Employees Receiving Winmail.dat File instead of Paystub PDF

It's a common problem when sending email via outlook, both from QuickBooks and otherwise.

See

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/winmail-dat-sent-as-an-email-attachment-in-outlook-2007-an...

https://blog.gimm.io/how-to-fix-winmail-dat-attachments-in-outlook/

I have reviewed these links and neither has resolved my issue.

Thank you for that quick response, jbbarlow3.

I'd like to help and make sure your employees receive their paystubs in PDF format.

I agree with BigRedConsulting, this is is a known issue for Microsoft outlook if the recipient's email client is not capable of receiving rich text format (.rtf).

To fix this, we can change the message format in Outlook. You can choose from either HTML to a plain text or plain text to HTML. This will prevent it from attaching a Winmail.dat file when you send an email. You can check out the details steps here: Change the message format to HTML, Rich Text Format, or plain text.

If you've already tried changing it but still encountering the same issue, I'd suggest using other email besides an Outlook email. Here's an article for more information and the steps on how to set up your email service in QuickBooks Desktop.

Additionally, if only one or some of your employees  experience this issue, it can be due to a problem on the receiving end. Certain security features and mail filters may detect this as a mass emailing (spam). Thus, the emails must be adjusted accordingly. 

You may also consider setting up and inviting your employees to QuickBooks workforce. This way, your employees can see their pay stubs and W-2s online. 

Get back to me if you still have other questions or clarifications about paystubs. I'll be here to answer them. Have a wonderful day!

We really need a fix to this.  

The work around I have found is to FORWARD the same email.  Then it shows up as a PDF.  

**This is a pain.  Please tell us how to fix.

Thank you.

Yes, This is the only way to send them to employees that we have found as well. 

But having to send them once from quickbooks and then a second time from outlook is just a work around and this issue REALLY NEEDS TO BE FIXED.  

Yep, that is the only workaround I can come up with too. Such a pain.

I'm experiencing the same issue. I have 16 paystubs that I email through MS Outlook and half of them are being received as winmail.dat files. But when I look at my Sent Items folder, the attachment looks okay. And when I forward the original email to my employees, they are receiving it correctly as the PDF file. 

Try going to your preferences in quickbooks then scroll down to send forms. Then under my preferences make sure the use "plain text" format for emailed invoices is checked. This was one of the options i tried and it works. However any time i close quickbooks it reverts back unchecked so i have to go back and check it again.

Thanks for reaching out to us, Peachjo122.

I've checked your post and found out that you've posted identical questions twice. The duplicate one was already answered by my colleague, LieraMarie_A.

You can view her answer through this link where she listed the different troubleshooting steps that you can perform to fix the issue: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/other-questions/re-when-i-send-invoices-or-estimat....

I've also included some articles that will help you fix common errors and issues when sending forms in QBDT:

• Fix Webmail Password Issues 
• How to Fix "Error: QuickBooks is Unable to Send Your Email to Outlook

Drop me a comment below if you have any other concerns or additional questions.

Except it's not the same question. The first question was regarding invoices which the format can be changed to plain text. When sending a pay stub it has to be sent in a password protected PDF. There is no way to change this. You cannot send a pay stub in a plain text. And neither of the articles you posted pertain to employees receiving .dat files rather than PDF's. I am still having the same issue. But only for a few employees. It has to be on the receiving end. But someone from Quickbooks needs to be the one to figure it out!!

I agree!  This started happening after running an update in QB ENT 2021 last month after NEVER having an issue before.  Seems very odd when the QB 2021 client doesn't have any issues. Please fix!!

I just upgraded from QB Enterprise 2019 to 2022 and this issue also appear. Outlook is exact same install and now I am getting the winmail.dat issue. This is clearly a Quickbooks issue and not an outlook issue or it would have been there previously. Not to mention QB decided to remove the scan manager. This product is getting worse not better.

Thanks for joining the thread, @Khelzor. I'm here to help you fix the winmail.dat issue in QuickBooks.

Recipients of files sent through QuickBooks receive an attachment called Winmail.dat instead of a .pdf file. This happen when recipient's email client is not capable of receiving rich text format (.rtf).

To fix this, you'll have to change the message format in Outlook and choose either HTML or plain text to prevent Outlook from attaching a Winmail.dat file when sending an email. Also, you can use other email than Outlook. For more details, see this article: Winmail.dat is attached to email instead of a .pdf file when sent from QuickBooks through Outlook.

Furthermore, here are some resources on how to customize email templates and use them to send messages from QuickBooks:

• How to Fix "Error: QuickBooks is Unable to Send Your Email to Outlook"
• Use and customize form templates

I'm just a few clicks away if you have any other questions. I'll make sure you're taken care of. Stay safe.

In our office, we have 2 QB users and 2 outlook users. One of us can send invoices and estimates quite fine. The other user's go out as Winmail.dat.

The 'fixes' offered by QB do not work. 

I had a rep tell me it was a 'known' issue and I was to await further updates.

Has anyone come up with a fix and not a workaround?

The admin of the company microsoft email exchange has to make these changes. This link worked for us:

https://www.alitajran.com/fix-winmail-dat-attachment-in-office-365/#h-how-to-fix-winmail-dat-attachm...

Interesting.  In our case we cannot get it fixed and quickbooks WILL NOT UPDATE THE ADMIN FOR OUR FIRM,  yes, WILL NOT.  So not only can we not make changes like this, we cannot set up new direct deposit clients, and the list keeps growing as anytime we need to use Intuit login, which pops up more and more frequently, we are told we don't have admin privilege's to do what we need.  Our new owner has proven they have bought the business and when we submit documents or call all we get is denials to our request or told they fixed it --and it isn't fixed.   Our latest transaction resulted in them telling us it WASN'T NECESSARY to make the change so they were not.  Not necessary?  Both the old and new owner were requesting the change on the phone, were told it would be done within 48 hours, and then get that email.  So wanting a change isn't enough?  The owner with admin privileges has done all the steps to try and change it on her end and it glitches and will not go forward.  So how, exactly, can a company get it changed?  They can't.  So we have to find a new payroll provider, for sure.  I urge others to do the same.  Quickbooks obviously does not want desktop accountants anymore and is making using it more difficult, seemingly on purpose.

Outlook isn't the problem for us, it's Quickbooks. When these items are directly emailed from QB they come through at winmail.dat. If I go into my sent messages and send them again they are then received correctly. 

That is so frustrating! Sounds like Quickbooks though....they have thousands of employees yet you can never get your questions answered or things fixed. They just contine to tell me to submit it to the technical team. It's getting worse and worse. 

Following the info on this link fixed our problem!!!! Turns out it was an Outlook issue and not QB. My Outlook was set up fine, the other users Outlook was not, and they sent out invoices that went out as Winmail.dat.

As soon as I made the changes suggested in the link, problem fixed, so THANK YOU!!!! for posting that.

What did you do?

Scroll up you will see a link in a previous email.

I will put it here, hopefully it will work

https://www.alitajran.com/fix-winmail-dat-attachment-in-office-365/#h-how-to-fix-winmail-dat-attachm...

I followed the instructions there and it fixed our long standing problem. I got no help from QB about this, they counseled me to wait for an update.

Its also an extremely obscure setting...but follow it exactly, should fix your problem. Good luck!

We don't use Office 365, but we were still able to use the powershell method. Thanks so much!