changing work comp codes

dorisday · ‎November 19, 2018

We use outside payroll service company however we still enter time in QB under a "pretend" payroll account so that we can track job costs through payroll and utilize the job profitability reports in QB. We recently had work comp codes broken down into greater detail thus making a code we used primarily for all our field employees, now ocassionally for a small portion of a four week project, one of their workweeks may consist of needing to divide up their total weekly hours into two different work comp codes. Our office personnel didn't implement the new work comp code and still kept entering time into the weekly timesheets under the single work comp code and provided only our payroll company the single work comp code. Now, we need to go back and calculate the work comp codes based on the correct code. We know the dates, employees, etc. to whom these adjustments need to be made. Can we go into the specific previous paycheck(s) and as long as we do not change the total number of hours or the total gross wages, input the correct work comp codes which would be taking, for example, 40 hours at work comp code 1234, and separating into 35 hours at work comp code 1234, and 5 hours at the new work comp code. the hourly rate and/or salary wouldn't change. We need to be able to to this so we can provide it to the work comp insurance company so we can reconcile our numbers. Or, could we go and enter the information on the timesheets directly (which I don't think would matter now since the paychecks have already been created).

IamjuViel · ‎November 21, 2018

Thank you for getting back to us, @dorisday.

Allow me to share with you additional information about tracking hours worked and workers compensation.

When you set up your companies preferences in tracking workers comp you have the option to exclude overtime premium from workers comp calculation. By doing so, Overtime payroll item will show up on your Workers Compensation report as a separate item.

Here's how:

Go to Edit.
Choose Preferences.
Select Payroll & Employees.
Under Company Preferences, click Workers Compensation button.
Checked Tracked Workers comp.
Ensure to mark the tick box for "Exclude overtime premium from workers comp calculation."
Click Ok.

On the other hand, most states will require employers to undergo workers' comp audits annually. This is to verify that you, as the employer, is paying the correct amount of premiums into your state's workers' comp fund. Thus, you'll need to record your employee's regular worked hours and the overtime rendered separately even if they are under the same workers comp code. Both are two different payroll items and are under two different rates.

For additional insights, you may check out these articles:

Please feel free to leave a post or comment below if you have follow-up questions about tracking workers comp. I’m always here to help.

View solution in original post

Rose-A · ‎November 20, 2018

It's great to hear from you today, dorisday.

I can assist you with your question about workers' comp codes in QuickBooks Desktop.

QuickBooks Desktop only allows you to assign one workers compensation code to each employee, which typically is their main line of work. If an employee needs an additional Workers Compensation code assigned to hours worked, you can edit and add the code manually to the paycheck. You just need to make sure that the rate won't change for two different codes.

This article contains additional insight about Workers Compensation: https://community.intuit.com/articles/1763153-set-up-and-edit-workers-compensation.

Should you have any other concerns, please let me know. Have a good one.

dorisday · ‎November 21, 2018

Let me explain how we input time on our timesheets. We currently have our payroll items for hourly rate and overtime hourly rate set up as two separate payroll items. For example, hourly rate $10 and overtime hourly rate $15. When the work comp enhancement for QB happened about ten years ago or so to help better report WC codes and wages and exclude the overtime portion, I believe that’s when it was recommended to set up your payroll item differently and just have multipliers (like 1.5 for time and a half or 2 for double for overtime wages). We never did that for a few reasons and thus can’t rely on the work comp report for that detail. However we still find it important to track work comp and do that on a timesheet. I’m just wondering why if an employee worked 36 hours, for example, why we couldn’t enter at the time of inputting the hours on a timesheet (which would be less tedious than going having to go into the paycheck detail screen) by entering based on how we input our hours and the payroll items we have for separate hourly and overtime, 30 hours at payroll item hourly rate ($10) for XYZ work come code and 6 hours at payroll item hourly rate ($10) for ABC work comp code? Even if there were overtime hours that shouldn’t matter because of how our payroll items for wages are set up. We should still be able to use one of the work comp reports to divide up the total wages by WC codes but it won’t adjust for the overtime premiums (which is ok by us).

IamjuViel · ‎November 21, 2018

Thank you for getting back to us, @dorisday.

Allow me to share with you additional information about tracking hours worked and workers compensation.

When you set up your companies preferences in tracking workers comp you have the option to exclude overtime premium from workers comp calculation. By doing so, Overtime payroll item will show up on your Workers Compensation report as a separate item.

Here's how:

Go to Edit.
Choose Preferences.
Select Payroll & Employees.
Under Company Preferences, click Workers Compensation button.
Checked Tracked Workers comp.
Ensure to mark the tick box for "Exclude overtime premium from workers comp calculation."
Click Ok.

On the other hand, most states will require employers to undergo workers' comp audits annually. This is to verify that you, as the employer, is paying the correct amount of premiums into your state's workers' comp fund. Thus, you'll need to record your employee's regular worked hours and the overtime rendered separately even if they are under the same workers comp code. Both are two different payroll items and are under two different rates.

For additional insights, you may check out these articles:

Please feel free to leave a post or comment below if you have follow-up questions about tracking workers comp. I’m always here to help.

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changing work comp codes