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How To Run Payroll Properly In QuickBooks Intuit Payroll 2022
About half the workforce will start looking for a new job after two paycheck errors.
Payroll is an undeniably crucial pillar of a company’s operations.
This is especially true for small businesses such as painting companies. Most people don’t work full months or days, but rather devote hours of their time to various projects.
It is important to calculate the time they work accurately and pay them for their services accordingly.
In this post, we will discuss how you can run payroll with ease on QuickBooks Intuit Payroll 2022 and pay your employees on time, every time.
What is payroll?
Payroll simply refers to a list of a company’s employees along with the money they are owed at the end of a period. However, in an organizational setup, payroll is a complete process or function.
It covers everything from collecting employee data and calculating their correct wages to paying them on time and monitoring compliance.
No matter your number of employees, you should always be a step ahead when it comes to payroll. Paying employees correctly and on time is a major motivator to work for a firm. Improper payroll processes can drive employees away.
There are many benefits to properly running payroll:
Gathers all the relevant data about your employees in one place.
Data in a system is easy to analyze and interpret.
Ability to make forecasts for future operations.
Identification of wasteful expenses in HR.
Opportunities to improve the HR of your firm.
Eases tax and compliance processes.
Why is payroll important for small businesses?
If your painting firm has only 1-2 employees, running payroll manually is possible, though not recommended. Most companies use professional services to run payroll operations.
Small businesses stand to benefit from the use of a payroll system. It may seem counterintuitive to purchase a software to run payroll, but it ends up saving you both time and money in the long run.
You can calculate the hours recorded by employees more efficiently. You can pay them in a timely manner. And you can sort out their obligations post receiving their payments, namely tax, audit, and other legal compliance.
Either opt for a separate payroll software or use your existing accounting system. Having a separate software provides you more tools whereas using your accounting system allows for better compatibility.
Prerequisites to running payroll
Once you decide to run payroll through a software such as QuickBooks Intuit Payroll 2022, there are a few prerequisites you should tackle.
a. Basic understanding — It is true that payroll software all but eliminates the need to have any intrinsic knowledge of running payroll. Still, it is helpful to become acquainted with the platform. QuickBooks provides short and easy-to-understand tutorials to give you a general idea about different features and settings.
b. Set up payroll — Enter your company information such as the EIN, service key, and subscription details to set up your company payroll.
c. Employee hours — Before you can run a cycle, make sure that all your employees have recorded time spent on various jobs into the QuickBooks platform.
d. Bank account — Lastly, make sure that you have connected your business bank account to the platform to be able to carry out monetary transactions with ease.
How to run payroll properly in QuickBooks Intuit Payroll 2022
Running payroll with QuickBooks is fairly simple. Now that you have taken care of the prerequisites, let's take a look at the process in detail.
Step 1: Open Payroll in QuickBooks
Log into your QuickBooks account. 'Payroll' is situated at the bottom of the sidebar on the left of your overview tab. Upon clicking this, you will see three options: employees, contractors, and workers' comp.
You may explore any of the three, but for the purposes of this guide, we will go with 'employees'.
Step 2: Enter last pay information
You will be asked about the previous payroll you have run. If this is your first time paying employees, you may simply proceed to the next step. If you have paid your employees through QuickBooks or any other software beforehand, add that information here.
This includes simple payroll, paychecks, and tax details. This is important because it helps accurately populate W-2 forms at the end of the year.
Leaving out this information may negatively impact your tax calculations. You can easily forward information from your last software to QuickBooks.
Step 3: Add the date and venue
Next, you will be adding the date at which you wish to run the payroll. A physical address must also be entered.
Most companies run payroll in the first week of the month, but the timeline is entirely up to you.
A physical address can be a bit of a concern for companies in a completely remote setup. In such cases, add an address that you may have for your office work. If you are in a hybrid setting, you can use the address of the place most of your employees are working.
Step 4: Add employee information
The next step would be to add all the information about your employees. This includes basic information such as their names, designations, and how long they have been with the company.
Make sure to include employees who have left but are meant to be paid for their services.
An optional addition is to enter the email addresses of your employees. This allows them to view their pay information through a customized link sent to them.
