Full Service Payroll employee reimbursement categories

Hi there, Rose at S.

Yes, there's an option in Accounting Preferences/Payroll to divide different types of reimbursements into various Reimbursement Accounts so the different types of employee reimbursements show up on the P&L. To do this, you can go to the Payroll Settings and choose the Accounting section. From there, you'll have the option to select each employee's wages are posted to different types of accounts so you can track employee reimbursements in your QuickBooks chart of accounts. I also recommend consulting an accountant for guidance in posting the reimbursement to the correct accounts.

Here's how:

1. Click the Gear icon in the upper right corner.
2. Choose Payroll Settings and go to the Accounting section.
3. Click the Pencil icon under the Wage expenses section.
4. Choose Each employee's wages are posted to different types of accounts (ex: salary, contractor, and so on) radio button.
5. Scroll down and go to the Where do you track employee reimbursements in your QuickBooks chart of accounts? section.
6. Choose different Reimbursement Accounts.
7. Hit Continue.

Please refer to this article to see steps on how you can record or pay back your employees' business-related expenses in QuickBooks Online: Reimburse an employee.

Drop a comment below if you have any other questions about processing payroll. I'll be happy to help you out.

Thank you!  I did get that far.  We are hoping to track the different types of reimbursements we give to each employee - phone, mileage and other.  I have those 3 different types under each employee, but don't know where we would find that on a report.

I carefully re-read your post and see that I missed the step about "each employees wages are posted to diff types of accounts."  I choose that, but QBO would not accept my answer.  I click continue and nothing happens.

Hi there, Rose at S.

Thank you for coming back to QuickBook Community to add additional clarification. I'll make sure to share more details so you can track the different types of reimbursements you give to each employee in the report.

Once you're done posting the different types of reimbursements to the proper accounts, you can run the Transaction Detail by Account and customized it. This way, you're able to see all employees that you have given reimbursements and other information you'll need. Please note the specific types of reimbursements will not show on the report as a column. That said, I recommend exporting this report to Excel and customize it from there to assign the entry to particular reimbursement.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Reports menu at the left panel.
2. From the search box, choose Transaction Detail by Account.
3. Open the report and select Customize at the top.
4. In the General section, select the Report period ▼ drop-down and choose the range of your transaction.
5. From the Rows/Columns section, select the Group By drop-down, then Employee. Then, filter section, select the Distribution Account drop-down, then choose Employee Reimbursement account.
6. Select the Employee drop-down, then choose your employee's name.
7. Hit Run report.

Once done, you can click this article to see the detailed steps on how to export the report: Export your reports to Excel from QuickBooks Online.

On the other hand, I recommend logging in to your QuickBooks account using a private browser. Then, access your payroll settings from there so you're able to continue clicking the Choose Each employee's wages are posted to different types of accounts (ex: salary, contractor, and so on) radio button. This is to rule out the possibility of a webpage issue, and private browsing doesn't store local files or cache.

Use these keyboard shortcuts based on the browser you're using.

• For Firefox or Microsoft Edge, press Ctrl + Shift + P.
• For Chrome, press Ctrl + Shift + N.
• For Safari, hold down Command + Shift + N.

If it works in incognito, I recommend clearing the cache of your regular browser. This removes the history or log of sites so you can start with a clean slate. You can check this article to see the steps: Clear cache and cookies to fix issues when using QuickBooks Online.

If the steps above didn't work, use another supported browser as alternatives.

Please refer to this article to see several payroll reports you can use to view useful information about your business and employees: Run payroll reports.

Please let me know how this works. I'll be happy to help you further or if you have any other questions about QuickBooks. Have a great day ahead.

Is there not a better way?

It'd be great to somehow pay a bill through the payroll reimbursement.  This would give the full flexibility to track the reimbursement to any expense account without having to setup a mapping in the payroll sub-feature.

This is also limiting, in that I want each individuals salary to be applied to their own salary account AND be able to have reimbursements applied to specific expense accounts.  It seem that payroll only gives the option to do one or the other.  What am I missing?

Allow me to join the conversation and share details about payroll reimbursements, ddiepo.

We appreciate and have taken note of your feedback about being able to pay a bill through payroll reimbursement. 

Please note that bills and bills payments are not part of the payroll function. This is the reason why it's not recommend to pay the reimbursement through using through bill payment. Instead, create a liability check so the system will include it in your payroll reports. Here's an article for more details: Create a Payroll Liability Check.

I would also recommend sending a feature request about this to our product engineers. All customer input are collected and reviewed when new updates are designed. Here's how:

1. Go to the Gear icon and select Feedback.
2. Type in your feedback and suggestions about payroll mapping and being able to a bill through reimbursement in QBO.
3. Click Next to submit them.

Let me know if that answers your inquiries about reimbursements and bill payments. You can also post more questions in the Community if you need anything else.