Getting the Most out of QuickBooks

On Monday, 5/2/2022, Governor Walz signed a bill removing the Minnesota Additional Assessment and Federal Loan Assessment unemployment taxes for 2022. Both taxes have changed to 0.0%, retroactive to 01/01/2022. Your overall State Unemployment Insurance (SUI) rate has changed as well, also retroactive to 01/01/2022. If QuickBooks files and pays taxes automatically on your behalf (QuickBooks Desktop Assisted Payroll and QuickBooks Online Payroll where "Payroll Setting" -> "Taxes and form" is "ON"), we will update all your tax rates and correct the year-to-date SUI and assessment taxes. If you previously closed your books for the first quarter, please edit the closing date to 12/31/2021. If your books are closed for the first quarter, we will not be able to correct the year-to-date tax amounts. The only other action required for your business will be to request a refund via the agency site for any tax overpaid in the first quarter. The agency expects to reflect any

We've updated this video to make sure you are getting the most up to date info. New video: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/articles/getting-the-most-out-of-quickbooks/quick-help-with-quickbooks-quickbooks-online-banking/05/1455121

Hi all! My name is Blase, and I work at Intuit on the QuickBooks Payroll products. I'll be posting regular updates about new payroll compliance rules & regulations, what's new in the QuickBooks payroll products and opportunities to participate in research sessions with the product teams. Outside of work, you can find me working on my fear of heights by rock climbing or keeping in shape by lifting and running while listening to podcasts or fantasy audiobooks. Blase from QuickBooks here with a payroll compliance update for California based companies with 5 to 50 employees. If you have five (5) or more full or part-time California employees then you must offer a retirement plan by June 30, 2022. The goal of this requirement is to encourage people to save for their retirement.  While this does add complexity to you as an employer, QuickBooks is here to help.  We have options that can assist your business, including a 401(k) option that's integrated into QuickBooks

Welcome to a slightly edited transcript of our most recent Twitter Spaces chat about Small Business Week and how you might consider incorporating it. You can follow our QBCares Twitter account to learn about the next Twitter Spaces event, or just keep up with all things QuickBooks. Small Business Week is May First through the Seventh, and it is a nationally recognized time for celebrating small businesses in the United States. The first Small Business Week took place in 1963, following a proclamation from John F. Kennedy. To celebrate, top entrepreneurs were selected from every state and were then presented with special recognition and awards. After the first year, the weekly celebrations became an annual occurrence that promoted small business success, and encouraged new entrepreneurs to recognize and learn from successful leaders in their industries. Small Business Week has been taking place for a lot of years. This year marks the 59th anniversary and it’s all about highli

When business is going well, that means invoices and sales receipts are being created all the time. Recording sales is one of the most frequent and important accounting practices, so we want to make sure you have all the information you need.  Whenever you make a sale... And expect to be paid in the future, you should create an invoice.  Once the invoice is paid, you receive the payment against the invoice in QuickBooks.   And are paid at the time of sale, you'll create a sales receipt. Since you’ve already been paid, you skip the "receive payment" step. Note: Being new to QuickBooks Online doesn't mean you’re new to recording business transactions.  If you have hundreds of historical transactions you'd like to enter into your new account, enter them as sales receipts. Remember, for upcoming customer sales that have yet to be paid, create invoices.  Before you start sending invoices or recording sales, you need to set up your products and services list.

Payroll tax filing deadlines are just around the corner, and the following is a slightly edited transcript of our recent Twitter Spaces chat about quarterly payroll forms and what you can expect from your QuickBooks Payroll subscription when it comes to handling these filings and payments. You can follow our QBCares Twitter account to learn about the next Twitter Spaces event, or just keep up with all things QuickBooks.     The form we are focusing on today is Form 941, the Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return. You’ll need to file this form if you paid wages subject to employment taxes with the IRS for each quarter by the last day of the month that follows the end of the quarter. In this case, the taxes will be related to the January through March quarter, and the upcoming due date is April 30th. Employers use Form 941 to report income taxes, Social Security tax, or Medicare tax withheld from employee's paychecks. They also use this form to pay the employer's portion of S

If there’s one thing every business owner agrees on, it’s that getting paid is an important part of running a business. Accurately keeping track of money coming in helps determine business decisions but also is a key component during tax time. Lucky for you, we have a webinar for that! Sit back and relax while an expert goes through Get paid: Manage your sales, invoices, and customers. Learn about everything from invoices to spotting trends in your sales with QuickBooks Online. One question we see often is what is the difference between invoices and sales receipts. To some the differences may be obvious, but it's helpful to understand the distinction between these forms. Let’s head over to our QuickBooks Blog for help. Invoices These are used when a business has completed a customer’s order and needs to collect payment for the goods or services provided. Key points to understand about invoices include: Invoices are issued to collect payment after a business delivers goods or services

