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Issue a paycheck for a deceased employee
Learn how to issue a final paycheck for your deceased employee.
To issue a final paycheck for a deceased employee, you need to update their employment status and follow your state's wage and tax rules. Contact your state withholding and unemployment agencies and consult an accountant or tax professional before proceeding, as rules vary by state.
What you'll need
Your employee's effective date of death
Guidance from your state withholding and unemployment agencies
Input from your accountant or tax professional regarding state-specific wage and tax rules
View consolidated employee info in Intuit Enterprise Suite
If you use Intuit Enterprise Suite and have multiple companies, you can see all employees for all of your companies in the consolidated employee dashboard. From any of your companies:
From the Company Switcher dropdown, select Consolidated view.
Go to All Apps
, select Payroll, then select Employees.
From the employee dashboard, you can:
Search for a specific employee
Filter the view to see all employees for a specific company
Customize the info that shows on the dashboard
Make changes to employee info
Intuit QuickBooks Workforce
Update employee status to deceased
Go to All apps
, then Team, then Employees (Take me there).Select your employee, then select Actions
next to Permissions.
Select Change status.
Change Employment status ▼ to Deceased, then add an Effective date.
Select Save.
Issue the final paycheck
Note: Employees active for at least one day within the work period will appear when you run your scheduled paycheck.
QuickBooks Desktop Payroll
Issue the final paycheck
Create and give your employee their final paycheck. Once you do, you can update their employment status.
Update employee status
Go to the Employees menu and select Employee Center.
Find and open the employee's profile.
Select Employment Info, then select the Termination tab.
Note: If you lay off or furlough an employee, select the Leave of Absence tab instead and complete the necessary fields, such as Start Date and Type.Enter a status in the Termination Type field.
Fill in the necessary info such as Release Date. To remove the employee from your active employee list, select the Employee is inactive checkbox.
Select OK.
Results
After completing these steps:
Your employee's status is updated in your payroll records
The final paycheck has been issued
Your employee no longer appears in your active employee list (if you selected the inactive checkbox)
Next steps
File any required state tax forms related to wages paid to a deceased employee
Consult your accountant or tax professional to confirm all state obligations have been met
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