Question

Stipends Pay for Employees

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
October 16, 2024
3 replies
54 views

I'm hoping someone can guide me here. We're looking to do stipends in addition to hourly pay for Travel Nurses specifically. I'm not seeing anywhere specific that gives guidelines for weekly stipend amounts or the guidelines on state hourly pay requirements on if I count the weekly stipends to the hourly pay for regular/overtime. I'm currently basing it off of the GSA site but don't want to do it incorrectly and pay too little if my overall goal is to help the staff with this "gift".

Thank you in advance and I hope I'm explaining this properly enough.

Workforce Payroll

AlverMarkT

Moderator

It's great to see your commitment to compliance while supporting your travel nurses, @Nursing24. I want to ensure you get the guidance you need.

Based on the situation you provided, it seems that these stipends are intended to cover travel and lodging for your travel nurses. You're on the right track in checking the GSA site firsthand to ensure you provide fair and standardized stipends. I highly encourage collaborating with a tax professional as the next step to ensure compliance with laws since we can only provide general guidance on setting up the pay types in QuickBooks Online (QBO) Payroll.

Please know that any bonus, stipend, or payment that is part of an agreement or incentive must be included in the regular rate of pay calculation, which means it should be part of your employees' regular hourly wage. However, if the stipend is meant to cover lodging, meals, and incidental expenses as indicated on the GSA per diem rates site, it is classified as a reimbursement.

If you have determined for the stipend to be part of the regular hourly wage of your employees, you can consider setting up the stipend as Other earnings pay type which are reported as regular wages in most tax forms. You can follow these steps:

Go to Payroll. Then, Employees.
Select Edit payroll items.
Click on New payroll item. Then, Pay type.
From the Pay type drop-down list, choose Other Earnings.
Type an appropriate name in the Name field.
Hit on Create.
Select Assign employee(s).
Place a checkmark beside the employees' names to apply the pay type.
Enter a recurring amount. Then, hit Save.

If you've determined that the stipend is for covering the travel expenses of your employees, you can consider setting a Nontaxable per diem pay type. Nontaxable per diem amounts are fixed, nontaxable daily allowances to pay for lodging, meals, and incidental expenses incurred during travel. This pay type is used in businesses where travel is a required part of the job. Here's how you can set up this pay type:

Go to Payroll. Then, Employees.
Select Edit payroll items.
Click on New payroll item. Then, Pay type.
From the Pay type drop-down list, choose Nontaxable Per Diem.
Hit on Create.
Select Assign employee(s).
Place a checkmark beside the employees' names to apply the pay type.
Enter a recurring amount. Then, hit Save.

After this, I'm adding this article about assigning or updating your employees' pay schedules in QBO as a future guide: Set up and manage payroll schedules.

We'll be here in the Community if you have further questions setting up stipends for your travel nurses in QBO. We're committed to offering ongoing support. Take care!

D

Deeper View

New Member

What if you don’t use QuickBooks payroll. How do you set for non-taxable stipend in QuickBooks online.

M

MichaelaS

QuickBooks Team

If you don't use QuickBooks payroll, you can still set up a non-taxable stipend in QuickBooks Online by creating a stipend expense account and recording it manually as a check or an expense for your paid employees. Here's how you record it:

Select the + New button on the main dashboard.
Choose Check or Expense.
Select the recipient under the Payee field.
Choose the bank or credit card account you're paying from under the Payment account.
In the Category details section, choose the Stipend expense account you just created.
Enter the stipend amount in the Amount field.
Add a note in the description stating it's a non-taxable stipend.
Click Save and close.

Note that you're responsible for any tax reporting outside of QuickBooks. Non-payroll stipends can still carry tax implications depending on the type (housing, education, etc.). I suggest checking with your accountant to see how this specific stipend should be handled.

Once you've paid your employee, you can follow Step 2 in this article to record and enter the payment in QuickBooks: Enter the payroll paychecks into QuickBooks Online.

If you're paying a contractor or non-employee, the easiest way to record it is as an expense or a bill payment, mapped to an appropriate expense account (e.g., Stipends or Other Compensation). If the payment is tax-free, then it shouldn't be included on a 1099 form. Make sure to turn off 1099 tracking for that vendor so it doesn't show up on your year-end tax reports.

Whenever you want an extra hand with this, you can connect with Intuit QuickBooks Workforce Experts right inside QuickBooks to walk you through it.

Please leave a reply if you have any other questions or concerns.

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