QuickBooks Tip – Child sustain Garnishments

How to set up, track and pay Child sustain Garnishments in QuickBooks seems to be a pretty popular topic of discussion, I see this question frequently on many of the QuickBooks forums and news groups that I frequent, so here is a little tutorial for setting up a weekly Child sustain Deduction.

Quick Facts About Child sustain Garnishments:

Child sustain is a post (after) tax deduction from the employee paycheck. It is possible that you will have more than one employee with a Child sustain Deduction. It is appropriate to have employee specific deduction items in your Payroll Item list. It is not necessary to have employee specific liability accounts on your Chart of Accounts.

Creating a Child sustain Garnishment deduction item in QuickBooks is pretty easy.

From the Lists menu -> choose Payroll Item List Click on the Payroll Item button (lower left) -> and choose New Select the EZ-Setup method -> click the Next button

Select the Other Deduction option -> and click the Next button

Check the Wage Garnishment option -> click the Next button

go into information about who the money is sent to (this is a QuickBooks vendor), the account number that must be displayed on the check, and how often the money must be sent in -> click the Next button and then click Finish.

At this point QuickBooks has produced a payroll deduction item in your Payroll Item List called Wage Garnishment.  You will probably want to edit this item, changing its name to something more meaningful – perhaps something like Employee X Child sustain OR Employee X CS.

Go to Lists -> Payroll Item List -> find Wage Garnishment and double-click on it to Edit. In the go into Name for Deduction field (it will say Wage Garnishment) just kind in Employee X CS -> and click the Next button

For the liability account, make sure that you select (or create) a sub-account of the normal Payroll limitations account – a quick trick to add a subaccount right here on this window is to first select the standard Payroll limitations account, then click into the box and kind in :Child sustain (without the quotes), you will closest be told that the account doesnt exist and you should select Set Up; create the account and then select it. Keep clicking the Next button on the following windows, changing nothing, until you arrive at the last window; where you will select Finish.

Adding the Child sustain Garnishment to the Employees Record

From the Employee Center, find and Edit the Employee Switch to the Payroll & Compensation section by using the Change Tabs drop down menu Click into the Additions, Deductions & Company Contributions section, and in the Item Name column, select the deduction item, and give it an amount.

Each week when you run payroll, the stated amount will be deducted from the employees paycheck and sent to the Liability account and will be shown on your Chart of Accounts or a Balance Sheet Report.

To truly generate the check to be sent to the Agency collecting the money, youll go to the Payroll Tab of the Employee Center and select it from the Pay Scheduled limitations section.

I hope you find this written tutorial helpful, if so please leave a comment.