how do I pay an employee manually

You can track your paychecks as journal entries since you don't subscribe to QuickBooks Online Payroll, Rosie.

To begin, you need to create accounts in your Chart of Accounts to track your payroll liabilities and expenses. After you pay your employees outside of QuickBooks, create a journal entry using the information from your payroll report to record the transaction.

Here's how:

1. Get your employees' payroll pay stubs or a payroll report from your payroll service.
2. Select + New.
3. Select Journal Entry.
4. Under the Journal date, enter the paycheck date.
5. If you want to track the paycheck number, enter it in the Journal no. field.

I recommend consulting with your accountant to ensure these journal entries are set up properly and your financial records are accurate. For detailed guidance, you can refer to this article: Manually enter payroll paychecks in QuickBooks Online.

If you have additional questions about creating paychecks or recording payroll in QuickBooks, feel free to leave a comment below. I’m here to help.

@Rosie--Beltran 

Are they full-time employees or freelancers/contractors?

@Rosie--Beltran 

Use a free online paystub generator based on your employee's W-4.  You will need to accrue payroll taxes for the employee and employer portions.