Alaska New Hire Report in QuickBooks: What Employers Need to Know
QuickBooks generates Alaska New Hire Reports, but certain fields require manual review. Here is what employers need to verify before submitting.
Alaska employers using QuickBooks to onboard new staff have access to a built-in New Hire Report tailored to the state’s filing requirements. The form pulls employee data directly from setup records, but several fields demand manual attention before the report is ready to submit.
State Filing Requirements
Alaska, like federal law, requires employers to report new hires to the Alaska New Hire Reporting Section within 20 days of the hire date. Employers who file electronically have the option to transmit twice monthly, provided the transmissions are spaced between 12 and 16 days apart.
The mandatory data elements are straightforward but comprehensive: employee name and address, Social Security number, date of birth, first day of work, whether the employee is a rehire or recall, and the company’s name, address, and Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN). Alaska also encourages — though does not require — employers to include information about the availability of medical benefits.
Fields QuickBooks Populates Automatically
QuickBooks is designed to streamline the reporting process by importing certain data points from existing employee records. Two fields in particular benefit from this automation.
Employee Date of Birth is a mandatory field on the Alaska form. If the date of birth has been entered during employee setup in QuickBooks, the software transfers it to the report automatically. Employers who skipped that step during onboarding will need to enter it manually.
Employee Date of Hire or Rehire is similarly imported from the employee record. Alaska defines the date of hire as the first day an individual performs services for wages. If the imported date does not match the actual hire date, the field is editable and can be corrected directly on the form.
Fields That May Need Manual Entry
Not every field is fully automated, and some require the person preparing the report to make a judgment call or enter data by hand.
First Day of Work
This is a mandatory field, and Alaska defines it as the date an employee first performs paid work. Because most employers treat the hire date and the first day of work as the same thing, QuickBooks automatically copies the Date of Hire value into the First Day of Work field. If those two dates differ for a given employee — for instance, if someone was hired on paper before actually starting work — the preparer should verify and adjust the date rather than accepting the default.
Medical Benefits Availability
This optional field asks whether health insurance benefits are available to the employee. Enter “Yes” if coverage is available and “No” if it is not. Because this field is not imported from the employee record, it must be entered manually each time.
Rehired or Recalled
Alaska requires employers to indicate whether each new hire is actually a rehire or a recalled employee. Enter “Yes” if the employee falls into either category and “No” otherwise. This field is not auto-populated by QuickBooks and must be completed on the form.
Common Pitfalls to Watch For
The most frequent issue employers encounter with the Alaska New Hire Report is assuming that every field has been handled automatically. The date of birth, in particular, is often left blank during initial employee setup and only discovered missing when the report is generated. Running through the employee record before generating the report can save time.
Another common point of confusion is the distinction between the hire date and the first day of work. While QuickBooks treats them as identical by default, Alaska’s definitions allow for scenarios where they diverge. Employers should confirm that the auto-populated date reflects reality for each employee.
The rehire and medical benefits fields are easy to overlook because they require affirmative manual input. Leaving them blank or defaulting to an assumption can result in an incomplete or inaccurate filing.
Getting Help Within QuickBooks
For general guidance on using the form window or for troubleshooting specific issues, the Help button on the form window itself provides context-sensitive assistance. The New Hire Reporting Form also includes a linked resource for employers who want a broader overview of the form’s purpose and requirements before filling it out.