Payroll | QuickBooks for Contractors blog

09May 2015 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks Desktop vs Intuit Online Payroll – Free Webinar

WHEN: Wednesday May 13, 2015 TIME: 2 pm Eastern (1 pm Central) WHERE: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5365558835222259970 General Overview: Most businesses think the only choices they have regarding payroll management is paying employees by cash or direct deposit. But there are a variety of ways to manage your payroll and the best option should be made based on which is right for you, your business and your skill set. Payroll is one of the most important tasks for any business, you need to make sure that you keep your employees happy by making certain that they are paid correctly and on time! And if you are thinking of using a payroll software product or subscription, you need to identify which payroll method is right for YOUR business. Your hosts: Kim Shannon, President of…

08Apr 2014 by Nancy Smyth

Technology is Changing How We Submit Certified Payroll Reports

Certified Payroll/Prevailing Wage, New Technology, QuickBooks Add-Ons, The "Sunburst" Website

Technology - computers, software, and the internet - has changed how we create and submit certified payroll reports over the last decade. For many years a paper certified payroll report - either the Federal WH-347 or a state specific form - was what you needed; and then you dug out the typewriter and typed the information onto the form - or - you painstakingly handwrote the information onto the form. Then along came computers and programs like LOTUS 1-2-3 and Excel and we would recreate the layout of the paper form using the program and fill it in each week – it was faster, neater, easier to correct typo's, and we felt that we were automating the task at hand. Then, some of the software companies created a “certified payroll…

12Feb 2014 by Nancy Smyth

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…

17Jan 2014 by Nancy Smyth

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…

11Dec 2013 by BruceMc

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…

09Dec 2013 by Nancy Smyth

Sunburst’s Weekly Wrap-Up of Popular Posts 12/2 – 12/8/2013

News You Can Use

Here at Sunburst, we specialize in QuickBooks for the construction industry – and we have an incredible amount of information between our three QuickBooks related websites; so much so that sometimes people are overwhelmed – I know I am in trying to keep it all straight! Below is a list of the most popular posts and pages from the Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc. family of QuickBooks related websites according to AddThis tracking stats. From the QuickBooks for Contractors blog: Q & A: QuickBooks Employee Payroll Reimbursements & Job Costing QuickBooks Tip – Job Costing Starts With A Simple Item QuickBooks Tip – Determing Cost of Goods Sold QuickBooks 2013 Upgrade Do’s, Don’ts & Frequent Questions QuickBooks Tip – Child Support Garnishments How To Turn On and Use Manual Payroll in…

04Dec 2013 by Nancy Smyth

Q & A: QuickBooks Employee Payroll Reimbursements & Job Costing

Job Costing Tips, Payroll Tips, Questions from our readers

Job costing employee payroll reimbursements in QuickBooks is a function that many users want to perform and they usually expect that they can - with less than desired results. Below is a question that I answered several years ago on the Intuit Community forum. How do I link a employee payroll reimbursement to a customer's job? For example: If an employee pays for something with a personal credit card and I reimburse him via payroll, how do I get that transaction to link to a customer's job so it shows up in the Job Costs Detail report? When I reimburse an employee, for example, the debit shows up on my P&L under say, Landscape Materials, but how do I get that cost over to the job so I can see…

02Dec 2013 by Nancy Smyth

Sunburst’s Weekly Wrap-Up of Popular Posts 11/24 – 12/1/2013

News You Can Use

Here at Sunburst, we specialize in QuickBooks for the construction industry – and we have an incredible amount of information between our three QuickBooks related websites; so much so that sometimes people are overwhelmed – I know I am in trying to keep it all straight! Below is a list of the most popular posts and pages from the Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc. family of QuickBooks related websites according to AddThis tracking stats. From the QuickBooks for Contractors blog: QuickBooks at Year-End: Getting Ready for 1099?s QuickBooks Tip – Job Costing Starts With A Simple Item Searching For the Right Time Tracking Add-On for QuickBooks? Cleaning Up Your QuickBooks File at Year End Using Account Numbers in Your QuickBooks Chart of Accounts QuickBooks 2013 Upgrade Do’s, Don’ts & Frequent Questions…

25Nov 2013 by Nancy Smyth

Sunburst’s Weekly Wrap-Up of Popular Posts 11/16-11/22/2013

News You Can Use

Here at Sunburst, we specialize in QuickBooks for the construction industry - and we have an incredible amount of information between our three QuickBooks related websites; so much so that sometimes people are overwhelmed - I know I am in trying to keep it all straight! Below is a list of the most popular posts and pages from the Sunburst Software Solutions, Inc. family of QuickBooks related websites according to AddThis tracking stats. From the QuickBooks for Contractors blog: QuickBooks Year-End Tip – Tracking 1099 & W-9 Information Cleaning Up Your QuickBooks file at Year End QuickBooks 2013 Upgrade Do’s, Don’ts & Frequent Questions QuickBooks Payroll Tip – Tracking Employee Advances or Loans Using Account Numbers in your QuickBooks Chart of Accounts Calculating & Displaying Fringe Benefits on a Certified…

25Oct 2013 by Nancy Smyth

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 -…

22Oct 2013 by Nancy Smyth

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?…

10Sep 2013 by Nancy Smyth

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…

28Aug 2013 by Nancy Smyth

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…

09Jul 2013 by Nancy Smyth

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…

02Jul 2013 by Nancy Smyth

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…

Tag: Payroll