How do I reinstate a terminated employee?

A former employee is being rehired. His profile is in terminated status. QBO won't let me add a new employee or update his hire date to reinstate him. How do I get him back on payroll?

11 Comments 11 ‎January 24, 2021 10:51 AM

How do I reinstate a terminated employee?

Changing the status of a terminated employee to active is easy as 1 2 3, @usermlakkw.

You can go to the employee's profile and change their employment status from there. I'd be happy to guide you through the steps.

  1. Sign in to your QuickBooks Online account.
  2. Click Payroll from the left menu, then select Employees .
  3. In the All Employees drop-down, select Inactive Employees .
  4. Select the terminated employee from the list.
  5. From the Employment section, click the pencil icon to edit.
  6. In the Status drop-down, select Active to activate the employee.
  7. Click Done to confirm the changes.

Just in case you want to invite your employees to QuickBooks Workforce, you can check out this article for the detailed steps and information: Invite your employees to QuickBooks Workforce to see pay stubs, W-2s, and more. QuickBooks Workforce is a website where your employees can access their paystubs online.

Please know that I'm just a reply away if you need any further assistance managing your employees. Wishing you and your business continued success.

‎January 24, 2021 05:03 PM

How do I reinstate a terminated employee?

When I select the former employee from the Inactive list, my employee detail screen doesn’t look like your example, nor does it give me a Employment Status option at all. When I try to update his hire date to the recent date, I get an error message “ The termination date cannot be before the hire date.”

QuickBooks Team ‎January 24, 2021 06:44 PM

How do I reinstate a terminated employee?

I'm here to help you reinstate your terminated employee in QuickBooks Online.

The error you've mentioned means that you've changed the Hire date before putting the Employee's status back to Active. Or you've entered the terminated date earlier than the hired date.

Here's how to make an employee active again:

  1. Go to the Payroll menu and click the Employees tab.
  2. Click the Pencil icon beside the Employment section.
  3. Change the Status to Active .
  4. Select Done . This is how it looks like:

After that, you can enter the correct Hire date of your employee in the Employment section.

You may refer to this article to know more about this topic: Terminate or change employee status payroll.

Please tag my name in the comment section if you have other questions. I'll be here in the comment section below. Take care.

‎January 25, 2021 06:54 AM

How do I reinstate a terminated employee?

I do not have the pencil or edit option in the Employee Information screen. I have Status option to change. Only W-4, basic employee information, and hire date.

‎January 25, 2021 09:16 AM

How do I reinstate a terminated employee?

Good morning @usermlakkw! Thank you for updating us here in the Community. I definitely want to help get your employee active and back on payroll.

You stated that you do see the "Status" option, so that should be the place to change that employee's status to active. Just click on that Status dropdown and you'll see the "Active" setting.

If you don't see that Status option (or any edit option), it could be that you're not logged in as an admin. If you have a moment, you can take some screenshots which are helpful so we can take a look at what you're seeing.

Reply to this post with any more information you have and we will do our best to help!

‎January 25, 2021 09:40 AM

How do I reinstate a terminated employee?

I apologize - I do NOT have an option to change Status. I am the admin so I have the capabilities (or should) and in Business View. My screens do not look like yours. Or none of the screens posted in the comment string. I just converted over from Desktop Pro so is there something pertaining to that conversion that is keeping me from editing any of the employees?

‎January 25, 2021 11:21 AM

How do I reinstate a terminated employee?

Thank you for choosing QuickBooks Online as your accounting partner! @usermlakkw.

Can you post a screenshot of what you're seeing? That info can help me further to assists you change your employee's status. In the meantime, let's access your QuickBooks Online account using a private browser. Unable to see some options in QBO might cause by a corrupted cache and cookies stored in your browser. To start, the following are the shortcut keys you can use:

Once signed in, go to the Payroll system to change your employee's status. Here's how:

  1. Go to the Payroll menu and select Employees .
  2. Click the Edit icon on the Employment field.
  3. Select the Status drop-down arrow and choose Active .
  4. Hit Done .

For more details about the process, please see the Edit or change employee info page.

If this works, let's clear the cache and cookies of your browser. If not, you can use another supported browser. Possibly that your current browser may have a temporary issue with QuickBooks.

Also, here are the things you need to know once you migrate from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online. This article will tell you how and what data are converted: What to expect when you switch from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online.

You may also consider reading this article to learn more about payroll processing in QBO: Payroll 101. This page also gives info about compensation types, paying taxes, federal tax deposit schedules, etc.

Let me know how this goes and leave a reply below. I'm always around to give further assistance to help you change your employee's status. Have a great day.