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Set up and track your payroll expenses by class

by Intuit•17• Updated 6 months ago

Learn how to keep track of your payroll expenses in QuickBooks Online Payroll and QuickBooks Desktop Payroll.

QuickBooks Payroll lets you organize your data by department, business office or location, or separate properties you own. You can do this with classes. We'll show you how.

Note: Not sure which payroll service you have? Here's how to find your payroll service.

Set up QuickBooks to track payroll expenses by class

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Step 1: Assign a class to your employees

  1. Go to Payroll, then Employees.
  2. Select your employee.
  3. From Employment details, select Start or Edit.
  4. Add your employee’s class in the Workers' comp class field.
  5. Select Save.

Step 2: Set up your accounting preferences to track payroll expenses by class

  1. Go to Settings ⚙, then Payroll settings.
  2. From Accounting or Export , select Edit ✎.
  3. Next to Class Tracking, Edit ✎.
  4. Select how you want to track classes.
  5. Select or enter the account name exactly as it appears in your chart of accounts for each employee.
  6. Select Continue, then Done.

Step 1: Set up your preferences to track payroll expenses by class

Tracking payroll classes demo

  1. Go to Edit, then Preferences.
  2. Select Accounting then Company Preferences.
  3. Select Use class tracking for transactions.
  4. If prompted, select Yes to save changes.
  5. Select Payroll & Employees.
  6. Make sure that Full Payroll is selected in the QuickBooks Payroll Features section.
  7. Select Job Costing, Class and Item tracking for paycheck expenses.
  8. Select how you’d like to assign a class.
    • Entire paycheck if you want to assign one class to an entire paycheck. 
    • Earnings item if you want to assign a different class to each earning item on the paycheck
  9. Select OK.

Step 2: Add a class to the paychecks or employee profile

When you create and run payroll, you need to open your employees’ paycheck details. Then assign a class on each earning item if you selected Assign one class per Earnings item in preferences.

If you selected Assign one class to an entire paycheck in preferences: 

  1. Go to Employees, then select Employee Center.
  2. Double-click the employee’s name.
  3. Select Payroll Info.
  4. From the Class ▼ dropdown, select the class name you’d like to assign to the entire paycheck.
  5. When you create and run payroll, class should show on your employees’ paychecks.


Create a payroll summary report by class

Run a payroll summary by class if you need to view the payroll wages, taxes, deductions, and contributions totaled by class.

  1. Go to Reports, then Standard.
  2. From Payroll, select Payroll Summary. Or search Payroll Summary from the search field.
  3. Select Customize.
  4. In the Workers’ comp class ▼ dropdown, select the class or classes you want to show in your report. 
  5. Select Run report. 
  1. Go to  Reports, then Employees and Payroll.
  2. Select Payroll Summary.
  3. Adjust the date range appropriately.
  4. In the Show Columns ▼ dropdown, select Class.
  5. Select Customize Report tab, then Filters tab.
  6. In the Choose Filter section, scroll down to select Class from the filter list.
  7. From the Class ▼ dropdown, select All Class or Multiple Classes. 
  8. Select OK.
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