QuickBooks Desktop 2020 Easy Payroll Set-up with Employee Self Set-up

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Intuit recently released QuickBooks 2020 Desktop, and most QuickBooks ProAdvisors (for Desktop), Enterprise Users, and QuickBooks Pro/Premier 'Plus' subscribers have been notified about the availability of the initial release of the software. Very soon QuickBooks Desktop 2020 versions will be appearing on retailers' shelves. 

Insightful Accountant was privy to various pre-release versions of these products and had multiple communications with Intuit personnel, including product managers and developers, so we could help you learn about the new products. This article takes a closer look at one of the features released as part of the QuickBooks Desktop 2020 (and associated) product updates.

If case you haven't read my article summarizing the Desktop Products then the chart below, courtesy of Intuit, reflects which new features are available in which QuickBooks releases. Of course, I would encourage you to read 'My QuickBooks Desktop 2020 Summary article'.

Be certain to tune in for the September edition of QB Talks scheduled for 2 PM Eastern on September 18, 2019 to hear about QuickBooks 2020, there will be more information about that webinar outlined in a future article. You can register HERE.

Easy Payroll Set-up with Employee Self Set-up

This feature requires QuickBooks Desktop Pro, Premier, Accountant 2020 or Enterprise 20.0.  This feature is only available in the U.S., it is NOT available in either Canada or the U.K. The feature is being rolled-out to new QuickBooks Desktop Basic and Enhanced Payroll Subscription users and will become available later to current Basic/Enhanced Payroll Subscribers using QuickBooks 2020 products. Sometime later it will become available to current Basic/Enhanced Payroll subscribers using QuickBooks 2019 and 2018. This functionality is not available for either Assisted or Full Service QuickBooks Payroll and Intuit has not advised us if it will be at any time in the future.

As I said, this new 'Employee self-setup' is available ONLY to new payroll account subscribers. What that really means is that it is for QuickBooks Desktop Payroll customers who have absolutely NO employees or payroll data in their QuickBooks Company file already. We have been told that future release updates (timing yet to be determined) will likely make these features available to QuickBooks Desktop customers who were already using QuickBooks Desktop Payroll and who already had employees and/or payroll data in their QuickBooks Company file(s).

But for QuickBooks Desktop 2020 users with new Desktop Basic or Enhanced Payroll Subscriptions this article describes how to get started using this new feature and then invite your employees to enter the rest of their personal-payroll-related information. It provides a step-by-step for them as well. It also includes the process of monitoring the status of outstanding 'employee self sign-up invitations' and of completing payroll set-up upon receipt of the employee's information.

Employer Payroll Set-up

QuickBooks users must be logged-in to Intuit when using this functionality, check your login-in status from the QuickBooks menu, choose Company, select My Company and check log-in above the 'Manage Your Account' in the upper right of the My Company window (as shown below).

Employers should follow these steps during set-up1:

1) When you begin the process of setting-up your new QuickBooks Desktop Basic or Enhanced Payroll subscription you must choose the Express Setup option on the initial screen in order to have the new ‘employee self-setup’ option available to you. If you choose the option for Detailed Setup neither you, nor your employees will have access to the new ‘employee self-setup’ option.

2) Employers need to complete the information that’s needed on the Basic Employee details screen for the employee (as shown below).

3) Check the Invite this employee to enter their personal details checkbox (highlighted in the figure above) and then click the blue Continue button to proceed.

4) On the next screen enter (shown at top of next page) the employee’s pay details like wages, pay frequency, vacation and sick accruals, and other payroll information (that the employee will not necessarily know) and choose Continue.

5) Review all information you have entered and select Finish.

At this point an email invitation will be sent to your employee requesting that they enter their personal information, bank account information (if applicable) and tax-related details (withholding, allowances, etc.).

Employee Self Set-up

Employee self-setup is a new feature that saves both you and your employer’s time. It’s an easy process that begins with the Email the employee receives from the employer inviting them to enter their payroll details and adjust their payroll preferences. Employees should follow these steps for self-set-up2:

1) Look in your Email program for your employer’s Email invitation from QBOPayrollNoreply@intuit.com with the subject line: Setup Employee. If you don’t see the invite it could be in your spam folder, so check there. If you still don’t find it then let your employer know that you didn’t receive the invite, they might possibly have entered the wrong Email address for you.

2) When you find the Invite Email, open it, and then select Complete setup now (as shown below) to accept the invite. You will be directed to the Intuit Sign-in page.

3) You probably don’t have an Intuit account, but if you happen to already, then go ahead and enter your User ID and Password, select Sign in (shown below). But most of the time you are new to Intuit so you will want to choose Sign up (as shown in the green circle below).

