QuickBooks – Print function disabled for W2’s, 1099’s, etc.

Payroll Tips, QuickBooks Corner
Meeting an earlier W-2 and 1099 deadline (now January 31, 2017) just got a little more complicated and time-consuming. A recent QuickBooks payroll update has disabled the print function for W's, 1099's, 941's, 940's, and other year-end payroll tax returns. NOTE:  I'm pretty certain it was a payroll update and not a normal QuickBooks maintenance release that did this - mainly because I have not installed the most recent maintenance release so that should not be the cause. First the really bad news. If you planned on printing your W-'s on pre-printed forms - forget about it. If you need to export W-2 and 1099 information to a 3rd party (such as Mag-Filer) - forget about it - as the Print to Text export has also been disabled. Now for…
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Are Your QuickBooks Payroll & Certified Payroll Processes Efficient?

Are Your QuickBooks Payroll & Certified Payroll Processes Efficient?

Certified Payroll/Prevailing Wage, Payroll Tips, QuickBooks Add-Ons, Webinars & Training
QuickBooks Payroll and Certified Payroll processes really need to be efficient in order for a business to be successful.  When one of your businesses largest job expenses is payroll, you need to: pay your employees correctly and on time to keep them happy, make sure that those payroll costs are part of your accounting system so those costs are included in job costing reports, and you need to submit your certified payroll reports accurately and in a timely fashion in order to be paid. Yes, it's a vicious cycle! Ask any business owner how efficient he thinks his payroll and certified payroll processes are and I'm betting he'll either say "oh they are very efficient" or "they could be better".  Ask his payroll clerk who is dealing with a lot…
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QuickBooks Timely Payroll Alerts, Updates & Issues for 2013 Payroll Tax Returns

Payroll Tips, QuickBooks Reviews
So here we all are scrambling to get all of our payroll tax returns completed for year-ending 12/31/2013 (myself included) and I just receive this information via my ProAdvisor membership. Issues: Form 940 for Year Ending 12/31/2013 - Schedule A Rounding Issues in QuickBooks 2011-2014 From the Intuit Payroll Support Knowledgebase Problem: You received an error on your 2013 Form 940/Schedule A indicating you have a difference that is greater or less than $5 between the Total FUTA taxable wages for credit reduction states on Schedule A and the taxable FUTA wages on Form 940 page 1, line 7. This error could be due to the way the wages are rounded on Schedule A. You can correct this by verifying the totals and overriding the wages on Schedule A.  For…
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Employee Reimbursements-Accountable vs Non-Accountable Plans

Employee Reimbursements-Accountable vs Non-Accountable Plans

Be A Better Bookkeeper, From Our Guest Bloggers, IRS Information, Payroll Tips
As a tax preparer and payroll provider for my clients I always recommend, whenever possible, that they keep employee reimbursements’ out of payroll. The IRS even suggest this in Publication 583 (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p583.pdf).  If it is your habit to include reimbursed expenses in employee paychecks and  your payroll is ever audited, be it from the IRS or the State, I am sure you and your employer could be very unhappy. In a perfect world, all expenses would be paid with company checks, or credit cards, leaving a clear path for accounting to identify the source and business reason for each expense. However, we do not live in a perfect world, and it is oftentimes necessary for employees to pay for these expenses. Reimbursements are not so cut and dry. If you…
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Searching For the Right Time Tracking Add-On for QuickBooks?

Searching For the Right Time Tracking Add-On for QuickBooks?

Payroll Tips, QuickBooks Add-Ons
Are you totally overwhelmed & confused in your search for “just the right” time tracking add-on for QuickBooks? If you are, it’s not surprising. When you go to the Intuit Marketplace (https://marketplace.intuit.com/ ) and click on the option to Search by Business Need and then click on Time Tracking, you’ll find yourself with 51 different time tracking add-on programs to choose from!  Little wonder you are overwhelmed and confused.  I get that way too. You’ll find terms and icons indicating: And they all seem to be saying the exact same thing or slight variations: Track your time quickly and easily online! Track time fast and easy with the market leader in QuickBooks integration. Time tracking software your employees (and you{ will actually love The fastest way to track, manage and…
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QuickBooks at Year-End:  Getting Ready for 1099’s

QuickBooks at Year-End: Getting Ready for 1099’s

1099"s, Payroll Tips, Reports, Vendors & Accounts Payable
Here we are almost at year end and one of the tasks that we will soon be faced with in QuickBooks is getting ready to issue 1099's. According to the IRS, business owners must file Form 1099-MISC for each person to whom you have paid at least $10.00 in royalties or broker payments in lieu of dividends or tax-exempt interest; at least $600 in rents, services (including parts and materials), prizes and awards, other income payments, medical and health care payments, crop insurance proceeds, cash payments for fish (or other aquatic life) you purchase from anyone engaged in the trade or business of catching fish, or, generally, the cash paid from a notional principal contract to an individual, partnership, or estate; any fishing boat proceeds, or gross proceeds of $600,…
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QuickBooks Year-End Tip – Tracking 1099 & W-9 Information

QuickBooks Year-End Tip – Tracking 1099 & W-9 Information

1099"s, IRS Information, Payroll Tips, Reports, Vendors & Accounts Payable
Every vendor record in QuickBooks provides you with a place to indicate if a Vendor is eligible for a 1099 and a spot for you to enter the Vendors tax ID number and I highly recommend that you utilize this functionality along with the ability to attach a completed W-9 to the Vendor record. You can enter this information by going to the Vendor Center, selecting and editing a Vendor record.   Exactly where you enter this information will depend on what "year" version of QuickBooks you are using, I've included a couple of examples below to help point you in the right direction. [caption id="attachment_4362" align="aligncenter" width="300"] In QuickBooks 2012 - you'll enter 1099 information in the Additional Info tab.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_4363" align="aligncenter" width="300"] In QuickBooks 2014 you'll enter Vendor…
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How To Create a Payroll Deduction Authorization Form Using the QuickBooks Letters function

