Is anyone having issues with the payroll setup being too slow? We've had multiple conference calls with Intuit and they have us do the same things over and over but nothing fixes it.

Thanks for letting us know, sbarajas. I've come to help you rectify your QuickBooks performance when setting up payroll in QuickBooks Desktop.

If your QuickBooks payroll is having performance issues or is running too slow, you might want to ensure you're setting up payroll in a single-user mode and all other users have signed out. Doing so will help us run and work with your payroll setup seamlessly.

However, if you're experiencing the same behavior, QuickBooks might have decreased its performance if you're company file is too large. To help you get through this issue, you can run the Condense Data utility to reduce the size of your data file and help you keep running.

Here's how:

1. From the QuickBooks File menu, select Utilities and then Condense Data.
2. Click on Yes to the message Budget data may be moved during cleanup. Do you want to continue anyway?
3. In the Condense Data window, select Transactions before a specific date.
4. Use the Date field to select a date. QuickBooks will remove closed transactions on or before the date you choose.
5. Click Next.
6. Select a method to summarize the transactions you're removing, then Next. If you're not sure, tap on Help me choose.
7. (Optional) Click on any of the checkboxes for the dialog boxes that follow, then clickNext.
8. Select Begin Condense.

Moreover, you can run specific payroll reports to help you review your business finances and other payroll data. 

Feel free to let us know if you have further questions or concerns when running your payroll, sbarajas. We'll be more than happy to help you anytime. Have a good one!

We are having the SAME problem, ever since Quickbooks changed the way you setup an employee and added that new REQUIRED INFO tab.  I've been using Quickbooks desktop for over 25 years and have never had any issues navigating within the Employee Center.  Now it literally lags just trying to open the employee center, open any employee, and even trying to move the columns doesn't work anymore! Quickbooks tried to make an improvement and it unfortunately has failed.  This has nothing to do with the size of my company file or anything else like that.  We have a very small file size and it worked great up until Quickbooks changed the format.  It is taking us much longer to process payroll now, and time is money so it's costing our company money!  Not to mention how frustrating it is now.  Someone at Quickbooks needs to address this ASAP!!

I'll share some procedures that you can take to alleviate the challenges you're facing, Jeff L.

As someone who has been using QuickBooks Desktop for over 25 years, it's understandable that you're accustomed to a smooth and efficient workflow. I want to inform you that our software engineers recently rolled out a security patch to all supported versions to fix the Employee Center latency issue. Let's update your product to obtain the latest features and performance enhancements. Here's how:

1. Go to the Help menu.
2. Select Update QuickBooks Desktop.
3. Click Update Now, then choose Get Updates.
4. Close and reopen the program once the update is completed.
5. Select Yes from the installation prompt and follow the on-screen instructions.

Note that these are the latest releases you will need to have to get the fix:
 

• 2021 R14_39
• 2022 R9_70
• 2023 R4_174

Finally, here are some articles that you can read to help manage your employees and payroll transactions:
 

• Set up payroll preferences
• Create and run your payroll
• Run payroll reports 

Please know that you're always welcome to post again if you have any other concerns or follow-up questions. Your satisfaction is of utmost importance to us, and I'm committed to assisting you in any way I can.

Thank you, all our workstations are updated.  Let's hope that resolves the latency issue!

What about fixing the columns so they stay exactly at the width we set them to?  They always used to keep the widths on everyone's workstation (personalized).  After this update I just executed, they still do not stay at a fixed width.  Can this be addressed and fixed?

What about fixing the columns so they stay exactly at the width we set them to?  They always used to keep the widths on everyone's workstation (personalized).  After this update I just executed, they still do NOT stay at a fixed width.  Can this be addressed and fixed?

Hello, Jeff.

Thanks for getting back to us. I'm here to help fix the issue you're having with the widths of the columns in Employee Center in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT).

It's great to know that your QBDT is already updated to its latest version. We can perform some troubleshooting steps to fix your with widths of the columns in Employee Center.

To start, let's run the built-in Rebuild and Verify tools. It allows your QuickBooks software to refresh the data inside the company file.

Here's how to do it:

1. In QBDT, go to the File menu, then hover over Utilities and select Rebuild Data.
2. On the QuickBooks Information window, select OK. Follow the onscreen steps to save a backup.
3. Let the tool repair your file. It may take some time. QuickBooks may seem stuck, but as long as you can move your mouse, the tool is working.
4. When the tool finishes, select OK.
5. Go to the File menu. Then hover over Utilities and select Verify Data.
6. Let the tool check your file for data issues.

If QuickBooks doesn't find any problems, select OK. You can keep using your company file. You don't have any data damage. If it finds an issue, select Rebuild Now.

If the same thing happens, check out this article and proceed to Solutions 2 - 4 for more troubleshooting steps: Fix data damage on your QuickBooks Desktop company file.

I also recommend visiting our website for more tips and other resources you can use in the future: Self-help articles.

Please post again or leave a comment if you have additional questions. I'll be here to assist. Keep safe.

Have you noticed any improvements?

Before I do any rebuilding data, etc., have any other QB desktop users followed your procedure and actually had success with it fixing the columns??

Before I rebuild any data, have any other QB desktop users followed your procedure and actually had success fixing the column issue??