Payroll Summary Report by Class in QuickBooks Desktop Pro

Good morning, @MichelleMM1. 

It's great to see you back in the Community. Let's work together to get this problem handled with your Payroll Summary report. 

Federal Withholding is included in the report and should show properly. With that being said, let's try a few basic troubleshooting steps to help eliminate any glitches that may be occurring in the system. Using our Verify and Rebuild Data tool will allow this information to appear in the report again. Don't worry. It only takes a few easy steps. Here's how: 

Verify Data

1. Choose the Window menu and hit the Close all option. 
2. Go to the File menu. 
3. Hover over Utilities. 
4. Pick Verify Data. 

Rebuild Data

1. Go through steps 2-4. However, select Rebuild Data instead. 
2. Press OK when prompted to backup your company file. 
3. After the backup is finished, the Rebuild Data Utility will start. 
4. Hit OK when you see this message: "Rebuild has completed."

That's all there is to it. 

Using this tool should do the trick to show you the Federal Withholding on your Payroll Summary report. If you have any trouble along the way, just let me know. I want to make sure that you're back on track. Have a great day!

Fantastic, I had a feeling I was overthinking the process!  Your explanation brings it into perspective.  Enjoying my extra cup of coffee right now!  Thank you for the help John.

Thanks for posting this. I had the exact same problem. My payroll summary by class works for any date except this pay period. When I use 5/7/21 as the payroll date, the employee withholding taxes do not show up so it looks like everyone's net pay = gross pay. While I do not necessarily NEED the info reported, I would prefer the reports be accurate. Any other suggestions?

Thanks for posting this. I had the exact same problem with QB desktop 2020. Payroll summaries by class show all employee withholding taxes for any date except the current payroll 5/7/21. While I do not NEED the info to class out expenses, I would like the reports to be correct, rather than showing the gross pay and net pay the same. I ran the verfiy & rebuild and same problem exists. Any other suggestions?

Thanks for sharing your concern on this thread, michellecco.

I'd like to share another solution.

The date in the Payroll Summary report are by paycheck dates only and not by pay period dates. Before getting all the data, please make sure to update your QuickBooks Desktop to the latest release as well as the Payroll Tax Table.

Then, let's run the report for the entire calendar year and make sure that All employees are applied on the filter. 

Here's how:

1. Go to Reports > Employees & Payroll > Payroll Summary.
2. From the Dates drop-down menu, select This Calendar Year.
3. Click the Customize Report button and select the Filters tab.
4. Type Name in the search field, and choose All Employees from the Name drop-down list.
5. Hit OK.

Here's a sample screenshot for a visual reference:

To learn more about the payroll reports and how to customize it, you can read these articles: 

• Understand reports
• Customize reports in QuickBooks Desktop

Please fill me in if you have any additional questions or other concerns with your QuickBooks account. I'll be around to answer them. Have a great day!

Hi and thank you. Unfortunately, it still does not work. I received error code 179 on my rebuild. Ran file doctor and still my report looks like the attached.

Hi,

I have this same problem. I tried rebuilding my file and running file doctor. I need to get reimbursed by each company and these reports aren't showing accurate data. See attached screenshot.

I’m here to make sure you’ll get reimbursed by each company and able to run reports with correct data, Michellecco.

Since the resolution provided above didn't work, I recommend contacting our payroll support. One of our experts can pull up your account to review your data and suggest more solutions. Also, they can ensure your payroll reports generate accurate information. 

You can follow the outlined steps below to contact us:

1. Open QuickBooks.
2. Go to the Help menu, then select QuickBooks Desktop Help.
3. Select Contact Us.
4. Enter your concern, then select Continue.
5. Choose a way to connect with us:
   • Start messaging
   • Get a callback

Once resolved, you can visit this reference if you want the same report settings for future use: Create, access and modify memorized reports in QuickBooks. It helps you access the information quickly without going through the customization process again.

Please don't hesitate to add a comment here if you have any additional questions or concerns about reports. We’ll be here to help. Keep safe!

Thank you but I do not have luck with anyone who works for Intuit returning my call. I am not new to QB. The report is memorized and works fine through as saved (with a date of June 15, 2020). Beginning a few months ago, when I runt he memorized report and update to the current payroll date, the rest of the data disappears.

If anyone has seen this before, please advise. Note the attachment - no employee deductions itemized, the gross pay is labelled Net Pay. Thanks!

Did you ever find anything out about this? The "solved" answer doesnt even sound like an answer, just gibberish. And as usual, any answer that comes from QB seems like they are on another planet. Most of the time a customer's response could be, "do you even understand the question"?

Hello lakestaxes,

John-pero answered my question completely.  It was quite simple, in that I did not need to class my federal tax deposits.  Rather, they are classed accordingly when I run payroll.  Are you referring to the other posts in the string, maybe michellecco? 

Thanks, Michelle

Probably referring to a different post. I'm wondering about the report. Report dated 1/17/22 payroll by class shows the taxes being taken out and then net pay like normal. If I'm in the same report and just change the date to 1/31/22 is shows no taxes being taken out and the net pay is the same as the gross pay. Only change was an update.

Hi lakestaxes, you are correct. My post is about the report. I understand that QB payroll classes out the taxes appropriately, but when I am sending each entity their report showing what is due. the report is incorrect. It shows the gross pay line items, gross summary listed as net, no deductions, then the employer taxes. I run an LLC that is in existence only as  common paymaster for other entities, so really would like this report to be correct for reimbursement purposes from each entity I am doing payroll for.

Are you having the same problem or have you found any solution?

I'll help you take out the taxes, lakestaxes and michellecco.

First, let's start with making sure your QuickBooks is in the latest version and your Payroll Tax Table is up-to-date. Then, you'll need to review the employee's tax setup since this is how QuickBooks determines the calculation.

