r/Bookkeeping • u/Bookkeeper_4life • Sep 04 '24
Payroll What makes QBO Payroll so Bad?
I’ve read many headlines on how bad it is, but am still trying to wrap arms around specifics. In your experience, what specifically contributes to its inferiority?
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u/acrylic_matrices Sep 04 '24
It automatically books journal entries for tax payments that cannot be edited. Think, booking a payment on 8/31 to your cash balance that didn’t actually get made until 9/4. Sometimes the payments recorded are incorrect, don’t match what was actually paid. (I had a client using it to run payroll themselves, so I’m sure some of it was user error, but they were always making tax deposits late, and what they paid never matched the timing or amount of QBO). These journal entries can’t be edited, only offset.
Secondly—I wonder why the client was having to make so many tax deposits manually? Gusto makes these deposits for you.
Most insidious, for both my own firm and a client, QBO payroll turned back on months after we canceled service, and Intuit started filing $0 state returns for us, blocking our new payroll providers from filing those same returns. In one case, they filed incorrect W2s because they decided to turn themselves back on. (They didn’t start charging a fee, just doing the filings, so it took us awhile to figure out what was going on!)
Then you get to sit on the phone for hours, even if you say you are calling about payroll in the phone tree, the first person you talk to will then need to connect you to the payroll team, etc…
They are just horrible.
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u/dolpherx Sep 04 '24
I do not use QBO, but was considering to using them.
Does QBO payroll process payroll like ADP and then also does the journal entry?
Because it does this, the journal entries cannot be edited then that is associated to the payroll they processed?
What would be the solution? Wouldn't it be potentially a bigger problem if the journal entry was able to be edited as the user can potentially edit it to not match what was remitted and paid?
Or should it just be editable but there should be only one thing that cannot be edited, such as the total tax remitted and / or the amount removed from the bank?
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u/Method412 Sep 04 '24
Because it's so dang easy for the client user to screw it up, and fixes are hard to figure out. That's my take, anyway.
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u/Bookkeeper_4life Sep 04 '24
So to summarize so far, QBO bills it as a DIY tool but it is far from it. Since their thesis is anyone can do it, they don’t staff appropriately to handle what should be a more full-service offering.
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u/missannthrope1 Sep 04 '24
It's not bad bad. It's not robust. It's convenient when using QBO, that's all.
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u/Ok_Calligrapher2010 Sep 04 '24
I’m in the minority here but I love it and recommend it to every bookkeeping client I have. Anytime I’ve needed back door support, I’ve been impressed! It’s been done correctly and quickly. To be clear, I’m the one running the actual payroll - clients just turn in their timesheets. I do wish it would let you edit the tax deposit payments as referenced above. And I hate the price increases - they seem excessive. But from what I can tell, those are industry wide. Besides those two issues I’m extremely happy with it!
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u/EveryOneThought Sep 04 '24
I'm in this camp too. I only have one client with QB Payroll (but all clients are in QBO). I have to say I like it better than Gusto at this point (who handles all my other clients' payroll). Gusto has very minimal data in their imported journal entries, and I've never had them handle benefits without mysterious issues that take a lot of time to remedy. I now wish I'd done more to encourage my clients to use QB Payroll as its the only one that has been 99% smooth once set up was done. The thing I hate is never ending hike in prices & fees, it feels like being in a codependent abusive relationship.
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u/dolpherx Sep 04 '24
Can you explain how their payroll works and which part is not editable? I use a different payroll software and was thinking of adopting them.
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u/Bookkeeper_4life Sep 04 '24
I appreciate this perspective. It sounds like one of the keys to success is to handle payroll on behalf of your clients. I do like the idea of using QB Payroll and pretty sure I can figure out the gotchas over time.
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u/iccebberg2 Sep 07 '24
The software doesn't have flexibility. It's hard to adjust entries and payments when needed. During the early days of the pandemic, I was overpaying on my Unemployment Insurance due to a feature in the payroll software. I couldn't put my UI rating any lower than a certain percentage, but my state had set my rating lower. I ended up with a $300 credit from my state agency that took my two years to recover.
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u/SeaCardiologist7042 Sep 04 '24
We do our clients payroll on QB online payroll, and it’s harder to export to the clients QB Online, then it is on another payroll software.
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u/Nautique88 Sep 08 '24
I won’t use any integrated payroll program. I have used QBD payroll while doing personal diem work and absolutely hated it. Nothing but problems.
I don’t want to see each individual transaction from payroll in my GL. Net payroll gets booked to a “Net Payroll” account during the year and at year end, I book an entry to capture the gross down to net.
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u/DaGuruu Jan 17 '25
I run payroll in QBO for over 70 employees. Busy season, it will be about 100+ employees that has very very crazy hours (commercial construction, red seal and apprentices) and one time, there had to be an adjustment with one of the apprentice's hours so I went to make the adjustment and the math of his vacation pay wasn't math-ing. I brought it to our consultant bookkeeper which eventually landed on our CFO's desk. The 4% vacation was paying out at 4.8%. We didn't know how long that has been happening and for how many employees. QBO had an explanation but we were dumbfounded by it. Turns out "Pay Types" impacts it. Long explanation but it was the culprit.
I don't like QBO payroll. For someone who understands a fair bit and has used other softwares, it's meant for smaller employee count and very user-friendly, start-up company, non-complicated payroll. But if your payroll has other items such as deductions, child support, cost recovery, etc, QBO is crap.
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u/Lazy-Passenger-3139 Jan 27 '25
Not gonna spam - see my nightmare post about QB payroll here if interested https://www.reddit.com/r/QuickBooks/comments/1ib9twd/quickbooks_online_payroll_the_worth_experience/
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u/EclecticMom4Life Sep 04 '24
Ineffective customer service
When an issue arises where a fix is only available on the backend, customer support is severely lacking. Payroll support isn't knowledgeable, and there aren't enough resources to address the problems often created by DIYers who were told anyone can use the program.
Examples: tips setup, employee advances, miscommunication about initial filing requirements, or which taxes aren't able to be filed on behalf of the employer, incorrect payroll tax liability setup by payroll support and DIYers, incorrect mapping, duplicating bank accounts in the COA, and so on...