If I chose terminate to make an employee inactive will I lose all their prior payroll data?

I'd be pleased to share some information about how inactive employees work in QuickBooks Online, amy137.

Any terminated employee will no longer appear in the lists of your employees. They'll be marked as inactive and their profile and pay records will remain in your account.

You can follow these steps to terminate an employee:

1. Click Payroll in the left panel and choose Employees.
2. Select the employee's name and click the pencil icon beside Employment.
3. Choose Terminated under Status.
   
4. Hit Done.

You can get more details about modifying an employee's status in this article: Terminate or change your employee's status on payroll.

Additionally, I'll be sharing with you this article: Payroll 101. It contains more information about the different types of compensation as well as on what are the types of federal forms you need to file. Also, this will provide you a sample breakdown of a paycheck.

Anytime you have questions about employees and payroll, or anything in QuickBooks, you can post them here and I'd be happy to answer. Have a good one!