After you've run payroll updates, it's time to revert your employee's paycheck. By reverting the paycheck, this will refresh your payroll information to calculate the taxes on the transaction. I've included some steps to revert paychecks below. 

1. Open your employee's Payroll Information.
2. Right-click the name of your employee (highlighted in yellow). 
3. Click on Revert Paycheck.

For additional reference about this process, please check out this article: How to save or revert pending paychecks.

To learn more about how QuickBooks calculates taxes and understand the tax amounts reported on your paycheck or the year-to-date (YTD) payroll report, you can refer to this help article: How QuickBooks calculates payroll taxes. 

Feel free to take a look at the articles I've included for further details and additional troubleshooting steps.:

• Payroll items on a paycheck are not calculating or are calculating incorrectly
• QuickBooks Desktop calculates wages and/or payroll taxes incorrectly

I'm just around in the Community if you need more help with managing your payroll taxes or other QuickBooks-related concerns. I'd be glad to help you some more. Take care and stay safe.

While this is all very nice information, it is NOT AT ALL what is wrong. The paychecks are withholding taxes. The PAYROLL SUMMARY REPORTS are not SHOWING those taxes if sorted by employee or class. Only if total payroll summary. Again, there is a bug causing my REPORT to print incorrectly.

Agree with michellecco -- payroll summary report does not show each withholding tax when report filtered by CLASS.   Only gross pay and employer contribution is shown

I appreciate the details you provided to us, michellecco.

I just tried this report in my QuickBooks and payroll data seems to flow correctly. The payroll taxes deducted in each employee's paycheck should show regardless if you change the option to Show Columns by Total, Employee, or even Class.

We can isolate this issue by performing troubleshooting steps to see and fix any possible data damage. To do this, we'll use the Verify and Rebuild tools.

To run the Verify Utility:

1. Go to File menu, then Utilities.
2. Choose Verify Data.
3. Select OK when you see the message QuickBooks detected no problem with your data. You may continue using your company file.
4. If Verify finds an issue with your data, you will be prompted to Rebuild Now or View Errors.

You may also run the Rebuild Utility like this:

1. From the File menu.
2. Go to Utilities menu, choose Rebuild Data.
3. You'll be prompted to back up your company file. Select OK.
4. Select OK when you get the message Rebuild has completed.

Once done, run the verify utility tool again to check if there are still errors. If it does, you may run the rebuild again. It's common for a rebuild to be ran two or three times, as long as your error messages are changing without looping, it's working. 

I've added this link as your reference in fixing possible data issues in QuickBooks Desktop.

After this, you can check the payroll summary report if the taxes are now showing. You may also try personalizing your own reports and use this article as your guide: Customize reports in QuickBooks Desktop.

Let me know how this goes by leaving a comment below. I'll be around if you need me. Have a good one.

I found the best report for payroll by class is under the report tab click on employees and in the pop up box click More payroll reports in Excel then click on Payroll by Department/Class.  This report has a payroll by transaction class that will give you the info you need.

John,

I know your post is about 2 years old, but I wanted to respond with an update as of 2/7/23. Employer taxes are no longer being classed and there appears to be no way to run a report to determine how much of the employer tax expense belong to what class. Below is my "feedback" after spending over 2 hours on the phone with support, only to be told.....QuickBooks is operating as engineered. I wonder if you have any thoughts on this?

The QuickBooks engineers have decided that there is no need to class employer tax expenses in Payroll. So now I have amounts sitting in "Unclassified" with no way to determine how much goes to each class unless I open every pay check (I have over 90 employees)and manually add up the employer taxes, then determine which class each employee belongs to and get a total for the class. Then make a journal entry to get the amounts in the right class. To the QuickBooks Engineers: "You are obviously not accountants, please consult a professional accountant before deciding what is and is not important."

Cindy,

You are a brilliant life saver! The report you mention solves what would have been a HUGE headache for me. Thank you! 

Oh my gosh, that is insane! I need to class my payroll expenses out every 2 weeks. Why would they NOT think the taxes should also be classed? Thank you for this heads up. I am running payroll tomorrow so glad to not be surprised.

I will be checking it out soon as well. Thanks in advance. 

1) The Payroll Summary report you mention that's in the More Payroll Reports in Excel using Payroll by Department/Class is helpful, thank you, but where are the hours that show up in the regular Payroll Summary report? We need to tie out those hours by each location and previously the hours were there. Now this alternate report only shows the pay amounts and not the associated hours. 

Has anyone found another report that includes hours??

2) Here's what I found in using the regular Payroll Summary report from the Reports menu/Employees & Payroll/Payroll Summary: when first choosing this report it seems to default to "Show Columns: Employee" where the employee's Taxes Withheld and Deductions from Net Pay (which is actually mislabeled since they are listed BEFORE Net Pay) show and are deducted to arrive at that employee's Net Pay, a Net Pay that is different from Total Gross Pay and Adjusted Gross Pay. But staying in that report and ONLY changing to "Show Columns: Class" makes those categories disappear and allows Net Pay to incorrectly match Adjusted Gross Pay. 

And now, here's what changed: We were previously using in Preferences for Payroll & Employees on the Company Preferences tab the option of "Job Costing, Class and Item tracking for paycheck expenses" with "Assign one class per Entire paycheck" BUT then we recently changed that preference to "Assign one class per Earnings item". Somewhere in that switchover the Taxes Withheld and Deductions from Net Pay disappear from the Payroll Summary report. The Payroll Summary reports for previous payrolls are fine, reports run for payrolls after the switch are NOT! (The only reason we did the switch is that QBks no longer allows us to have more than one active "employee" with the same social security number so we can't assign the separate hours for a multi-location employee on separate paychecks anymore.)