Payroll Setup Interview In QuickBooks Desktop

QuickBooks Desktop comes with an option to set up with correct payroll settings. In this article, we will be discussing about the process to payroll setup interview in QuickBooks Desktop.

Payroll setup interview

Access the Payroll Setup Interview by going to Employees > Payroll Setup and then you will be taken to the Payroll setup wizard.

Step 1: Introduction

This is the first step in which QuickBooks will verify whether there are any paychecks issued or not.

Step 2: Company Setup

In this step, you will be taken to the your company payroll information. You can add employee benefits and compensation.

Information required:

• Compensation information (hourly, salary, tips, bonuses)
• Employee benefit information (health insurance, retirement, paid time off)
• Other payroll deductions and additions (wage garnishments, mileage)

Step 3: Employee Setup

In this step, you will be setting up your employees. You need to add various information including their W-4 information, payroll items, and any benefits that apply. Make sure that you have added all employees you paid in the current calendar year. Those employees still work for you or not.

Information required:

• A W4 for each employee
• Compensation information (hourly rate, yearly salary, commission)
• Direct deposit information for each employee (if applicable).
• Benefits information (401(K), wage garnishment, paid time off)

Step 4: Taxes

In this step, you will setup your State and Federal Taxes.

Information required:

• State Withholding and Unemployment Tax identification/account numbers. (Several states use same number for both state withholding and unemployment taxes others have different account numbers for each type of tax).
• State Unemployment Tax rate information

Step 5: Year-to-date payrolls

In this step, you have to enter all your year-to-date payroll history and tax payments starting in January. You can skip this step in case you don’t have any payroll history for the year.

Information required:

• Year-to-date payroll information (For old quarters, you require a quarterly report that displays each employee’s quarterly earnings. You also require the payroll information for each payroll run for all employees for an open quarter).
• Prior tax and liabilities payments information

Step 6: Data review

This step is made of two sub-steps:

Review your payroll data: In this step, you need to look into your wage and tax data review. Your year-to-date entries will be compared to your payroll items and tax items. If any error occurs, it will create a report for you and you have to correct your year-to-date entries.

Reconcile your payroll tax forms to your payroll data: You need to enter your 941 form and state agency filed forms. Then you will be able to reconcile your data. If any error occurs, you will have to correct your entries.

Information required:

• You require the Federal 941 form for each quarter you filed for the year.
• You also require State agency quarterly forms filed for each quarter you filed for the year.

Reach Us For QuickBooks Support

Hopefully, you find this article helpful for you in setting up Payroll interview in QuickBooks Desktop. However, sometimes it can be bit tricky and you can face several issues while doing the same. In such situations, you can connect with our technical support team of Intuit by just dialing our toll-free QuickBooks Support Phone Number +1-866-701-7446 to get instant technical support for QuickBooks.