Payslips in QuickBooks Online Advanced Payroll stay hidden until finalisation

UK payroll teams running QuickBooks Online Advanced Payroll keep hitting the same payslip friction, and it splits into two problems. Payslips will not appear until a pay run is finalised, and emailed copies fail quietly when no sender address has been set. Neither point is a fault in the software. Both are built-in rules, and the resolution is a short sequence of settings checks. We have set those steps out below, with the limits spelled out.

Payslips only exist once a pay run is finalised

This is the rule that catches most teams. QuickBooks Online Advanced Payroll will not display payslips for a run that is still in progress. Until finalisation, there is nothing to view, print, or send, so an empty screen usually means the run has not been closed off.

The logic is deliberate. A payslip should not change after it reaches an employee, so the system treats finalisation as the moment of issue. If payslips seem to have vanished, look at the pay run status before you touch anything else.

Two routes to the payslip screen

Once the run is finalised, viewing takes a couple of clicks.

1. Go to Payroll, then Pay Runs, and hover over the pay period. The Payslips button appears.
2. Alternatively, open the Pay Runs tab, pick the date you need, and select Payslips from the pay run actions bar.

A dropdown then offers two views. All payslips shows every employee in the run. Manual notifications filters the list down to staff who do not receive email or SMS alerts, which is the group most likely to need printed copies. You can also filter by location, which helps when a business operates across several sites.

To print, choose View Payslips and then Download Payslips. That produces a PDF you can hand over or file.

One gap to plan around

P45 details from an employee’s previous employment will not appear on these payslips. If a new starter hands you a P45, do not expect the downloaded copy to carry those figures. The omission is built into the product, so it is worth telling affected staff before they go looking for the numbers.

Emailing payslips as part of the pay run

The simplest moment to send payslips is during finalisation.

1. Open the pay run from the Pay Runs tab.
2. When finalising, select Make payslips available to employees now.
3. Choose the date the payslips should become visible to staff.
4. Finalise the run, then select Publish Payslips.

Employees receive a notification telling them their pay has been processed.

How do you resend a single payslip?

For one employee, or for an older month, the route is different. Go to Employees, open the person’s record, and select Payslips. Choose the month you need, then pick Email or Download. That is all there is to it.

Why do emailed payslips never arrive?

When payslips are published but nothing lands, two settings are the usual suspects. First, check that the payslip notification on the employee’s profile is set to Email. You will find it under the employee’s settings, in Pay run defaults. Second, confirm the address on the employee’s details is actually correct. If either is wrong, the notification has nowhere to go.

There is also a limit worth knowing before you promise secure delivery. QuickBooks does not support password-protected payslip emails. Employees who want a protected copy can get one through the employee portal, where their payslips sit behind a login. Mentioning the portal early spares you a round of requests for attachments the product will not send.

Bulk sending needs a sender address first

Bulk sending stays switched off until you set the address payslips will come from. Go to Payroll, then Payroll Settings, and select Payslips. Under From email address, enter the address you want to use, then Save.

Intuit’s guidance adds a caution at this point. Payslips carry sensitive payroll information, so pick an address that is monitored and appropriate for that kind of correspondence.

The order that makes it all work

Sequence is the whole story here. Finalise the run and the payslips exist. Set a sender address and bulk email unlocks. Point each employee’s notification default at Email, confirm their address, and the messages land. None of these steps is buried, but they have to happen in a workable order, and that order is where most of the confusion sits.