Manage your Auto Payroll

Learn how to make temporary or permanent changes to your Auto Payroll in QuickBooks Online Payroll.

As things change with your employees or company, you may need to make changes to your Auto Payroll. Each pay period, look for an email with the subject Your QuickBooks Auto Payroll preview.

The preview summary shows the total amount of your payroll and number of employees paid. If you need to make changes to your employees or payroll, see the steps below. The deadline to make the changes is listed in your email.

Make a one-time change to your employee's payroll info

1. Go to Settings and select Payroll settings.
2. In the Auto Payroll section, select Edit ✎.
3. Select Update upcoming payroll and edit any of the paycheques as needed.
4. Select Preview Auto Payroll.
5. Select Save updates.

Make a permanent change to your employee’s payroll info

1. Select Payroll, then Employees.
2. Select the employee to edit. Make any changes to pay, deductions, TD1 info as needed.
3. Select Done.

Note: Creating hourly employees without default hours may inactivate your Auto Payroll. If this happens, the payroll administrator will receive an email and you'll need to create and send your payroll as normal.

Pay your employee manually

If your employee is currently enrolled in Auto Payroll and you need to pay them outside your normal payroll schedule, you can pause Auto Payroll for a pay period. Auto Payroll will start again on your next pay run.

1. Select Payroll, then Run Payroll.
2. Select the Pay period from the dropdown and the Pay date for an employee.
3. Select Prefer to pay manually this period?.
4. Enter the date, pay schedule, and edit any pay items for this payroll.
5. Select Preview payroll.
6. Select Submit payroll and then Finish payroll.

Turn off Auto Payroll

If you wish to stop paying one or more of your employees via Auto Payroll, you need to unenroll them.

Make sure you're signed in to QuickBooks Online as the primary admin.

1. Select Settings ⚙, then Payroll Settings
2. In the Auto Payroll box, select Edit ✎.
3. Select Select employees for Auto Payroll.
4. Unselect the required enrolled employee.
5. Select Save Changes.
6. Review the confirmation window, then select Done.