QuickBooks Payroll Tutorial for Beginners

About this video

David gives a full beginner walkthrough of QuickBooks Payroll, partnered with QuickBooks. All three plans are full-service (payroll taxes paid/filed, benefits setup, time tracking); Premium adds same-day direct deposit, mobile time tracking with shift schedules and location tracking while clocked in, and Elite adds advanced project/job features, geofence clock-in reminders, and a guarantee of up to $25,000 of protection against payroll tax penalties. All plans charge a base monthly fee plus a per-employee fee; he demos Premium with the Plus accounting plan. Setup covers: answering whether you have already paid employees this year (needed for accurate taxes and year-end forms), first payroll date, business and payroll-admin details, then adding employees by spreadsheet import (only first and last name required) or one by one. Employees can self-onboard in the QuickBooks Workforce app — personal info, electronic W-4 withholding, e-signature, and direct deposit. He configures pay types (hourly/salary, overtime at one and a half times base pay by default, plus double overtime, holiday pay, and bonuses), default hours, accounting account mapping, vacation/PTO/sick policies with accrual and caps, and deductions, contributions, and garnishments — noting QuickBooks does not pay deduction providers automatically, it only tags the funds. He then sets up AutoTax (company type, EIN, filing form/frequency, state specifics such as Washington workers’ comp and occupational codes), enters year-to-date payroll history from prior paystubs, connects and verifies the bank account for direct deposit, and configures time tracking fields. Running payroll: approve timesheets from the Workforce app (or override hours — e.g., replacing 3.92 with 80 hours triggers a mismatch warning), optionally split pay across projects (Plus/Advanced), preview deductions and taxes, submit, and use reports including the P&L and the payroll tax liability and deductions/contributions reports.

Key takeaways

• All QuickBooks Payroll plans are full-service on taxes; Premium adds same-day direct deposit and mobile time/location tracking, Elite adds up to $25,000 in payroll-tax penalty protection — pricing is a base fee plus per-employee fee
• Import employees from a spreadsheet (only first and last name required) and let them self-onboard personal details, W-4 withholding, and direct deposit in the QuickBooks Workforce app
• Configure pay carefully: base hourly/salary pay, overtime at 1.5x by default, bonuses and holiday pay, time-off accrual policies, and deductions/garnishments — but QuickBooks only tags deduction funds; you pay those providers yourself
• Accurate tax setup needs prior-payroll history: if you already paid employees this year, enter year-to-date totals from paystubs, plus EIN, filing frequency, and state requirements, and connect/verify a bank account before direct deposit works
• To run payroll, approve or override timesheet hours, preview every deduction and tax, submit, and rely on reports like payroll tax liability to track what is owed to federal and state agencies

Episode details: published March 3, 2026 · 20:44 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Kevin Stratvert’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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