Set payroll preferences in QuickBooks Desktop Payroll

Select the Pay stub & Voucher Printing button to customize what shows on your employees’ pay stubs. The items checked by default will show on your employees’ pay stubs. 

Select or deselect any of the available options.  Some common ones to consider:

• Vacation and sick time used and available.  Many states with paid sick leave require this to show on pay stubs. You can change the name of the vacation or sick time here to meet your needs.
• Employee social security number / Only the last four digits of SSNs and bank account numbers.  States have different rules about displaying personal info on pay stubs.

Select the Sick and Vacation button to set default sick and vacation accruals if most of your employees accrue at the same rate. 

QuickBooks will automatically add these default accruals to any new employees you add. It won’t add them to any existing employees. 
See Set up and pay sick and vacation time for detailed instructions.

These settings are on the main Payroll & Employees / Company Preferences tab. 

Recall quantity field and hour field on paychecks are selected by default.  

If your employees’ hours or quantities (if you pay by piecework or commission) don’t change from paycheck to paycheck, this can save you time with data entry when creating paychecks.  Hours and quantities will carry over from the employees’ last paychecks. 

This does apply to all employees, so in most cases, you’ll want to deselect these.

This setting is on the main Payroll & Employees / Company Preferences tab

Note: The wording on this preference may vary. 

This option lets you track your payroll expenses by class, job, or time.

QuickBooks also assigns classes to any additions or company contributions on employee paychecks, based on the classes assigned to earnings items. If the earnings items are assigned to more than one class, QuickBooks prorates the class assignments of the additions and company contributions based on the prorations of the earnings items.

This setting appears on the main Payroll & Employees / Company Preferences tab: Display Employee List By

You can select to have your list of employees show by first name or last name in the Payroll Center in QuickBooks.  

Select the Employee Defaults button to set up defaults that apply to all or most of your employees.  

Some common defaults to consider:

• Payroll Schedule. We recommend setting up a payroll schedule in QuickBooks if you pay your employees on a regular basis.  You can then apply this schedule to all employees through this setting. 
• Pay frequency. If you don’t set up a payroll schedule, you can set how often you pay your employees. 
• Use time data to create paychecks. If you use QuickBooks timesheets, QuickBooks Time, or any other third-party time tracking systems with QuickBooks, select this box so your info from the time tracking will download to paychecks.
• Taxes. This default is handy for two scenarios:
  • All or most of your employees live and work in the same state. 
    1. Select the Taxes button.
    2. Select the State tab. 
    3. Select the state worked and state subject to withholding (state lived). 
    4. Select OK. 
  • Your business is exempt from certain payroll taxes like Federal or State Unemployment Insurance (FUTA or SUI). 
    1. Select the Taxes button.
    2. Deselect any federal taxes you’re exempt from
    3. Select the State tab. 
    4. Select the state worked and state subject to withholding (state lived). 
    5. Deselect any state taxes you’re exempt from
    6. Select OK.