Arkansas New Hire Reporting in QuickBooks: A Guide for Employers

Arkansas employers using QuickBooks for payroll have a state-mandated deadline to meet: new hires must be reported to the Arkansas New Hire Reporting Center within 20 days of the employee’s start of work. The report covers newly hired, rehired, and temporary workers, and QuickBooks can handle most of the data entry automatically — as long as the employee record is set up correctly. We break down who must be reported, what information the state requires, and how QuickBooks imports the key fields.

Who Must Report in Arkansas

Any employer doing business in Arkansas must submit a new hire report for every employee who resides or works in the state, provided the employer reasonably expects to pay earnings. This includes employees who work only a single day and are terminated before the 20-day window expires. The obligation also extends to rehires — workers who return after a termination or unpaid leave — as well as those who rejoin after a break in service or a gap in pay, such as teachers, substitutes, and seasonal staff.

Temporary staffing agencies have their own responsibility: they must report the worker the first time they are hired, not every time the worker is assigned to a new client. However, if the worker experiences a break in service or a wage gap from the agency, the worker must be reported again as a rehire.

Information Arkansas Requires

The state mandates the following fields on every new hire report:

• Employer name, address, and Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN)
• Employee name, address, and Social Security number
• First day of work (the date the employee first performed paid work)
• State of hire

Additionally, Arkansas encourages — but does not require — employers to include the employer contact’s name and phone number, the employer’s state ID number, and the employee’s date of birth.

How QuickBooks Handles the Data

QuickBooks’ payroll system is designed to import much of the new hire information directly from the employee record, reducing manual entry. For example:

• Date of birth: If you have entered the employee’s date of birth in the employee setup, QuickBooks will include it in the report. Because the field is optional, you can delete it before transmitting if you prefer not to share it.
• Date of hire: QuickBooks pulls the “Hire Date” field from the employee record. If the date is incorrect, you can edit it in the report before submission.
• First day of work: Arkansas treats the first day of work as mandatory. Since most employers equate the hire date with the first working day, QuickBooks automatically transfers the “Date of Hire” value into the “First Day of Work” field. Always verify this matches the employee’s actual start day.
• State of hire: QuickBooks imports the employee’s state of hire if it has been set. For multi-state employers, reporting the correct state of hire is essential — Arkansas requires it for each employee.

Filing Frequency and Methods

Arkansas mandates that employers who submit reports electronically do so in two monthly transmissions no more than 16 days apart. The first transmission typically covers new hires from the first half of the month, and the second covers the remainder. Paper filers must follow the single 20-day rule. If you use a payroll service or QuickBooks Payroll’s e-file features, the software usually handles the scheduling, but you should confirm the transmission intervals in your Payroll Center settings.

Practical Advice for QuickBooks Users

• Set up the employee record completely before running the report. Missing dates or a blank “State of Hire” field can cause the transmission to skip the employee or generate an error.
• For rehires, update the “Date of Hire” field to reflect the new start date. QuickBooks will then treat the employee as a new hire reportable to the state.
• If you operate in multiple states, ensure each employee’s “State of Hire” is correctly assigned. The software can filter by state, but a misclassification could result in a report filed to the wrong location.
• Temporary agencies: report the worker once during their first assignment. If a worker later returns after a break, update the hire date to trigger a new report.

Staying Compliant

Failing to report a new hire within 20 days can lead to penalties, so it pays to keep your QuickBooks employee list clean and to run the Arkansas new hire report on schedule. The payroll module’s automated import of dates and addresses saves time, but a manual check before transmission is always wise — especially for the “First Day of Work” field, which QuickBooks fills from the hire date. If your company file has any data inconsistencies that make reporting difficult, you may need to repair the employee list or rebuild the file.

For employers who need to keep older QuickBooks versions running for payroll reporting without forced updates, Perpetual Books offers guidance on maintaining unsupported editions. Otherwise, the built-in payroll tools handle Arkansas new hire requirements — provided the employee setup is accurate and the monthly transmission schedule is followed.