Changing Structure, new file?

It never hurts to make a backup copy before you make set up changes.  New settings in the file will not change the backup copy.

I'm not sure if I have all the facts of your situation. I think you should continue using the old file if you can because although you can import the Employee, Vendor, Customer, Accounts and Items lists, you cannot import all the transactions. You would have to re-input transactions from January 1st (assuming a calendar tax year).

If the previous admin didn't use QuickBooks to track hours worked and you want to track hours in QB for the job information, then enter the data from the manual time sheets into QB timesheets. I don't understand why you would "backdate pay checks"; haven't they already been recorded in the QB file?

"such as each job being entered as payroll items "

You will not do this.

By using Timesheets, with the employees set to be paid from timesheets, you will see both the Service Item and the payroll item.

Service Item is job related.

Payroll item is Pay related.

You can turn on and off paying from timesheets, but for what you are awsking, just start doing it this way and stop putting data manually into the payroll function.

"I never will bill anyone for the hours worked"

Then in the timesheet, job track it and mark it Not Billable by removing the checkmark.

"But now I see that once you've set it up to use the timesheets for payroll, it is not easy to switch back. "

You simply change the employee Payroll & Compensation tab: there is a box to checkmark or uncheckmark. You can change it any time. This removes the Payroll Item column from timesheets and does not allow QB to transfer time entries to the paycheck details view.

"If you turn off the preference that allows you to bill time and expenses, you won't be able to bill any of them."

That is not what this preference controls. This preferences controls a Pop up that is a sort of helpful reminder, when doing Invoices. It does not affect payroll and there is no way to stop the Billable from coming up on a timesheet. Just tab into the column and hit the Spacebar to remove the checkmark, then tab around to the next line.

"Even when time tracking is off"

That is going to tell QB to SHOW or don't SHOW timesheets.

Edit the employee name, and look at the dropdown for "Change Tabs."

Oh; sorry to post again; now that this is marked Solved we can no longer edit replies.

Don't forget to update your Employee Defaults. Set this to the settings you want always. Then each time you add a new employee, these settings are already created, too. Set the employee default to Transfer time to payroll.