Hi, I am not sure how to categorise the employees wages in quickbooks- not using payroll? Do I need to set a new account as I have for equity for owner?

I can provide insights in categorising employee wages in QuickBooks Online (QBO), rachael.

If you processed the employee wages outside, you can manually track these payments using a journal entry to keep your payroll and account data all in one place.

Beforehand, you'll need to create a manual tracking account from your chart of accounts to track your payroll liabilities and expenses. Since we're unable to suggest which accounts to use in categorising the wages. I recommend consulting with your accountant to ensure the accuracy of your books. If you’re not affiliated with one, you can check our ProAdvisor page and we’ll help you find one from there.

Once you've set up the right account, you can now enter the payroll paychecks using the journal entry. 

Here's how:
 

1. Get your employees' payroll pay stubs or a payroll report from your payroll service.
2. Click the + New button.
3. Select Journal Entry.
4. Under the Journal date, enter the paycheck date.
5. If you want to track the paycheck number, enter it in the Journal no. field.
    

Moreover, if you're paying the business owner, you can create directly create a cheque from the equity account to track the payments.
 

Furthermore, I'm sharing these articles for future reference in managing your payroll transactions and accounts to ensure the accuracy of your books:
 

• Categorise online bank transactions in QuickBooks Online
• Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Online
   

Please post a response below if you have clarification in managing payroll in QuickBooks. I'm always here to help.