If you'd like to pay bonuses to your employees, you can either add bonus pay to an existing paycheque or create a separate bonus paycheque. See Vacation pay for bonuses to learn how vacation pay applies.
Add bonus pay to a regular paycheque
You can add a bonus pay type when you first set an employee up in QuickBooks Online Payroll, or later, when you edit their employee records. If you set up an employee with a bonus pay type, the Bonus column appears when creating paycheques. Here's how to add bonus pay to a regular paycheque:
- Go to Payroll and select Employees (Take me there).
- Select the employee's name, then select Edit employee.
- Under How much do you pay this employee? select Add additional pay types if you haven't selected any other pay types, or select the Edit ✏️ icon if you have.
- Check Bonus.
- Select Done.
Create a separate bonus cheque
Employee bonus cheques are not always tied to payroll runs, so you can cut separate bonus cheques any time. If you're creating a bonus cheque separately from a regular paycheque (for example, in an off-cycle or a bonus run), you don't need to set up a bonus pay type. Here's how to create a separate bonus cheque:
- Go to Payroll and select Employees (Take me there).
- Select the Run payroll drop-down arrow and choose Bonus only.
- On the Run Payroll: Bonus Only page, select an option:
- As net pay — Take-home pay or what's left AFTER payroll withholdings are taken out.
- As gross pay — Total pay or what you make BEFORE payroll withholdings and applicable deductions are taken out.
- Select Continue.
- Enter the pay date.
- Select the checkbox next to each employee to include in this bonus run.
- Enter the bonus amount for each employee.
- (Optional) Enter a message to appear in the Memo box of the cheque or pay stub.
- (Optional) Select Edit ✏️ next to Payroll options, check the options you want, and select Apply. Payroll options include only options relevant to this bonus run.
- Select Preview payroll and review the payroll.
- Select Submit payroll.
- (Optional) Select Print cheques or Print pay stubs. (The cheques or pay stubs open in a separate page.)
- Once your payroll is all set, select Finish payroll.