how can i pause a payroll?

Payroll subscriptions can't be paused, but you can cancel and reactivate your account anytime, Sparkling.

Before we proceed, could you please clarify if "pause a payroll" means pausing your subscription, stopping Auto-payroll to manually process payments, or pausing it for specific employees?

If you’re referring to cancelling your account, make sure to complete and process your final payroll, print necessary reports, pay any outstanding tax deposits, and file any pending annual or quarterly forms to maintain accurate records.

To cancel your subscription:

1. Sign in to QuickBooks Online as the primary or company admin.
2. Go to Settings, then select Subscriptions and billing.
3. In the QuickBooks Payroll section, select Cancel.
4. Follow the on-screen steps.

It's also worth noting that you can always reactivate them later for future use.

On the other hand, if you're talking about auto payroll, you can only suspend it for a single pay period. Check out this article for step-by-step instructions: Pay your employee manually.

Lastly, you can review this article for detailed steps if you're looking to exclude certain employees during payroll processing: Edit or change employee info in payroll.

I've also included this article in case you want to run, print, and customize payroll reports in QBO: Run payroll reports.

Feel free to reply to this post if you need further assistance.

Thanks! 

I wanted to pause a pay cycle, only.

Hi, Sparkling. If you want to pause or skip a payroll cycle, you can choose not to initiate a payroll run on your scheduled pay date.

I also suggest checking if you have recurring direct deposits or Auto Payroll turned on. Turn off the auto payroll to ensure payments are not processed automatically. To do it proceed to this article: Set up and manage your Auto Payroll.

Then, when you are ready to resume payroll, go back to the Payroll tab and process the next payroll as usual for the upcoming pay period.

At this point, QuickBooks doesn’t have a Pause button, but skipping a cycle by withholding action on payroll processing will effectively act as pausing.

To manage, print, and tailor payroll reports in QuickBooks Online (QBO). Visit this article for guidelines: Run payroll reports.

For more questions and clarifications, let us know by using the Reply button below.