QuickBooks Payroll Best Practices

We are strong proponents of the payroll services offered to QuickBooks users by Intuit.  They can help you save money, time and create terrific reports to help you better manage your business.

Our consultants are super Gurus and ALL of us, strongly, recommend QuickBooks Payroll services because it will provide QuickBooks users with the best, most efficient method of tracking payroll expenses and creating paychecks.  If you have another payroll service, now is a good time to compare services.  Our consultants are here to  help you assess which payroll is your best choice. For business owners who have the time, learning payroll can save you thousands in payroll preparation fees.  For businesses limited on the time they can invest in learning about payroll, QuickBooks Assisted Payroll is the ideal choice. With QuickBooks Assisted all that is required is an accurate, smart, SET-UP and about an hour of your time to learn how to create paychecks, download a copy of your completed and filed payroll tax forms. With over 25 years experience, our payroll and efficiency experts at 800-216-0763 can help you understand what changes will be made to your existing payroll procedures; what savings would come from these changes; and what training you might need to implement these changes so you can make the right choice in payroll services.   

You can choose between QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll or QuickBooks Assisted Payroll. Either is a great choice for companies who do not rely on their existing payroll service provider for pension administration or benefit administration (these services are not yet offered by Intuit). 

QuickBooks Assisted Payroll - Intuit will remit ALL Taxes and Tax forms and prepare W2 and year end forms. You print the checks locally and distribute them or you can sign up for direct deposit.  If you have deductions for Garnishments, you would create and mail out those checks.  Intuit employees guide you through the set-up and are available to answer payroll related issues. 

QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll- You remit all taxes and print and mail all tax forms. QuickBooks will create the forms and print with mailing instructions.   You print the checks locally or you can sign up for direct deposit.  QuickBooks provides a software wizard that will guide you through the set-up.

There is a 3rd option called QuickBooks Basic payroll which will create paychecks but will not create the payroll tax forms. Generally you opt for this service if you have an accountant preparing your quarterly tax forms. This option is usually more expensive than using an outside payroll service provider or QuickBooks Assisted Payroll service.

Is the hand holding Intuit provides with QuickBooks Assisted Payroll or the wizard included with QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll enough guidance to rely on?   It depends on your experience with payroll taxes.  If you are old school and have managed payroll tax forms for years, then yes, its a no-brainer, you will do fine.  But for non-accountants, payroll tax preparation sounds ominous and can be misinterpreted.  We recommend you get expert help (which we offer) to ensure that the payroll items contain all the right tax attributes, that they point to accounts that you as a NON-accountant can understand and recognize if a problem arises and create terrific managerial reports, plus receive a solid understanding of what is your responsibility and what QuickBooks will do for you.

QuickBooks Assisted payroll service guaranty's that the tax payments are paid timely and forms are accurately filed and if an error occurs caused by their service, they pay the penalty and create the amended forms. This service is the same service level you now receive with ADP and PayChex. 

So why then is a Payroll consultant necessary? Whether you use QuickBooks payroll or an outside firm, much can get lost in the dialogue between your staff payroll person and the clerk working in the payroll service call center. QuickBooks Advisors/ payroll tax consultant will help you set up new payroll items correctly and explain what reports to save, what to print and what choices you should be making. In addition, we are a quick call away when new ISSUES arise with your payroll.  Let us review your set-up, make you aware of what IS an issue and when you should seek additional help. This is even if you use an outside payroll service.  With any service payroll bureau you do not get assigned an expert in payroll tax rules. Instead you receive an expert in data entry and set-up. 

We can help you determine which QuickBooks service is best for you.  Enhanced payroll will save you lots of money each year over a payroll service, and if the person at your company assigned to do payroll will be with you for many years, then learning payroll is a smart business choice.  If you are always short of time, and do not have a person who has the time to invest to learn payroll guidelines correctly, then QuickBooks Assisted payroll is your best choice. 

If you sign up for QuickBooks Assisted Payroll through us, we will provide an hour of consulting free.   Use this hour after working with Intuit to fine-tune and maximize the reports that come from QuickBooks. 

To review, QuickBooks Assisted payroll is less expensive than most outside payroll providers. Intuit guarantees payment of any penalties caused by them. This service significantly reduces data entry and bookkeeping affiliated with payroll. The resulting reports in QuickBooks are superior and provide needed information to make smart business decisions.  Once you are set-up its easy- a no brainer !!!!!.

For existing QuickBooks Enhanced users who feel like they are walking through a dark hallway with lots of turns, tripping regularly getting back up only to stumble again, its time to get training, and we can help.

What we do is provide you with a Best Practice QuickBooks Payroll Set-up:
1. We set up your payroll items to point to liability accounts that correlate with the forms you file.
2. We setup  accounts that track your direct labor and office labor in separate accounts, changing your reports to provide key
    labor indicators that will RED FLAG when something is not right.
3. We teach you the components of job costing
4. We provide training on tax forms that get filed, payroll limits, tax rates and what is taxable and how to save payroll tax dollars.
5. We help you set up your employees correctly and set up defaults that will automatically appear on all new employees.
6. We explain the tax consequences of employee benefits such as personal car use, pretax health, simple, 401ks and more
7. We point you to literature that will keep you informed and reduce the reliance on an expert.
8. We help you understand labor laws.
9. We will make suggestions that will save you money, time and effort.

If the person who handles payroll is not aware of payroll tax issues and labor issues, its time to get a "big brother" or "big sister" providing live USA Expert guidance.  Its not expensive.  Our annual $440 support plan good for 4 hours of training and support, can include this training along with helping your conquer other areas of QuickBooks, as well.  Call and talk to us. Although it may appear from QuickBooks software that you should "go it alone", it's not the wisest choice. Changing payroll services takes the least amount of time, if you do so at anytime before the 2nd Quarter of the year.  If it is beyond the 1st Quarter of the year, give us a call and we will explain the effort involved so you can make a wise choice to proceed or wait until January 1st of next year.

You may have heard that submitting your payroll to an outside service is the smartest way to provide yourself with more time to concentrate on sales.  QuickBooks Assisted Payroll is a hybrid solution that releases you from the burdens of understanding payroll taxes, but provides your reports with critical, accurate, revealing data about how your business is doing.  We are here to help, call us and we will provide you with all the details you need to make a smart business decision.  800-216-0763.