How do I print a 1099 for one contractor in QuickBooks Online?

You can print a 1099 for a single contractor in QuickBooks Online, and the selection happens at the start of the workflow, not the end. When you open the Prepare 1099s flow, the first screen lists the contractors who qualify for the form, each with a checkbox beside the name. Uncheck every name except the contractor you need, continue through the remaining screens, and choose to print rather than e-file on the final one.

Contractor selection comes first

The wizard runs in a fixed order. It shows the contractor list first, then each contractor’s address and tax ID, then the accounts that feed the form. The choice between e-filing and printing comes last.

Unchecking a name does not remove it from next year’s list or alter any payments. It only leaves that contractor out of the forms produced in this run, so you can print one form now and return for the rest.

This is where older instructions mislead. The print button itself does not appear until the final screen. Selection happens up front; printing happens at the end.

Steps to print one 1099

1. Go to Expenses > Vendors and select Prepare 1099s. If a run is already in progress, the button resumes it instead of starting over.
2. On the first screen, uncheck every contractor except the one you are printing for.
3. Continue to the details screen. Add a missing address or tax ID for the contractor you selected; the wizard asks nothing about the others.
4. On the accounts screen, confirm the accounts you paid this contractor from are mapped to Box 1 of Form 1099-NEC.
5. On the final screen, choose the option to print and mail the forms yourself rather than e-file. The form downloads as a PDF that you print.

Why is a contractor missing?

If a name never appears in the wizard’s list, QuickBooks Online has excluded it for one of three reasons:

• Payments for the year total less than $600, the federal threshold for Form 1099-NEC.
• The vendor profile does not have Track payments for 1099 turned on.
• The payments were posted to accounts mapped to no 1099 box at all.

Each of these has a direct fix, and none of them requires changing or re-entering the payments themselves.

Fix tracking and box mapping

Open the contractor from Expenses > Vendors and check Track payments for 1099 in their profile. Save the change and reopen the wizard. The name appears once the year’s payments reach the threshold.

Mapping happens inside the wizard, on the accounts screen. Some older guides send you to payroll or tax settings for this, but that path belongs to QuickBooks Desktop and does not exist in QuickBooks Online. Link each expense account to a box on the form: nonemployee compensation goes to Box 1 of Form 1099-NEC. Instructions that mention Box 7 refer to the 1099-MISC used before tax year 2020.

Printing versus e-filing

The final screen offers two ways to file. Printing and mailing the forms yourself produces the PDF copies you need, with no separate filing service involved. E-filing runs through Intuit’s 1099 e-file service, which charges a fee for each form.

Either way, the contractor’s copy is due by January 31, the IRS deadline for furnishing Form 1099-NEC. Printing a single form early in January leaves time to request a missing W-9 or a corrected address before that date.