We need to temporarily lay off an employee, but I only see options for termination or unpaid leave of absence. How do I process a temporary layoff in QBO Payroll?

Happy to help, @mel30.

For both temporary lay offs and seasonal employees, you'll need to use the Terminate option. Once they come back for work, you can then re-activate their profile and put in their re-hire date by following these super quick steps:

1. Select Employees
2. Set the view to All Employees
3. You can then type in the employee's name to find them, or choose them from the employee list
4. You will redirected to the Employee Profile.
5. Scroll to the bottom and hit Re-activate Employee
6. Once activated, the employee will then be eligible for the pay runs.
7. Follow steps 1-3 again to open the employee's profile and hit the Edit button to change their hire date.

That's it! For more information on managing your employees in QuickBooks Online Payroll, check out: Delete or terminate an employee

Shoot me a reply should you have any other questions. I'm determined to be your number one resource for QuickBooks Online. Have a great and safe week ahead!

Using the option "terminate employees" will they be eligible for EI?

Using the option to "terminate " employees will they be eligible for EI?

Hi there, Santanaalexis01.

I suggest contacting the IRS to check and confirm the details if terminated employees are still eligible for EI.

Take note that if an employee is Terminated:

• They can still access Paycheckrecords.com or Workforce.intuit.com. If they have issues logging in, they can work with you to troubleshoot their access.

• They will no longer appear in your active payroll, but their profile and pay records will remain in your account.

• You are no longer billed for that employee.

• Pending direct deposit will still process unless the check is deleted.

• Their names will still appear in reports, but are marked with an asterisk to indicate the employee is inactive.

Please check this article to what are the steps to do when an employee is terminated or leaves your company: Employee: What to do when terminating.

Please know that you're always welcome to post if you have any other concerns. Wishing you and your business continued success.

I want to only temporarily layoff my employees so they can collect EI, but I will still be able to provide them with very limited hours that I will be paying them for. I still need them to be active in payroll to be able to do that. Which option do I select? Paid Leave of Absence? Or something else?

Good morning, @krobinson. 

I hope you're enjoying this beautiful day so far. 

For this, I recommend contacting our support team. As the only solution within QuickBooks Online would be to temporarily terminate the employee, as suggested by my colleague Michael K. To lay off the employee, our payroll support team would be able to mark this employee as inactive temporally. Once the lay off was finished, you could then mark the employee active again. Below I've included the steps to contact our payroll support team. 

1. Sign in to your QuickBooks Online company.
2. Select Help (?) at the top right.
3. Click Contact Us to connect with a live support agent.

Please let me know if there's anything else that I could assist you with. You can always reach out to us here in the Community anytime you have questions or concerns. Take care and have a good one! 

I've had to lay-off my employee temporarily. Do I have to keep paying the $6,00 per month charge for payroll? If not, can I get a refund for the fees I've paid from the time of lay-off until now? 

Thank you

Thank you for participating in the discussion, @Jim422. The $6 fee applies exclusively to employees who are either active or on temporary layoff within QuickBooks Online (QBO). I will outline additional information below to assist you in resolving this matter promptly.

When the employee's status is active or on paid leave, know that you'll incur a charge worth $6 monthly whenever you process payroll for that specific worker. Otherwise, you'll want to change the employee's status to inactive to avoid those charges and reactivate them when they're back or are working for you again.For further guidelines about the process, please see this page: Terminate or change your employee's status on payroll.

In addition, here are some articles to help you manage employee information and keep them on scheduled to streamline the process of paying them inside the program:

• Edit or change employee info in payroll
• Fix an employee missing from a payroll schedule

As always, I encourage you to visit the Community space if you have any follow-up questions about employees or payroll tasks inside QuickBooks. I'll be around to extend a helping hand and provide the details needed to address your concerns. Keep safe.