3rd party payroll recording, when also writing the checks to employees and tax agents

Hi there, LucyB2.

Thank you for visiting the QuickBooks Community. I'll ensure you can track and manage your paychecks in QuickBooks by performing some details below. This way, you can record your tax payments accurately.

When you use QuickBooks for accounting and another service to run payroll, you still need to keep track of paychecks in QuickBooks Desktop. We call paychecks made outside of QuickBooks with services like ADP. There are payroll services that let you import paycheck data directly into QuickBooks. Otherwise, yes, you have to manually track those transactions by using a journal entry. This is to track your expenses and taxes so you can balance the accounts out each month when payments are made.

To start with, I suggest creating manual tracking accounts for Expenses and Liabilities to cover the most common payroll tax situations. You may need to create additional accounts for taxes specific to your state or locality.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Lists menu at the top and select Chart of Accounts.
2. From the Account dropdown, select New.
3. Select an account type and choose Continue.
4. Complete the account details and other necessary information.
5. Click Save & Close.

Once done, you can now create a journal entry. Beforehand, you'll need to get your employees' payroll pay stubs or a payroll report from your payroll service. I also suggest consulting an accountant. They'll be able to provide you with suggestions on how to properly handle the transactions, especially with the category or account to use for the debit and credit. 

Then, you can open this article to see the detailed steps on how to perform the process of making JE: Create a journal entry in QuickBooks Desktop for Windows or Mac.

Lastly, if you decide to purchase a QBDT Payroll subscription and already paid your employees from the previous service, you may refer to this article: Add payroll info to QuickBooks Desktop Payroll when you already paid employees this year. This contains steps on how you can enter employee data so your books are accurate.

I'll be here if you need further assistance with the process or any payroll transaction concerns. Feel free to let me know in the comment section, LucyB2. Take care and have a great day!