Washington PFML and WA Cares Quarterly Reporting in QuickBooks
QuickBooks prefills Washington Paid Family and Medical Leave and WA Cares quarterly wage and premium data, but employers must verify totals and file through SecureAccess Washington.
QuickBooks Desktop includes a built-in worksheet to help Washington State employers handle their quarterly Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) and WA Cares reporting obligations. The tool is designed to prefill most of the data from existing payroll records, but users still need to review the generated figures and, in many cases, complete the filing manually through the state’s portal.
What the Worksheet Covers
The report pulls together the employee wage and premium information that Washington’s Employment Security Department (ESD) requires on a quarterly basis. QuickBooks populates the majority of the fields automatically using the company, payroll, and employee data already on file. In an ideal scenario — where all payroll records are current and accurate inside QuickBooks — little to no manual entry is needed beyond reviewing the worksheet.
Employers file the report electronically through Washington’s SecureAccess Washington (SAW) portal, using an existing SAW account or creating one if necessary.
A Key Filing Threshold
One detail that catches some employers off guard: businesses with more than 50 employees cannot manually enter their quarterly data on the state website. The portal blocks manual entry once employee counts reach 51 or higher, requiring those employers to upload a file in a specific format instead. The format specification is available through the ESD website. Smaller employers can enter their data directly in the portal.
Reconciling Wage and Premium Totals
The worksheet breaks out several distinct figures, and each one needs to tie back to the underlying payroll data:
Reportable Total Gross Wages — This figure should match the sum of all individual entries on the Employee PFML Wage Listing Detail. If the two numbers do not agree, the discrepancy typically traces back to a payroll entry that needs correction in QuickBooks itself rather than on the worksheet.
Total Employee Premiums Withheld — Like the gross wages figure, the total premiums withheld from employees should equal the sum of the individual entries on the wage listing detail. A mismatch again points to payroll records that need review.
Total Employer Premiums — This represents the employer-paid portion of PFML premiums only. Employee withholdings are not included in this line.
Total PFML Premiums — This is the combined total of employer-paid and employee-withheld PFML premiums.
Total WA Cares Premiums — This figure captures the total WA Cares premiums withheld from employees.
Identifier Fields
The worksheet requires two key identifiers. The UBI (Unified Business Identifier) number is a nine-digit figure; if three trailing zeros appear after the UBI number, they should be left off. The worksheet notes specifically that the Washington ESD Number should not be used in this field. The federal Employer Identification Number (EIN) follows the standard IRS format with a hyphen.
Handling WA Cares Exemptions
Employees who have received an approved WA Cares exemption will have a corresponding approval letter on file. The worksheet includes a Cares Exempt checkbox that should be selected when the employer has received a copy of that approval letter. Manually checking this box adjusts the employee’s reporting accordingly.
When Prefill Leaves Gaps
If QuickBooks does not automatically populate certain fields, the worksheet’s built-in help resources — accessible from the form window — cover field-specific guidance. Gaps typically occur when company setup, employee profiles, or payroll items are incomplete or misconfigured within QuickBooks. Ensuring that all employee information and wage data are properly entered in the payroll system before generating the worksheet is the most reliable way to minimize manual work and avoid reconciliation errors on the state filing.
For broader payroll setup and troubleshooting, verifying that payroll items map correctly to state-specific requirements can prevent the kind of data gaps that make quarterly filings harder than they need to be.