I am trying to add to an existing payroll subscription and get the error code 30159. Please help me fix this.

The message says ERROR 30159 - Unable to load account for PSID null : Entitlement is Enabled, but Entitlement Unit is deactivated.

Good morning, @JAMA1117.

I'm here to help you fix your payroll.

Allow me to give you some insight as to why you're receiving this error. 

Possible reasons for the error

• Inactive payroll subscription
• More than one active payroll agreement with an inactive Direct Deposit agreement
• Damaged QuickBooks Desktop file: paysub.ini
• Data damage
• Product not updated
• Incorrect Service Key
• Incorrect Employer Identification Number (EIN) in the company file
• Incorrect PSID in the company file
• The version of QuickBooks Desktop you are using does not support your version of Windows
• The status of the payroll subscription in the QuickBooks Desktop Service Keys screen appears as "Invalid number or EIN."

Verify your Desktop Payroll subscription

1. Ensure that you have the latest QuickBooks Desktop release and downloaded the newest tax table release.
2. Open QuickBooks Desktop Payroll Account Maintenance. Then close the page.
3. Reboot your computer.
4. Download the payroll update, again.
5. Reset QuickBooks Desktop Update.

Note: If you are using Direct Deposit for the company file that is having this issue, please contact us. And do not follow the instructions below.

If the steps above didn't work, you could try the following. However, if you are running a direct deposit — do not try to follow these steps and contact us.

1. Close QuickBooks Desktop and Rename paysub.ini. (Note: Repeat for all paysub.ini files found. The system does not permit the same name twice. You can add a number or extra letter for every paysub file found.)
2. Open QuickBooks Desktop Payroll Account Maintenance. And check if the payroll service shows Active, then close the page.

It validates your payroll service online and should resolve the error. Otherwise, perform a clean install of QuickBooks in Selective Startup.

Thank you for reaching out to the Community. If you have any other questions, I'm only a reply away. 

I am trying to add to an existing payroll subscription.  If I rename the paysub.ini will this ruin all of the other EINs I have added to my existing subscription (up to 50 for Accountants) or does it go by FEIN only?  I have run direct deposit in the past but have not for several years so I am back at the starting point of turning on payroll for this specific FEIN.

Renaming the paysub.ini will not affect the other tax IDs that are already added in your account, JAMA1117.

It's a file registry that's downloaded every time you connect or sync your company file to our payroll server.

The EIN that you're trying to add might have already been registered to your account in the past. This can be the reason why you're getting an error when adding it back to your subscription. 

If that's the case, please contact our Payroll Support Team so they can reactivate it. Here's how: 

1. Go to the Help menu and select QuickBooks Desktop Help. 
2. Click Contact Us. 

You can also reach out to our Chat Support Team through this link: Do It Yourself.

Let me know if you need anything else. 

Can I upgrade to QB2020 and purchase a new payroll subscription?  I am not having any luck with the other options.

You can always upgrade to QuickBooks Desktop 2020, JAMA1117.

Before doing so, I suggest reaching out to our Customer Support Team. They can check what's causing this error. It'd be best to just use the existing payroll subscription since you'll be using the same payroll data especially the EIN.

We can follow the same steps shared by JenoP in reaching out to them.

You'll want to read this article about QuickBooks Desktop Payroll. This will give you more details about payroll features in QuickBooks Desktop.

I'll be happy to assist you if you need more help. Have a great day!

What year are you trying to add the new client?  You can't use an existing payroll subscription in 2020.  You have to call QB support and they will add it for you. 

I spent an hour on the phone with them trying to figure this problem out before that is what they figured out.  They say it's for "our protection" and more secure.  How it's more secure by me giving a stranger the key information about my client is beyond me.  I don't have time to spend on the phone with them and I work a lot late nights and weekends and now I have to work around their schedule!

This clients ein got deleted by mistake and need to make active

We'll have to reactivate the EIN in our system, yellowrose1.

You can login to the QuickBooks Payroll Account Maintenance Portal and reactivate the EIN. Here's how:

1. Go to the Employees menu, scroll-down to My Payroll Service, then click Account/Billing Information.
2. Log in to your account.
3. Proceed to the Service Information section.
4. Click the Add More link beside Total # of EINS.
5. Follow the succeeding prompts to reactivate the EIN.

If you're getting an error, please contact our Payroll Support Team so they can verify your account and proceed to reactivating it. Here's how:

1. Go the Help menu and select QuickBooks Desktop Help.
2. Click Contact Us.
3. Let them know that you need make to reactivate an EIN under your subscription.
4. Click Continue, then select if you want to schedule a callback.

Don't hesitate to reach out to us again if you need more help in adding or removing tax IDs.

My subscription was activated and paid.  I have four companies trying to do payroll and can only

do payroll for one company.  I never had this problem before.

I  have been on hold nearly one hour. Can some one help with this problem.

Please check the last two calls I made for this same issue.

Hi @123421,

Only our payroll care specialist can continue where you left off since the Community if a public forum and we're unable to pull up any account information.

With this, let's edit and re-enter your payroll service key so QuickBooks will initiate a new connection and activate your payroll subscription.

1. Go to Employees.
2. Select My Payroll Service.
3. Click Manage Service Key.
4. Find and select your payroll service key.
5. Select Remove.
6. Click Add.
7. Enter your active payroll service key.
8. Select Finish.
9. Click OK.

In addition, here's an article you can read to learn more about payroll service key: Enter your payroll service or disk delivery key.

Lastly, I'm also including a reference here for ideas with managing your payroll tasks: Employees and Payroll Taxes.

