I was able to work with Yearli - yearliapp.greatland.com

I had to type all the data into a spreadsheet they formatted - lots of manual entry and pay a fee for them to file electronically.

This is utterly absurd that QB does not file these, does not provide a formatted file for electronic transfer and then lies on their website. 

 

 MonicaM3

Moderator

‎January 05, 2022 01:21 PM

 

 

 

 

Hi @CoopGun 78.

 

I hope your day is going well. You're really ahead of the game getting your W-2s filed already. That's awesome.

 

To answer your question, when you electronically file your W-2s, all information W-2/W-3 is automatically sent to the SSA and state agencies in addition to the IRS. There is no need for you to take any additional action.

 

You can check this off your to-do list!

 

Feel free to stop back in if you have any additional questions about year-end or anything else. We're happy to help anytime.

 

 

Hey QB- its 2023...do you ever plan to fix this??? Our desktop clients also cannot use the EFW2 which is required by WI.  What in the actual....

Hi there, ScottOcpa.

Thank you for visiting the QuickBooks Community. Please know that we aim to deliver customer satisfaction at all times and fix an issue as soon as possible. With this, I'll be sharing some details so that the EFW2 works smoothly in QuickBooks Desktop. Then, I'll ensure you'll be pointed to the right support team to assist you further with this EFW2 matter.

Employers and payroll providers use the EFW2 format to electronically report W2 forms to the SSA (Social Security Administration). Having said that, our program already supports the electronic filing of W2 forms in QuickBooks Desktop. Please know that before running any actions related to W2, you'll have to make sure that you download and get the newest tax table in QuickBooks Payroll. This is to provide you with up-to-date, accurate rates and calculations for federal and supported state taxes, payroll tax forms, and e-file and e-pay options. 

Once done, you can manually create an EFW2 file through the following steps below.

1. Go to the Employees menu at the top.
2. Choose Payroll Tax Forms & W-2s and create State W-2 E-file.
3. Click Continue twice and select your state from the drop-down, then select Get QuickBooks Data.
4. Select OK. 
5. Choose the Add-Ins tab to locate the QuickBooks Payroll State W-2 drop-down. Then, select Start Interview.
6. Check the box I understand that I must review my data and answer the following questions. Then, select Next.
7. Note the file name and location. Select Next.
8. Answer the questions in the interview and review any auto-populated info. Then, click Next until you reach the End of Interview.
9. Choose the Create W-2 File option, then select OK.
10. Select Yes to save the Excel workbook for your records.

After that, open a web browser and go to the state agency website. From there, follow the instructions to upload the EFW2 file to complete the process.

However, if the issue persists, I recommend contacting our QuickBooks Support Team. They have the tools to pull up your account which is needed in investigating the cause of the issue to fix it as soon as possible.

Lastly, you may refer to this article to see steps on how you can run a specific report that gives you the total payroll wages, taxes, deductions, and contributions: Create a payroll summary report in QuickBooks.

Let me know in the comments below if you have other payroll and W-2 concerns. I'm just around to help, ScottOcpa. Take care always.

Where is the confirmation that state w2s were sent when we send federal w2s?  

Hi there, mary.  I'm here to help you with your tax forms.

Once we've processed your W-2 filing, you'll receive an email notification when they have been accepted by the IRS. You can check the status of your filing by going to the status page in  QuickBooks Online (QBO). I'll show you how:

1. Go to Taxes from the left menu. 

2. Select Payroll Taxes.

3. Click Payroll forms or filings, the W-2. 

For more information about W-2 forms, please check out the articles below:

• File W-2 forms
• W-2 General form and filing information

Keep me posted if there's anything else you need about the form. I'll be around to provide the information you need. Take care!

This is all nice and well for QB Desktop users, but how and when can QB online users create the required EFW2 file the State filing? South Carolina also requires EFW2 format.

Thanks for joining this conversation, Nordi.

Allow me to jump in and help ensure this is taken care of for you.

We want to make sure our customers are compliant with their state guidelines. However, the option to create EFW2 file is currently unavailable in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

We'd love to hear your inputs. I recommend leaving feedback to notify our engineers about the feature you need. This way, they can consider adding it in the future updates.

Here's how to submit feedback:

1. In QBO, click the Gear (Settings) icon at the top right.
2. Select Feedback.
3. Enter your comments or product suggestions.
4. Tick Next to submit feedback.

You can track feature requests through the QuickBooks Online Feature Requests website.

For more information about managing and filing W-2s in QBO, consider checking out these articles:

• File your W-2 forms.
• Print your W-2 and W-3 forms.
• Get answers to your W-2 questions.