Hello QuickBooks Community! As you can see, we’re back with another Top 5 and this time we’re revisiting a classic topic: Sales Tax. There’s never a shortage of questions surrounding this subject, so we’re giving you even more information to help you in your business. Time to get started! 1. How do I set the general ledger account for sales tax? QuickBooks is always trying to make life easier for you. The Sales Tax Payable account is automatically added once the Automated Sales Tax feature is turned on and is where the sales tax for every transaction is reported. If you wish to check those transactions, run a report to view them. Here’s how: Select  Accounting on the left menu and choose Chart of Accounts. From the list, select your Sales Tax Payable account and click the View Register dropdown, and pick Run Report. Once that opens, you can check out all of the transactions and customize the date range. 2. How do I make a sales tax adjustment? If you need to decr

The following is a slightly edited transcript of our Twitter Spaces chat about how Hashtag holidays are a great way to stay connected with your audience and add some fun flare to your content. You can follow our QBCares Twitter account to learn about the next Twitter Spaces event, or just keep up with all things QuickBooks.   Hashtag holidays are great opportunities to improve your marketing and online presence. Everyone knows about the typical holidays, such as New Years, Valentine’s Day, and so on. However, there are also tons of smaller, unique holidays throughout every month of the year that you can incorporate into your marketing plans to create fun or impactful content that reaches a very broad audience. Each of these smaller holidays has its own hashtag associated with it, hence the name hashtag holidays. With this in mind, we want to share with you a handful of upcoming hashtag holidays that you may want to add to your content calen

Selecting an accounting software for your company is a big step for any business owner. Whether you’ve already purchased QuickBooks Online or you’re doing some research, our webinars are a great resource for you! Today I want to highlight Getting Started in QuickBooks Online. It’s the perfect introduction to our product and will give you the leg up you need to set up your account successfully.  There are two main areas that you should be familiar with. Let’s start with the Gear icon! This is where you’ll find: Your Company  Lists Tools  Profile Out of all of these, Your Company >> Account and settings is somewhere you’ll find yourself often. There are so many ways to automate and choose what information shows up on your forms. You’ll see tabs dedicated to all the main aspects of your account so click around to learn your options. Note: Be sure to click the ? next to any setting you’re unsure about for a brief explanation of what that setting does. Take a look at

Hello Top 5, my old friend! Whether you’re a new QuickBooks user or an expert, there’s always something to learn. This week we’re looking at Reports. Not only are they extremely important when determining the state of your business, QuickBooks also has many types and ways to customize. I guarantee by the end of this article, you’ll learn something new. Here we go! 1. How can I get Tags to show up in my reports?  While some of you may know exactly what Tags are, let me help out the ones who don’t. In short, tags are labels that you create that can be applied to invoices, bills, and expenses. It’s important to know that Tags won’t affect your bookkeeping; their purpose is to give you deeper insight into areas that matter to your business.  What can you use Tags for? Anything you want, but here are some ideas: Track different types of jobs Track ad campaigns, sales reps or project managers Anything important to your business Now, let’s get those tags on your reports! Go

Attention QuickBooks Desktop users interested in time tracking….you didn’t think we’d forget about you, did you? We have a webinar dedicated to showing you the ins and outs of connecting QuickBooks Time to your Desktop account. Get ready to see the time saved and amazing benefits of these two products joining forces. Check out dates and times here: QuickBooks Desktop + QuickBooks Time Elite Grand Tour.  There are a lot of ways to customize your integration and it all starts with QuickBooks Preferences. Let’s get started by going to the QuickBooks menu in your Quickbooks Time account, and then clicking on Preferences. Your preferences are broken up into different areas.  Employee Timesheets Should Show Here’s where you can choose what information comes over into QuickBooks Time from your Desktop account. If you use service items or classes, you can check the box next to those so that your team is selecting that information on their timesheet. The Billable time box is importa

The following is a slightly edited transcript of our Twitter Spaces chat about choosing the best version of QuickBooks for your business.  You can follow our QBCares Twitter account to learn about the next Twitter Spaces event, or just keep up with all things QuickBooks.  * * * * *  Every small business has different needs when it comes to their QuickBooks program, and today we’re going to highlight some of the main ways that each subscription can cater to those needs. We'll begin by highlighting some of the beneficial features associated with a QuickBooks Online subscription. There are four different versions of QuickBooks Online, to accommodate different needs. However, one of the great benefits of all of the QuickBooks Online subscriptions is that you’re able to access your account from any device with internet access. You can also download the app, and manage your invoices, transactions, and reports directly from your phone, which makes it a

