Insurance Expense Duplicating with Payroll Company Contributions

We use just Health Insurance Expense for the payment as a total, then use payroll deduction to post to same expense account, reducing the company deductible cost. We are LLC, not S-corp so I do not know if any of what you provide in insurance is a taxable to employee fringe benefit.  On our system the employee contribution reduces their income subject to SS/Med by the amount of the deduction.  You are not making an employee contribution unless you are giving the employee money to pay the insurance on their own.

Did you figure this out? I am having the exact same issue and spent 3 HOURS on the phone with Quickbooks Payroll this morning and got no answer. I would love to know if you found a solution! 

Have you found an answer to this? I'm having the same issue and Quickbooks Payroll was no help in resolving it! 

Thanks for joining this thread and let me provide some insights about the deduction, Jennibrown.

Your total payable for the said insurance will accumulate the liability account.

Insurance will hit both the liability and expense accounts. When you pay liabilities, they're posted to the liability account to reduce your expenses. 

Check out these articles for additional resources:

• Set up and add deductions and contributions to an employees' payroll
• Set up Payroll account preferences.

I'm also adding this article to help you get ready during tax season: Year-end checklist for QuickBooks Online Payroll.

Let me know how the call goes by leaving a comment below. I'll be right here to help whenever you need additional information concerning payroll.

The issue is still there where I'm seeing the employers cost of insurance twice on our P&L. My problem is that when I pay the insurance it is coded as an expense (which it is). Then when Quickbooks is running my payroll they are also including the employers portion of the expense on the employees paystub (which they also should). This issue is creating a duplicate of the employers portion of the insurance on the P&L. Can you tell me specifically how the expense should be coded if not as an expense? It needs to be a positive to offset what Payroll is doing.. 

Hi @Jennibrown,

I'll point you in the right direction for support with your query about payroll in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

At this point, I suggest you speak with our Technical Support team once again for assistance. I understand you've already contacted them before, but your specific issue requires a closer look, and they have the necessary tools for that. 

See this article for the steps: Contact Payroll Support. It includes their hours of operation so you can be sure a support representative is available when you call.

If you decide to pay your payroll taxes online, then open this article for the steps: Pay and file payroll taxes online. 

You can tell me if you have other questions by leaving a post below. I'll be sure to get back to you. 

Book your actual insurance expense against your insurance liability account

Did you ever figure this out?  I tried to call support and they hung up on my (I guess because they couldn't figure it out either).

My issue sounds similar:

I have payroll liabilities for the employee portion of the healthcare expense.

I have an expense account for the company contribution that is also tied to payroll. (It will not allow me to make it a liability)

I have an expense account for the vendor where my payments are applied to the vendor.

As a result in my PNL I have "double" recorded my company liability portion of the insurance as it shows in the company contribution expense account as well as the vendor expense.

Is there a some sort of journal entry or something that I should be entering to offset this in someway?  

Welcome to the QuickBooks Community, tchattman. For this particular situation, I highly recommend that you contact your accountant to see what is the best approach for your business. If you don't have an accountant, I got you! Quickbooks offers a ProAdvisor service where you can connect with experts around your area. Simply enter your zip code and browse through all our experts. They even offer free consultations. Here's how:

1. Select this link: Find an accountant.
2. Use the search field to select the type of service your needing and your zip code.
3. Click Search.
4. Browse through the list and click their profile to learn more.
5. Use the Send a message form to connect with them.

Please do not hesitate to let us know if you have any questions. This is why my team and I are here to help. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day!

Did you get your issue figured out.  I am having the same issue.  Thank you so much

We are having this same issue !  If Quickbooks Support can't answer the question, how is an accountant going to help ?  Quickbooks provided the specific process for creating the Health Insurance payroll items, so Quickbooks should know how to fix the duplication issue.  Please, there must be some way, and if it's a journal entry, then please show us how ... 

I have the exact same problem. I want the company contribution to show on the pay stubs, but I can't put them in the liability from the payroll. Then to create the bill I get a duplicate. 

This is really bad and one of the reasons I am going to move to a different accounting and payroll system.

I have heard good things about NetSuite.

Quickbooks Online and Quickbooks Payroll Online are horrible to use. 

Not meant for anyone who understands accounting principles.

I hate it, my CPA hates it.

The issue is a Quickbooks issue and they should fix it. 

People are understanding the issue and it is being handled incorrectly by QB software 

It happens to me as well -telling someone to call an accountant because QB does not work right will not resolve the problem--though intuit frequently resorts to that answer when they know they are in the wrong.

So Intuit Experts-answer the question/fix the problem - jump in here

Did QB respond to this questions?

This isn't the kind of situation we want you to experience, TomR3.

The expense and liability accounts will both be impacted by the insurance. Liabilities are paid and deposited to the liability account to lower expenses. We will need to analyze the paychecks created if there are multiple expenditures created and if your insurance expense is duplicating with payroll company contributions.

It would be preferable to get in touch with our Payroll Support Team in this situation. They will pull up your account in a secure setting and look at the problem. Here is how you can contact them:

1. Go to Help (?).
2. Click Contact Us.
3. Enter your concern, then select Let's talk.
4. Choose a way to connect with us:

• Start a chat with a support expert.
• Get a callback from the next available expert.
• Ask the community to get help from businesses like yours.

I'm adding this article to help you get ready during tax season: Year-end checklist for QuickBooks Online Payroll.

By posting a comment below, please let me know how the call goes. I'll be right here to help whenever you need additional information concerning payroll.

I spoke with support and they didn't have an answer.

Hi Did you ever get a response from QBO? Having the same issue.

I was having the same issue and all the forms, and QB support, seemed to lead to dead ends. After thinking through this problem I believe I have figured it out.

The Payroll Expense > Company Contributions > Health Insurance reflects the amount the company paid towards the health insurance premium that month. This is auto generated, as I'm sure everyone is aware, when the paychecks are issued as part of payroll expenses. The issues seems to be then that when the employer pays the health insurance premium it creates a second expense with the entire premium. There also then is the Payroll Liabilities account for the health insurance. This accounts for both the employee contributions and the employer contributions. Therefore when the premium is paid by the employer that should be categorized within the liabilities account and not an expense account. This shows the Payroll Liabilities of the health insurance getting paid down as it should and then the employers contribution (expense) to the health insurance premium is accounted for in the Payroll Expenses when the check is issued. This solved my problem with our accounting. Hope it helps others as this seemed to be an unresolved issue for many. 

This is the correct answer to this problem.  Book the payment to the insurance provider to the liability account and not the expense account.  Thank you for posting.