QuickBooks Payroll ServiceA first employee and the papers around them.

The day wages start is a date with a job

Texas measures the new-hire report from the day the employee starts earning wages, twenty calendar days, on the Attorney General's page, and only when a W-4 is required. Owners write the hire date as the day of the interview, or the day of the offer, and then wonder why the report feels late. The date that matters is the date pay begins. We put that date on the folder in large handwriting before anyone discusses a rate.

Form I-9 is completed by both of you. Publication 583 says so and points to the form. We do not freelance the immigration rules past that sentence. If a document question is outside the publication's sentence, it is outside this morning, and we will say so rather than guess.

What the first summary should contain

The first paycheck's summary should show the gross wage, the amounts held back, the taxes the company owes on top, and the net that will leave the bank. If any of those is missing, the provider is not finished, even if a number appeared on a stub. A stub with a net and no taxes is a drawing. Drawings are pleasant and they do not survive a quarter.

You approve the hours and the rate. We do not. A standing instruction of "pay them what we paid them last time" is fine once last time was right. The first time has no last time. The first time needs you to look at the rate and say yes out loud.

Keep enough money in the account for the draft, including the employer taxes and anything else the provider will pull, such as a garnishment or a benefit you added. Owners fund the net and forget the rest. The draft then fails, the person waits, and the failure-to-deposit clock, which cares about the tax and not about your intent, starts its own count. The IRS page on that penalty says the tiers replace each other. They do not stack. That is a mercy, and it is still a letter you would rather not open.

A second person is the same morning, shorter

The second employee does not need a new federal number or a new state account. The second employee needs a folder, a roster line, and a report if the twenty-day rule applies. Companies that treat every hire as a fresh company are usually scared. The scare is understandable the first time. By the second time it is a habit we should retire.

Rehires count too. The Texas page includes them. Someone who left in August and came back in October is not "already in the system" in the way owners hope. Ask the question. The report is cheaper than the assumption.

If your first employee is you, and the company is an S corporation, this page and the owner-wage page are the same morning. Say that in the note so we do not set up a folder for a person who does not exist.

The morning after the first stub

Save the stub and the provider summary in the same folder as the I-9. Then look at the bank the day the draft is supposed to leave. If the draft is larger than the net on the stub, the difference should be taxes and anything else you added, and you should be able to point at each piece. If you cannot point, the first payday is not finished, even though the person already has the money. Call while the screen still shows that run. A week later the screen has moved on and the explanation gets thinner.