Merge two active payroll accounts

You can't merge two employees that both have payroll transactions.  That's a longstanding restriction that actually has a reason, in that the paychecks were calculated independently and merging the two employees together would cause a bit of mayhem with the say QB calculates taxes going forward.

This is just one more reason that the new restrictions are objectionable and half-baked.  Whoever came up with this and didn't think through it like a professional software engineer should be fired or removed from working on payroll, as they have demonstrated that they don't have the mental capacity to predict the issues they've created. These issues range from payroll compliance to technical issues to understanding that they have users with many, many years of payroll data in their files, who had no reason under the sun (and still don't) to provide all of the information QB is now requiring and to suddenly try to change their payroll to comply - when there's literally no reason to do so.

     I agree with you! The reason I had them under two different 'names' with the same SS# was because I had to handle the UC Taxes differently because they have a 'working wage' as well as an 'elected wage'. Yes, as you mentioned, I do have YEARS of payroll history going back to doing it this way since 2005. Those elected employees that also had working wage always got two W2's, but that was never a problem.

     I spoke with Intuit QB Payroll Chat and he was able to help me make them active again. Now I know how to do that. But the only way I can think to fix this moving forward is to change the Payroll Tax under 'working wage' Employee, then recreate each payroll check for this year, next delete them under the duplicate 'elected' Employee, and finally make that one INACTIVE. Then going forward, I have to remember to manually change the Payroll Tax every time I do their elected salaries. If I forget, then my UC Tax will be incorrect.

     Now I'm just HOPING that this will work. Your thoughts?

Can you tell me the steps quickbooks told you to take to merge the 2 employees?  I have one with a middle initial and one without and I can't figure out how to combine them into the same employee.

I appreciate following this thread, CCT2.

You can count on me to guide you through the process of merging employees in QuickBooks Desktop Payroll.

The merging of employees is only possible if the employee you intend to merge doesn't have existing payroll transactions associated with their profile. This guarantees a seamless process without any conflicting or duplicated payroll data.

Here are the steps:

1. Navigate the Employees menu.
2. Select Employee Center.
3. Double-click the name of the employee you wish to merge.
4. In the Employee Edit window, copy the name of an employee you'd like to keep.
5. Click OK.

I'll include this article for further information on combining entries in QBDT: Merge list entries in QuickBooks Desktop. 

Moreover, you can use the payroll reporting capabilities within QuickBooks. These reports enable you to manage payroll taxes and conveniently monitor employee expenditures.

I'll keep this thread available if you have more questions about merging employees or other relevant concerns. I'm here to assist you.

 merge doesn't have existing payroll transactions associated with their profile.  (What does this statement mean?  I have 2 profiles with MY name on it because someone at QuickBooks TIME told me to create another account for myself because I'm the administrator of the TIME account. So I did.

One account was made inactive (after help with one individual) and the other is active.  Both accounts have payroll data on them for 2023.  What do I do to correct this? Please I need some assistance before the end of the year.

@Michelle624  RE: doesn't have existing payroll transactions associated with their profile. (What does this statement mean? 

It's  @GlinetteC's interesting word-salad way of saying:

"You can't merge two employee records that both have payroll transactions."

Can you please tell us how they helped you resolve your issue, as I have the same issue and now can't run W2s for my duplicated payroll accounts. Any help is greatly appreciated.

QuickBooks did NOT help me. I worked with our accountant to merge the two employee totals within the w2 review portion. Then I printed one w2 with all the totals and one w2 with zeroes. Hopefully that will work.

Quickbooks did not help me either and actually disconnected the call instead of getting me to the right person.  I hate calling them!! But I was actually able to keep my employee as is.  We had a valid reason for having two entries and our accountant was able to merge them into one W2. 

Thank you!

I have the same problem. I'm paid salary for doing two different functions and cannot enter my ss# for one of them which now will not allow me to submit w2s.  I do not want deductions taken out of one of my paychecks so I don't want to merge them. I just want to be able to submit my w2's why do they have to make it so difficult?

GRRRR.

I do understand your situation has to be difficult for you, Kerry. Please understanding that this is limitations can sometimes be a part of any product, and we strive to address them to the best of our ability.

Since the system won't allow you to use the same SSN. As a workaround, you may use zeros for now (000-000-000) so you can submit w2. 

Additionally, you can also consider getting some advice from your accountant to keep books accurate and expense accounts to use. Do you want to have one? Visit this article: The ProAdvisor Program.

Thank you so much! I will try using [removed] for now. I've learned my lesson moving forward!

Kerry B

"You're very welcome, Kerry. I appreciate your cooperation, and I'm glad that my colleague's suggestion helped fix your payroll issue in QuickBooks Desktop. If you need any further guidance regarding payroll or QuickBooks in general, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. We'll make sure to respond as soon as we can. Have a great rest of the week!"