Thank you for responding, Katherine, but I'm not using Quickbooks Online for this client. However I have contacted support twice now from the Quickbooks desktop app. I did a live chat and a phone call and screen share with Quickbooks support people. They've both told me that Guideline set up these payroll items and only they can change them. Guideline tells me that they don't want to be contacted with "accounting questions," although they admit they created the payroll items, they say they are not responsible for the linkage to the chart of accounts and that I have to contact Quickbooks support. When I tell them I've done this twice now they say to try again to get someone who is more knowledgable about this issue. 

The link you sent for retirement plan deductions/contributions  gives me a page not found error.

Lynn

I understand how it feels when we use up all the resources available, but the issue remains unresolved, lynn63.

I appreciate for contacting our QuickBooks Desktop phone agents. As my colleague shared above, updating the account used for Guidelines liabilities needs to be looked at by one of our phone agents. That said, I'd recommend reaching out to them again. To avoid going over and explaining the issue again, you may provide your case number to the new agent.

As for the dead link, you can check this reference instead: Set up a retirement plan.

You can also check this article that helps monitor your income and expense transactions and detect any possible errors accordingly: Reconcile accounts.

Feel at ease to comment down below if you have other questions about 401k retirement plan contributions and deductions. 

Thanks Adrian, 

I'm a longtime user of Quickbooks and know how to set up payroll items and reconcile accounts. The instructions in the link you provided should work great for modifying payroll items, and they do for all but the Guideline-created payroll items. All I can do for now is wait until Guideline withdraws the funds from the bank after every payroll to see what the amount is, then create a journal entry to debit the amount from the accrued liabilities account and credit cash. But I can't pay the liabilities the way I normally do for say, our health plan or workers' comp where I create custom liability payments to relieve the proper liability accounts for the payroll item. It basically works but it's a very crude integration when I was expecting something more professional based on all I read in advance.

I don't know my ticket number to follow up again with a call. Can you send it to me?

We appreciate you for coming back to the Community, @lynn63. I'll direct you to the appropriate support so they can assist you with your ticket number.

Our Customer Support team can access your account safely using a unique tool that they have access to. To obtain the ticket/case number, I advise getting in touch with them once again.

In addition, they may provide you with updates about it.

For future reference, check out this guide about keeping track and managing payroll transactions in QuickBooks: Create a payroll summary report in QuickBooks Desktop Payroll.

Please let us know if you need extra help with payroll or QuickBooks in general. We're here to back you up 24/7. Stay safe always!

I do appreciate the response, but as I've said multiple times in this thread, I do not use Quickbooks Online Payroll. I used it for a while with another client, but had several serious problems with it and moved on to a different payroll provider.

Even if you were to send the correct link it wouldn't help because I already know how to set up and run payroll and manage payroll items. No amount of documentation will get me past the fact that I cannot edit Guideline payroll items, because I get a message that these items are managed in Guideline, and Guideline tells me they have no control over how payroll items are managed in Quickbooks. 

I'm reluctant to reach out to QB support again because it's an ordeal just trying to get to the right person who is trained on QB desktop assisted payroll. When I do finally land on someone who's knowlegable, I do a screenshare with them and they tell me I have to contact Guideline because obviously these items can't be changed in Quickbooks. 

Hi there, lynn63.

I understand that you're reluctant to reach out to our QuickBooks Desktop Assisted Payroll Team. However, this time, I'll make sure you're routed to a representative who can help manage your payroll items.

Please use this link and chat with the right team: QuickBooks Desktop Assisted Payroll. You can ask the representative to pull up your previous case or contact history so you won't have to tell them again your concerns.

Get back to me on how the contact goes. I'll be right here whenever you have follow-up questions.

How do I account for the 401 K employee withholding if using an outside entity, like Paychex, for Payroll?

Thank you so much for your post.  You saved me hours of trying to figure this out!

Thanks!

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'VE BEEN UP LATE NIGHTS TRYING TO FIGURE THIS OUT.

THANK YOU AGAIN FOR POSTING YOUR FIND

Hello I'm trying to sort out similar information, except that I refuse to pay Quickbooks for their payroll service anymore.  So all of my Quickbooks entries are extremely manual and all of my calculations are on spreadsheets.  Would you all agree that creating a "401k Employee Contribution" liability along with a "401k Employer Contribution" liability is the way to go?  I am also tracking the employer contribution against a "401k Expense" account for tax purposes.  Does this sound like I'm on the right track?