Skip to main content

Payroll journal entries

When you are finished editing the payroll register, the first step in finalizing your payroll is to mark the payroll approved and create journal entries. You will start by editing the payroll run’s status. 

To edit a payroll run’s status:

  1. Go to Financials Main > Payroll > Payroll Runs
  2. Use the down arrow to select Edit
  3. Change status to Approved
  4. Save

After a payroll run’s status is set to approved, you can create journal entries with the steps below.

To make payroll journal entries:

  1. Go to Financials Main > Payroll > Payroll Runs
  2. Use the down arrow to select Create Payroll Journal Entries
  3. Continue

Errors

The Create Payroll Journal Entries page performs some data verification checks before posting the journal entries. If any employee’s configuration needs correction, you will see the warning “Payroll journal entries and liabilities cannot be created because the following employees have payroll items that are incomplete,” followed by a list of problems.

After correcting the problems, it is imperative that you return the payroll run to Draft status, then open the Register to remove and re-add the affected employee positions. This will reset the employee’s payroll, so any manual changes (e.g. imported time off, adding hours worked, overriding of values) will need to be re-done. Once complete, follow the instructions at the start of this article to create payroll journal entries.

Accounts will not balance, check payroll item configuration.

This error can be caused by an incorrect setup of subtotals on a payroll item. There are a number of possible misconfigurations, but the most common instance is a pre-tax deduction that is not marked as subtracting from the Taxable Pay subtotal.

To correct the payroll item:

  1. Go to Financials Main > Human Resources > Employees - Single View
  2. Look up the employee
  3. Go to the Payroll tab
  4. Edit the payroll item
  5. Make the necessary corrections
  6. Save

Missing accounts on payroll item.

This error usually occurs because an employee’s payroll account breakdown is incomplete. The system should use full expense account codes in each line of the breakdown. If any placeholder dimensions (e.g. FF instead of a specific fund) are in use, then the account is incomplete, which makes it impossible to post the necessary payroll journal entries.

To fix the payroll account breakdown:

  1. Go to Financials Main > Human Resources > Employees - Single View
  2. Look up the employee
  3. Go to the Positions tab
  4. Edit the position
  5. Enter the payroll account breakdown with a real expense account, with no placeholders
  6. Save

Another possible cause might be that the payroll item used for a substitute’s pay is missing a liability account.

  1. Go to Financials Main > Payroll > District Payroll Items
  2. Edit the payroll item
  3. Add a liability account (the same one used on other Wage items)
    • In IL, the most common liability account is FF-L471
    • In MO, the most common liability account is FF-NNNN-2171
  4. Save

Missing vendor on payroll item.

In this case, the district payroll item has not been assigned a vendor. A vendor must be added to associate the accruing liabilities.

To add a vendor to a district payroll item:

  1. Go to Financials Main > Payroll > District Payroll Items
  2. Edit the district payroll item indicated by the error
  3. Enter a vendor
  4. Save