QB accountant copy including payroll

Yes, @tjshbf. You can transfer the book to your client along with payroll.

When you send QuickBooks accountant copy, you can include payroll, but with some restrictions. 

An Accountant's Copy prevents you from making any modifications that may conflict with your client's work. Some fields may be disabled in an Accountant's Copy. 

The following are the actions you cannot perform in an Accountant's Copy:

• Create, edit, delete, or void paychecks
• Create, edit, delete, or void Direct Deposit checks for 1099 vendors
• Enter, edit, or delete time sheet data
• Send Quickbooks Desktop Payroll Assisted Data or Direct Deposits to Intuit

For more information, you may also check out this article: How to use the Accountant's Copy.

Additionally, let me share this link you can utilize to help change your accountant’s copy to a regular company file in QuickBooks Desktop: Convert an accountant's copy to a regular company file.

Let me know if you have other questions about transferring accountant's copy with payroll to your client. I'll be happy to help you. Stay safe!

I didnt make myself clear, I guess.  There is no "accountants copy" involved. I, the accountant,

maintain the clients books, including payroll entered after-the-fact using QB desktop.  The client now wants to maintain there own books and records. My question is can I provide him with a copy (backup or portable), will the payroll detail including payroll information and history transfer to the client?

I appreciate the additional details you've provided, @tjshbf.

Yes, you can provide your client a copy of their QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) company file so they can maintain their own books and record. Let me share further details about this.

Since your client wants to maintain their own books and records, you can provide them with a backup of their company file. It saves everything currently in their company file, that includes their accounting data, templates, payroll details, and more, except for their payroll forms. However, you'll have ways to save the forms for them to use.

Whenever you're ready to back up your client's company file, follow these steps:

1. In QuickBooks, go to the File menu and select Switch to Single-user Mode.
2. Go to the File menu again and hover over Back up Company. Then select Create Local Backup.
3. In the window, select Local Backup and then Next.
4. In the Local Backup Only section, select Browse and select where you want to save your backup company file.
5. Set the number of backups you want to keep. This is optional.
6. This runs a test to make sure your backup file is in good shape before you save.
7. When you're ready, select OK.
8. Select Save it now and Next. You'll get a confirmation message when it's done.

Then, go ahead and back up your client's payroll forms. Once you're done, hand the backup company file and saved copy of the payroll forms over to your client. This way, you're able to provide all the data they need to manage their account.

Once your client has the backup copy of their company file, they can use it to restore their company file in QBDT.

For the complete guide, you can refer to this article: Back up your QuickBooks Desktop company file.

Once everything is all set, you may also want to check out one of our Help pages as your reference to guide you in managing your clients' accounts and transactions in QBDT: QuickBooks Learn and Support. It includes help articles, Community discussions with other users, and video tutorials, to name a few.

Let me know if you have other concerns about backing up your client's company file in QBDT. I'm always ready to help. Take care, and I wish you continued success, @tjshbf.