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QuickBooks 2008 Advanced Tutorials

Payroll / Payroll Checkup




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There are some features included with QuickBooks that help to maintain our payroll system for accuracy and for correct data. First let's go to Employees and let's go down to where it says Payroll Updates. This is an important component. About every 45 days, QuickBooks will remind you if you have not brought in your updates. You'll want to do so at least every 45 days. I normally recommend every time you run payroll to go in and get your updates first. QuickBooks will be giving you any updated tables for tax codes, any forms that have changed from the IRS and it also corrects any know issues with the payroll system. Now, I always remind people that trust the payroll within QuickBooks. I have found that on occasion when things go wrong and I have a letter from the IRS, if I've stuck with the system and the numbers in QuickBooks, then it's been smooth sailing. I have found wonderful support from the payroll team at QuickBooks. However, you start second guessing the numbers and putting in adjustments and putting in deductions, you may find that you have a very difficult reconciliation on your hands with the IRS. So keep your updates current and also trust the payroll from QuickBooks. The second item I want you to be aware of in your May Payroll Services is your Payroll Checkup. The Payroll Checkup is a screen very similar to your actual setup that'll take you step by step through each employee, each payroll item and actually tell you if you have any mistakes in it. Now, in the interest of security, I've been using a sample company so I'm just going to go to our Setup Screen for a moment. Now, the reason that we'll want to go back into a setup in that Checkup is that I have found that if you're sloppy with your data entry, it will eventually come back to haunt you. Remember, QuickBooks is trying to ensure that you are following the regulations for the IRS. I've seen instances where too much data was not entered into QuickBooks and QuickBooks stopped calculating the payroll taxes correctly. So from time to time, go into the Checkup and make sure everything is set up correctly. What this will actually do is take you through each screen and when something is incorrect, it will be flagged. You'll see reminders, you'll see warnings, you'll see informational flags on the side that let you know you should go into your description and edit it or perhaps delete it out. This screen will take you step by step from your setup to your compensation to your benefits plan. It'll go through taxes. It'll make sure your history file is correct. It actually looks for corruption of your data and looks for errors. Now, I'm going to finish later so that I can talk about some of the most common errors. Let's go into our Employee Center. I'm going to right click on an employee and go into Edit. This is the main area of concern that I run into. Now, it is mandatory that a first name, last name and social security number be inputted for each employee. If you do not get the social security number, you will have difficulties at the end of the year. It is strongly recommended that an employee is not entered until all the paperwork has been returned. Remember, we have a legal obligation to ensure that this is a good social security number and that our employees are legal to work within the US. So don't take this lightly. Make sure you have this input. My general policy is if an employee's payroll file has not been returned, they are not in payroll. I find the easiest way to get documentation is to ask the employee to complete the paperwork. Besides, there's no real reason why it should be delayed. They should have been handed in the very first day of starting their job. Alright. Address and contact information is also important at the end of the year. This is where we're going to be sending our W-2. Now, this is a screen that I have seen people get in trouble with. I have seen people not put in all the address information, skip social security numbers and put nines in because they're going to get them later. It works just fine and then all of a sudden one month their federal taxes will not fill in. You've got to be careful with this particular component. Another area that you want to always watch is in your actual compensation area. In particular, your Tax Screen. Make sure that you're reviewing your reports to ensure the filing status, the number of allowances and withholding. Again, remember, this information all comes off of those employee forms. Don't forget your State Tab is separate. You will need to go in separately to choose the state in which an employee is working. If you put in a state that has no taxes, don't worry. QuickBooks will let you know. In our other tab, once again, if you have any local taxes that correlate to the state, you'll want to put those in but notice it doesn't want you to go into any local taxes until the state is actually filled in. I can not underestimate the concern that you need to give to these individual screens. If you are not sure how to fill out the information, please check with your accountant so that you get them precise. The Employee Center, particularly in the data on the employee, is the number one issue with payroll. If you take the time to go through and to actually run the Payroll Checkup, it will tell you exactly where each weakness comes in for each employee. Now, if you've been slack on your data entry, be prepared for it to be a little bit on the time-consuming part. If you're up to date, then it's a wonderful little double check and it's a breeze to get through.

Tutorial Information

Course: QuickBooks 2008 Advanced
Author: Lauri Sowa-Matson
SKU: 33900
ISBN: 1-934743-82-8
Release Date: 2008-08-28
Duration: 7 hrs / 88 lessons
Work Files: Yes
Captions: Available on CD and Online University
Compatibility: Vista/XP/2000, OS X, Linux
QuickTime 7, Flash 8

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