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QuickBooks® Training Library

Payroll Compliance: A Beginners Guide with Shannon Theis


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Shannon Theis
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When setting up payroll for an office, your company policies must simultaneously meet state and federal compliance standards, and foster healthy, happy workers. Learn best practices for setting up your payroll guidelines for wages, benefits, and paid time off.

Course Description:

In this class, Shannon Theis, a payroll expert with almost 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.

 

 

In this Payroll Compliance class, you’ll learn about:

  • Salary vs Hourly compensation

  • Employees vs. contractors

  • PTO: Sick pay, vacation pay, holiday pay

  • Tax Deductions, Contributions, and Garnishments

  • Benefits including healthcare and retirement

  • Reimbursements for out-of-pocket expenses

  • How to pay your payroll taxes

 After completing this course, you will be able to: 

  • Understand what payroll is and how you use it in your business

  • Create payroll policies for state and federal compliance

  • Address common problems

 

 

Instructional Level

Basic

Course Length

1.75 hours

Course Credits

1.75 CPE, Certificate of Completion

Field of Study

Accounting

Delivery Method

Group Internet Based

Who should take this class?

  • Companies with employees who need payroll processing
  • Companies with basic payroll needs

 

Want this course for free? Sign up for a Royalwise OWLS Membership to get this course & more for no additional cost.

OWLfred says, "Silver membership pays for itself in just two courses per month!"

 

 


Refunds & Cancellations

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Royalwise is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be submitted to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through its website: www.nasbaregistry.org.

 





Course Updated: November 2022
Course Page Updated: October 2023

Here is the course outline:

1. Download the Handout

Download your class handout here

Download the handout here

2. Beginners Guide to Payroll Compliance: Watch the videos

When setting up payroll for an office, your company policies must simultaneously meet state and federal compliance standards, and foster healthy, happy workers. Learn best practices for setting up your payroll guidelines for wages, benefits, and paid time off.

Introduction and Agenda
What is Payroll, Employees vs Contractors, Onboarding
Payroll Frequency
Types of Pay
Review Questions
Mandatory Deductions
Voluntary Deductions
Reimbursements
Employer Taxes and Contributions
Payroll Taxes & Forms
Pitfalls of Payroll
Review Quesitions

3. Quizzes

Take these quizzes to demonstrate your mastery of the material. Pass each quiz with an 80% or higher to complete the Course, earn your Certificate, and win points!

Complete this survey for CPE Credit
CPE Completion Quiz

Completion

The following certificates are awarded when the course is completed:

Royalwise CPE Certificate
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