How To Create a Payroll Deduction Authorization Form Using the QuickBooks Letters function

Payroll Tips, QuickBooks Tips & Tricks
Payroll deduction authorization forms should be completed, signed and kept on file for each employee who has money taken out of his/her paycheck for anything other than permissible withholding taxes.  Yes, it's more paperwork and yet another task that an already busy payroll clerk needs to perform - BUT - QuickBooks can help you automate this task by using the tools that are built right into the program! On Tuesday, we posted an article about Recording & Tracking Employee Personal Tool Purchases made on company credit cards or lines of credit with company vendors. In that blog post, the person who asked the question indicated that sometimes the workers purchased tools on the company American Express card and would write TOC for “Take Out of Check” on the receipt -…
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Recording & Tracking Employee Personal Tool Purchases

Recording & Tracking Employee Personal Tool Purchases

Customers & Accounts Receivable, Payroll Tips, Vendors & Accounts Payable
This question came up on a discussion list that I belong to over the weekend and I thought "hey, what a great blog post and how to tip this would make"!  So here goes! I am bookkeeper for a construction company.  Sometimes the workers purchase tools on the company American Express card and write TOC for "Take Out of Check" on the receipt.  There are oftentimes material expenses for the company on the same receipt. How do I record this?  What they did before was to subtract the amount from the gross wages when called into ADP, so it's kind of a pay advance. But don't advances require the taxes to be taken out? Should I get check breakdown and subtract from net wages instead or treat as a loan?…
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QuickBooks 2014 – Changes/Improvements to the Payroll Center

QuickBooks 2014 – Changes/Improvements to the Payroll Center

Payroll Tips, QuickBooks 2014 - What's New?
In QuickBooks 2014 the Payroll Center underwent a complete overhaul - which was badly needed in my opinion - and the outcome is both well-designed and useful, at least in my opinion. For years, we've lived with a cramped Payroll Center, that was so full of "stuff" that it was often difficult for users to figure out what the heck they were supposed to do in it or how in the heck they were supposed to even use it. [caption id="attachment_4297" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Right click to enlarge this image[/caption] In QuickBooks 2014, the Payroll Center has gone from cramped to organized and useful! [caption id="attachment_4298" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Right click to enlarge[/caption] It's new "tabbed" design splits out payroll tasks, such as Pay Employees, Pay Liabilities, and File Forms makes it…
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How To Turn On and Use Manual Payroll in QuickBooks

How To Turn On and Use Manual Payroll in QuickBooks

Payroll Tips, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup
We are a small company and are looking at various options for payroll; I've heard that there is a way to do payroll manually in QuickBooks, but I can't seem to find any information on how to turn on that feature, everything seems to indicate that we have to buy a payroll subscription and that just isn't in our budget right now.  Can you help?   Thanks in advance. --------------------------------------- How to turn on and use the manual payroll option in QuickBooks certainly feels like a highly guarded secret.  Intuit makes a lot of money selling payroll subscriptions and rightly so as keeping up with payroll tax laws and forms in each and every state is a lot of work! Even so, there are instances when a business chooses to have…
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QuickBooks Payroll Record Keeping Tips-How To Stay Organized

QuickBooks Payroll Record Keeping Tips-How To Stay Organized

Be A Better Bookkeeper, Payroll Tips
QuickBooks does a great job at allowing you to track employee time to specific jobs, issue payroll and even produce your quarterly and year-end payroll tax forms and W-2's.  But the data that is stored in QuickBooks only provides pieces of the information that you need to keep on file to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act. In Tuesday's article, Payroll Recordkeeping - More Than Just Getting Employee's Paid on Time, we mentioned that in order to be well prepared for a Wage & Hour audit that you need to keep your payroll records for the duration of EACH worker’s employment with your company PLUS 5 to 10 years!  Most Human Resources and legal experts are suggesting this to ensure these records are available in the event a claim…
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Payroll Recordkeeping – More Than Just Getting Employees Paid On Time

Payroll Recordkeeping – More Than Just Getting Employees Paid On Time

Be A Better Bookkeeper, Payroll Tips
There is more to payroll recordkeeping than just making sure that your employees are paid the right wage for the type of work they are performing and getting their paychecks out the door on time. Are your payroll records accurate and up-to-date?  They need to be - because inaccurate payroll records can cost employers BIG bucks! Most employers and bookkeepers have a tendency to think that accurate payroll record keeping involves little more than being able to pull up a Payroll Summary for a prior period in QuickBooks, if the State or Federal Department of Labor asks for it. Sure, a Payroll Summary in QuickBooks is a handy thing to be able to create with just a couple of mouse clicks – but there is so much more supporting documentation…
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I-9 Form Updated – Make Sure You’re Prepared

I-9 Form Updated – Make Sure You’re Prepared

IRS Information, Payroll Tips
An updated Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification form was released by the U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on May 8, 2013. As an employer you are required to complete a Form I-9 whenever you hire a new employee, so make sure that it is part of your New Hire Packet.  The employee must complete Section 1 of the I-9 on the day that you hire him and you must review the employee’s supporting documentation and complete Section 2 of Form I-9 within 3 business days of the hire date.  You can photocopy the documents that the employee provides you and you can keep them with the completed I-9 or store them with the employee’s records. Important Note:  If you hire a person for less than 3 (three) business days,…
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