Paychecks Delayed Due to QuickBooks Payroll Glitch
On Friday, employees were shocked when they learned that their direct deposit paychecks weren’t in their bank accounts and companies were stuck with trying to figure out the reason why. Unfortunately, QuickBooks phone lines were all backed up for hours and chat was disabled, leaving business owners in a panic. QuickBooks claimed that there was an issue with a third party company that handles payments via direct deposit. Whatever the reason, having this happen at the end of the month with people have rent and bills due is awful.
This isn’t the first time Intuit, the makers of QuickBooks, has suffered such an outage. Payroll is probably one of the most critical operations for a business. And no one wants unhappy employees. I used to use Intuit Online Payroll for my clients but after suffering through other glitches and terrible customer support, I stopped using it years ago. Since then, I have been using Gusto and my clients and I have never been happier. I haven’t experienced any problems and have hardly ever needed to call support. Even so, their support is US-based and they answer the phone pretty quickly, not to mention that they are very knowledgeable and extremely friendly. I also praise their modern and fun website. It even integrates seamlessly with QuickBooks.
Intuit and QuickBooks Online Payroll Reviewed
What I don’t like:
Not US-based support. This wasn’t always the case. Years ago when I had any questions, I would get someone in the US for support. Now, when you call, you get someone in the Philippines. They are very cordial, but I don’t think they fully understand all the IRS rules (much less for any state) for payroll.
Long Wait Times. It’s very hard finding a number to call and when you do find it, plan on being on hold for what could turn into over an hour (including being put on hold after getting an agent). I have tried their Chat option, but that seems to take forever, as if each agent is chatting with multiple people at once. I kept having to ask if they are still there while I wait for an answer or resolution.
Glitchy. On more than one occasion was I not reminded of a tax payment due or form due. The excuse that I always got was that it was a “glitch” in their system. And don’t expect any compensation for any penalties or fees due to their error.
Having to Do It Yourself. The responsibility is always on the business owner for correct withholdings, even when using a payroll service. Therefore, if something isn’t set up correctly, errors will occur. I have seen the tax tracking type 401k used for 401k loan repayments by more than one client. Of course, this is wrong for these deductions to be pre-tax. I don’t necessary blame my clients since the software shouldn’t expect anyone to guess to use “Other deduction” as the tax type instead and use loan repayment.
Corruption. Not a good thing when running a Payroll Checkup in QuickBooks Desktop Enhanced Payroll and it creates liability adjustments that don’t affect the liability account(s). This has caused the 941 to be wrong quarter after quarter until fixed. I was told by support that they have seen issues like this when running payroll checkup, so it is not recommended.
Multiple Price Increases, No Improvements. The software (Intuit Online Payroll) looks outdated and hasn’t been changed graphically or functionally. It doesn’t make sense to increase prices when the core payroll product has not been updated or improved and the support has gone down. Adding new tiers for auto payroll, HR support, and a tax penalty fee guarantee seem like improvements, but the fact that the following link doesn’t even work, is a bad sign (just a more expensive bandaid on a lacking core product):
Not So Elite, Not So Automatic. Even at this highest and most expensive tier, the user is still responsible for making garnishment payments to the appropriate entities. With my current payroll service, the deduction is paid automatically to the agency, depending on which states offer this capability.
I have been very happy with my current payroll platform and so have my clients!
Since I already provide my own value-added full service payroll and for the reasons stated above, I can only support QuickBooks payroll and related products on a limited basis.
Time Travel Is Now Possible with TSheets
I just returned recently from the wowtastic QuickBooks Connect conference in San Jose, California. As always, I gained a ton of knowledge about how to run, grow, and develop my business and heard about many exciting new features coming down the pipe for QuickBooks Online (QBO). I also explored a plethora of apps that connect to QBO.
One of the standouts was
. Of course, they are hard to miss at QB Connect, known for their parties, fun loot, and anticipated scheduled raffles at their rancous booth. They truly love us QuickBooks ProAdvisors! But they also love their employees and customers. This shows when contacting them for support; their employees are so fun and bubbly, using funny words like
ticklers
for follow up reminders, that this is one of the few companies I would
look forward
to calling. They are customer-focused because they know they already have an awesome product but they listen to feedback and update their software with amazing new features all the time.
As an
(IOP) user, I was thrilled when I learned that I can now
import TSheets timesheets in IOP
. Even though IOP has a timesheet and time clock add on, IOP discontinued job costing, which was a real bummer to say the least. But you can have the best of both worlds with TSheets: job costing using customers from QuickBooks in time data and the export of hours directly into payroll. And setting this all up was as easy as installing a Chrome Extension and simply connecting to QBO. It literally takes seconds, it is so easy!
But wait, it doesn't just end there! The big reveal was the direct integration of TSheets' famous timesheet directly
within
QuickBooks Online. Instead of having to export time to QBO from within TSheets, which only required
one click,
you can now click on Approve Time under the Employees menu in QBO and seamlessly enter time. The look and feel mimics QBO to a
T
so it doesn't even look like you have left QBO. Read more from my friend William Murphy's article at Insightful Accountant:
TSheets Partners with Intuit to Streamline Payroll for QBO Users
.
Fast forward to the future! It is partnerships like this that will propel QuickBooks Online into the forefront of technology and enable small businesses to become even more efficient. Thanks TSheets!