New QBO Contractor W-9 Self Set-up

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QuickBooks Online now allows you to invite contractors to securely enter their W-9 information. Right before the 2018 1099 season, Intuit rolled out this new feature. The W-9 contractor self set-up is initiated from inside QBO by any user who has access to vendors, including accountant users. Processing 1099s is time consuming and a tedious task. Part of the difficulty every year is ensuring contractor details have been captured. Any shortcut is worth looking at to make the process less time consuming and painful.

Invite a Contractor to Add Their Own 1099 Tax Information

The Steps:

  1. Before sending an invite to an existing vendor, make sure that the contractor's email address is current
  2. Select Vendors
  3. Choose Vendor's name
  4. Select Vendor Details, edit
  5. Update email address as needed
  6. Send email

What the Contractor Receives:

Contractors receive an emailed invite (like the one shown below) prompting them to “add your details now.” The prompt asks them to either sign-in with their existing Intuit credentials, or if they do not have an Intuit account, they can sign up for free.

The Contractor's Response:

Once the contractor has signed in (in the step above) they can then safely add their tax information to the company file (as shown below).

The 'Extra Benefit' Access for the Contractor to their 1099 via a Private Portal:

If you process your 1099s through QuickBooks Online, you can provide your contractors with an 'extra benefit' in the form of a private portal, in which they can access their 1099 online and even print it via the portal (as shown below). There is no additional charge for this benefit.

To use this feature you must:

  1. First, you must process your 1099s using the Intuit system
  2. Next, when prompted during the submission of the 1099s, select 'Yes. Give my contractors online access to their 1099s.'
  3. Confirm contractor email address are listed and correct
  4. Once the 1099s have been processed, the contractor will receive an email
  5. Again, the contractor must either sign up for an Intuit account or use their existing credentials if they already have one

Conclusion:

The really nice thing about this W-9 Self Set-up feature is that it can be used with a 'new vendor' at any time in QuickBooks Online. You don't need to wait until the end of the year when you are in a hurry trying to get 1099's out the door to worry about a W-9, you can use the Self Set-up feature as soon as you enter a new Vendor in QBO, or at any point that you realize you don't have the information you need. 

Way to go QBO for giving us another great feature to streamline our lives and make our work easier and more efficient!