How to Add Employees in QuickBooks Online

How to Add Employees in QuickBooks Online: Video

          This video lesson, titled “How to Add Employees to the Employees List in QuickBooks Online,” shows you how to add employees in QuickBooks Online. It also shows you how to use the Employees list in QuickBooks Online after adding the employees. This video lesson is from our complete QuickBooks Online tutorial, titled “Mastering QuickBooks Online Made Easy.”

Overview:

How to Set Up Payroll Before Adding Employees If You Have a QuickBooks Payroll Subscription:

            To view the Employees list in QuickBooks Online, click the “Employees” link under either the “Payroll” or “Team” app in the “My apps” bar. If you haven’t set up payroll yet and have a QuickBooks payroll subscription, then click the “Get started” button to set up payroll and add employees. You’ll then be redirected to the “Overview” page of the “Payroll” pages, where you can then click the “Get started” button to set up payroll before adding your employees. You can also add employees as part of the initial payroll setup, if desired.

How to Add Employees without a QuickBooks Payroll Subscription:

            Alternatively, to add employees for time tracking if you don’t have a QuickBooks Payroll subscription, click the “Add an employee” button that appears in the “Employees” page, instead, enter the employee’s information in the “Who’s your new team member?” window that opens, and then click the “Add employee” button in the window to finish.

How to Add Employees after Setting Up Payroll:

            To create a new employee and/or invite the employee to enter their payroll information into QuickBooks Workforce after setting up payroll, return to the “Employees” page and then click the “Add an employee” button in the upper-right corner of the Employees list to open an “Add an employee” window. First, enter their name into the “First name,” “M.I.,” and “Last name” fields. Then enter their email address into the “Email” field. Then enter their hire date into the “Hire date” field.

            To choose how to enter the employee’s personal, tax, direct deposit, and employment eligibility I-9 information, then select the desired onboarding option button in the next section. To let the employee clock in and clock out using QuickBooks Workforce, check the “Time tracking” checkbox. Then click the “Add employee” button to send the invitation and/or create the employee. If the employee is sent an invitation, then they can log in and enter their own payroll setup information.

How to Manually Enter Employee Onboarding Information, if Needed:

            Alternatively, if you are entering the employee’s data for them, then click the “Finish Payroll Info” button to continue entering their employee information within the sections on the employee’s details page on the “Profile” tab.

How to Add Employee Personal Info:

            To edit their personal information, click the “Edit” link in the upper-right corner of the “Personal info” section to open an “Add/Edit personal info” window. The employee’s name appears in the “Title,” “First name,” “M.I.” and “Last name” fields. To enter a different preferred first name, enter it into the “Preferred first name” field. To see how their name appears when displayed, click the “Show display name” link to show the “Display name” field.

            The email address they use to view W-2 info and pay stubs with QuickBooks Workforce appears in the “Email” field. You can enter contact numbers for their “Home phone number,” “Work phone number,” and “Mobile phone number” and associated “ext.” fields, if needed. You can enter their address into the “Address,” “City,” “State” and “ZIP code” fields. If their mailing address is the same, leave the “Mailing address is the same” checkbox checked. If different, uncheck this checkbox and enter their mailing address into the fields that appear.

            To enter their birthdate, type it into the “Birth date” field. If needed, to select a gender, select it from the “Gender” field. Enter their social security number into the “Social security number” field and re-enter it into the “Confirm Social Security number” field. To then save the personal information, click the “Save” button at the bottom of the “Add personal info” window.

How to Add Employment Details:

            To enter the employment details of the employee, click the “Start” or “Edit” link in the upper-right corner of the “Employment details” section to open a new window. Select their employment status from the “Status” drop-down. Then enter the employee’s hire date by using the “Hire date” calendar drop-down. Next, select or create the pay schedule for the employee from the “Pay schedule” drop-down.

            Then select their work location from the “Work location” drop-down. Optionally, to select their manager, select a choice from the “Manager” drop-down. Optionally, to select their department, select a choice from the “Department” drop-down. If needed, enter their job title into the “Job title” field and employee ID into the “Employee ID” field.

            If needed, enter the employee’s cost rate per hour into to the “Cost rate (per hour)” field. If needed, to enter an hourly billing rate for the employee, enter it into the “Billing rate (per hour)” field. Then enter their workers’ comp class into the “Workers’ comp class” field. To then save the information, click the “Save” button at the bottom of the window.

How to Document Employment Eligibility:

            Follow the instructions shown in the “Employment eligibility” section to either enable automated I-9 forms on the “Permissions” tab or manually upload scanned versions of paper I-9 forms on the “Documents” tab, as needed.

How to Add Tax Withholdings:

            To edit the employee’s tax withholding information, click the “Edit” link in the upper-right corner of the “Tax withholdings” section. Then select the option to answer when you hired the employee to select the correct W-4 form. Then fill-in the employee’s withholding information in the following sections of the page. After entering their withholding information, click the “Save” button at the bottom of the window to save it.

How to Add the Employee’s Payment Method:

            To edit the employee’s payment method, click the “Start” or “Edit” link in the upper-right corner of the “Payment method” section to open a new window where you can select how to pay the employee from the drop-down. For direct deposit employees, then enter their deposit method and enter the related banking information. To save this information, when finished, click the “Save” button at the bottom of the window.

