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Hailstorm
March 3, 2021
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Categorizing 401K payments to Guideline

  • March 3, 2021
  • 2 replies
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Hi,

 

I've got 3 employees and have just started offering 401Ks through QBs payroll and their partner, Guideline. We are not yet matching contributions. The first deductions were made from paychecks in the last payroll run. All good. I've just downloaded a bank transaction representing a payment of the employee 401K contributions to Guideline. I'm confused as to how to categorize it in QBs? Is it assigned to one of the payroll liability accounts?

 

Appreciate any help here...

THX

P

    Best answer by john-pero

    All employee deductions are company liabilities so the payment is a payment of the liability. This liability is already recorded in QB since you use QB payroll. A couple of ways to approach this, if tge liability shows in QB Payroll as unpaid, pay it (record the money movement) and match to the bank feed transaction. Or , starting with the feed item search for a match to find either the unpaid liability or the payment transaction made by QB on your behalf. 

     

    Planning ahead, you will add employee match as a separate payroll item, which, when running payroll, will also become a payroll liability.  All payroll costs, including taxes, are posted on the date of payroll as accrued, even if you use cash basisvreporting

    2 replies

    john-pero
    john-peroAnswer
    March 4, 2021

    All employee deductions are company liabilities so the payment is a payment of the liability. This liability is already recorded in QB since you use QB payroll. A couple of ways to approach this, if tge liability shows in QB Payroll as unpaid, pay it (record the money movement) and match to the bank feed transaction. Or , starting with the feed item search for a match to find either the unpaid liability or the payment transaction made by QB on your behalf. 

     

    Planning ahead, you will add employee match as a separate payroll item, which, when running payroll, will also become a payroll liability.  All payroll costs, including taxes, are posted on the date of payroll as accrued, even if you use cash basisvreporting

      H
      HailstormAuthor
      March 4, 2021

      Perfect! Thanks John! :)

      J
      Justin53
      February 8, 2022

      Yes you will assign this to the payroll liability accounts. I had to do this for my company too. In my balance sheet I noticed I have two payroll liability accounts for Guideline 401k Roth and Guideline 401k Traditional. So I went to my bank feed transaction and did a split on the transaction with appropriate amount going to payroll liability account for the 401k Roth and appropriate amount going to the 401k traditional payroll liability account. Then I accepted it. This created a $0 balance for these payroll liability accounts in my balance sheet. Quickbooks will automatically show your contributions as a business expense (if you decide to do a match) in your profit loss statement and no further action is needed

      L
      LBK9
      February 16, 2022

      How did you get the information to split the debit properly?  I also have liability accounts for 401k traditional and 401k Roth.  Do you have to login to Guideline every week to ascertain what amount to attribute to the two different accounts?

      Candice C
      Candice C
      February 16, 2022

      Good afternoon, @LBK9. 

       

      Thanks for chiming in on this thread. I hope your day is going well so far. 

       

      Yes, you'll have to login to Guideline every time to ensure of the amount. 

       

      Also, as for splitting the debit, you'll need to consult with your accountant to be sure of these details. They'll be able to give you the best advice for your business. 

       

      I'm only a post away if you have any other questions or concerns. Have a splendid day! 

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