How do I add historical data to FreshBooks Payroll?

Once your FreshBooks Payroll powered by Gusto account is set up, you can import historical payroll. Historical Payroll is used for businesses who transfer from one payroll provider to FreshBooks Payroll powered by Gusto after the start of a year to ensure year-end tax filings are up to date and accurate. Historical payroll includes inputting information to determine how much has been calculated and paid for each tax and each employee for the current year.

Every January, our payroll partner Gusto will be generating and submitting year-end tax filings. Gusto will also be generating year-end employee forms for team members, including any employees who were dismissed this year.

Previous payroll history is entered right after your onboarding, and before you start running your first payroll in FreshBooks.

 

Historical payroll is only available if you haven’t run a regular payroll yet. If you’ve already run regular payroll already, reach out to our Support team to have your historical payroll added manually.

 

• Before You Begin
• Add Historical Payroll
• FAQs

 

Before You Begin

Before you start the process of importing your historical payroll into FreshBooks Payments powered by Gusto, make sure you review or have ready the following:

• You’ve answered Yes to Have you paid employees in [current year]? while answering eligibility questions for FreshBooks Payroll
• If you have benefits that you need to record in your historical payroll, benefits will need to be set up first before submitting your historical payroll, review Benefits
• Your FreshBooks Payroll setup is complete and approved for you and all active employees on payroll
• Quarter-to-date (QTD) pay stub information for each prior quarter for active and dismissed employees paid this year
• Individual pay stubs from the current quarter for active and dismissed employees
• Check date is the date the employee was paid, this date determines your payroll tax liability and will be the date you enter when reporting previous payrolls
  

  First Check Date	What's Required
  Q1 / January 1 - March 31	Every pay stub in the current quarter
  Q2 / April 1 - June 30	QTD amounts on the last paystub in Q1 (1/1 - 3/31) with a check date of 3/31 or earlier Every pay stub in the current quarter
  Q3 / July 1 - September 30	QTD amounts on the last paystub in Q1 (1/1 - 3/31) with a check date of 3/31 or earlier QTD amounts on the last paystub in Q2 (4/1 - 6/30) with a check date of 6/30 or earlier Every pay stub in the current quarter
  Q4 / October 1 - December 31	QTD amounts on the last paystub in Q1 (1/1 - 3/31) with a check date of 3/31 or earlier QTD amounts on the last paystub in Q2 (4/1 - 6/30) with a check date of 6/30 or earlier QTD amounts on the last paystub in Q3 (7/1 - 9/30) with a check date of 9/30 or earlier Every pay stub in the current quarter

 

Add Historical Payroll

To begin adding historical payroll to your FreshBooks Payroll, use the below steps:

1. In the Payroll section, next to the Submit your payroll history promptly for accurate tax calculations message, select Submit Info
   

2. If you have benefits, select the Set Up Benefits button to first set up your benefits
   

3. Otherwise, if you don’t have benefits or you’ve already set them up during step 2, select Continue to Payroll History
4. In the Add dismissed employees section, select either:
   
   1. Add dismissed employee to add any employees that received a paycheck this year
      
      1. Enter the employee’s Legal First Name, Middle Initial, and Last Name
         
      2. Then enter the Social Security Number and Date of Birth
      3. Next, specify the Work Address, Hire Date, and Last Employed Date
      4. Then enter the employee’s Street Address, City, State, and Zip Code
         
      5. Next select the Save button
      6. Repeat steps 2a i-v until all dismissed employees have been added, then select Continue
   2. Continue if you have no dismissed employees for this year
5. In the Add your previous payrolls section, select the Add previous payroll button
   
   1. For the Check date, select a date that your employees were paid, refer to the table for closed quarters’ check dates and pay period dates in the Before You Begin section above
      
   2. Then select a Pay period start date and Pay period end date
   3. Next, select Save and Continue
   4. Then for the first employee, select the Add amounts link
      
      1. Next, specify the Regular wage and Regular hours worked
         
      2. If needed, select the Add bonuses, tips or commissions link to add additional details
      3. If needed, select the Add deductions and contributions link to add additional details for any existing benefit(s)
      4. Then select the Calculate tax amounts link, taxes will automatically be calculated and populated in the fields for you
         
      5. Review the tax calculations and correct any amounts that differ from tax payments that have already been made, then select Save
   5. Repeat step 3d i-v for each employee listed
   6. Earnings and taxes will now be updated with the correct Gross pay, select Save and continue
6. Repeat step 6 as needed for each payroll run this year until all are recorded in your list of this year’s payrolls
   
7. Then select the Review tax liabilities button
   1. Under each tax type, choose the liabilities amount from the dropdown that you’d like FreshBooks Payroll powered by Gusto to pay on your behalf
      
      1. 1. Each tax will have an amount to select based on the date range that has not already been paid to tax agencies, whichever amounts are selected will be debited from your bank account
         2. Any taxes that are not debited from your bank account will be recorded as paid, and should be paid to tax agencies directly if not already done
   2. Then select Submit
8. Next, select Finish
9. Gusto will pay your tax liabilities on your behalf, and debit your company’s bank account 2 days after you run your first payroll in FreshBooks Payroll. All your previously entered payroll runs from step 6 will now appear in your Payroll History list in FreshBooks Payroll. You can now process regular payroll runs.
   

 

If you’ve made any deductions and contributions in your historical payroll, reach out to our Support team to have your historical payroll data amended.

 

FAQs

How do I record previous payments to 1099 Contractors?

Previous payments made to 1099 contractors before you onboard to FreshBooks Payroll can be manually added in by our Support team. Use the below steps:

1. Add any contractors who have been paid this year in your Team Members
2. Once all previously paid contractors have been added, reach out to our Support team directly
3. In your ticket to Support, specify each contractor’s name, the amount, and the payment date for each payment made this year.