If there's anything else that I  can help you with, let me know in the comments. I'll be happy to help.

I AM GETTING 30159 ERROR ON PAYROLL 

Hi there, @BOB9X4.

The error that you're getting usually shows up when opening the Payroll Account Maintenance page, validating your payroll subscription, activating Direct Deposit, and getting payroll updates.  Can you tell us  what button did you click before getting the error?

Some of the possible reasons that are causing this error when trying to do these tasks include: 

• You have an inactive payroll subscription
• Your Service Key is incorrect
• You have an incorrect Employer Identification Number (EIN) in the company file

I'd recommend reaching out to our Payroll Support Team to help check the status of your account. They can help activate your payroll subscription and validate the service key.

1. Go to Help and select QuickBooks Desktop Help.
2. Click Contact Us.
3. Enter your questions or concerns and click on Let's talk.
4. Choose either Start a chat or Get a callback.

I've got you these helpful articles about fixing a problem when validating your payroll subscription:

• Resolve a problem verifying your payroll subscription
• Enter your payroll service or disk delivery key
• Activate QuickBooks Desktop Payroll

Stay in touch if you have other questions about QuickBooks. Have a good one. 

We recently removed Enterprise from our computer and are using Desktop Premier which was active all along.  Since doing that now I get this error message that payroll subscription is inactive.

After I update payroll, Subscription Alert. Invalid Number or EIN

Hello there, anton_2020.

There are a few possible reasons why you get this error message.

• Inactive payroll subscription
• More than one active payroll agreement with an inactive Direct Deposit agreement
• Data damage
• Product not updated
• Incorrect Service Key
• Incorrect Employer Identification Number (EIN) in the company file
• Incorrect PSID in the company file
• The version of QuickBooks Desktop you are using does not support your version of Windows
• The status of the payroll subscription in the QuickBooks Desktop Service Keys screen appears as "Invalid number or EIN"

You can verify your QuickBooks Desktop Payroll subscription. Here's how: 

1. Ensure that you have the latest QuickBooks Desktop release and downloaded the latest tax table release.
2. Open Payroll Account Management portal. Then close the page.
3. Reboot your computer.
4. Download the payroll update, again.
5. Reset QuickBooks Desktop Update.

If the steps above didn't work, you can try the following. However, if you are running direct deposit — do not try to follow these steps, and contact us.

1. Open Payroll Account Management portal. Check if the payroll service shows Active. Then close the page.

It validates your payroll service online and should resolve the error. Otherwise, perform a clean install of QuickBooks in Selective Startup.

Please find this helpful article to guide you with your payroll. Get Started With Payroll.

Keep in touch if you need anything else. I'll be here to help you.

I bought the payroll 2020 software cd rom and I had payroll, then covid hit, now I am trying to pay an employee that is back to work. However it says that I do not have payroll

Thanks for joining this thread, @RealSteel.

To further check your account and to verify the status of your payroll subscription, I suggest reaching out to our Payroll Support Team. They will pull up your account in a secure place and help you investigate what is the root cause of the issue. 

To connect with our live support, please follow the steps below:

1. Go to the Help tab.
2. Select QuickBooks Desktop Help.
3. Click Contact us.
4. In the What can we help you with? box, type the keyword of your concern.
5. Hit Let's talk.
6. Choose Start a chat. 

You may also check our set-up payroll page, to guide you in managing your payroll in QuickBooks. This article includes info for the information you need before setting up payroll, how to know your payroll service, pay and file federal and state taxes, etc. 

Please know that you can return here if you have any further issues with running your payroll in QuickBooks. I'll be here to help. Take care always.

I have 5 payrolls including my own.  2 of them quit working in the 2nd quarter of 2020. I tried all the rebuilds, fixes, etc.   Once Intuit deactivates the FIN associated with your payroll, I could not find a way to get that client payroll working using any of the "fixes".   

The Solution was to call and let intuit reactivate the FIN.  The person I talked to was very helpful and walked me through the same process I had been doing but they gave me the Service key to enter and fixed their end which allowed me to "use my existing subscription".  I got a welcome to payroll service message instead of the error code.

I can not open my payroll.  I get a message the the P/R service is inactive.

I am trying to add a new account to my existing PR subscription.  The account being added is using your Quickbooks online feature.  Is that the reason I am unable to add her EIN to my subscription and if so, how do we work around this problem?

Yes, you're correct, @BP2021.

Currently, we're unable to merge a payroll service (QuickBooks Payroll) to QuickBooks Online.

I understand that this could help a lot when you can sign in to the same page and easily navigate the interface when managing your QuickBooks account like the QuickBooks Online Payroll bundle. For now, I'd suggest using the same sign-in information to make use of the Switch account feature. This way, you can jump to another QuickBooks subscription without reentering sign-in credentials.

To switch between companies when you're in QuickBooks, select Gear⚙ and then Switch company.

For the detailed steps to sign in with one user ID, you can reference this article: Sign in to multiple QuickBooks companies with one user ID.

I've added a page where you can check articles on how to update company information and data & security: Account management.

I'd be happy to assist you anytime if you have additional questions. I'm always here, ready to help. Stay safe and have a great day!

 I may need to clarify what I am trying to do.  We are attempting to add the payroll processing subscription to our desktop program from a previous payroll service provider.  Our client uses your online service for her bookkeeping but not payroll.

Hello there, BP2021.

If you're adding our QuickBooks Online Payroll service, you can use this article on how to activate it: Get started with Payroll. On the other hand, I'd suggest reaching out to our Phone Support Team to purchase and to be provided your payroll service key. 

Let me know if you have other questions. Always know the Community is available 24/7 to help. Take care!