Do I set up self employed staff as a supplier and expense the cost in Quickbooks? Assuming I don't set them up under payroll. Any help appreciated.

Hello linda-campbell73

Thanks for joining the Community. 

If you're not using the QuickBooks Online Payroll add-on, you can instead set up your employees as suppliers in QuickBooks to track the wages. To record payments, create an expense (+ New > Expense) with the expense account that you're using to track the wages entered in the Category field on the Category details line. If you don't already have an account set up, you can learn how to add an account to your chart of accounts here.