Payroll Liabilities paid but showing up as due, including Workers Compensation

Hello there, Buzygal1.

There are a few reasons why payroll liabilities show as overdue even though you've paid them already. These are the causes:

• The liabilities are paid but not recorded in QuickBooks.

• The liabilities are paid through Write Checks or Bill Payment screen.

• The liabilities were overpaid in one period and underpaid in a previous period.

• The paid through date is after the check date.

• The liability being paid has a paid through date that crosses from one year to the next.

You can check this article for more information: Scheduled liabilities show as overdue or in red.

Regarding the Workers Compensation amount, the Intuit Workers' Comp Payment service will automatically pay the worker's comp premium every pay period. There shouldn't be an amount showing up. I would suggest contacting our dedicated team who handles AP Intego concerns. You can get their number in the article: Learn about and get workers’ compensation insurance. Scroll down, and get the number under How do I get help?. 

We're just around if you have other payroll concerns. Have a good day! 

As a warning to everyone...

The first that happened after I posted this question is that I got a call from someone who SAID they were from Quickbooks.  I stated that no one from Quickbooks had EVER called me back before unless I had placed a call first but he said that I "ticked" some box that asked for someone to call me.  I thought maybe this was something new and maybe I did "tick" a box and didn't remember it.  Anyway, the person gained access to my computer because that is what technical support has done in the past and started looking at my concerns.  They seems very knowledgeable and I mentioned that they were more knowledgeable than anyone I had ever talked to on the phone at Quickbooks.  After about an hour I started getting suspicious because he was telling me that I needed to purchase a technical support plan to the tune of around $3,000+ dollars for a three year term.  Now I have Premier Plus and I was sure I had a technical support plan but this guy seemed so knowledgeable it made me start to question my memory.  Then I asked how I knew he was from Quickbooks.  I looked up a Quickbooks Technical Support phone number on my cell phone and called that number.  Guess what, I got the same scammers.  I finally hung up with both of them and called the number where I would purchase Quickbooks software who put me in touch with the "real" technical support staff.  True to form, this person had me on the phone for about an hour and a half and gave me no answers whatsoever.  I am totally disgusted with payroll support.  They have people there who do not know accounting and do not know the software.  Finally I asked, and not in a very calm voice, I must admit, to have someone who actually knew what they were talking about and the young lady hung up on me.

I will contact the folks who handle the AP Intego issue but I still need someone to help me understand why my Payroll liabilities report appears as it does.  I have tried to contact a local Quickbooks Advisor but have not been able to get with them yet, PLUS, I should be able to get the answers I need from Quickbooks for the money I pay for this subscription every year.

While your response shows WHY things like this can happen it does not help me to correct the issue.

I thank you for you information on how to "correct" this issue.  I understand that process.  My concern is that this is happening every month, just about.  There has to be a way to stop this from happening.  I am either doing something wrong in the way I record the debt and/or the payment OR there is something wrong in the program.  

Making corrections every week and/or every month is unacceptable.  I already went back in and made Payroll Liability adjustments to clear up past years of inconsistencies.

I NEED HELP STOPPING THIS FROM HAPPENING.

PLEASE!!!!!!!

Hello there, buzygal1.

Thank you for getting back to the Community. It would be my pleasure to help you get to the bottom of this strange behavior happening with the Workers Compensation liabilities.

There are several possible reasons why this is happening on your end. You'll need to make sure you set up Workers Compensation and record the payment correctly in QuickBooks.

For using the manual process for the Workers Compensation feature, you can either pay using payroll liability checks or through the scheduled payments feature.

Please note you can't use regular checks from the Write Checks screen to pay tax dues. Please take time to check the setup and the right process by following the detailed steps in this article:

About Workers' Compensation in QuickBooks Desktop.

In case you want to review the process on how to pay scheduled or customer liabilities, I'm adding the article on this as well:

Set up and pay scheduled or custom (unscheduled) liabilities.

If the problem continues after following the steps above, I recommend giving us a call. Our Payroll Support Specialists will need to take over and perform the necessary steps to resolve the issue on your end.

You can follow these steps:

1. Go to: https://payroll.intuit.com/support/contact/.
2. Select your subscription.
3. Select a topic.
4. Click View Contact Info.

Please keep in touch with me here for all of your QuickBooks concerns. I'm always up to lend a hand.

This is the problem: "There has to be a way to stop this from happening.  I am either doing something wrong in the way I record the debt and/or the payment OR there is something wrong in the program."

Even if you pay Outside of QB, your bookkeeping entry is Pay Liabilities. You need to do the Bookkeeping that the liability was paid; the Liability check is not to be Sent or Printed. Put "EFT" for Check #, to show it was paid Electronically.

You have no Debt to enter; you are already accruing it through payroll cycles, from every paycheck details. You need to "show you paid it" by doing that Bookkeeping entry.

 Stop Adjusting and just use the Pay Liability function properly. That's why it exists.

You may be losing your patience with me.  The tone of the latest reply seems a bit snippy.

