How to create a payment for WA state Paid Family Leave premiums

Hello lauriem,

QuickBooks Desktop supports electronic payment for Washington Paid Family Leave. You'll have to set it up first in the Payroll Center. Let me guide you through the steps.

1. Go to Employees, and then Employee Center.
2. Double click the employee name to open the Edit Employee window.
3. Click Payroll Info, and then click Taxes.
4. Click the Other tab.
5. Click WA-Paid Fam Med Leave Co line. In the Co. Portion Rate field, enter the company share of the premium portion rate as a whole number.
6. Click WA-Paid Fam Med Leave Emp line. In the Emp. Portion Rate field, enter the employee share of the premium portion rate.
7. Click OK in the Taxes window.
8. Click OK in the Edit Employee window.

Once you're done, go to Employees, Payroll Center, and then Pay Liabilities to pay your premium. Then, click View/Pay.

You can read this article for more information: Washington Paid Family and Medical Leave (New Tax 2019).

Feel free to check these articles for future reference:

• Washington Payroll Tax Compliance.
• Payroll and workers.

Fill me in if you need help with anything else. I'd be sure to jump in anytime.

Thanks, SheilaGrace

One issue I have is when I began to withhold premiums in January I entered 63% for each employee (we don't pay the employer portion, FYI), but when I reported to ESD they calculated at 63.33% so I have a discrepancy between what was withheld and what is owed.

Any suggestions on how to handle this in the Payroll Center? There is an account I can credit the 73 cent difference to.

I've paid our premiums for the WA state Paid Family & Medical Leave for the first two quarters with an EFT from checking

Now how do I enter the transaction into QuickBooks?

Hello there, @lauriem!

Let's review the schedule of your liability payments for your taxes so that your liability check will show on the list of transactions once you recorded it.

1. Go to Employees.
2. Select Payroll Setup.
3. Under Taxes, select Schedule Payments.
4. Select your WA Paid Leave Tax.
5. Click Edit.
6. Enter the correct schedule of recording your liability.
7. Select Continue.
8. Click Finish.

If in case you need some tips and related articles for future use, you can always visit our QuickBooks Desktop Help Articles page for reference.

If there's anything else that I can help you with, please let me know in the comment section down below. I'll be always around ready to help.

Hello there, @lauriem.

Thanks for reaching back out to us. Let me provide additional insights about WA paid leave premiums in QuickBooks.

Yes, the WA paid leave premiums will show up once the due of pay liability every after a quarter.

For more reference, you can read these articles:

• Latest payroll news and updates.
• Washington Paid Family and Medical Leave (New Tax 2019).

Don't hesitate to let me know if you have any questions or need anything. Have a nice day!

This liability is not appearing in the list on the Pay Taxes, etc Tab

I corrected some discrepancies in the employee fields and everything should be as it should in the Employee Information

In Payroll Setup, under Schedule Payments, the Description for it is Check/Quarterly. I know the agency determines the frequency so that can't be edited but there's apparently nowhere to change it from a check to an e-payment, which I would prefer for the upcoming payments

Is that done somewhere else?

I paid this on the website and now need to account for it in Quickbooks, of course!

Sorry to be so lame

Hi lauriem,

A few things that we need to consider why your liability taxes isn't listed. Let me share them with you to get this resolved.

• Paycheck date should be included in your payment frequency schedule.
• You haven't created a paycheck dated for the next quarter yet.
• You haven't set up for a schedule payment.

If you already paid your previous quarter's liability and haven't created a paycheck yet, these liabilities will not be listed in the pay liabilities window.

Once done, just click on the due payroll tax and then click View/Pay.

In order to e-pay your taxes, you'll have to sign up for e-pay first. Please read these handy articles for more information:

• Understanding the E-File and E-Pay services.

• E-Pay tax liability payments.

You can visit our page for future reference about: Payroll and workers.

Get back to me if you have other questions.

Hi, ShiellaGrace, hoping to clarify

Quickbooks doesn't know that I paid the liability yet, as I paid via ACH on the agency website

So of course it needs to be entered somehow

You mentioned a paycheck date. Is that referring to the employees' checks that have the Paid Leave withholding from?

I do have a scheduled payment for the WA Paid Medical Leave, it's designated Check/Quarterly

I think I'm missing something, though I don't know what, appreciate your patience and thanks for trying!

Thanks for your input, LilyC!

Yes, the Paid Leave is a quarterly payment, but the agency wasn't set up to accept payments by the first quarter deadline so both quarters are to be paid by the new extended August 31 one

No, it has never appeared on the Pay Liabilities, etc screen. The only thing ever showing up there is my 941 tax deposit

BTW, the agency has been very communicative about what's going on, sending emails to keep employers apprised of developments and responding quickly to my questions

 I will try your suggestion for that prior payment and see if it works for me

I appreciate you getting back to us, @lauriem.

After creating a prior payment, the recorded liability will appear on the Pay Liabilities page.

Also, in case you want to set up a schedule for payroll liabilities or create payroll payments in the future, you can read these articles for your reference:

• Set up and Pay Scheduled or Custom (unscheduled) Liabilities.
• Create Payroll Payments.

Please know that you can always get back to us if you have any other questions. We're always here to help.

I followed LilyC's suggestion to create a prior payment. The current withholding was listed on the screen, and I didn't want to mess with that so I added the amount I'd paid the agency through ACH, and recorded it. But now I realize the current withholding shouldn't have been included in this transaction, so how do I correct that adjustment, please?

Further, when I looked at the Pay Liabilities tab the only one listed was the usual federal w/h, so it looks like the new liability didn't make it.

And nothing showed up in the check register to reduce the balance.

Is it something in the setup that's awry? I'm baffled

Hi @lauriem,

Let me join this conversation and share some steps on how you can correct the adjustment you mentioned.

I'd suggest for you to run your Payroll Liability Balances report. Open this report by following these steps:

1. Go to the Reports menu.
2. Highlight Employees & Payroll, then select Payroll Liability Balances.
3. Set the date range that covers the date you entered the prior payment.

If you see your liability check on the report, you'll need to adjust payroll liabilities. You'll find the steps on the link I've provided, including how to adjust multiple liabilities at the same time.

Feel free to post other questions in the comments below. I'll be sure to get back to you.

Might be helpful for others down the road to know that Accounts Affected must be selected when Creating a Prior Payment. After I selected the bank and liability accounts my transaction was successful.

However, the liability is still not properly showing up on the Pay Taxes tab even though I've scheduled it in Payroll Setup as Check/Quarterly

Any suggestions would be appreciated

Thank you,

--Laurie

Hi, @lauriem.

To clarify, have you tried running the report suggested by my colleague @Ryan_M above? it could be that there's an overpayment recorded on previous dates.

You can also read this article for further guidance: Payroll Liability and/or Balance Sheet Report Shows Incorrect Amounts for Payroll Liabilities.

If there are no overpayments, I suggest contacting our support team. This way, they can look into your account in a secure environment and further investigate this.

To contact them:

1. Go to the Help menu.
2. Select Support.
3. Under the Additional resources, click Contact Us.
4. Select Need to contact Support? link.
5. Then choose Call Us.

You can also visit our Payroll and workers page to learn some tips on managing your payroll.

Don't hesitate to reach out to us if you have any other concerns or questions. 

I have a related, ongoing question.  My company as a small employer  has no Employer tax liability: only employees have to pay the PFML portion.  The liability/premiums are withheld each payroll period.  However, WA's ESD calculates the premiums due each quarter on total payroll for the quarter.  Due to rounding, each quarter the total premium amount due to the state is a few pennies different from the total amount of premiums withheld during the payroll processing.

What's an easy way to adjust the payroll liability so what shows in QuickBooks is the same as what I pay the state?  Since the employees had the correct amounts withheld each payroll, the company is paying the additional few pennies each quarter.  Right now, I record what I pay the state so QuickBooks shows the few pennies as an overpayment.   THANKS!

Hi Pikake,

You can use a liability adjustment to correct your employees quarter-to-date (QTD) payroll information. Let me guide you how.

1. Click the Employees menu.
2. Select Payroll Taxes and Liabilities.
3. Choose Adjust Payroll Liabilities.
4. Fill in the date. (Use the same date as the last paycheck of the affected quarter. Use today's date if you’re working on the current quarter. The Effective Date is used to calculate amounts on your 940 and 941 forms as well as the Payroll Liability Balances Report.)
5. Select Employee.
6. Complete the Taxes and Liabilities fields.
7. Select Accounts Affected and then OK.
8. Click OK.

Here's an article for more information and detailed steps: Adjust Payroll Liabilities In QuickBooks Desktop.

I have included this article in case you have other questions about payroll: Payroll And Workers.

Leave a reply if you have other questions. I'll be here to help you.

This Paid leave liability is correctly set up in the Payroll Setup yet doesn't appear in the Pay Taxes & Liabilities tab

I'm planning to create a custom payment for this 3rd quarter's premium but am wondering if others are experiencing the same situation and have found a way to rectify it?

FYI, I'm using the 2019 version of Premier Nonprofit and the Enhanced Payroll, if it might make a difference

Let me help you set up and pay a custom liability, @lauriem. 

Please check if you've set the Payment deposit frequency to Quarterly from your QuickBooks Payroll Setup so that this will appear from your Pay Taxes & Liabilities tab. 

Here's how to check:

1. Go to your Employees menu and then choose Payroll Center. 
2. Select Pay Liabilities tab. Below Other Activities, click on Change payment method link. 
3. Click the Schedule payments and double-click the scheduled tax payment.
4. Make sure that it was set as Quarterly, then click the Finish button to save all the changes. 

After that, you can now see your upcoming, due, and overdue liabilities under the Pay Taxes & Other Liabilities section. To view:

1. Go to the Employees menu, then select Payroll Center.
2. Select the Pay Liabilities tab.

Here's more information from this article: Set up and pay scheduled or custom (unscheduled) liabilities. 

Let us know if there’s anything else that we can help by posting a comment below. Have a great rest of the day!

Thanks for getting back to me, MaryJoy

Yes, the quarterly option was selected for this liability in the payroll setup, which is partly why I'm mystified as to its non-appearance in the Payroll Center