Help with correcting a deleted payroll tax payment in QBO

Forum|Forum|4 months ago
March 3, 2026
1 reply
8 views

Hi QuickBooks Community,

QuickBooks accrued a SUI/ETT tax of $245 for Q3 2025, but the payment failed on 12/25/2025. I deleted this tax payment in Payroll Tax because it did not show in our Chase transactions. However, the payment still appears in Transaction Details by Account, marked as “Tax Payment,” and I cannot delete it. It also cannot be removed via Journal Entry.

As a result, QuickBooks shows a $245 lower bank balance than the actual balance. I contacted QuickBooks Support, and they confirmed that the Journal Entry cannot delete this transaction. They advised me to adjust it via a new Journal Entry.

I created a Journal Entry:

Debit Bank Account $245
Credit Payroll Liabilities $245

Is this the correct way to fix the issue? I would appreciate any guidance or best practices.

QuickBooks Online

Dandie_A

QuickBooks Team

Yes, Shuliang. You can utilize journal entries to fix your bank and liability account balances.

To breakdown the adjustment in the journal entry, here's how:

Debit Bank Account ($245): Increases your QuickBooks balance to match your Chase statement, offsetting the failed payment.
Credit Payroll Liabilities ($245): Restores the balance to your liability account, accurately reflecting that this tax is still owed.

For best practices, I recommend adding a note in the Memo line of your Journal Entry. You can specify this as a "Correction for failed Q3 2025 SUI/ETT tax payment on 12/25/2025" to clarify the audit trail for future reconciliations.

During your next bank reconciliation, simply check off both the original -$245 withdrawal and this new +$245 Journal Entry. They will cancel each other out ($0.00 net impact), allowing your cleared balance to match your bank statement perfectly.

Please let us know if you need any further assistance.

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