Change the principal officer or primary principal in QuickBooks Payroll

Learn how to update your company's principal officer info in QuickBooks Payroll.

There are always changes in life and in business, even regarding the principal officer. The principal officer serves as the main contact for a bank account that makes electronic payments, like direct deposits. Federal law requires that we store and verify information about principal officers. You can make updates to the principal officer info directly in QuickBooks Online.

Step 1: Update your primary principal info

1. Go to Settings ⚙, then Payroll Settings.
2. Next to Bank accounts select Manage payroll principal officer information.
   1. Connect your bank account for this option to be visible.
3. Select Edit ✎ to change your principal officer info.
4. From the dropdown, choose the reason for the change. You can select:
   1. I opened a new bank account
   2. Temporary change for accounting purposes
   3. Fixed incorrect information
   4. I sold my business
   5. Other ownership change
   6. I changed the goods or services I sell
   7. None of the above
5. Make any updates you need. You can change this:
   1. Name
   2. Mobile Number
   3. Date of Birth
   4. Social Insurance Number
   5. Personal Address
6. When you’ve finished, select Save. We’ll send you a verification code to double-check the principal changes. Once we’ve made sure, your changes are applied immediately to your account. If we need to verify this change, we’ll contact you to get more info.

If you have a QuickBooks Payments account and changed the payroll primary principal officer to be a different person, we'll only apply that change to your payroll account. If you need to have a new principal for payments, you may need a new QuickBooks Payments account.