401K Contribution not calculated on payroll

Thank you for contacting the QuickBooks Community, EDT70. I understand the importance of accurately calculating and recording your employee's 401K contributions. Let me help you check your employees' contributions.

Since you've mentioned that your employee has not yet made his contributions, I suggest checking your employee's contribution limit depending on their plan type. You can also consider checking the employee profile if you've set up a limit on the contribution.

Here's how:

1. On the menu bar, click Employee. Select Employee Center.
2. Select an employee.
3. Click Payroll Info. Add the retirement plan items under in the additions, Deductions, and Company Contributions sections.
4. Enter the amount per period and the limits.
5. Click OK, once done.

Refer to this article for detailed steps in setting up a retirement plan deduction and edit anytime: Set up or change a retirement plan.

Then, you can also check the year-to-date amount of the incorrect payroll item for each employee. Note down the amount or generate a report. You will need this for the third step.

In addition, you can refer to this article to learn how to use a liability adjustment to correct employee YTD or QTD payroll info in QBDT: Adjust payroll liabilities in QuickBooks Desktop Payroll.

Comment on the post if you still have concerns about your employee's 401K. I'm always here to help.

@RhoiceW 

RE: Such as:

• The employee, tax, or payroll item is set up in QuickBooks.
• The wage limit has been reached.
• Your QuickBooks Desktop Payroll and its Tax table aren't up to date.

Are you serious? Employee 401k deductions are not impacted by taxes, or "payroll item is set up" (whatever that word salad means), they do not have wage limits, and they aren't impacted by the tax table - at all.

Did you even read the customer's question? Do you know anything about payroll in QuickBooks?

@EDT70  RE: I wondered if maybe he hit his limit for contributions but he has not yet even though he contributes 50%.

I'm not sure if 50% is allowed for an employee 401k deduction.  I had though it was a max of 20%. Maybe your plan is different?

In any case, if the employee's YTD deduction is less than the limit entered on the employee record, then check the payroll item's limit. If it is lower than the one on the employee record, then it is used.

If that is the issue, and to avoid this from happening again (or at all), remove the limit from the payroll item.

I highlighted the text that explains how the limits work for all custom additions and deductions: