Starting mid year with Quickbooks online payroll

It's great to see you in the Community today, GingerTexas.

Let's input your payroll data via journal entry so you can reconcile it in QuickBooks Online (QBO). I'd be delighted to walk you through the steps.

To start, you'll have to set up manual tracking accounts. Here's how:

1. In your company, head to the Accounting menu on the left panel and choose Chart of accounts. 
2. Click the New menu to open the New account screen. 
3. Choose Expenses and select the category type from the Save account under drop-down. 

• Payroll Expenses: Wages
• Payroll Expenses: Taxes
  

Next, create the following liability accounts and make sure to select Liabilities as the account type:

• Payroll Liabilities: Federal Taxes (941/944)
• Payroll Liabilities: Federal Unemployment (940)
• Payroll Liabilities: [State] SUI/ETT
• Payroll Liabilities: [State] PIT/SDI

Once done, perform the solution found in Step 2 in this article: Manually enter payroll paychecks in QuickBooks Online.

If you paid multiple employees for the pay period, combine all of their paycheck totals into one transaction. Also, enter separate journal entries for each employee if you need to break out the details.

After setting up everything, you can start reconciling the account. To learn more about how payroll reconciliation works, check this guide: Payroll reconciliation: A how-to guide for 2023.

If you wish to record the year-to-date data through the payroll service, I recommend contacting our Payroll Support Team for further assistance. To obtain the support details:

1. In your company, navigate to the Help icon in the upper right to display the support window.
2. Go to the Assistant tab and then enter a brief description of your concern in the Type something field.
3. Click the Get help from a human link and type a phrase or keyword in the field.
4. Press the Continue button to view the support options.
5. Choose Chat to initiate a conversation and Callback to speak with an agent.

Here's a handy guide and videos to help you accomplish your payroll tasks: Get started.

In addition, this link contains various topics about processing payroll forms, handling tax notices, and managing workers' information to name a few: Online resources.

Feel free to visit the Community again if you have other payroll concerns or questions about reconciling your account. I'll jump right back in to respond to them. 

So is there no way to enter historical paychecks, with paycheck numbers, that will match the bank feeds once we set up automatic bank downloads?  Not all employees cash their paychecks each month, so entering a batch is not helpful with reconciliation.  I know desktop has the feature about entering after the fact payroll checks.  I would like to do the same to avoid double work...this would post to employees properly so that my W-2 will be correct AND I can reconcile the bank accounts.  Please tell me there is an option in QBO.

Yes, you're right, Ginger. 

QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop are distinct software applications that offer separate approaches for inputting after-the-fact payroll.

When entering historical paychecks into QuickBooks Online, we can only add them as journal entries per employee to match your bank feeds. Otherwise, you'll want to contact our payroll support to enter the data.

Here's how to create a journal entry:

1. Get your employees' pay stubs or a payroll report from your payroll service.
2. Go to + New.
3. Select Journal Entry.
4. Under the Journal date, enter the paycheck date.
5. Enter the paycheck number in the Journal no. field.
6. Once done, click Save and new or Save and close.
   

For more details, I recommend following the steps shared with my colleague. You can also browse this article for reference: Manually Enter Payroll Paychecks.

Moreover, I recommend running payroll reports from time to time. It'll help you verify the employee wages, deductions, and taxes have been calculated correctly to prevent issues.

Please keep us posted if you have additional questions about recording payroll data in the Online version. We want to ensure your books are accurate.

How do I edit the yearend W-2's to include wages and taxes that were paid in prior quarters, before we started using QBO to run live payroll? I have the wage and tax expense from Q1 and Q2 entered into the P&L, however, I need to get those numbers onto the W-2's that will be filed and issued to employees.

Hello there, @adrumm.

I understand you want to add prior payroll before you started using QuickBooks Online Payroll to W2.

I recommend reaching out to our Payroll Customer Care team. This way, they can guide you in the detailed steps to add prior payroll in QuickBooks.

Here's how:

1. Click the Help (?) icon.
2. On the Assistant tab, enter Talk to a human.
3. Enter a short description of your concern and press Enter.
4. Select Contact Us to connect with a live support agent.
5. Choose how you'll want to get in touch with the support.

• Start a chat with a support expert.
• Get a call back from the next available expert.

For future reference, you can read these articles about running reports in QuickBooks Online:

• Run reports in QuickBooks Online.
• Customize reports in QuickBooks Online.
• Memorize reports in QuickBooks Online.

Let me know if you have questions about adding prior payroll in QuickBooks Online. I'm always here to help. Have a great day.