I have an employee of who I have been paying their primary income, but now has another job which will be her primary income so need to change her to secondary income

Hi, @myelectriccoast. In QuickBooks Online Payroll (QBOP), there isn't a single toggle labeled "Primary" or "Secondary". However, because their total household income and tax bracket have likely changed, their Federal Withholdings settings need to be updated to ensure they don't end up with a large tax bill at the end of the year.

The changes is actually driven by the employee's Form W-4. When someone has multiple jobs, the IRS requires specific boxes to be checked so that each employer withholds the correct amount. Having said that, you can ask your employee to provide an updated Form W-4. Specifically, they will likely need to address Step 2 (Multiple Jobs) depending on the following conditions:

• If the employee has exactly two jobs total and they are relatively similar in pay, they should check the box for Multiple Jobs or Spouse Works (Step 2c in the W-4). You will check the corresponding box in QuickBooks.
• If the other pay is significantly different, they may use the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator and ask you to enter a specific dollar amount in the Extra withholdings (Step4c) field in QuickBooks instead.
  
  

To update the employee's settings in QuickBooks:

1. Go to Payroll.
2. Select the employee's name.
3. Find the Tax withholding section and click Edit.
   
   
4. Under the Federal withholding section, ensure the W-4 form version is set to "2020 or later".
5. Put a checkmark in the Select if [name] has marked this box on their W4 (Step2c) checkbox if they meet the first condition. Otherwise, enter the per-pay-period dollar amount in the Extra withholdings (step4c) field.
   
   

For the detailed step-by-step process, refer to Option 2 in the article: Enter federal Form W-4.

If you’d like a second pair of eyes on your setup, our QuickBooks Live Expert Assisted team is ready to jump in. They can walk you through updating your employee’s tax withholding and verifying the "Multiple Jobs" settings so your payroll stays compliant without the manual guesswork.

You're all set. Manually updating these settings ensures your records are accurate and compliant with your employee's dual-income status, helping to keep their year-end taxes simple and organized. If you have additional questions, please drop a comment down below.

Good day, @myelectriccoast.

I just wanted to follow up to check if the resolution we provided helped resolve your issue.

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