I know QBO doesn't generate Certified payroll reports. But is there a report or two that can be run to give me the information needed to correctly enter the data?

Yes, QuickBooks Online (QBO) has a combination of standard reports you can use to gather most of the necessary data, especially if you’ve set up payroll items and time tracking with the required detail like job costing or project tracking, chris466. Below are the reports you should run and what each provides.

Payroll Summary: Shows total wages, taxes, deductions, contributions, and net pay for all employees for a selected pay date or date range. Drill down into employee details for per-employee information.

Payroll Summary by Employee: Breaks down total wages, taxes, deductions, and contributions for each employee. Includes employee name, total hours worked, gross pay, deductions, and net wages.

Payroll Details: Lists every payroll item (regular pay, overtime, sick, vacation, fringe benefits, deductions, etc.) for each employee on each paycheck. This is crucial for verifying rates. It includes regular and overtime hours, hourly rates, and gross wages separated by pay type.

Time Activities by Employee Detail: If you use QuickBooks Time (or a similar integrated time tracker) and track time against a customer or project (job), this report shows daily hours worked by employee and breaks them down by customer/project and service item (which you can map to a work classification). It includes hours worked each day, job classification, and project name/number.

Best practices for using QBO Payroll for certified payroll (form WH-347):

• Set up jobs/projects: Track employee time and pay against the specific customer/project that requires certified payroll.
• Create detailed payroll items: For different prevailing-wage classifications (Carpenter, Electrician, Laborer, etc.), set up separate hourly pay items (for example, “Regular Carpenter,” “Overtime Laborer”) so the Payroll Details Report can show pay by classification.
• Track fringe benefits: If you pay fringes as cash instead of benefits, set up a separate addition payroll item for that amount, since WH-347 requires that information.

Since QuickBooks Online (QBO) does not have a one-click option for certified payroll reports like some construction payroll software or QuickBooks Desktop Contractor editions. You may want to explore a third-party app that creates these reports and syncs payroll and time data with QBO, which can make the process easier.

If you have more QuickBooks questions, don’t hesitate to ask, and I’m happy to help.