Step 5: Add payroll cycle information
Add information regarding the payroll cycle to proceed. Given below are the information fields you will have to fill:
Periodic cycle at which the payment will be distributed.
Employees' default pay.
Any deductions.
Payment methods such as direct deposit.
You will need to enter this for every employee as it varies from person to person. In the end, you can review the entire list and make changes.
Step 6: Run payroll
The last step in the process requires that you return to your dashboard and click on the 'run payroll' option. Find this on the right-hand side of your screen.
You will be asked to add the hours worked by each employee. Simply enter the hours that have already been logged on the platform. We have covered this step in the prerequisites.
QuickBooks will run the process, calculate the pay, and present a final report for your review. You may make any changes here. To complete the process, hit 'submit payroll'.
Benefits of using QuickBooks for payroll
Companies have collectively shifted to using accounting software to run payroll. There are many benefits of doing payroll digitally over manually. Some of them are:
Ability to run payroll with little knowledge.
Intuitive in nature, meaning they take note of how you operate and adapt accordingly.
Ability to set the payroll once and never work on it again.
Helps with post-payment obligations such as tax and other legal compliance.
Keeps employees happy as they are paid on time with no errors.
Common mistakes to avoid
A common mistake many entrepreneurs make is to assume the software is able to track changes to HR and wages. You must add, remove, and edit information about employees as their status with your company shifts.
Similarly, you must be diligent in entering information about your employees. Clerical errors such as typing the wrong digits can alter payroll calculations.
Some helpful tips
Here are some additional tips to help you run payroll with QuickBooks:
Add information about payments made in the same calendar year prior to shifting to QuickBooks.
Train employees to be able to use their payroll information efficiently.
Pay attention to the security of your payroll as it contains confidential information about your company.
Final thoughts
Payroll is one of the important aspects of running a business, especially from an employee’s point of view. Running payroll manually can be a hassle, even with only a few employees.
Small businesses such as painting companies can benefit from the use of accounting software such as QuickBooks Payroll.
Running payroll in QuickBooks is fairly simple and requires little to no accounting knowledge. All you have to do is add your employees' information and track their time on the job. Let QuickBooks take it from there.
How To Run Payroll Properly In QuickBooks Intuit Payroll 2022
About half the workforce will start looking for a new job after two paycheck errors.
Payroll is an undeniably crucial pillar of a company’s operations.
This is especially true for small businesses such as painting companies. Most people don’t work full months or days, but rather devote hours of their time to various projects.
It is important to calculate the time they work accurately and pay them for their services accordingly.
In this post, we will discuss how you can run payroll with ease on QuickBooks Intuit Payroll 2022 and pay your employees on time, every time.
What is payroll?
Payroll simply refers to a list of a company’s employees along with the money they are owed at the end of a period. However, in an organizational setup, payroll is a complete process or function.
It covers everything from collecting employee data and calculating their correct wages to paying them on time and monitoring compliance.
No matter your number of employees, you should always be a step ahead when it comes to payroll. Paying employees correctly and on time is a major motivator to work for a firm. Improper payroll processes can drive employees away.
There are many benefits to properly running payroll:
Gathers all the relevant data about your employees in one place.
Data in a system is easy to analyze and interpret.
Ability to make forecasts for future operations.
Identification of wasteful expenses in HR.
Opportunities to improve the HR of your firm.
Eases tax and compliance processes.
Why is payroll important for small businesses?
If your painting firm has only 1-2 employees, running payroll manually is possible, though not recommended. Most companies use professional services to run payroll operations.
Small businesses stand to benefit from the use of a payroll system. It may seem counterintuitive to purchase a software to run payroll, but it ends up saving you both time and money in the long run.
You can calculate the hours recorded by employees more efficiently. You can pay them in a timely manner. And you can sort out their obligations post receiving their payments, namely tax, audit, and other legal compliance.
Either opt for a separate payroll software or use your existing accounting system. Having a separate software provides you more tools whereas using your accounting system allows for better compatibility.