4) To create a new Intuit account as soon as you click the Sign up you will be taken to the sign-up page, there you will need to enter your Email address and phone number. You will also need to create your password and then confirm it, then select Create Account.

5)  Whether you signed-in to an existing Intuit account or created a new one, you will then be taken through the process of adding your personal payroll related information like personal details (home address and phone), Federal (W-4) and State (tax) withholding information, and your bank account information if your Employer requires you to be paid by Direct Deposit. In the even you do not have a Bank Account, select the option to be paid by a Prepaid Debit Card. If your Employer offers ‘paper payroll checks’, they may need to resend you a payroll invite with the paper check option.

6) Once you have completed all of the required information, and reviewed it, select Submit to send the details to your employer. You will receive a thank you notification for submitting the requested info to your employer.

Employer Actions awaiting Employee Self Set-up

Intuit has provided a mechanism whereby Employers can track that status of Employee set-up3. In order to view this status, from the QuickBooks menu bar, select Employees, then select Payroll Setup. QuickBooks opens Payroll Setup (shown below).

When the Payroll Setup window opens, select Employees. Use the Emp. Status toggle to display the current status of all employees, only ‘active’ employees are displayed when the status of the toggle is green. Some employees may have been set to ‘inactive’, but you may still need to know the current status of their payroll self-enrollment. You can also mark as Inactive any employee that you've released and now no longer works for your company. However, QuickBooks doesn't use the Inactive status to define the employee as released. You must also release the employee in QuickBooks.

You can click on the ‘term’ in the setup status column for more information, QuickBooks will display a pop-up of the related employee self set-up process progress (as shown below).

The Employer can also take action from this window, and the actions can vary depending upon the employee’s setup status. For example, if the employee has been ‘Invited’ the Employer can choose to Remind the employee, or Edit the invite, or even Cancel the Invite.

In order to take action, the Employer simply clicks the small ‘down arrow’ in the action column at the right end of the employee’s name (as shown below) and then selects the appropriate action to take. Depending upon the action selected you may be asked to confirm the action with a YES prompt.

Upon receiving the employee's information you can review and Approve.

In the event you choose to reject an employee’s submitted details the Employer just must make an entry regarding such rejection, options including request the employee resubmit information/documentation, or the Employer will complete the employee’s details (typically performed during a one-on-one conference with the employee).

Completing Payroll Set-up

Once all employee information has been received and approved, and you have completed all required payroll information4, you can select Run Payroll from the Payroll setup window to begin your first payroll.

Well, that wraps up my article on the new Easy Payroll Set-up with Employee Self Set-up feature, but for an overview of all the QuickBooks 2020 features be sure to turn over my QuickBooks Desktop (for Windows) 2020 Summary here, as well as the companion QuickBooks for Mac 2020 Summary which can be found here. I'm getting pretty close to wrapping up this series on the individual QuickBooks 2020 features but there are two or three more that will be appearing in the headlines over the next few days.

Editor's Acknowledgements

My very special thanks go out to Laura Madeira who helped cross-check my work with her own to make certain that we were consistent in providing accurate information regarding this 2020 release. For the official Intuit version of “QuickBooks Desktop 2020 – What’s New and Improved” you will find Laura Madeira's article posted at this Firm of the Future blog website. 

I also want to thank the following Intuit personnel for their dedication not only in providing information, briefings and responding to questions, but in guiding the actual product developments within QuickBooks Desktop and this release: Chetana Arakanakere, Rachna Arya, Nipun Bhatia, Aditya Dixit, Varshitha Gokari, Sumit Poddar, Raman Verma. Of course there are entire teams, composed of hundreds of Intuit personnel, behind these people that make the magic happen and too often we forget to say, thank you, to them as well; so to all involved, "THANK YOU"!

1 - steps for Employer set-up may vary from those described here as Intuit has been working with this process both in the pre-release version to which Insightful Accountant had 'beta access' and early post-release of the product and implementation of the new Easy Set-up Process.

2 - steps for Employee self set-up may vary from those described here as Intuit has been working with this process both in the pre-release version to which Insightful Accountant had 'beta access' and early post-release of the product and implementation of the new Employee Self Set-up Process.

3 - steps for Employee monitoring of Employee Self set-up may vary from those described here as Intuit has been working with this process both in the pre-release version to which Insightful Accountant had 'beta access' and early post-release of the product and implementation of the new Employer Easy Set-up and Employee Self Set-up Processes.

4- the full steps related to set-up of all aspects of an employee's payroll including payroll wages items, deductions, company contributions, leave and other benefits along with taxes and other withholding(s) are beyond the scope of this article. Consult a comprehensive QuickBooks payroll instruction guide for details related to those requirements.