Chapter 11. Doing Payroll

If you decide to outsource the headaches of payroll to a payroll service company, as many businesses do, you can skip this chapter—except for the box on Section 11.1. The only thing you have to do in QuickBooks payroll-wise is add a couple of transactions for each payroll, allocating salaries and wages, payroll taxes, and any other payroll expenses to the accounts in your chart of accounts. For a small payroll, outside services are a pretty good deal. The payroll service takes care of all the grunt work for the equivalent of the cost of a few hours of your time. Even with the highest level QuickBooks Payroll Service, you have to devote some time and brain power to payroll.

If you want to process payroll within QuickBooks, then you first have to sign up for one of the payroll services that Intuit offers. To keep expenses low, you can choose a bare-bones service that provides only updated tax tables. At the other end of the spectrum, you can opt for QuickBooks' full-service payroll. Or you can compromise somewhere in the middle.