Payroll Support

Error: "QuickBooks was unable to validate your payroll subscription"

Article ID: 1000454
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Problem

When you enter your service key, get an update, or send a payroll for direct deposit, the following error occurs:

QuickBooks was unable to validate your payroll subscription.

or

Error 552: We are having difficulty validating your account.

There are several possible causes for the error:

  • You may not be using the current release of QuickBooks.
  • Your tax tables may not be up to date.
  • Your computer may not be set to the correct date and time.
  • If you are using QuickBooks Direct Deposit, you may have entered a service key that can't be used to make a deposit.

Assumptions

You are signed up for a payroll service and are validating your payroll subscription.

Expected Outcome

Your payroll subscription will be validated.

Details

Depending on what you think may be the source of the problem, try one or more of the following actions.

To validate your payroll subscription:

  • Update QuickBooks to the current release.
  • Update your tax table.
  • Restart QuickBooks.
  • Reboot your computer.
  • Check whether your computer is set to the correct date and time.
    1. Click the Windows Start button and choose Control Panel.
    2. In the Control Panel window, choose Date and Time.
    3. Make any necessary corrections and click OK.
    4. Close and reopen QuickBooks to check that the date has changed within QuickBooks.
  • Enter the correct service key.
    1. Obtain the service key that your company uses for direct deposit. If you can't find that service key, contact us.
    2. Open the QuickBooks Service Keys window.
      • In QuickBooks Pro and Premier: Choose Employees > My Payroll Service, and click Manage Service Key.
      • In Simple Start: Select Payroll from the top toolbar. Choose My Payroll Service and select Manage Service Key.
    3. In the Service Name pane of the QuickBooks Service Keys window, select QuickBooks Standard Payroll or QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll and click Edit
    4. Enter the correct service key, click Next and then click Finish. QuickBooks will attempt to validate the subscription.

If you are unable to update your tax table:

Create a new test company file, and enter the original company file's EIN (Employer Identification Number) and Payroll service key into the new file.

Update your tax table.

For instructions on updating your payroll tax tables, see Download the latest payroll tax table.

Verify the test company file has the most recent tax table version.

For instructions on verifying your tax table version, see Verify that a tax table update has downloaded and installed.

If the update is successful, go back to your original company file and update your tax table again.

If the previous steps do not solve the problem, you can also try to send payroll from another computer. If this does not work, please contact us.

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