QuickBooks 2007, Performing Payroll in

A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when lessons are released. You will have access to all lessons until the course ends. However, the interactive discussion area that accompanies each lesson will automatically close two weeks after the lesson is released. As such, we strongly recommend that you complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

The final exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once the final exam has been released, you will have two weeks to complete all of your course work, including the final exam.

Lesson 1
The payroll process is much more than just printing paychecks. In fact, before you even attempt to process payroll in QuickBooks, you must have a good understanding of tax withholding requirements and reporting deadlines, among other things. In this first lesson, you'll learn where to find the information you need to comply with both federal and state payroll requirements, how to apply for an employer identification number, and how to utilize government Web sites to get answers to any payroll questions. You?ll even learn how to properly classify workers as employees or independent contractors.

Lesson 2
One of the key advantages of processing payroll in QuickBooks is that the program automatically calculates and fills in federal and state tax withholdings on each paycheck. You'll need to subscribe to one of Intuit?s payroll services to ensure that you always have the most up-to-date tables and forms. In this lesson, we'll identify the differences between the payroll services provided by Intuit, and you'll prepare to choose the appropriate payroll service that fits your situation. Also, we'll visit Intuit's Web site, and you'll gain insight about the various support resources directly from Intuit and other professionals who use the product.

Lesson 3
In today's lesson, we'll go over a checklist of the information you'll need to gather and enter into your QuickBooks file before creating paychecks for your employees. Also, you'll learn how to utilize the Payroll Preferences feature in QuickBooks to customize the program to your business. Last, we'll go over why Payroll Items are so important to QuickBooks, and how you can use these items to track every paycheck addition or deduction.

Lesson 4
Making a simple mistake, like entering an incorrect allowance for an employee?s federal tax withholding, will result in an incorrect paycheck. In this lesson, you?ll learn how to avoid such mistakes by properly entering your employees' information from paperwork gathered in the previous three lessons. Also, I'll walk you through how to enter personal information, such as addresses, phone numbers, and Social Security numbers, in a step-by-step process. Finally, you?ll learn how to create defined fields and enter tax withholding amounts and employee sick and vacation time.

Lesson 5
If you decide to start producing paychecks in QuickBooks mid-year, you'll need to enter some year-to-date information to let QuickBooks know what payroll transactions have transpired since the beginning of the year. In this lesson, you'll learn about entering year-to-date payroll information and utilizing the QuickBooks year-to-date wizard to summarize each employee's information. In addition, you?ll find out how to summarize and enter tax liabilities already paid earlier in the year, and how to generate certain payroll reports to check your data entry.

Lesson 6
If you have employees who are assigned to work on specific projects and you need to track how much time they spend on those projects, then QuickBooks has some options for you. In this lesson, you'll see how to enter and track employee time in QuickBooks. Then, you?ll learn how to enter employee time using either the Stopwatch, Timer program, or the Weekly/Single Activity Timesheets. Depending upon your situation, one of these methods will be most effective for entering and reporting employee time data. In addition, you'll learn how to assign employee time to the jobs you've created in QuickBooks in order to produce valuable job costing reports.

Lesson 7
Now that the payroll setup process is essentially complete, in this lesson, you'll learn how to create a new paycheck for an employee using a Payroll Schedule. In addition to this, I'll show you how to create paychecks using information entered on a time activity form, and how to review, correct, and, if necessary, void or delete a paycheck. And if you have to provide paper copies of a paycheck or paystub, I'll show you how to review them for accuracy and then how to print them.

Lesson 8
Every company that has employees is responsible for various payroll liabilities. Luckily, QuickBooks has a Scheduled Payments feature that allows you to create reminders of when to pay these various liabilities, and we'll explore it in this lesson. You'll also learn how to e-file liability checks and create printed liability checks that include assessed penalties. Since you don't always pay Payroll liabilities to governmental agencies, you'll also learn how to use the payroll feature to track and pay other payroll items, such as health insurance premiums and 401K contributions. By the end of this lesson, you'll understand the process required to adjust the balances due for each payroll tax item and record a refund of payroll taxes.

Lesson 9
No payroll process is complete until you've created paychecks and paid tax liabilities. You must prepare and file important quarterly and annual reports with the government. To get a handle on this crucial responsibility, today you'll learn QuickBooks' easy-to-follow steps for generating and revising Federal Forms 941 and 940. And to make sure your information is accurate, I'll explain how to review your entries and compare them to the payroll data included in your QuickBooks company file.

Lesson 10
In this lesson, we'll explore one of the more powerful features of the payroll process in QuickBooks: the reporting feature. After completing this lesson, you'll know how to access and generate several of the preformatted payroll reports in QuickBooks. To help you avoid costly errors, you'll learn how to utilize these reports to review payroll data, identify errors, and even forecast future payroll obligations.

Lesson 11
Benjamin Franklin once said,"In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." Today that saying still holds true! So, to help you with this inevitable time of year, QuickBooks gives you the ability to generate Forms W-2 and W-3. The government requires employers to submit these summary reports to each employee and independent contractor. You'll also learn the best methods to review these forms and make any necessary adjustments. Before the final printing of these forms, you'll learn how to properly align them so that the payroll information is nicely contained in each box on the form.

Lesson 12
Since many QuickBooks users seem to make similar mistakes when processing payroll, we'll spend our last lesson focusing on helping you avoid and correct these mistakes. For instance, you?ll learn what to do if too many payroll accounts were created in the Chart of Accounts. Or, what steps you need to take if you failed to properly use the Scheduled Payments or Pay Liabilities windows. You?ll even learn the proper way to enter and track employee loans.