Keep the webinars coming! If you are a QuickBooks Online user that also needs their employees to track time, this is information for you! The integration between QuickBooks Time and QuickBooks Online is a match made in heaven, and as always, we got your back. When it comes to giving you the tools you need, Sherissa (aka our Webinar Queen) is ready to help you every step of the way. Take a look at all of our dates here: QuickBooks Online + QuickBooks Time Elite.  One of the most time-saving features of this integration is the ability to approve and export timesheets from QuickBooks Time to QuickBooks Online. Want a little preview of those steps? Let’s take a look at: First thing you do is to approve your team’s timesheets through the Approvals Report: Go to Approvals on the left menu.. Select the report dates, team members, and click Run Report. There are three ways to approve time. You can Select all unapproved to approve all timesheets for all team members. Check the box next

Are you a visual learner ready to explore your time tracking options with QuickBooks? Then look no further, we got you covered. Our 30 minute webinar offers a hands-on opportunity to see QuickBooks Time in action and ask questions right as they pop in your head. Join Sherissa for her QuickBooks Time Demo for Elite Accounts as she explains the ins and outs of timesheets and their reports.  Reports are some of the most important pieces of data to access and understand. I’m going to take an in depth look at two of them you’ll love in QuickBooks Time. Let’s start with the Payroll Report.  Go to Reports > Payroll Report. Select the report dates and other filters as needed, and choose Run Report. To view details: Select Expand All or select the expand icon (+) next to each name. To print the report: On the report itself, at the top, select the printer icon. Note: this prints what your current report view looks like. Or right-click the report, and select Print. Note: If you wa

With all of the resources available here in the Community, it can be hard to know where to start. Do you ever wish you had an expert right next to you while you set up an account? Well, let me introduce you to the next best thing! While we have a variety of webinars to help you, in this article I’m going to give you a sneak peek into what is covered in our QuickBooks Time Webinar: Admin Masterclass. One important job in QuickBooks Time is to manage permissions for your team. I’m going to show you what permissions are available and what they allow access to.  To access team member Details, go to My Team, and select a team member. Then, go to the Permissions tab. There are four default user types that determine permission levels: Administrator: All permissions Payroll Manager: View timesheet reports for all team members and Approve timesheets for all team member Custom: No default permissions Worker: No default permissions Not sure what these permissions mean? Here’s a breakdown:

It feels good to be back, Community. Welcome to our First Top 5 of 2022! For those of you who are new, our Top 5 is an opportunity to pick a topic about QuickBooks and find the questions you have been asking. Then I put them in one article as a resource to you because most likely, you’ll find some questions you also need answered. Let’s get right to it! 1. How do I search for text I have entered in a memo field in an invoice? Many businesses issue a ton of invoices all year long, but what do you do to find that one invoice with a specific memo? You can use the Advanced Search feature in QuickBooks Online for this (and many other searches). Here's how:  Click on the magnifying glass at the top center on your home page. Click on the Advanced Search hyperlink. Filter your search by selecting Invoices, Memo, and Contains or Equals.  Enter the text you're looking for in the field and click on the blue Search button. You can also click on Add Filter to filter the dates. 2. When

Just when you think we have covered it all, we’re back with another article to help you with year end! If there’s one thing we know, it’s that Year End is the start of tax season. What I have today are some resources to help you with filing and paying those taxes on time (and hopefully with no headache).      Let's start with what forms Intuit files on your behalf. With full-service versions of QuickBooks Online Payroll, QuickBooks Desktop Payroll, and Intuit Online Payroll we send your payroll taxes and forms automatically to make sure they're submitted on time. If you don’t have full-service payroll, it's your responsibility to file manually.  Here are the forms we file for you: Federal Form 940 - Annual Federal Unemployment Tax Return (FUTA) Form 941 - Quarterly Withholding Federal Tax Return Forms W-2 and W-3 - Employee Wage and Tax Statement Forms 1099-MISC and Form 1096 - Non-employee Compensation Return (Intuit Online Payroll Full Service Only) State Quic

This time of year, accountants are superheroes in the tax world. While many of you use their expertise, we know there are others who do this on their own.  Whether you have help or not, this Top 5 is focused on paying those taxes.   1. Can I have volunteers listed as employees and not have an issue with payroll (or taxes)? Yes, you can set these volunteers as your employees without affecting your payroll or taxes. As long as you don't run payroll for them, there will be no issues with your payroll. Here’s what you need to do to add your volunteers to QuickBooks Online: Go to Payroll and choose Employees. Click Add an employee. Fill in the necessary information. Click Done. Take a look at other tips for adding users: Add or edit an employee in Online Payroll. 2. How do I add $100 of taxable income to a payroll check without paying the employee? To accomplish this, you can create a zero net check. This makes sure that all $100 goes toward income tax. Other reasons you

