Why are payroll expenses getting duplicated?

Hi, brendan10.

Thank you for posting here in the Community. I can share some information about why payroll expenses getting duplicated.

There's a possibility that the payroll item was mistakenly added under the other tax upon setting up the employee's profile. You can check the transaction by running Audit Log Report.

Here's how:

1. Go to Reports.
2. Look for Business overview.
3. Choose Audit Log.

Once you verified that there is a duplicate item in the Audit Log. Let's delete it to fix the issue. Please follow the steps provided below.

1. Click the Payroll tab from the left menu.
2. Select Employees list.
3. Under Run Payroll, select Paycheck List.
4. Change the date range if necessary, and then select the paycheck you want to delete.
5. Click Delete.
6. Mark the tick box to confirm the deletion, and then click Delete Paycheck.

In addition, you can open a report to check the accuracy of your transactions: Run payroll reports.

I'll be right here to continue helping in case you have additional inquiries or require further assistance in managing your checks.

See attached report from my wages expense account. As you can see every payroll transaction from last pay period got duplicated. I have payroll transaction exporting setup under Payroll Settings so wages, tips, tax expenses, tax liabilities, etc. go to the correct accounts in Quickbooks Online. Any ideas why every paycheck is showing up twice?

Thanks for your prompt reply, @brendan10. I appreciate you providing us with an update.

Let me address your concern about duplicated paychecks.

It is possible that you have processed two payroll schedules for your employees that causes duplicated paychecks. However, if you're using Intuit Online Payroll Full Services, I recommend contacting our QuickBooks Online Payroll Support  so they can pull up your account and investigate this issue further. 

In the meantime, you can check this article for additional details on managing your payroll schedules. This includes a list of schedule types available for QBO Payroll, including a short description for each.

Just in case you want to run payroll reports, feel free to check out this article for the detailed steps and information: Run payroll reports.

I’m always ready to assist you if you have any other questions or concerns about managing your payroll. Tag me in your reply and I’ll sprint back into action. Have a good one and keep safe.

Hi, I think I may be having the same problem. It is the transaction that is being recorded twice, there are not actually 2 payroll checks. How do I delete the second transaction that is listed?

Hi slnj97!

There are two possible reasons for these duplicate payroll entries. Let me help you.

The first one is that you processed the payroll twice for the pay period. I suggest you pull up the paycheck list to verify. From the Payroll menu, go to Employees, then select Paycheck list. Make sure that the Date Range is correct, the Run Report.

Once done, review it to see if there are duplicate paychecks. If so, select one of those to open the paycheck and click Delete at the footer section. You can also refer to this article on how to fix an employee paycheck: Delete or void employee paychecks.

Another possible reason is that you downloaded these payroll entries from Banking. If so, you'll want to exclude them to fix this issue but we'll need to undo them first. Please follow these steps:

1. Go to the Banking or Transactions menu and select Banking.
   • For the new interface, go to Bookkeepping, select Transactions, then Banking.
2. Select the bank account used for payroll, then proceed to the Categorized tab.
3. Find the payroll entries and click Undo.
4. Go back to the For review section. Find the same transactions, put a checkmark on the tickbox, then select Exclude.

You can also refer to this article on how to remove downloaded transactions: Exclude a bank transaction you downloaded into QuickBooks Online.

I added this link if you need help with reconciliation: Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Online.

I'm here to help you if you have additional questions. Take care!

I am seeing the same thing.  I see the payroll with the payroll detail and then I am seeing the payroll checks cashed and they are the name check numbers and so it is giving me 2 sets of payroll revenue from the same check numbers?

I have been trying to figure out why it does that because it is adding to my bottom line and making it seem as if my expenses are far greater than they are.

Paulette

Hi

That is correct. The issue is that in addition to the Direct Deposit transaction DD, there are bank feeds for the pay  as "uncategorized expense"  

Why should bookkeepers have to exclude them by hand every time? Something is wrong. QBO should address it.

thanks

Leena

Hi 

Yes, payroll expense reporting duplication is a serious issue in QBO for many of us.

In addition to the automatic Direct Deposit (DD) , the paycheck transaction appears in bank feeds as uncategorized expense. 

However, there is one thing I wanted to note as a possibility.

Brendan, do you have any "Deductions & Contributions"  added to the employee(s) ? If you go to Payroll=> Employees => Pick one, edit Deductions and Contributions. Is there a health insurance % attributed to employee versus employer ? 