I'm also adding this article that tackles running specific report that gives you the total payroll wages, taxes, deductions, and contributions for future reference: Create a payroll summary report in QuickBooks.

Please know that I'm only a post away if you have more questions about this or anything else. I'm more than willing to help. Take care.

Hello @FritzF 

Thanks for your response! 

Since this EFW2 discussion is already over 4 years old, I am very concerned that requests like that are not considered as important. As you can read in the thread, multiple States require EFW2 file formats, so there is definitely a need. And I am sure the colleagues which have posted have already requested this feature.

So what is your work around suggestion in lieu of having the EFW2 option? Manually entering each employee on the State site is not only VERY time consuming, but also has a huge risk of typos.

Please let me know what QBO suggests!

Thanks!

Hey @MonicaM3 

Your statement about the W-2 filings being automatically filed with the State is incorrect! I am sure SC is not the only State.

You have to file on their website and to do this somewhat "automatically", you have to upload a EFW2 file - which QuickBooks Online DOES NOT provide! So you have to enter every employee manually...

Guido

It's now 2024 and it seems  QBO STILL HAS NOT even so much as come up with the ability to put all the information in a downloadable excel report that could then be imported into the forms that states require.  How is this considered "full payroll service"?!  Requiring each company to manually copy and paste 33 pieces of information for every employee? 

Has anyone found an app that will take all the information from a W2 in pdf format (the only format QBO provides) and convert it into something similar to excel? 

I understand you need functionalities in QuickBooks Online, @Mcsbend.

For now, I'll take note of your feedback to help improve our service and your overall QuickBooks experience. I highly appreciate your patience and understanding as we work on enhancing our product. You may personally send this idea to our program developers to work on its progress and include them in future updates. To do that:

1. You can go to the Gear icon.
2. Under the Profile column, press the Feedback button.
3. Write your product suggestion, then click Next.

Moreover, I'm adding this helpful article as your reference in filing your W-2 and W-3 forms in QuickBooks Online: File your W-2 and W-3 forms.

Please don't hesitate to return to this post if you have concerns about your W-2 forms in QuickBooks Online. I'll be here to lend a hand.

yearli.com did it for me. Kinda pricey but I was desperate

I completely agree.  Crazy that I can't create an efw2 for a state that isn't in the list!!

@FritzF People have been requesting this for years, yet there is nothing in the features requests website that I can see. Please link to the specific request if there is one. Also, there is obviously demand for this to be fixed - can we ever expect this functionality to be added to QB Online? Or should we abandon hope since QBO wants to withhold our own payroll information from us in any meaningful format?

It is very frustrating and time-consuming to extract the W-2 information from the PDF files and manually enter it into the state website. The PDFs are poorly designed and the data is scattered all over the place. It would be much easier if we could just download a CSV file with all the relevant fields in one place.

I can try to make my own spreadsheet starting with the payroll detail report or summary. But that is not a good alternative either, because it does not include the employee address/SSN, which are essential for filing the W-2s. I have to go back and forth between different screens and reports to get the complete information.

This is a serious problem that affects our productivity and accuracy. Please prioritize this feature request and add the option to export the W-2 data in a CSV format as soon as possible.

This isn't the kind of service we want you to experience, @KM-. 

I know how important it is to have the EFW2 format of the W-2 form added to the program so you can submit it to your state agencies. Allow me to chime in and provide more details about this matter.

Submitting feedback can help emphasize the importance of certain requests. Thus, you can send one to demonstrate the collective urgency and significance of the matter at hand.

On the other hand, the QuickBooks Online Feature Request link provided by my colleague above will only show the list of the common requests made by other users. However, if you have submitted your request, you can check or track it by signing into your account and clicking the Give Feedback hyperlink, then hovering to the bottom of the page and clicking My Feedback. 

Moreover, our Product Development team is working diligently to improve your experience with QuickBooks. We might not be able to provide a specific time frame for when this feature will be available. However, we'll keep you updated once it's available in the program. 

You're always welcome to reach the Community space if you have other questions about filing W-2s or any queries about QuickBooks. We'll be here to help you address them.

Local tax reconciliations are due every year.  It is an ongoing, time consuming deficiency in QuickBooks to not be able to utilize technology and quickly and accurately upload the format required by Ohio for the State's reconciliations, since this is also a SSA  requirement.  "Developers of payroll and tax reporting software must follow these file formats when submitting wage data files electronically to SSA." 

Perhaps if you could explain why it is so difficult to provide the EFW2 format of the W2 to QuickBook Online Payroll clients I would be less frustrated January 31st of each year.  

If QB can produce W2 file upload for the state, the locals are the exact same format, why is this so difficult.

Tamera Morris 

[email address removed]