Pay Employees Using QuickBooks Payroll
Lesson #2: Running Payroll
Welcome to the second lesson of the QuickBooks Payroll Starting Points series. In last week's lesson, Lesson #1: Get Started with QuickBooks Payroll, you learned about navigating in and setting up QuickBooks Payroll. If you haven't set up your QuickBooks Payroll, go ahead and do so now.
This Week: Paying Your Employees
You'll use QuickBooks Payroll most often for paying your employees, so that will be our focus this week. Once you've set up payroll in QuickBooks, you don't need to enter employee and company data each time you run your payroll. QuickBooks simply fills in all your data on your paychecks for you. You just create your paychecks and then print them out. Or, if you use the QuickBooks Direct Deposit service, you'll send them in directly from QuickBooks.
To learn more, click a link:
Soon you'll be processing your payroll easily and accurately in QuickBooks. Look for the third lesson of QuickBooks Payroll Starting Points next week.
Tips
Using Timesheets
Using timesheets lets you log employee hours in QuickBooks the same way you collect them out on the job. Timesheets also save you time because you need to enter the information only once. QuickBooks can then use that information both for your payroll and for job-costing.
For more information, see the topics "Filling in weekly timesheets" and "Which way should you enter time?" in QuickBooks Help.
Activating Direct Deposit
If you have QuickBooks 2006 or 2005, and you've decided to use the QuickBooks Direct Deposit service to deposit your employees' paychecks directly into their bank accounts, you'll need to activate the service before you can start using it. Learn more.
Note: If you have QuickBooks 2004, you need to sign up for QuickBooks Direct Deposit when you purchase your QuickBooks Payroll subscription. If you didn't make this selection and now want to use the Direct Deposit service, visit www.quickbooks.com/callme to change your subscription.
Setting Your Payroll Printing Preferences
Payroll Printing Preferences give you the flexibility to have your paychecks print the way you want them. For example, you can choose the font size you want on your paychecks or whether to include non-taxable items (such as employee advances) or the employee's Social Security number on the paystub. Learn more.
Paying Independent Contractors
Although many employers think of independent contractors as employees, the government views them as separate entities and as a result, so does QuickBooks. You set up independent contractors as vendors, track payments to them as bills, and then report their income on Forms 1099-MISC, which are located in the QuickBooks Vendors menu. Learn more.
Running a Test Form W-2 After Your First Payroll
Running a test Form W-2 for each employee after you've run your first payroll is the best way to ensure that you have correctly set up your payroll in QuickBooks, particularly your payroll items. Choosing the wrong tax tracking type for a payroll item could incorrectly affect your taxes and is a chief cause of errors at tax time. If you don't catch errors early, you could face the headache of making corrections at tax time. Running a Form W-2 for each employee will tell you if you've set everything up correctly or, alternatively, will reveal where errors were made, so you can correct them quickly and easily, before they grow into bigger headaches. Learn more.
|
 |
Resources
QuickBooks Resources
Use these valuable resources to get the answers you need:
- QuickBooks Help: Access the program Help within the software for technical or troubleshooting issues. From the Help menu in QuickBooks, select QuickBooks Help.
- QuickBooks Knowledge Base: Get answers to thousands of QuickBooks questions.
- QuickBooks Message Boards: To ask questions of users like you, use the QuickBooks Community Message Boards.
- QuickBooks Payroll News: For a summary of all payroll updates for the current year, go to the Payroll News page.
Additional help options include:
Free Callback Support
As an active QuickBooks Payroll subscriber, you will receive free callback support*
to help you get started and manage your payroll in QuickBooks with confidence.
IRS Resources
Visit the IRS at www.irs.gov for more information about the following:
- Publication 15 (Circular E), Employer's Tax Guide
- Form W-4, Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate
- Form W-4(SP), Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate (Spanish Version)
Get Help from a QuickBooks Expert
Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors® are usually accounting professionals and consultants who specialize in providing
local one-on-one help to small businesses using QuickBooks. Some QuickBooks Payroll users find it helpful to consult with a ProAdvisor
when they have questions on setting up a payroll in QuickBooks or to review their setup to make sure everything's good-to-go.
Search for a ProAdvisor.
Upcoming Issues
Future lessons will cover:
- Paying your employees and processing payroll
- Paying payroll liabilities
- Preparing payroll tax forms
- Getting the most out of QuickBooks Payroll
Quick Response
Did this e-mail lesson help you? Please let us know by completing this short survey.
|