This should not be a problem as it should only apply to the insurance premiums and not the actual gross pay.

However, the bug may stem from here - I am saying it is just a possibility. Try removing the deduction/contribution  percentage just to see what happens. Risky, but worth trying.

Hi,

I have the same situation on double payroll expenses showing up on the P & L for 2022.  Even if I delete an entry into QB that was downloaded into the register from the bank, this throws off the bank rec and the other payroll expense does not show up.  How do I match the download payroll expense downloaded from the bank with the payroll expenses run through QBO payroll?

Sincerely,

Trish

I'd be delighted to help you match downloaded bank transactions to your payroll expenses so there won't be duplicate entries, TQ-2023.

There are a few factors why duplicate payroll expenses are showing on your Profit and Loss report. The following are some of the most frequent causes:

• Another check was created within the same pay period.
• The system added them by mistake (due to incorrect payroll mapping). 
• Duplicate entries are added when bank transactions aren't matched with what's recorded in QuickBooks Online.

Thus, to help you get around this concern, you can undo the money withdrawn from the bank and match it to the payroll expenses in QuickBooks. To do that:

1. Go to Bookkeeping, choose Transactions, then Bank Transactions.
2. Click the bank where payroll expenses are downloaded.
3. Proceed to the Categorized tab.
4. Find the transaction you want to undo.
5. Select the blue transaction link in the Added or Matched column to see the matched transaction.
6. Hit Undo from the Action column.

The original downloaded transaction should now be added back to the For Review tab. Then, you can manually categorize and match these transactions to accurately record them to the correct account.

Moreover, I'm sharing this guide to help you review and ensure your books are balanced: Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Online.

Keep us posted in the comments below if you require additional assistance managing your payroll transactions. We'll be here to back you up always. Have a good one!

You cannot match bank transactions to paychecks. This is the problem that needs to be resolved. 

The solution I found was to categorize/code the net checks out of the actual operating account to the false account so that you are not getting duplicate payroll wage expenses and that will zero out the false account. The paychecks will still show in payroll wages expense because of the software algorithm. 

How did you create your false account and how would it be zeroed? For instance did you create your false account as an expense account? 

Wanting to know this as well. 

Quickbooks has been nothing but terrible this year.  All my new invoices when created show as paid instantly via journal entries.  I have to literally go in and edit the new invoice and clear the payment out that it pulls from thin air.  Also, doubling/tripling up stuff.

Hello,

I finally figured this out today and I just wanted to share.

You go to the gear icon then payroll settings

click on the pencil by accounting at the very bottom

then go to update transactions. 

I just updated all my transactions for the year and some how that fixed it. It almost seemed to easy to be true. I hope it works for yours, as well. 

Hi there, @krushnaakash. We'll share details about duplicate transactions inside QuickBooks Online (QBO) and how to prevent them from appearing in your account.

Duplicate shows because your bank account is in sync with your QBO company. That said, when you create paychecks, they'll also appear in your register. In this situation, you can either match it with the transaction or exclude it manually to prevent it from staying in your register. However, if you wish not to deal with them manually, you can consider creating a bank rule that allows you to match bank transactions automatically inside the program. We'll write down the steps below:

1. Go to the Gear icon, then select Rules.
2. Select New rule.
3. Enter a name in the What do you want to call this rule? field.
4. From the Apply this to transactions that are ▼ dropdown, select Money in or Money out.
5. From the in ▼ dropdown, select a bank or credit card account, or select All bank accounts.
6. Set the rule conditions. You can set a single rule with up to 5 conditions. Set and include the following, then select + Add a condition.
7. In the Conditions fields, specify whether the rule applies to Description, Bank text, or Amount. Then select Contains, Doesn't contain, or Is exactly to decide how QuickBooks applies the rules.
8. Select the settings for the rule. Select the Transaction type, Category, Tags, and the Payee to apply.
9. Click Save.
10. (Optional) To reorder your bank rules priority, select reorder  and drag the rule to your desired order. The rule with the highest priority will always be applied first.

See this page for further instructions: Set up bank rules to categorize online banking transactions in QuickBooks Online.

Furthermore, here's an article to help you reconcile an account and fix a reconciliation inside the program:

• Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Online.
• Fix issues the first time you reconcile an account in QuickBooks Online.

You can inform us in the comment section if you need help managing payroll expenses inside QuickBooks. As always, we'll be around to assist you once again. Kee safe