Arkansas Form ARW-3 Transmittal in QuickBooks: What Gets Prefilled

QuickBooks Desktop handles Arkansas Form ARW-3 — the Transmittal of Wage and Tax Statements — by prefilling most fields automatically from existing company and payroll data, but employers filing annual W-2 copies to the state still need to review what the software populated and understand the submission rules that QuickBooks itself cannot enforce.

What the Form Is For

Form ARW-3 serves as a cover sheet for the Arkansas copies of W-2 statements. Employers send it along with W-2 copies to the Arkansas Withholding Branch in Little Rock. QuickBooks generates the form and populates it using the payroll data already entered throughout the year, so in most cases — when company, payroll, and employee records are complete and up to date — there is little additional data entry required.

Filing Deadline and Mailing Rules

The ARW-3 and its accompanying W-2 copies are due by February 28 of the year following the tax year being filed. If that date lands on a weekend or holiday, the deadline shifts to the next business day.

One critical rule: the ARW-3 should never be mailed on its own. Even if only a single W-2 is being filed, the transmittal form must accompany it. QuickBooks does not enforce this — the responsibility falls on the person submitting.

Another timing concern involves the AR941A, the annual withholding return, which carries a January 31 due date. If an employer mails the ARW-3 and W-2 copies together with the AR941A, the entire package must be postmarked by the earlier of the two deadlines — January 31.

Payments should not be included with the W-2 and ARW-3 submission. Cash, checks, and money orders belong with separate filing obligations.

What QuickBooks Fills In

The software draws on company setup and payroll records to populate several key areas automatically:

• Company name, address, and state ID — pulled from existing QuickBooks entries. The Arkansas state ID follows a specific format: 12 characters total, beginning with eight numeric digits, a hyphen, and ending with the letters “WHW.”
• Number of employees — QuickBooks counts employees who had state tax withheld during the year. This figure may be adjustable if needed.
• Total state income tax withheld — the full-year withholding amount, which should match the combined Arkansas tax withheld shown on all W-2s.
• Total state wages, tips, and other compensation — the annual wage total drawn from payroll records.

If any of these figures look incorrect, the underlying payroll data in QuickBooks is the likely place to check, since the form reflects what was entered throughout the year.

Fields That May Need Manual Attention

QuickBooks flags any fields it could not populate automatically. Employers should scan for blank entries and complete them before printing and mailing. One field that may require input: whether the annual report covers more than one Federal Employer Identification Number. If multiple FEINs are involved, that section must indicate which ones are included.

For employers who need to verify where specific numbers originated, QuickBooks offers a Help button within the form window that traces figures back to their source in the company file.

Exporting and Saving the Form

QuickBooks provides options beyond printing. Users can save a copy of the completed form as a PDF for their records. The software also supports exporting payroll data to a spreadsheet, which can be useful for reconciliation or for sharing with an accountant before filing.

Where to Send It

Completed ARW-3 forms with W-2 copies go to the Withholding Branch at P.O. Box 8055, Little Rock, AR 72203-8055. QuickBooks does not print the mailing address on the form itself, so employers should note it separately when preparing the envelope.

A Note on Other Arkansas Forms

The ARW-3 is strictly a transmittal document. It does not replace the AR3MAR used by monthly filers or the AR941A used by annual filers — those are separate returns with their own deadlines and requirements. Employers who have run into payroll form issues in QuickBooks before will recognize the pattern: the software handles the data side, but the filing logistics remain a manual responsibility.