I am working on a similar problem right now, so a few points of clarity:
1) Quickbooks Desktop allows an import of an IIF file. An IIF file is basically a fancy Tab-separated file (.tsv) with a few extra headers that need special formatting.
2) They do not import any other formats (.xlsx, .csv) for Quickbooks Desktop.
3) The answer that OP references is to using an SDK used by developer. Using Excel or an IIF file means that you will NOT be using an SDK.
I know this answer is 3 years late, but this link has the formatting kit for the IIF imports.
https://quickbooks.intuit.com/community/Getting-Started/IIF-Overview-import-kit-sample-files-and-headers/m-p/201577
From this resource, and understanding how the IIF works, the specific answer to your question is:
- Please define "Payroll Data" better"? Is that a Journal Entry, or
a Bank Transfer, or what accounting tool are you caring about? There are many to choose from, including Bill Related, Cash Sale, Credit Memo, Depoit, Invoice, Item Receipt, Journal Entry, Purchase Order, Receive Payment, Statement Charge, Timer Activity, Transfer, and others depending on your version of QuickBooks Desktop.
- If you just care about making sure that the employees are in there, the
IIF formatting kit tells us that it would involve this format:
=====================
!EMP NAME REFNUM TIMESTAMP INIT ADDR1 ADDR2 ADDR3 ADDR4 ADDR5 CITY STATE ZIP SSNO PHONE1 PHONE2 EMAIL NOTE NOTEPAD FIRSTNAME MIDINIT LASTNAME SALUTATION CUSTFLD1 CUSTFLD2 CUSTFLD3 CUSTFLD4 CUSTFLD5 CUSTFLD6 CUSTFLD7 CUSTFLD8 CUSTFLD9 CUSTFLD10 CUSTFLD11 CUSTFLD12 CUSTFLD13 CUSTFLD14 CUSTFLD15 HIDDEN DELCOUNT
EMP 7/16/1998 6 1154716793 7 7/16/1998