How do I restore a "deleted" employee? This is not the same as making them "active."

Thanks for reaching out here in the Community, @Deanna86. Allow me to share what I know about your query.

It might be difficult to let go of an employee. However, it's critical to take efforts to ensure that your data are accurate.

Here’s how to change employee statuses:

1. Issue the final paycheck.
   
   

You can refer to this article to know more about how to create and give your employee their final paycheck. Once you do, you can update their employment status.

       2. Change an employee status.

Terminated employees are not shown in your active payroll list. On the other side, their profile and pay records are retained in your accounts and reports.

To delete an employee profile, here’s how:

1. Go to the Payroll menu and select the Employees tab.
2. Select the employee’s name. If the employee isn’t on the list, select All employees from the Active Employees dropdown.
3. Select Edit Employee and then click Delete employee.
4. Select Yes to confirm the deletion.
   
   

Always know that you can get back to me anytime if you still have other concerns with regards to this. It’ll be my pleasure to help you with your query. Have a good one!

I deleted an employee earlier this year who no longer worked for me. I recently added them as a new employee and created a paper paycheck for them. They are "active" in payroll, however when I search for their name, it appears as "deleted." 

I received the following payroll sync error:

• You can’t modify transactions for deleted employees. If you didn’t mean to delete them, restore the employee and then modify. If you did mean to delete them, undo the transaction.

How do I restore an employee?

I'm here to help you inactivate and recover deleted employees in QuickBooks Online (QBO), Deanna86. 

If you want to see the list of Inactive and Active employees, you can go to your Employees list and after you found it you can active and restore the employee. 

To inactivate an employee in QBO, feel free to follow these steps:

1. Go to the Payroll menu and select Employees.
2. Choose Inactive Employees and then, select the Make Active if necessary.

Let me share the following articles to learn more about managing your workers' information and lists in QuickBooks Online. These resources include instructions on how to restore a deleted element:

• Edit or change employee info in payroll
• Delete an account on your chart of accounts in QuickBooks Online
• How to edit, delete, and restore list elements

Please let me know if you have further questions or concerns. I'll be here every step of the way. As always, you can reach out to the QuickBooks Community anytime you need a helping hand. Take care!

The deleted employees are not listed as "active" nor "inactive" - where do I find them to "restore them"?

Good day, @MCMCPA.

Let me join in this thread and help you answer your queries in QuickBooks Online Payroll. 

Once you delete an employee, this will totally remove his info the system. This is the reason why you're unable to see it in the Employee list. 

It's possible you haven't made any paychecks yet for this employee. This is why you're able to delete him in QuickBooks. The system won't allow you to make this happen if you already created a paycheck for him. 
 

The option to recover its data is unavailable. However, you can manually reenter their info in the system. Here's how:
 

1. Open QuickBooks Online and go to Payroll.
2. Select Employees, then Add an employee.
3. If you want the employee to add some of their own info, enter the following in the Personal Info section:
   • First and last name
   • Hire date
   • Email address
   • Your employee gets an email inviting them to enter their Address, Social Security Number, W-4, and banking info through QuickBooks Workforce.
4. Enter the info in each section, then click Done.

Additionally, you can run some payroll reports in QuickBooks. This way, you can get a closer look at your business's finances and view useful information about your business and employees. 

Don't hesitate to tag my name in the comment section below if you have other concerns or questions. I'm always ready to help.

Hello, 

Did you ever get a good answer to your question? The answers that I did see do not address your question. Very frustrating. 

Thank you  :' )

Was this question ever answered?  I find it funny how there are three answers but none actually apply to the question.  

I am getting the same error and would like to know how to fix it.  

Thanks for joining this thread, @BeccaTwig. I'm here to ensure you'll be able to get rid of that error to recover the deleted employee seamlessly in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

Once an employee is deleted in QBO, the system will remove all of their info. That said, you'll have to recreate the deleted employee manually. Here's how:

1. Navigate to the Payroll menu and click Employees.
2. Next, select the Add an employee option.
3. Fill in the needed details and click Add employee.
4. Then, select any section to add the remaining employee info.

For reference, feel free to check this article: Add your new employee to QuickBooks Payroll.

Then, to further help you resolve the payroll sync error, I recommend reaching out to our Payroll support team. They use specific tools to pull up your account and fix it. 

The program also offers several reports that you can open to easily track your payroll info, employee details, and business finances. To get started, visit this link: Run payroll reports in QuickBooks Online Payroll. 

