Wage Garnishment Check

Welcome and thank you for posting here in the Community page, @robertinc.

I'm here to help you pay the wage garnishment in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

When setting up garnishment, you'll need to select the account affected for that specific garnishment and create an expense/check with the correct amount.

To check for the accounts affected:

1. Go to the Gear icon.
2. Select Payroll Settings.
3. Click on Preferences.
4. Click Accounting Preferences.
5. You can check the accounts affected under Other Liability & Asset Accounts.

After checking the account affected, you may also check the account under the chart of accounts by going to the Gear icon and selecting Chart of Accounts. You can now then create a Check/Expense using the specific account.

As always, you may get in touch with our Payroll Support if you need further assistance. For the support's contact information, you may check it here: https://payroll.intuit.com/support/contact/?infosrc=qs&service=64.

Also, for additional information about garnishment in QBO, you can check this article: Garnishment.

Feel free to add a comment below if you have any other payroll concerns, we're always here to help. Have a great day ahead!

Thank you!! 

I do have another question. My employee wages are not showing up in my vary of accounts anywhere. And when I run a profit and loss report, they aren’t showing up either. Do you think I don’t have something checked right in settings?

Hi there, @robertinc.

Allow me to step in and share with you some insights about accounting your employee's wages.

Deductions from an employee's paycheck are not expenses to you, therefore they don't belong on a Profit and Loss report. Only income and expense activity belong there.

However, if you'd like to update the account where wages report, take a look at your payroll accounting preferences:

1. Click the Gear icon.
2. Choose Payroll Settings.
3. Select the Preferences tab.
4. Click Accounting Preferences.
5. Go to the Wage Expense Accounts section and update the necessary information. 
6. Click OK to save changes.

Please check out this article for more details: Set up Payroll account preferences.

That's it. You can always get back into this post if you have more questions about payroll. I'd be happy to answer them all for you. Have a wonderful day!

I should have said Profit and Loss by Project. I need to be able to track employee wages by project and on quickbooks desktop they show up on the P&L by job so you can see what you have spent on that particular job. I have set up timesheets and put the correct project on the time sheet but they are still not showing on the p&l bu project.

Thanks for coming back to the Community and for the additional details, robertinc.

Let me share some insights about tracking the employee wages by project.

You're accurate, QuickBooks Desktop allows you to track it using the Profit and Loss by Job. In QuickBooks Online (QBO), you have to create a time charge, mark it as billable and add it to an invoice. After that the customer's transactions will show on the Profit and Loss report (Accrual basis).

However, the employees' payroll wages aren't included on the Profit and Loss report, since we are unable to associate a project on the paycheck.

Alternatively, you can run two reports to track the employee wages by project.

Here's how:

To run the Time Activities by Employee Detail report:

1. Select Reports on the left pane.
2. Enter and select Time Activities by Employee Detail in the search box.
3. Set the date range and click Run report (see the screenshot below).

To run the Project profitability report:

1. Choose Projects on the left pane.
2. Click the project name.
3. Select View for the Project Profitability report.
4. Choose Accrual or Cash for the Accounting Method (see the screenshot below).
5. Click Run report.

For more details about the project feature in QBO, check these articles:

• Set up and Use Projects
• Projects FAQs

I'll personally send a feedback statement to our engineers about tracking the employee wages in the Profit and Loss report. It'd be best if you can also submit a suggestion directly to them by going to the Gear icon, then selecting Feedback. They'll use it to make product improvements.

Thanks for your input. Keep me posted on your results and reach out to me if there is anything else you need. I’ll be here to lend a hand. Have a good one.

Thanks for the reply and it did help somewhat. In the time activities report, it shows what is billable for the employee per project. It does not show what was actual spent. Is there a report that will show just the employee wages per project? 

Hi robertinc,

As of now, there's no report showing the employee wages per project. However, the Time Activities by Employee Detail report that was discussed to you by one of my colleagues @PreciousB is the closest report that you can consider.

Also, I suggest sending feedback to our engineering team by going to the Gear icon, then select Feedback. This way, they can consider this report in our future updates.

You can always get back into this post if you have more questions. Have a good day.

Hello Angelyn,

I have set up a wage garnishment in QBO by adding the deduction in the payroll settings and I see that QB created a payroll liability account. How do I offset that liability account when I make the payment to the State? When creating a check, the liability account is not showing up under the categories.  If I create a new expense account, how will they offset each other? In the desktop version I would create a custom liability check but do not see that option in QBO.  Thank you for your help.

Hello there, @Sibyl. 

Thanks for joining this thread. I can help you record the payment you made to your state for the Wage Garnishment.

You will have to choose the account used when setting up the Wage Garnishment in entering the check transaction. You can go to your Accounting Preferences, to verify the information.

Here's how:

1. Click the Gear icon.
2. Choose Payroll Settings.
3. Click the Preferences heading.
4. Select Accounting Preferences.
5. Look for the Wage Garnishment item and check the account.

Once done, you're ready to enter the correct account on the Check window.

1. Click the Plus icon.
2. Choose Check.
3. On the Bank Account drop-down, choose the account you use for liability payments.
4. From the Choose a payee drop-down, choose the vendor.
5. In the Account details section, select the account you use for Wage Garnishment.
6. Enter the amount and other necessary information.
7. Click Save.

For more details, you can refer to this article: Create a payroll liability check.

That should get you on the right track, Sibyl. Let me know if you have additional questions. Just add a comment below. I'm still here to offer more help.