Can I set up different (chart of) accounts for each reimbursement type set up in payroll?

Welcome, @deannecooper and thank you for coming to the QuickBooks Community for assistance. I have some insight on setting up your reimbursement accounts to pass along.

The Accounting preferences has options to choose specific accounts for each payroll item to apply to. 

To get to Accounting Preferences:

1. Select the Gear icon at the top, then Payroll Settings. Once you are there, you can see which Expense and Liability accounts are affected when you create a paycheck, make a tax payment or create a deduction. This is a great starting point for drilling down which Payroll Expenses or Payroll Liabilities will reflect on your Profit & Loss or Balance Sheet reports.
2. Select Accounting Preferences. Choose your desired account name from your Chart of Accounts from the drop-down.
   Note: Account numbers do not appear in this box.
3. Select OK after choosing all your desired accounts.
4. (Optional) You will be prompted to update Classes if the class feature is turned on.
5. You will receive a confirmation screen that your accounting preferences have been updated.

The change of settings affects future transactions. However, you have an option to apply these changes to your past transactions too. If needed, you can backdate these changes for all transactions to the beginning of the year (does not affect changes to selected Bank account).

For more information on Accounting Preferences, click here.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out. I'll be here to help.

If I have multiple reimbursements that need to be charted to different accounts how do I do that?

The drop down menu only gives me one option to chart to one account.   I have set up multiple reimbursements and want to chart them to different accounts.

Thank you!

Thanks for joining the Community space, @shawkinsbk. I'm here to provide the steps on how to chart multiple reimbursements to a different account. 

You can add new accounts to your chart of accounts, and track your reimbursements from there. Before doing so, I would suggest consulting your accountant to ensure you create the correct account and keep your book accurate. If you’re not affiliated with one, you can visit our ProAdvisor page and we’ll help you find one from there. 

Here's how to add more accounts to your chart of accounts.

1. Go to the Gear icon⚙ and select Chart of Accounts.
2. Click New to create a new account.
3. From the Account Type ▼ dropdown, choose an account type.
4. From the Detail Type section, select the detail type that best fits the transactions you want to track. 
5. Give your new account a name. 
6. Add a description.
7. In the When do you want to start tracking your finances ▼ dropdown, choose when you want to start tracking the transactions:
8. Click Save and Close.

For more information refer to this article:  Add an account to your chart of accounts in QuickBooks Online.

Once done, you can now chart the reimbursements to a different account.

1. Go to the Gear Icon.
2. Choose Payroll Settings.
3. Select the Preferences tab.
4. Pick Accounting Preferences.
5. In the Wage Expenses Accounts, click the Reimbursements drop-down arrow.
6. Choose the created account.
7. Tap OK at the bottom part.

If you haven't paid your employee in full, you can check their reimbursements. Just run a Transaction detail report to know how much you still owe them.

1. Go to Reports, then search for Transaction Detail by Account.
2. Open the report, then select Customize at the top.
3. In the General section, select the Report period ▼ drop-down and choose the range of your transaction.
4. In the Rows/Columns section, select the Group By ▼ drop-down, then Employee.
5. In the Filter section, select the Distribution Account ▼ drop-down, then choose the Employee Reimbursement account or the liability account that you created.
6. Select the Employee ▼ drop-down, then choose your employee's name. Note: If you want the report to show what you owe all employees, leave this set to All.
7. Select Run report.

I'm adding these articles that will guide you with your future task like creating paychecks, running and printing payroll reports in QuickBooks:

• Create paychecks in online payroll
• Run payroll reports

If there's anything else you need help supervising your accounts, you’re always welcome to share them with me. I'll be more than happy to work with you again. Have a great day and take care!

It appears the QBO will not let you track " Each employee's wages are posted to their own expense account" AND track MULTIPLE employee reimbursements in QBO char of accounts. When you click "Each employee's wages are posted to their own expense account" you only have the option to track ONE employee reimbursements. If I choose " Each employee's wages are posted to different types of accounts" it will let you have multiple employee reimbursements, but then my employee wage tracking doesn't work. It's very limiting. It needs to be like QBD.

I too, am having the same issues. We reimburse for gas and cell phones. We also have employee admins, lab techs, scientists, etc. Why would QBO have only ONE reimbursement option for many different types of employees? This is limiting and frustrating, yes! Has anyone come up with a solution? 

Hey there, @Kittyzmeow1. 

Thanks for taking the time to follow along with the thread. 

At this time, you can use the steps provided by my colleague, Joesem, to set up multiple reimbursements. 

Please know that any time you have new suggestions to help improve QuickBooks, you can send a feedback request to our Product Development Team. Our developers review each request and consider them for future updates. You can use the link I've included below to send your request.

• Send feedback online

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I'm always around to lend a hand. Take care! 

There is no way to see what those reimbursements were for because it is all mapped to one account, even though they are multiple different things that we are reimbursing for.  this has not been solved yet.

I understand why you feel this way, accounting500.

QuickBooks lets you set up multiple reimbursement accounts. But only one account can be selected on the payroll preferences. 

The workaround I can provide right now is to manually change the Reimbursement account each time you create a paycheck to an employee. That way, you'll have different accounts when tracking reimbursement transactions.

Here's how:

1. Go to Settings ⚙, then Payroll settings.
2. Click Edit ✎ next to Accounting. 
   
3. Select Edit ✎ to update a specific section.
4. Choose which account the transaction of the specific payroll item should go, then hit Continue.

I'm adding this article in case you need to change past transactions and determine what account type to use for payroll transactions: Change your accounting preferences in QuickBooks Online Payroll.

You may run the Transaction Detail by Account report to check employee reimbursements. That way, you'll know how much you still owe to them. 

Here's how: 

1. Go to Business overview and select Reports.
2. Find and open Transaction Detail by Account.
3. Click Customize.
4. From the General section, choose the range of your transaction from the Report period ▼ drop-down.
5. From the Rows/Columns section, click the Group By ▼ drop-down, then Employee.
   
6. In the Filter section, select the Distribution Account ▼ drop-down, then choose the Employee Reimbursement account.
7. Select the Employee ▼ drop-down, then choose your employee's name. 
8. If you want the report to show what you owe to all employees, leave this set to All.
   
9. Hit  Run report.

There are several payroll reports you can use to view useful information about your business and employees. This article will tell you about these and how to access them: Run payroll reports in QuickBooks Online Payroll.

Don't hesitate to post again if you have other payroll or QuickBooks concerns. The Community forum is always open to help you. Take care and may your business flourish.