Payroll benefit configuration information

Hello there, @JamesAWatson.

I'd be happy to guide you on how you can have the data you need.

In QuickBooks Online (QBO), we have the Employee details report that you can run. It'll show a snapshot of each employee, including pay rate, deductions, and tax withholding. Then, you can export the report to excel so you can have the list of benefits that employees are not using.

To run and export the report, here's how:

1. In the left menu, click Reports.
2. Type in Employee details in the search field. 
3. Set the necessary filters.
4. Click Run report. 
5. Select the export icon beside the gear.
6. Click the Export to Excel option under the export icon.

As for your last question, you can go to the Accounting preferences section and see how your payroll benefits are being mapped to a specific account.

Let me show you how to do it:

1. Click the Gear icon at the top.
2. Select Payroll settings.
3. Click the Preferences link.
4. Choose Accounting Preferences.

To learn more about managing reports in QBO, check out the below articles: 

• Run payroll reports in QuickBooks Online
• Customize Reports in QuickBooks Online
• Memorize Reports in Quickbooks Online
• Export your reports to Excel from QuickBooks Online

If there's anything else I can do for you, feel free to reach back out. I'm here to help. Have a great day.

Miriam,

Thanks for your reply to my question.  I am aware of and have used the two reports that you mentioned.  Let me address why those reports do not meet my needs.

• While the Employee Detail report is very helpful if I want to see what benefits an employee has, it is not very helpful to quickly see which employees have a specific benefit.  For example, if I wanted a to see which employee are configured for Health insurance, I would have to review every employee.  What I want is a simple list a specific benefit and the employees that have it.  This would be helpful when employees have a variety of options for healthcare, dental, vision, etc.   Identifying benefits that are no longer associated with active employees means that I must scan the list of all employees looking for something not there.  That process is easy to make a mistake.
• The payroll Setting/Accounting Preferences  web page is a very long report that is very cumbersome to print out.  It would be more helpful to have a list of active and inactive deductions, their various configuration options including the associated GL account.  It would be so much easier to select the associated GL account when I create or modify a deduction.

In summary, your answer did not provide any information that I did not already know.  If your way is the only way to get the information I need, then  I think these features should be added to QBO.   (Previously, there was a way to see all of the deductions and who was configured to use them.  Why was that option removed?)

Hello again, @JamesAWatson.

I appreciate your input from every angle. 

I can see how the reports you're looking for would benefit and empower your business. In the meantime, I recommend sending this request straight to our product engineers through feedback. Sharing features and options that you would like implemented is how our engineers look for new product updates.

To send feedback, follow the below steps:

1. Go to the Gear icon at the top.
2. Select Feedback.
3. Enter your comments or product suggestions. 
4. Then select Next to submit feedback.

You may also visit our Feedback forum page. From there, you can see a list of other QuickBooks users who already suggested this feature, as well as the recent updates in QuickBooks.

You can always add a comment below if you have any other questions. I'm always here to help. Have a great day.