QuickBooks Online Payroll has expanded and enhanced its offering to meet the team management needs of growing businesses, simplifying the complex world of Human Capital Management (HCM) by providing access to integrated payroll, time tracking, HR, and employee benefits in one place.
New and improved features include a deeper integration between QuickBooks Payroll and QuickBooks Time, advanced payroll cost allocation, bulk pay item management, an HR hub for employee record management, and benefits, including a new healthcare partnership with Allstate.
Updates and improvements to QuickBooks Payroll and QuickBooks Time
Updates and improvements to QuickBooks Payroll and QuickBooks Time will enable you and your clients to leverage the QuickBooks platform and integrate with QuickBooks Online:
Payroll Cost Allocation
The new QuickBooks Payroll cost allocation system will leverage the QuickBooks ecosystem to give you and your clients confidence in making smart decisions, deeper insight into the P&L by different areas, and the ability to save time by eliminating the need for extra journal entries.
Previously, QuickBooks Online only allowed an employee to be associated with one class. You and your clients had to do journal entries to map a given employee’s payroll costs into multiple classes and reflect those costs in the P&L.
Soon, clients can split a given employee’s hourly and non-hourly payroll costs into multiple classes, along with associated projects. Extra journal entries will no longer be required to create such granular classifications. Data tracked in QuickBooks Time will feed directly into payroll. The system will be flexible, allowing changes to assignments and wage splitting across different projects or classes during payroll.
Payroll-Item Management Tool
Coming soon, the Payroll-Item Management Tool will help save your clients time, giving them the ability to manage their employee records in one place. The Payroll-Item Management tool will provide clients one access point and landing page for payroll items that includes filtering, sorting, search, pagination, and more. Clients can easily see and manage all their payroll items in one place, including the ability to make bulk changes for many employees at once.
Tax Mapping flexibility
You can now get more granular when breaking out your clients’ tax liabilities and expenses. Soon, a new option in Employer Tax Expenses and Tax Liability Accounts breaks down individual agency groups into their individual tax items. This gives a more detailed view of your clients’ tax liabilities and expenses.
Improved QuickBooks Time experience
There will now be simpler workflows with native, real-time QuickBooks integration. Previously, clients had to open a separate QuickBooks Time tab to manage their data. Now, they can enter, review, and edit time tracked directly in QuickBooks Online, increasing efficiency by reducing time spent tracking, editing, and approving employee time, as well as eliminating the need to export data from QuickBooks Time to QuickBooks Online. Other tasks that can be completed within QuickBooks Online include scheduling employees and viewing workers on a map. And coming soon—detecting timesheet anomalies.
Improved direct deposit experience for customers
For approved customers, we’re improving the direct deposit onboarding experience and increasing limits. For qualifying companies, we raised the direct deposit limit to $100,000. In addition, after onboarding, we monitor these limits and will automatically increase them for qualifying customers to meet the needs of growing businesses.
Meeting HR data management needs
From enhancing the onboarding experience, consolidating employee data, improving employee engagement, and reducing manual workflows, QuickBooks is now your clients’ hub for managing their employee data, providing integrated HR Information System (HRIS) functionality in one place. Take a look at how QuickBooks is simplifying payroll and team management for employers:
New automated I-9 feature
Soon, QuickBooks Payroll Premium and Elite customers can leverage a new automated I-9 feature that enables employees and employers to complete Form I-9 during employee onboarding and verify employment eligibility. An automated flow will allow employers and employees to easily and accurately fill out, sign, and store completed Form I-9s and supporting documents in QuickBooks.
Document upload and sharing
All QuickBooks Online Payroll employers can now upload and share documents with their employees through the Workforce portal, a hub for employees to access their pay stubs, manage their time, and more. Document sharing allows employers to securely share documents with an employee, including critical HR-related documents, and sensitive documents with personal information. The ability to upload, store, and share documents through QuickBooks Payroll eliminates the need to keep and track the whereabouts of paper employee forms and files.
Enhanced employee profiles
The introduction of new fields such as Preferred Name, Department, Manager, and Emergency Contact in QuickBooks means your clients no longer have to rely on multiple systems or paper trails to manage employee data. The new fields will transform QuickBooks into a single source of truth for the complete employee record. Admins and employees will now have the ability to upload profile pictures, enhancing the user experience. This feature humanizes employee profiles and helps put a face to a name, making it easier to manage teams.
Team Directory
Your clients will be able to leverage new fields such as “Department” and “Managers,” as well as profile pictures, to create an organizational chart within QuickBooks. The Team Directory shows the management hierarchy, enabling businesses to understand the existing organizational layout and identify areas that may require adjustments. They can seamlessly assign managers, visually see the team structure and share it with their employees.
Healthcare
QuickBooks and Allstate Health Solutions have partnered to provide QuickBooks Payroll customers with the ability to provide affordable healthcare packages to their employees. Insurance options include medical, dental, and vision, as well as the ability to connect to live help for guidance through the enrollment process.
401(k)
Businesses can offer affordable 401(k) plans by Guideline and choose to match contributions. Employees can adjust their portfolio, check balances, and save for a retirement they deserve.
Having benefits like health care and retirement connected to QuickBooks Payroll means payroll deductions happen automatically, saving time and mitigating potential errors for busy businesses.
Workers Compensation insurance
Through QuickBooks’ partnership with Next, users can stay compliant by connecting a new or existing workers’ compensation policy. The option to “pay as you go” is based on calculations from actual payroll data, eliminating annual audits.
QuickBooks Workforce employee app
Employees often use disconnected tools to track their work hours, schedules, and paid time off, leaving them frustrated and uncertain about finances on payday and between paychecks.
To alleviate these pain points, the QuickBooks Workforce mobile app is now available to employees of businesses in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The app automates and consolidates all work-related tasks in one place, so employees can focus on their work with confidence. When payday arrives, employees easily see their hard work turn into wages, all in one centralized employee hub.
Tax credit partnership
Your clients can check eligibility and claim a variety of tax credits for their business, potentially saving thousands through the new QuickBooks partnership with MainStreet.
State Tax ID
QuickBooks Online Payroll now offers a State Tax ID registration service, in partnership with CorpNet. This offering reduces hassle and saves time by registering a business in all required states where they operate. It is available in all 50 states. Without a State Tax ID, Intuit can neither file business or employee state taxes for your clients, nor can they file them for themselves.
Help your clients understand their payroll needs
Your role as your clients’ trusted advisor includes helping them with a wide variety of needs, including payroll. No one knows your clients like you do, and whether they are new to QuickBooks Online Payroll or are seasoned users, these new features integrate with the QuickBooks ecosystem for seamless accounting and payroll.
This information is intended to outline general product direction, but represents no obligation to deliver future features and should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision. Additional terms, conditions and fees may apply. Eligibility criteria may apply. Important disclosures on partners and features are available here.
QuickBooks Payroll does not support e-verify integration.