I am not seeing Workers Compensation show up as a Payroll Liability like I see the Federal Withholding, etc.  Maybe I have it set up wrong????

I have attached a screen shot of the Payroll Taxes & Liability screen.  Workers Compensation never shows up here.

Is there a tutorial somewhere that would show me how to do this correctly?

There is no Tone in text: "The tone of the latest reply seems a bit snippy."

I teach this, and payroll is very Specific in the required functions. It's not snippy to be precise.

"I am not seeing Workers Compensation show up as a Payroll Liability like I see the Federal Withholding, etc.  Maybe I have it set up wrong????"

Go ahead and use Create Custom Liability Payments. Set the paycheck date range. Here you see everything. The Payroll Center is a Helper screen. As noted, if you didn't tell QB to help you by telling it how to Schedule the payments, they don't show to help you stay on track.

Example:

You set FUTA for Monthly, but you realize you won't hit $500 even at year end. If you decide to pay them all in Dec, you get 12 checks. So, you use Create Custom Liability Payments, and select all of them here, to get One FUTA payment.

Thanks so much for your help.

I figured out that the reason that the liability was not showing up to be paid in the Pay Liabilities tab in Payroll is because I had chosen "I don't need a regular payment schedule for this item"   When I choose that I needed to pay this "weekly" then the liabilities showed up.

Now my issue is that the amounts showing due don't equal the amounts I am being charged.  I believe I have discerned that there are two reasons this is possible...

1.  My husband and I are "exempt" from Workers Compensation and the program may not be taking that into account. and

2.  There is an "Expense Constant" that is charged by AP Intego for their services.

Is there a way to exclude one or more paychecks from Workers Compensation?

If not, how should I go in and make the adjustments?

As always, I appreciate your assistance.

Hi there, @ buzygal1.

Thanks for the detailed information about your concern. Allow me to join the conversation and add to this discussion. 

Yes, you can exempt from Workers Compensation by editing the paycheck. Here’s how:
1.    Go to the Employees menu and select the Employee Center. 
2.    Select the employee’s name.
3.    On the Transactions tab under the Employee Information screen, select the paycheck you want to edit.
4.    Click Paycheck Detail.
5.    Select Unlock Net Pay and hit OK on the pop-up.
6.    Change the WC CODE to Exempt and the Workers Compensation amount on the paycheck will zero out.
7.    Hit OK.
8.    Once done, click Save & Close, then Yes to save the changes. 

Follow the same steps to edit the rest of the paychecks.

Once you create and pay the liability check for Workers Compensation, make sure to add the fee from AP Intego as an expense. To do that, follow the steps below:
1.    From the Pay Liabilities tab, select Workers Compensation.
2.    Click the View/Pay button.
3.    On the Payment Liability screen, choose the Expenses tab.
4.    Under Account, select AP Intego Fee and enter Amount.
5.    Then, click the Recalculate button.
6.    Hit Save & Close.

For more information about paying the tax liability, check out this article: Set up and pay scheduled or custom (unscheduled) liabilities.

That should answer your question for today. Please post again or leave a comment on this thread should you need further assistance. I’ll be more than happy to help you out. Take care and have a great day!
 

Thanks for you detailed explanation and the screen shots.  That sure helps.

What truly confuses me is that both me and my husband have "Exempt" under the Workers Compensation tab.  (I am attaching the screen capture as I can't seem to figure out how I put those in last time.)

This has been this way ever since we obtained the Workers Compensation coverage.  

I am going to carefully review your information and see if I can make things work.  Just wanted to send this in case you have some additional advice.

Thanks again.

On your last screen shot it shows the Expenses tab and the Liabilities tab.  Mine aren't coming up that way.

I figured it out.  I had the wrong account chosen for the payment of the Liability.  At least that has fixed this, for now.  I still have the issue with more being "determined" than the payments being taken but I can make adjustments for this if necessary.  Thanks for all you help.

Thanks for getting back to us, @buzygal1.

I’m glad you were able to figure it out and fix the issue. If you need the steps doing a liability adjustment, I’m adding it below:

1.    Go to the Employees menu.
2.    Select Payroll Taxes and Liabilities, then Adjust Payroll Liabilities.
3.    In the Date field, enter the date for which you are making the adjustment.
4.    Enter the date that you want this adjustment to affect your liability balance.
5.    Choose whether to associate this liability adjustment with the company or specific employee. 
6.    From the Item Name drop-down, select Workers Compensation and enter Amount. 
7.    Click Accounts Affected and choose either Do not affect accounts or Affect liability and expenses accounts, then hit OK.
8.    If you have additional employees, select Next Adjustment and repeat the steps for each affected employee. If there are no additional employees, select OK to save your entry.

To learn more, you may check out this article: Adjust payroll liabilities.

If Workers Compensation is still showing on the paycheck even after the set assigned workers’ comp code is Exempt, stop creating paychecks. Update QuickBooks to the latest release and download the payroll tax table before sending it.

That should get you pointed in the right direction. Reach out to me if you need anything else, I’ll be here to help. Thanks for dropping by and take care!