How to Add the Employee’s Base Pay:

            To set the employee’s wages and earnings, click the “Start” or “Edit” link in the upper-right corner of the “Base pay” section to open an “Add base pay” pane at the right side of the window. In this pane, enter the base pay compensation type by selecting the desired option button and then entering the pay’s related hourly, salary, or commission information in the fields that appear. Optionally, for hourly and salary pay types, enter the default hours per day and days per week they work in the next set of fields. To save the base pay, then click the “Save” button at the bottom of the pane.

How to Add Additional Pay Types:

            To add additional pay types, click the “+Add” link in the “Additional pay types” section, if needed, to open an “Add pay type” pane at the right side of the window. In this pane, select the additional pay type from the “Pay types” drop-down and then enter its information in the fields that then appear, as needed. To save the additional pay type, click the “Save” button at the bottom of the pane.

            The additional pay type then appears in the “Additional pay types” section. You can use the “Pay type” drop-down in this section to filter this list, if needed. To edit or unassign an additional pay type for this employee, click or select the desired choice from the pay type’s “Actions” column. To add more additional pay types, if needed, click the “+Add” link again and repeat the process.

How to Set Time Off Policies:

            To set time off policies, click the “Start” or “Edit” link in the upper-right corner of the “Time off” section to open a new “Edit time off” window. Then select a policy choice for each type of time off within the “Manage time off policies” section. If needed, then enter the information required for the time off policy in the pane that opens at the right side of the window and click the “Save” button in the pane to save it. Then enter any time off amounts for the employee, if needed. Finally, to save all the time off policies, when finished, then click the “Save” button at the bottom of the “Edit time off” window.

How to Add Deductions and Contributions:

            To enter deductions or contributions for the employee, click the “Start” or “Edit” link in the upper-right corner of the “Deductions and contributions” section to open a new window. To then enter any deductions for the employee, like for retirement plans, garnishments or health care, click the “+ Add deduction/contribution” link to open a pane at the right side of the window where you can set up the deduction or contribution and click “Save” at the bottom of the pane to save it. If needed, you can then click the “pencil” icon for that deduction or contribution on this employee’s page to edit its information for this employee. Alternatively, to delete the deduction for this employee, click the “trash can” icon and then confirm the deletion in the window that opens.

            To enter a garnishment for this employee, click the “+ Add garnishment” link to open a pane at the right side of the window where you can set up the garnishment and click “Save” at the bottom of the pane to save it. If needed, you can then click the “pencil” icon for that garnishment on this employee’s page to edit its information for this employee. Alternatively, to delete the garnishment for this employee, click the “trash can” icon and then confirm the deletion in the window that opens. To close the “Edit deductions and contributions” page, when finished, click the “Done” button in the lower-right corner.

How to Add Emergency Contact Information:

            To add the employee’s emergency contact information, click the “Start” or “Edit” link in the upper-right corner of the “Emergency contact” section to open a new window. Then enter the employee’s emergency contact information into the window and click the “Save” button to finish.

How to View Employee Documentation and Return to the Employees List:

            In addition to the employee’s “Profile” tab, there are also tabs you can click to show the employee’s “Paycheck list,” “Documents,” “History,” “Notes,” and QuickBooks Workforce “Permissions.” To return to the Employees list from an employee’s detail page, click the “< Employee List” link in its upper-left corner. After adding employees and running payroll, a graph showing your annual payroll cost appears at the top of the page. You can expand or collapse this section using the small arrow in the lower-right corner of this section.

How to Find Employees and Filter the Employees List:

            Below this information is the Employees list. In the upper-left corner is the “Find an employee” field. To find an employee in the Employees list, type their name into the “Find an employee” field, which filters the list entries as you type. You can delete your entry from this field to show all employees again.

            The drop-down to the right of the “Find an employee” field filters the Employees list to show active, inactive, or all employees. To sort the Employees list, click any column heading to sort by its data. Each time you click the same column heading, it switches the sort order from ascending to descending order.

How to Edit Payroll Items:

            To edit the payroll items used in QuickBooks Online, click the “Edit payroll items” button to open a page listing items you can edit, grouped by payroll item type. Click to expand or collapse a group. Click the payroll item to edit in an expanded group to make any changes and then save the changes, as needed. To close the page of payroll items, when finished, click the “Done” button in its lower-right corner.

How to Invite Existing Employees to use QuickBooks Workforce:

            To later invite employees to use QuickBooks Workforce if you didn’t do that as part of their setup, click the “Invite to Workforce” button above the Employee list to open a pane to the right. In this pane, enter the emails of the employees to invite and then click the adjacent “Send invite/Send reminder” link. Alternatively, to close the pane and not send invitations, click the “X” button in its upper-right corner.

How to Edit and Delete Employees Before Issuing Paychecks:

            To edit an existing employee before you issue a paycheck to them, click their name in the employee list to view the “Profile” tab within the employee’s detail page. Then edit the employee’s information, as needed, and save your changes. Alternatively, to delete an employee before running payroll, click the “Actions” button in the upper-right corner of the employee’s detail page, select the “Delete employee” command, and then confirm the deletion in the window that opens.