Hello there, Char.
If your contractors received the email but can't see the forms, it's due to a standard processing gap in the QuickBooks system. Let me share more insights regarding this matter.
When you complete your e-filing in QuickBooks, the forms travel to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) first for a formal review. Your status by then will remain Pending until the IRS accepts the filling, which can a take few days depending on their current volume. Only after the IRS officially accepts the filling does QuickBooks begin the process of notifying your contractors.
These notification emails are sent in staggered batches rather than all at once. Since the delivery is spread out, the entire process can take up to 5 business days to complete. It is very common for some contractors to receive their alerts a day before others.
The gap between the email notification and the form appearing is known as a provisioning delay, and it can last from a few hours up to 5 business days. If your contractors tried to download their 1099s immediately after being notified, the system may still be in the middle of generating the actual file. Thus, the reason why they aren't able to get these forms to download just yet.
For the 2026 filing year, the deadlines were January 31 for contractors and February 2 for the IRS, so as long as your status is Accepted, then you will remain compliant. Regarding these files, you may advise your contractors to check back in 48 hours, at which point the forms should be fully processed and available.
You can check these articles for further details:
Feel free to reply to this post if you need further assistance.
