In this class, Shannon Ballman Theis, a payroll expert with 20 years experience, is going to give you an over-the-shoulder look at the basics of payroll - who and when you have to pay, whether to pay hourly or salary, and the differences between employees and contractors.

QuickBooks Online’s built-in Payroll may take all the work out of paying employees and submitting payroll taxes, but it still needs to be set up properly.

Before you even begin, it’s mission-critical to develop consistent company policies for wages and salary, paid time off, and employee benefits.

• How do you decide how much to pay, and if an employee should be paid hourly or salary? What defines an employee vs. a contractor? How do you develop PTO policies for sick leave, vacation leave, and unpaid time off?
• What are contributions, deductions, and garnishments, especially all those with the weird initials, like FUTA, SUTA, SUI, and WC? 
• How are health insurance benefits, retirement plans, and other fringe benefits managed?
• How do you reimburse employees for mileage and out-of-pocket expenses?
• When it’s time to pay your payroll taxes, how do you know if you’re supposed to pay quarterly, monthly, or with each payroll run?

We’ll look at where to find answers and articles on compliance, where to find your payroll tax information (hint: it’s not in payroll!), and how to navigate the different sections of QBO you’ll need to use while working through common payroll issues.

Lastly, we’ll take a look at the most common payroll errors Shannon sees as a payroll restoration specialist, how best to avoid them, and what to do if you find out you’ve made errors.