apr 27:
I understand the frustration. However with core there is no way to turn off the automation of it. It's how the product is designed.
You at 15:58, Apr 27:

Can I switch subscriptions?
Bryce A at 15:59, Apr 27:
You are only able to upgrade from Core to either Premium or Elite. However, all of them are automated with the filings.

-----------------

Bryce A at 16:04, Apr 27:
We no longer offer Enhanced payroll. It was replaced by Core.
Bryce A at 16:07, Apr 27:
The support agent that explained to you that the full service part can't be removed because it's all going that direction is correct.
You at 16:09, Apr 27:
https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/manage-intuit-subscriptions/accountants-quickbooks...
You at 16:10, Apr 27:
This has enhanced payroll updated 4/1/2020
Bryce A at 16:10, Apr 27:
That is for preexisting payroll accounts.
You at 16:11, Apr 27:
He was pre-existing and we switched from desktop to online
Bryce A at 16:12, Apr 27:
I understand that, but payroll does not migrate over with fiscal information from desktop. You would have had to subscribe to a new payroll account. Which I believe at the time you did it, we had already replaced enhanced with core

You at 16:15, Apr 27:
I have to make adjustments every week because everything keeps getting posted to the wrong accounts. I don't like this at all and I know there are many others that aren't happy.........
Bryce A at 16:15, Apr 27:
Like I mentioned earlier, I'd be happy to get you with the core support team so they can help you with the accounts that are associated with your payroll.

I do appreciate that you've kept us posted with your questions, tyler-wright. 

I've read the thread and Payroll Core is the simplest payroll service. Next is Premium and then Elite. These three payroll service are designed to have a Full Service Payroll and Automatic Payroll. However, we don't process any direct deposit paychecks or taxes unless it has been reviewed and approved. 

We can process all the pending payroll and taxes being paid and filed and we can cancel the payroll subscription if you opt to let not QuickBooks calculate taxes automatically. You can check out this page where you can see our payroll features. 

You can always seek help from our Payroll Support team, and due to COVID 19 we have limited staffing. I'll attach our support hours through this link. 

I'm just here if you need anything else. You take care always!

Well, we have figured out what happened. Here's the story for anyone else having this same problem, or for someone looking into using QBO & Payroll.

TL;DR: Intuit forces full payroll services on new QBO accounts, even if you had been using Enhanced Payroll on QB Desktop for years. QBO software has settings that don't update if an account is renamed and it will then create new accounts of it's own accord. It doesn't show errors, and it doesn't give you an opportunity to review or fix before posting. It also won't let you or your accountant fix mistakes after it's posted, and Intuit support is lacking.

So here's the story. Between my accountant and I we finally were able to get support on the phone. It then took them over an hour to figure out what was wrong. Most of it was listening to hold music. (The support person was very nice and did a great job within the confines of what she could do.)

First of all, Intuit does NOT support enhanced payroll for new QBO accounts, at all. It's only available if you had QBO before rolling out the new services. So, even though I used enhanced payroll on QB Desktop for years, when I moved my account to QBO I was forced to take Core Payroll. Now we have to modify our entire payroll system to account for Intuits lack of selection.

As for the posting problems. It came down to the poor implementation of payroll settings in QBO. There are settings buried in the Payroll Settings area that determine what accounts payroll uses. At no point anywhere during setup were these settings mentioned. After initial setup I had renamed my accounts to shorten the name so I could actually read them while entering expenses. Well, when you rename an account it doesn't update it in payroll settings. So, it saved my old account name and automatically created a new account using that name and posted everything there instead of displaying an error that it couldn't find the account.

Furthermore QBO won't let anyone, not you, not an accountant, or an intuit employee, fix an entry for payroll once it's been posted. So we had to create more journal entries, yet again, to fix the automated payroll mistakes.

Additionally, QBO does not give anyone an option to review anything before posting. Intuit reviews transactions before they are submitted to state & fed, but you or your accountant don't get the opportunity to review it. All I got was an email that they were going to take money out of my bank account and what that amount was.

At the moment we think we have it figured out. We are primarily concerned about e-filing of taxes being done wrong as nobody from Intuit has contacted us about our needs.

For anyone looking to set this up, buyer beware. If these problems continue to occur I'll be cancelling my subscription and finding a different solution. It's taken us 3 months to get switched to QBO with all the payroll problems, (huge mess initially because of a programming error the developers had to fix. Took over a month to fix the known issue.)

At this point I'd rather pay my accountant to do payroll & taxes manually than to pay them to fix payroll/taxes every time it runs automatically.

Intuits payroll support is less than ideal. They are only available 5 days a week, not on weekends when I'm working on book work. You cannot call support, and their call back option isn't reliable. I have had limited success with support actually calling me back, and it's always been AT LEAST a 45 minute wait, if they even call me at all.

Unlike your accountant, they don't know your books, or your business intricacies, and are making assumptions and decisions for your business without your review & consent.