T4 slips and T4 Summary in QuickBooks Online: the year-end workflow
Canadian payroll users can prepare, review, and file T4 slips and the T4 summary in QuickBooks Online with a fixed sequence of checks and approvals.
Every winter, QuickBooks Online payroll users in Canada work through the same year-end job: T4 slips and the T4 Summary, filed from inside the software. The accepted answer to this recurring question reads less like a fix and more like a checklist. Run it in order and the filing lands; skip a step and it does not. We have laid out the sequence below.
The steps cover the payroll features in QuickBooks Online. The Pro Tax product inside the accountant edition follows a separate process.
The CRA’s filing threshold
The bar for filing is low. You must issue a T4 for any employee you paid more than $500 during the calendar year. The rule also applies if you withheld CPP or QPP contributions, EI premiums, PPIP premiums, or income tax. Deductions alone can trigger the obligation, even on small pay. One more requirement trips people up: a separate slip is needed for each province or territory where the employee worked.
Income that belongs on the slip
Box 14 carries the bulk of it: salary, wages, bonuses, commissions, tips, gratuities, vacation pay, and pay in lieu of termination notice. The same box captures the gross insurable earnings of self-employed fishers. Taxable benefits and allowances are reported, and so are retiring allowances. Every deduction you withheld during the year appears on the slip as well. Pension adjustments count too, for staff who accrued benefits under a registered pension plan or a deferred profit sharing plan.
Amounts that stay off the T4
Not everything you paid belongs on this form. Pensions, annuities, and other lump-sum payments are excluded. Payments to a business owner or partner stay off. Fees or commissions paid to a non-resident for services performed in Canada are excluded too, unless they were director fees. If construction is your primary business, amounts paid to subcontractors do not go on the T4. Retirement compensation arrangement payments are left off as well.
The year of payment decides the slip
The calendar that matters is the one in which the money was paid, not the year the work was done. Pay someone in January for work finished the previous December and the amount sits on the new year’s slip. The rule holds even when the employee has died. The slips follow the paycheque dates, so a late-December run paid in January belongs to the next year.
Company settings come first
Preparation starts with your own file. Open the Settings gear and choose Payroll Settings. Select Federal Taxes on that page. Enter the payroll program number the CRA assigned you, then save. You cannot file electronically without it, so confirm the number before you go further.
Employee records need a pass
Move next to the people being paid. Go to All apps, then Payroll, then Employees. Open each employee and confirm the personal and tax details are current: legal name, social insurance number, birth date, and address. The slips inherit whatever these records say. Correct anything wrong before you generate the forms.
Prepare and approve the slips
From the Employees area in Payroll, open the T4 forms screen and choose the tax year. Select the employees to include; there is an option to select all of them at once. QuickBooks Online fills each slip from the payroll you ran during the year, with Box 14 and the deduction boxes populated automatically. Review every slip against your own records before approving. If a figure looks wrong, fix the underlying payroll or employee data first, then come back and refresh the forms.
File the return with the CRA
The T4 Summary builds itself from your approved slips, so it needs no separate preparation. QuickBooks Online can transmit the return to the CRA electronically from the same screen. Keep your CRA payroll number at hand, and a Web Access Code too if the CRA asks for one. Confirm the submission status before you log off. The deadline is the last day of February.
Employees need their copies
Print the slips or email them from the same workflow. The deadline for employee copies is the same end-of-February date. Keep a copy of everything you file for your records.
What changes when the business closes?
The February deadline assumes the business is still running. If you closed it during the year, the slips are due within 30 days of the day operations ended. The preparation and filing steps stay exactly the same.