Question

Qualified Overtime Tracking QuickBooks Desktop Enhanced Payroll

Forum|Forum|6 months ago
December 29, 2025
3 replies
34 views

I am in California and we are required to pay overtime on anything over 8 hours per day AND over 40 hours per week. However, "qualified" overtime is only on that "half" time of the time and a half that is over 40 hours per week. In order to pay proper overtime, I have to enter the total overtime hours in the overtime payroll item generated by QuickBooks. The Qualified OT Tracking payroll item populated by QuickBooks is set up as a Company Contribution. I can calculate the amount that is qualified, however, when I use the function provided by QuickBooks as Qualified Overtime Tracking, because it is set up as a company contribution, it puts the amount I enter there as a liability to be paid by the employer. When I create the liability check, there it sits, never to be paid which creates a reconciliation problem down the road. This solution Intuit has implemented doesn't seem to be ready for prime time, and I have payroll that has to be done by tomorrow in order to meet direct deposit deadlines. I have started a spreadsheet to track the qualified overtime because I have already spent 2 hours with every variation I can think of to try to make this work. I don't have any more time to devote to being tech support, so am hoping someone else has already figured this out. I have already reset the update and started over, with no luck. Appreciate any help anyone who has figured this out can provide.

QuickBooks Desktop Payroll

C

CMeGo

Although I'm not getting a good solution from QB, I setup the QOC as a company contribution adcwell, but make sure the liability and expense account are the same so it zeros out the amount on your account, since it's for tracking only

D

Donnalyng

I have multiple state OT rates, so I have employees in AZ, TX, FL, and California, when I bring time over from TSheets, the OT rate already knows from TSheets that the OT from California is based on the over 8 hour rule, and also the doubletime rule for CA. I don't know how I am going to address the entire payroll as a whole, when only 1 state out of my 4, is going to calculate differently than the rest? Ugh!!

Bryan_M

QuickBooks Team

Hi there, @Donnalyng. I understand the complexity of your situation and the challenge of processing your payroll. Yet, I appreciate the detailed scenario you shared and the explanation of how OT rates worked in California. I'll be your helping hand today.

Since the OT rate for California differs from the other states where you also have employees, you can manually calculate the qualified OT and incorporate the item as well in the paycheck detail by creating a company contribution item as a tracker with the tax tracking.

This will help you address your payroll as a whole. Here's how:

Go to Lists, then Payroll Item List.
Click Payroll Item and then New.
Select Custom Setup, then click Next.
Choose Other Earnings or Addition as the type, then click Next.
Name the item (e.g., “Qualified Overtime Tracking”) to distinguish it from regular overtime.
Assign expense and liability accounts you use for payroll tracking.
Click Finish to save the item.

After that, assign the payroll item to employees eligible for the Qualified Overtime Compensation.

I also recommend updating your tax table before running your 2026 payroll to make sure the rates are correct for accurate calculations.

Feel free to return here if you have additional questions. We'll help you promptly.

S

slccaccounting

Where do I find the totals in a report moving forward? Every report I run shows $0.00 for the amount even though I know I added an amount. I ran a payroll item report and all the amounts were $0.00. The only way I can see the amount is to look at the paycheck detail. Frustrated.

J

jengonzo

I HAVE A SOLUTION FOR THE QUALIFIED OT TRACKING LIABILITY PROBLEM!!!!!!!!! After TWO days of speaking with Quickbooks support and going through a Tier 2 support person and them downloading my file to a portable file and taking it and working with it they offered me the following which took my liability for the company for the Qualified OT Tracking off of my payroll liability "to be paid" screen.

1. Go to the Payroll Item List to the Qualified OT Tracking (you must do this in single user mode if you are not in it)

2. Hit the next button until you get to the Agency for company paid liability screen

3. Go down to the Liability account screen and change that from the liability TO Payroll Expense.

4. Do that for Expense account also below it.

5. Hit next through the end

6. Make sure that you have the screen retro back through the beginning of the year so it starts from the beginning of this year to account for all payroll run already

7. Finish when completed the task and then check your liability screen in the payroll center afterwards to make sure that you have completed the task correctly. There should not be a Qualified OT Tracking there any longer as if "to be paid" there.

I really hope this helps anyone that is struggling with this as I was.

Good luck to you all!!

Jennifer

S

slccaccounting

Thank you for your hard work. I am still getting 0.00 on all my reports which does not give me an easy way to actually track this for the year unless I create a spreadsheet and track manually.

Are there any solutions out there for this?

Thanks

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