Please let me know how this goes. I'm always here ready to lend a hand if you have any other follow-ups about managing your employees in QBO. Feel free to post here again at any time. Have a great day ahead. 

This did not answer my question in any shape or form, nor did it answer the original question.  What we asked was why are we getting this payroll sync error;

• You can’t modify transactions for deleted customers. If you didn’t mean to delete them, restore the employee and then modify. If you did mean to delete them, undo the transaction.

How do we find who was deleted?  As far as I can see none of our employees were ever deleted, just marked as terminated. 

Please clarify how to correct the above issue.  Please DO NOT reply back again with how to add an employee, how to mark an employee active or anything else.  I just want to know how to correct the error I stated above.  

Thank you

Becca

Hello there, Becca. I'm here to show you how to retrieve the details of a deleted employee in QuickBooks Online.

Using the Audit log report, you can keep track of all activities, including who deleted or made changes and employee information related to the changes.

Here's how:

1. Log in as admin to your QuickBooks Online company.
2. Go to the Gear ⚙ icon.
3. Select Audit log.
4. To narrow the results, click on the Filter option, then choose List for Events.
5. Click on Apply.

I'm adding this article for more information: Use the audit log in QuickBooks Online.

Once you've discovered the details of the deleted employee, you can follow the steps outlined by my colleague @DivinaMercy_N in recreating the employee's profile.

I also suggest reaching out to our Support Team if you still need further assistance. 

If you have any additional concerns about employees, please return and leave a comment. I'll be here to help. Enjoy the rest of your week.

This did not solve what I need, the Audit log does not indicate who was deleted.  It tells me events for bill pay, banking, edited venders, but not the deleted employee. 

Would this log normally state deleted employees?  Since ours does not, does that mean we did not delete any employees?  

In the error message it states that I need to reactivate which ever employee was deleted.  If we did not deleted an employee how would I find out what this error is for?  

And the reason I am a bit annoyed with this, is I have been trying to solve this issue for two months.  I have made phones calls, created chats, had tickets created (just for them to be closed without a solution).  It has gotten so bad, the customer service team does not care about helping us.  We are about to leave quickbooks.  

I can only imagine the hurdle you've been through in trying to restore an employee in QuickBooks Online, @BeccaTwig. I'm here to guide you through the process.

You can select the Include inactive box from the Employees page. By doing so, all deleted or deactivated employees will show up on the list. Here are the steps and a snapshot:

1. Open the Payroll menu. 
2. Select Employees.
3. Click on the Gear icon above the Action column.
4. Check the box for Include inactive.

Alternatively, if you have a different view, you can select Inactive Employees from the filter drop-down.

That should do it! Once everything is in order, feel free to read this guide about handling payroll in QuickBooks: Create and run payroll in QuickBooks Online.

Fill me in if you need more help managing workers or QuickBooks in particular. I'm always ready to back you up. Take the best care!

I received this message also and it was dated 08/22/2022. Funny part is I have not deleted anyone and I pulled a audit log and no one was deleted. So what do you do then??

When I finally got through the audit log and it is showing this person deleted and she was not deleted she was terminated and then rehired. So why is the sync not fixed

So what I found was the two employees that were rehired it wants to add them to a payroll that was already processed. Which makes no sense if they have no hours.

@deborahjtappan I appreciate you taking the time to respond.  I looked through our system and no employees that have been terminated have been rehired.  Though we do have one employee that was laid off and then rehired, but that happened well before this error started occurring.  In fact this employee was included on the payroll for the two dates that we are getting this error for. I am not sure if the system would have tried to add her again.  When I look at the payroll, I can only see one check each week for this employee.  How would I check to see if there is a paycheck hidden some where?  Thank you again.  

Thank you for getting back to us, @BeccaTwig. I'm here to help view all the paychecks created for the employee. 

You can run the Paycheck History report to see if there is a paycheck hidden for your deleted employee. Here's how:

1. Sign in to your QuickBooks Online account.
2. Click Reports from the left menu.
3. Search for the Paycheck History report.
4. Customize the date range to when the employee started and gets deleted.
5. Click Customize on the right side of the report.
6. Choose All employees from the Who to include drop-down.
7. Select Run report.

From there, you'll be able to review all the paychecks created for the employee. I'm adding this article to know what list of payroll reports you can run in QBO: Run payroll reports in QuickBooks Online Payroll.

Come back to this post and let me know how it goes, @BeccaTwig. I want to make sure you're taken care of.

