Mississippi New Hire Reporting in QuickBooks: What Employers Need to Know

QuickBooks payroll users with employees in Mississippi are responsible for filing New Hire Reports with the Mississippi State Directory of New Hires, and the software pulls much of the required data directly from employee records already entered in the system. The obligation applies to any employer doing business in the state, and the filing deadline is tight: reports must reach the state directory within 15 days of an employee’s hire or rehire date.

Who Must Be Reported

Mississippi’s requirements cover a broad set of workers. Employers must report any new employee who resides or works in the state and to whom the employer anticipates paying earnings — even someone who works a single day and is terminated before the report is filed.

The rule also extends to rehires. Any employee who returns to work after a termination or a leave without pay must be reported again. Workers who remain on the payroll during a break in service or a gap in pay and then return are treated the same way, which commonly applies to teachers, substitutes, and seasonal staff.

Temporary agencies carry their own obligation. An agency must report any worker it hires for an assignment, but only once per engagement. The worker does not need to be re-reported each time they are sent to a new client. However, if there is a break in service or a gap in wages from the agency, the worker must be reported as a rehire when they return.

What the State Requires

Mississippi asks employers to submit a substantial amount of information for each reported worker. On the employer side, the state wants the company name, address, state account number, and Federal Employer Identification Number.

For each employee, the required fields include the worker’s name, address, Social Security number, date of birth, date of hire, gender, wages, whether medical benefits are available, and payment frequency.

How QuickBooks Handles the Data

Several of the required fields populate automatically from existing employee setup records, provided the information has been entered beforehand.

Date of Birth

Mississippi treats date of birth as a required field. QuickBooks will import it from the employee record if it has been entered during setup. Employers who have left that field blank will need to supply it manually.

Gender

Gender is also required. As with date of birth, QuickBooks imports the value from the employee setup when available.

Date of Hire

The date of hire imports from the employee record as well. If the date QuickBooks pulls in is not accurate, it can be corrected on the report.

First Day of Work

This is a required field, and Mississippi 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 transfers the value from the Date of Hire field into the First Day of Work field.

Medical Benefits Availability

Employers must indicate whether medical benefits are available to the employee. The field accepts a simple “Yes” or “No.”

Pay Frequency

Mississippi requires employers to specify how often the employee is paid. The accepted values are single-letter codes: “W” for weekly, “B” for bi-weekly, “M” for monthly, and “A” for annually.

Wages

The wage field calls for the employee’s salary or other compensation, entered in dollars and cents. The amount should correspond to the pay frequency indicated on the report — a weekly figure for weekly pay, a monthly figure for monthly pay, and so on.

Preparing Employee Records in Advance

The most common stumbling block for QuickBooks users is incomplete employee setup. Because the software imports date of birth, gender, and date of hire directly from each worker’s profile, any missing details must be entered before the report will be complete. Employers who keep thorough records from the start will find that most of the heavy lifting is already done when the filing deadline arrives.