How do I suspend a payroll in QB?.

Thank you for reaching out, WLS. 

We’re sorry to see you go, but we want to make the process as easy as possible for you. Before canceling your subscription, make sure to clear any pending payments or forms to avoid the penalty. Also, print out the necessary payroll reports for future reference. 

After that, refer to the steps below on how to suspend your payroll in QuickBooks Online. 

1. Click the Gear icon in the top right corner of your QuickBooks Online account.
2. Select Account and Settings.
3. Go to the Billing & Subscription tab.
4. Click Cancel in the Subscription Status line of the Payroll section.
5. Select Continue to cancel.
6. Complete the short survey, then hit Confirm cancel. 

Once your account is canceled, you'll have access to your data for six months until the end of the tax year. I've attached some articles you can use to access payroll reports and submit quarterly tax forms, as well as some tips to protect your business during the coronavirus outbreak:

• Run Payroll Reports
• File Payroll Forms
• Backing you in tough times 

Keep me posted if you have any other concerns about your payroll. I'll be happy to lend a helping hand.

Thanks for the response, but as i mentioned I don't want to stop the payroll completely, just suspend it for a few months until the COVID19 issue has got better and business starts to pick up, can i do this?

We are in the same situation now - end of July.  We would like to pause the billing of "Payroll" service as we only pay ourselves, and currently the business has no income and therefore no payroll for ourselves (the two owners) right now.  We'd like to pause then re-activate again once business starts again.  Will we have to re-set up all of our connections to state payroll office, etc? We just don't want to be billed while we have no payroll.  Thanks!

Hello, doubbletroubble.

We want to make this easy for you, and the virus has indeed impacted a lot of businesses. That said, I'm more than happy to show you how you can cancel and reactivate the payroll service. 

The good news is that you don't have to set up your connections to the state payroll office or any other data again after canceling. Before doing this however, make sure you've already done the following: 

• Paid your outstanding payroll taxes and filed any pending forms
• Printed important payroll reports

Once those are done, here's how you can cancel the service: 

1. Open the Gear icon menu, and choose Account and settings. 
2. Go to the Billing & Subscription tab.
3. In the Payroll box, click Cancel. 
4. Follow the prompts and complete the short survey to proceed with the cancellation. 

After cancelling, you'll still have access to your data for six months. When you're ready to reactivate it when your business starts again, simply go to the Billing & Subscription page again. Then, click on Resubscribe under the Payroll section. 

Small but important additional details are found here: Cancel and reactivate your Online Payroll account.

If you need help with other tasks or processes in QuickBooks Online, you're more than welcome to browse our articles. Click here to go to our general support page. Change the product under Topics for if you need help with other platforms.

My colleagues and I are always here to help. Reply to me if you have other future questions for the QuickBooks Online program. Take good care out there. 

I have 2-3 employees and have no payroll now.  I want to suspend my account but be able to get the w-2's for 2021 and resume payroll as soon as business picks up.  I don't want to lose data and it will be suspended for 7 or 8 months.  Please advise.

 Thank you for joining the thread, @athineos.

I'll be sharing you some steps you can perform so you can temporarily suspend your account then successfully prepare the W2 Form.

In the meantime, you can cancel your account and have the read-only access for a year of your company data. If you wish to prepare your W2 form, you'll need to resubscribe for the month so QuickBooks downloads the latest tax forms.

To cancel your QuickBooks Online (QBO) subscription:

1. Open your QBO account, then select Account and Settings from the Gear icon.
2. Go to the Billing & Subscription tab, then select Cancel subscription or Cancel online in the QuickBooks section.
3. Select Continue to cancel, then select Continue to cancel again (if applicable).
4. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process.

To resubscribe or reactivate your account:

1. Log in to your QBO account.
2. Tap on the Gear icon at the upper-right corner of the page, then choose Account and Settings.
3. Select Billing & Subscription, then Resubscribe and enter the updated billing information.
4. Hit Subscribe.

Once completed, follow these steps:

1. Log out, then log in again.
2. Click Account and Settings from the Gear icon.
3. Choose Billing & Subscription, then check the next charge date. If it's a date in the past, contact our Support Team to prevent back-billed charges from occurring.

For additional references about these instructions, check out the details from these links:

• Cancel your QuickBooks Online subscription or trial
• How to resubscribe or reactivate QuickBooks Online

Also, these articles serve as guides in case you'll be preparing your W-2 forms in the future. Feel free to read the topics from here:

• How to print W-2s forms
• File W-2 forms

I'm a few clicks away to help if you have any other questions. Just add a comment below. Have a great day, @athineos!