You may want to file and pay your payroll taxes. This article will help you find out which payroll taxes and forms QuickBooks Payroll pays and files for you: Payroll taxes and forms.

Have a good one!

Good day @Mark_R , I ran this report and no hidden paychecks came up.  There were two employees who, at the time that these checks were issued, worked here, but have since been terminated.  One was terminated the following October, 4 months after this issue started, and the other left the following year.  

I went through all the terminated employees and found two that had not been checked with
Show in employee lists only

Could the fact this box was not checked be causing this error?  

Hi there, @BeccaTwig.

I appreciate you for trying out the steps provided by my colleague above on how to run the Paycheck history to retrieve your employee's details. 

I replicated your concern and it shows that the Show in employee lists only option won't matter if it's checked or unchecked when searching for the created check. You can check this box if you don't want to see this employee show up in your accounting method and list.

To isolate this issue, let's perform some browser troubleshooting steps. First, let's try accessing your QuickBooks Online (QBO) account on the incognito window. This way, we can check if it's a browser-related issue. Here are the keyboard shortcuts:

• Control + Option + P (Safari)
• Press Ctrl + Shift + N (Google Chrome)
• Ctrl + Shift + P (Firefox)

Once done, contact support again by going to the Help menu. If it works, we have to clear your browser's cache to optimize your browsing experience. You can also try using a different browser. Here's the link: System requirements for QuickBooks Online.

If the issues persist, I suggest contacting our Customer Care Support. I know you've called in several times already. However, a new investigation might be created that'd be investigated by our engineers. 

Here's how:

1. Navigate the Help (?) icon.
2. Select either of these to start: Assistant or Search.
3. Choose a way to connect with us: Start a chat or Get a callback.

I'd also encourage you to visit these helpful articles below. This link contains payroll tasks and steps on how to invite employees to the workforce. 

• QuickBooks Online Payroll Full Service Hub
• Invite your employees to QuickBooks Workforce to see pay stubs, W-2s, and more

 I'm always here ready to lend a hand if you have any other follow-ups about managing your employees in QBO. I'm always here to help you out. Keep safe always.!

Good day @AbegailS_ 
I was able to log in while incognito in chrome. I am not sure if I will call again.  I have called several times, like you mentioned, but I have also created multiple tickets.  Nothing ever happens with them, other than the agent who opens it for me closes it after our call.  I have been told more to get the pro advisor plan, which is quite expensive, but this way I can get pro help.  I have yet to get any help from the customer service that is included in our plan, why would I pay you more?  I get, customer service can be profitable, but it gets to a point - like what I am dealing with - wherein I getting errors that cannot be corrected, getting logged out multiple times a day while then getting told I was able to sign in, but I do not have an account linked (wha??), time entry errors, payroll errors, and more.  All of which I have call in about and created tickets.  I even sent screenshots in for one of the tickets - just to get a response the next day stating my ticket was closed.  I provided Quickbooks with more info and you all still just closed my ticket.  I am going to take a few days to process all of this, I appreciate all of the help everyone has provided.  Thank you

So I do see the check on that date that is causing a sync error. This was a additional check issued to the employee for quitting their position after the regular payday. So I am not sure what to do because it shows. but for some reason is causing a issue

QBO also pays the taxes.

Hi @BeccaTwig, I was dealing with the same "deleted" employee issue. Quickbooks support was finally able to help me today - they had to "sync our account" on their end - there was nothing I could do on my end.

Our issue: we had terminated an employee in quickbooks online then re-hired and changed their status to active. The employee showed "Active" in payroll and paychecks were being funded but were not showing up on the profit and loss statement. I chatted to QBO support: "I'm seeking help on how to restore a deleted employee. The employees profile is "active" in payroll but there are still paycheck sync errors.", they synced the account & after refreshing it was taken care of for us.

Hope this is helpful for you! Good luck.

Hi Becca, I was dealing with the same "deleted" employee issue. Quickbooks support was finally able to help me today - they had to "sync our account" on their end - there was nothing I could do on my end.

Our issue: we had terminated an employee in quickbooks online then re-hired and changed their status to active. The employee showed "Active" in payroll and paychecks were being funded but were not showing up on the profit and loss statement. I chatted to QBO support: "I'm seeking help on how to restore a deleted employee. The employees profile is "active" in payroll but there are still paycheck sync errors.", they synced the account & after refreshing it was taken care of for us.

Hope this is helpful for you! Good luck.