It’s that time of year again! And yes, we have more year end topics to cover to make this time as smooth as possible. Today, we’re talking about closing your books and the report you’ll need to understand how your business did this year.      Why should you close your books? Closing your books guarantees no unwanted changes are made to your account before filing your taxes. This “lock” on your books makes it so that no one can edit your accounting data before the specified closing date. This step is important to accurately view previous years financial data. Now that I’ve shown you why, let’s look at how to close your books in QuickBooks Online. First, take the time to review your accounts and make sure everything looks correct. What that looks like is this: Enter any outstanding invoices, expenses, and payments. Reconcile your accounts up to your closing date. Review your inventory quantities. I know that it looks like a lot but this isn’t something to be accomplished

After a successful year, it’s time to reflect and take a look at your business. There are many “end of the year” duties to get done, so this Top 5 has your questions about reports and closing your books.     1. How do I download reports from my account for Year End? Nothing beats having a hard copy of your reports. Exporting reports in QuickBooks is a simple process: Choose Reports on the left . In the Search box, enter the name of the report that you'll want to export (or choose from your Favorites). Click the Excel icon next to the small gear icon (settings) on the report. Then, select either Export to Excel or Export to PDF. From there, you can make any changes you need and print. Here’s some additional information on customizing and running reports. 2. How do I officially close the books in my account? ​​Here's how to ‘close the books’ in QuickBooks Online: In the upper-right corner, click the Gear Icon. Select Account and Settings. Go to the Advanced tab. Under the

  In our journey to prepare you for all things Year End, I want to take some time to focus on 1099 and W-2 forms. While they are used for different workers, both are equally important to understand. Let’s start with a quick overview of the difference between the two.The IRS 1099 Form is a collection of tax forms (QuickBooks primarily deals with NEC and MISC) documenting different types of payments made by an individual or a business to those workers that are not employees. 1099 workers are considered to be self-employed or independent contractors, and therefore do not have taxes withheld as part of their payment. The individual or business paying the contractor is the one that fills out the form with the appropriate details and sends copies to the IRS, reporting payments made during the tax year, and to the independent contractor who performed the work, who receives a 1099 form to report their income on their tax returns. In contrast, W-2 forms are for employees that work fo

Employees know that you get your W-2 at the beginning of the year so that you can file your taxes. Business owners know there’s a lot that goes into getting that form into an employee’s hands. Hence, why we’re here! This Top 5 is dedicated to your questions on W-2s, taken right from the Community…so let’s start reading!         1. Does QuickBooks automatically generate and mail W2s? When using Core Premium or Elite payroll services, you can choose how you want your payroll taxes and form filings handled. We can do this for you, or you can opt to pay for and file them yourself. Here’s what happens when we do the work for you: Even though they’ll be sent a paper copy in the mail, inviting your employees to QuickBooks Workforce is quick, and gives them accessibility to not only their W-2s, but to pay stubs as well.  Note: The automated tax payment and form filing feature is enabled by default. Here’s a deeper look into W-2 filing and access: Understand the timin

Here we go with another round of Top 5 Questions, Year End Edition. This time we are helping you out with your 1099s because, well, we all could use help from our (QuickBooks) friends.          1. Can I pay a 1099 worker with Direct Deposit? The answer is yes! If you’re tired of writing a check for your vendor, this is the post for you. Let’s take this step by step. If you haven’t already, the first thing you’ll want to do is set up your company payroll for direct deposit. It’s important to know it can take 1–3 business days to set up a checking account for direct deposit. Once it's set up, you'll use this account to pay your employees (and contractors). Then it’s time to set up your 1099 for direct deposit: Select Payroll, then Contractors. For a new contractor, select Add a contractor or select the existing contractor to add or edit bank info. Select Bank account. As prompted, enter the following: Account Number Account Type Routing Number Account holder

Are you tired of Year End content yet? No? Neither are we! When we said we were giving you all the tools you need for Year End, we meant it...and our Top 5 series is no exception!     Let’s get into Top 5 Year End Payroll questions: 1. How do I modify scheduled pay periods?  If you need to change how often your employees are paid, head over to the Payroll tab on the left menu and follow these steps:  Select Employees from the Payroll Menu.  Click on the Employee Name. Select the Edit Pencil icon to the right of Employment Details.  Select a pay schedule from the dropdown or choose Add pay schedule to create a new frequency. If applicable, check the Use this schedule for employees you add after [employee] box.  Click Save. Here’s a great resource for pay schedules: Set up and manage payroll schedules. 2. Are there reports I can run to check the accuracy of prior payroll that was entered? If you've entered payroll history in QuickBooks Online, ther