QuickBooks 2012 will include batch timesheet creation as an enhancement to the current “Use Weekly Timesheet” feature, allowing you the option to select multiple employee or vendor names for time entry. From the information that I’ve seen, Intuit is marketing this feature to contractors as a timesaver, and it may be for some businesses, BUT THERE IS A CATCH……
Each group of employees or vendors that you select MUST work on the same Job, under the same Service Item AND the same Payroll Item MUST be used during timesheet creation – additionally, they must ALL work the same number of hours each day!
See the Batch Timesheet function in action on our YouTube video
In order to successfully use the Batch Timesheet feature in QuickBooks Pro/Premier 2012 and Enterprise 12.0:
1. You MUST enable timetracking
- Logged into QuickBooks as the QuickBooks Administrator in Single-User Mode
- From the Edit menu -> choose Preferences -> scroll to Time & Expenses {the last preference} -> click on the Company Preferences tab
- Under the Time Tracking – Do you track time option -> select Yes and set the FIRST day of your work week
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- Click OK to save your changes
2. The Use time data to create paychecks option MUST be enabled for each employee
- From the Employee menu -> choose Employee Center -> click on the Employees tab -> double-click on an employee name OR click the Edit Employee button
- From the Change tabs drop down menu -> choose Payroll & Compensation Info
- Make sure the Use time data to create paychecks option is checked.
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- Click the OK button to save the changes for this employee
- Repeat for each employee in your employee list
3. You MUST use the Weekly Timesheet function
- From the Employee menu -> choose Enter Time -> Use Weekly Timesheet OR from the Home Page -> click the Enter time icon -> Use Weekly Timesheet
- In the Name field, click the drop down list and select either Multiple Names (Payroll) OR Multiple Names (Non-Payroll)
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- In the pop-up window, select multiple names, by placing a checkmark next to the name, and click ok to finalize your selections
 Select multiple employees |
 Select vendors |
- Enter timesheet information, selecting the Job, Service Item and Payroll Item
- Click on the Save and Close button to enter the information
Be aware of a potential problem:
A potential problem that I see with this feature, is let’s say that there are 4 employees {or vendors} who worked on a Job Monday through Thursday; on Friday, only 3 of these employees {vendors} were there. When you enter multiple timesheets, I forsee most people selecting all 4 employees/vendors and automatically entering ALL of the the time for the entire week. Using the batch timesheet option, you would need to be very careful when entering hours in this type of situation – as it could result in an employee or vendor being paid for erroneous hours worked and no one catching it. On the flip side, for employees who worked overtime, additional entries would be required on their individual timesheets to record overtime hours – if not this would result in underpayment.
NOTE: If you really need this type of functionality, investigate our Crew/Overtime Entry Solution program, which allows you to enter “exceptions” {the 4th employee not working on Friday} prior to posting the time data to QuickBooks.
A customer called with the following question:
We have 25 employees on the payroll at all times – more in the summer when things are busier. My employees can earn multiple rates of pay in one week (sometimes even in the same day) on the same or multiple jobs. How do I handle this in QuickBooks without always having to manually change the pay rate when I create their paychecks? To be more specific, let’s talk about “Joe”. Joe can work as:
- a laborer making $12.00 per hour
- a dozer trax operator making $17.00 per hour
- a skid steer operator making $18.00 per hour
- a supervisor making $25.00 per hour
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Answer:
This is indeed a complex situation, as well as a very common one, and having to manually change the rate of pay accordingly when creating the paycheck is highly error prone.
To successfully handle this task:
- Create new hourly payroll wage items in QuickBooks called Laborer, Dozer, Skid, and Supervisor – which represent each of the different Work Classifications that your employees are paid under.
- Edit Joe’s employee record, go to the Payroll & Compensation tab, add these new payroll wage items to his Earnings section by clicking into the Item column and selecting the newly created payroll items and assign the correct rate of pay.
- While you are in the Payroll & Compensation tab, make sure that the option to “Use time data to create paychecks” is checked.
- Enter Joe’s hours using the Weekly Timsheet function, splitting out and assigning how many hours he work on each job during the week and selecting the appropriate Payroll Item for the task.
- When you create Joe’s paycheck, QuickBooks will automatically pull in the correct rate that you assigned to each Payroll Item in Joe’s employee record.
Setting up QuickBooks in this manner makes the program work for you, instead of you having to always remember to manually make the pay rate changes.
Benefits include:
- A clearly visible audit trail for Worker’s Compensation Audits, as these Payroll Items now correspond to employee work classifications.
- Accurate pay checks.
- Less stress.
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Author’s Note:
Having to manually create new payroll items AND then update 25 employee records with new payroll wage items and rates of pay is a time-consuming process as you have to do each payroll item and employee one at a time.
Check out Wage Manager Solution, a QuickBooks integrated application designed specifically to automate this process.
Watch a 10 minute video which provides an overview of how Wage Manager Solution works.
