How to add an employee to your payroll

[0:00] Before you can run payroll in QuickBooks Online Payroll, you need to add your employees. Let's go over how to add your employees, including their personal info, pay rates, pay schedules, work location, and deductions. We'll also show you how to make this easier by inviting your employees to add some of this info themselves. To start, go to Payroll.

[0:22] If you are setting up, select Start next to Tell us about your team. If you're setting up payroll for the first time, you'll be asked how you would like to set up payroll. You may be able to upload employee reports from your prior payroll service and then have QuickBooks import. Select Add employee. Add your employee's name, email address, and hire date.

[0:46] QuickBooks will automatically email them an invite to QuickBooks Workforce, where they can view pay info and documents. To save you some data entry, you can have your employees enter their personal, tax withholding, and bank account info themselves. Select Quick add. Congratulations, you've added your first employee! You can continue adding employees or finish adding details.

[1:09] When employee self-setup is on, you won't be able to edit some fields in the Personal info, Tax withholding, or Payment method sections. If you need to pay your employees right away or want to add the info yourself, turn off Employee self-setup. You can turn it on or off at any time. Once your employee adds their info through QuickBooks Workforce, you'll be able to see it and make changes.

[1:33] Let's start with the Personal section. Add your employee's personal details and contact information. Anything with an asterisk is required. All of the other fields are optional. When you're finished, select Save. Next, you'll move to the Job & pay section. Select the Employment details section to add a pay schedule and set the work location.

[1:55] For a pay schedule, tell us how often you pay this employee, when their next payday will be, and when the last day of that pay period will be. The payday is the day your employees get their checks or direct deposits. But the pay period is the days you're paying your employee for.

[2:13] QuickBooks Payroll shows you the next 4 paydays and pay periods based on the info you entered, so you can check that everything is correct. You can name this schedule, and if you want to use it for other employees, just check this box. If everything looks good, select Save. The work location is the physical address where your employee works.

[2:33] You'll see the address you gave us when you added your business details. If your employee is based out of a different location, add a new location. For Base pay, tell us how much you pay your employee. You can choose from hourly, salary, or commission only. For this example, we'll set up an hourly rate and save it. You can set default working hours to prefill timesheets.

[2:55] You can edit these hours when you run payroll. Now you'll see Additional pay types. Overtime pay and Qualified OT Tracking are already set up for you. Select Add for other items like holiday pay, bonus, or tips.

[3:09] If your employee has deductions like 401(k), health insurance, or garnishments like child support, or if your business contributes to your employee's retirement or health insurance, add them by selecting Add on Deductions & contributions. Then fill out the details and select Save. When finished adding all the deductions, select Done. You can also set up time off policies.

[3:33] If you want more details on adding a PTO policy, check out this other video. Now you know how to add your employees in QuickBooks Payroll.