Prerequisites to running payroll
Once you decide to run payroll through a software such as QuickBooks Intuit Payroll 2022, there are a few prerequisites you should tackle.
a. Basic understanding — It is true that payroll software all but eliminates the need to have any intrinsic knowledge of running payroll. Still, it is helpful to become acquainted with the platform. QuickBooks provides short and easy-to-understand tutorials to give you a general idea about different features and settings.
b. Set up payroll — Enter your company information such as the EIN, service key, and subscription details to set up your company payroll.
c. Employee hours — Before you can run a cycle, make sure that all your employees have recorded time spent on various jobs into the QuickBooks platform.
d. Bank account — Lastly, make sure that you have connected your business bank account to the platform to be able to carry out monetary transactions with ease.
How to run payroll properly in QuickBooks Intuit Payroll 2022
Running payroll with QuickBooks is fairly simple. Now that you have taken care of the prerequisites, let's take a look at the process in detail.
Step 1: Open Payroll in QuickBooks
Log into your QuickBooks account. 'Payroll' is situated at the bottom of the sidebar on the left of your overview tab. Upon clicking this, you will see three options: employees, contractors, and workers' comp.
You may explore any of the three, but for the purposes of this guide, we will go with 'employees'.
Step 2: Enter last pay information
You will be asked about the previous payroll you have run. If this is your first time paying employees, you may simply proceed to the next step. If you have paid your employees through QuickBooks or any other software beforehand, add that information here.
This includes simple payroll, paychecks, and tax details. This is important because it helps accurately populate W-2 forms at the end of the year.
Leaving out this information may negatively impact your tax calculations. You can easily forward information from your last software to QuickBooks.
Step 3: Add the date and venue
Next, you will be adding the date at which you wish to run the payroll. A physical address must also be entered.
Most companies run payroll in the first week of the month, but the timeline is entirely up to you.
A physical address can be a bit of a concern for companies in a completely remote setup. In such cases, add an address that you may have for your office work. If you are in a hybrid setting, you can use the address of the place most of your employees are working.
Step 4: Add employee information
The next step would be to add all the information about your employees. This includes basic information such as their names, designations, and how long they have been with the company.
Make sure to include employees who have left but are meant to be paid for their services.
An optional addition is to enter the email addresses of your employees. This allows them to view their pay information through a customized link sent to them.
Step 5: Add payroll cycle information
Add information regarding the payroll cycle to proceed. Given below are the information fields you will have to fill:
Periodic cycle at which the payment will be distributed.
Employees' default pay.
Any deductions.
Payment methods such as direct deposit.
You will need to enter this for every employee as it varies from person to person. In the end, you can review the entire list and make changes.
Step 6: Run payroll
The last step in the process requires that you return to your dashboard and click on the 'run payroll' option. Find this on the right-hand side of your screen.
You will be asked to add the hours worked by each employee. Simply enter the hours that have already been logged on the platform. We have covered this step in the prerequisites.
QuickBooks will run the process, calculate the pay, and present a final report for your review. You may make any changes here. To complete the process, hit 'submit payroll'.
Benefits of using QuickBooks for payroll
Companies have collectively shifted to using accounting software to run payroll. There are many benefits of doing payroll digitally over manually. Some of them are:
Ability to run payroll with little knowledge.
Intuitive in nature, meaning they take note of how you operate and adapt accordingly.
Ability to set the payroll once and never work on it again.
Helps with post-payment obligations such as tax and other legal compliance.
Keeps employees happy as they are paid on time with no errors.
Common mistakes to avoid
A common mistake many entrepreneurs make is to assume the software is able to track changes to HR and wages. You must add, remove, and edit information about employees as their status with your company shifts.
Similarly, you must be diligent in entering information about your employees. Clerical errors such as typing the wrong digits can alter payroll calculations.
Some helpful tips
Here are some additional tips to help you run payroll with QuickBooks:
Add information about payments made in the same calendar year prior to shifting to QuickBooks.
Train employees to be able to use their payroll information efficiently.
Pay attention to the security of your payroll as it contains confidential information about your company.
Final thoughts
Payroll is one of the important aspects of running a business, especially from an employee’s point of view. Running payroll manually can be a hassle, even with only a few employees.
Small businesses such as painting companies can benefit from the use of accounting software such as QuickBooks Payroll.
Running payroll in QuickBooks is fairly simple and requires little to no accounting knowledge. All you have to do is add your employees' information and track their time on the job. Let QuickBooks take it from there.
