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April 7, 2026
Question

If I hire employees seasonally, do I have to pay for payroll year round?

  • April 7, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 6 views

We have employees May to September. Do I need to pay for payroll for 12 months or can I pay 5-6 months?

1 reply

QuickBooks Team
April 7, 2026

Hello Nancy. Depending on how you purchase your QuickBooks Online Payroll subscription, you have a flexible option to pay a monthly or annual fee.

If you've subscribed to a monthly plan, you can avoid charges for months when you're not hiring employees by canceling the payroll portion of your subscription. While inactive, your employee data, pay history, and T4 information remain saved and intact. You won't be able to run payroll reports or access the payroll center during this time, but you can easily resubscribe to resume activity. Conversely, annual subscriptions cannot be paused, as they are billed as a single yearly payment.

For more details, you can check this page: Manage billing, payment, and subscription info.

Sticking to monthly or annual billing ensures your cloud data remains audit-ready and your Intuit account stays in good standing. Timing a subscription for only four months requires careful management to avoid missing the T4 deadlines or final year-end remittances.

Feel free to click the Reply button if you have other questions about QuickBooks.