POST PAYROLL JOURNAL

Use this screen to post paycheck information to the General Ledger and Employee Earnings, and to print a record of the posting, called the Reconciliation Gross to Net by Employee report. The Reconciliation Gross to Net by Employee report is the record of amounts paid to employees and withheld from their pay. Also included in the reconciliation postings are accruals for employment taxes and employer contributions. A Payroll Variance Report is printed, detailing any amounts paid to employees that do not match the amount on the timesheet. The Check Register Report provides you an easy at-a-glance view by check and direct deposit advice number, employee name and an employee's associated gross pay, taxes withheld, other deductions, check amount, and check date. Check numbers are printed first and then direct deposit advice numbers starting on a new page.

Beginning January 1, 2013, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires an employer to withhold Additional Medicare Tax on wages that are paid to an employee in excess of the IRS threshold amount (set at $200,000 in 2013). Costpoint has been updated for this requirement and now the Additional Medicare Withholding amount is stored in a separate column on the Employee Earnings table. As part of this enhancement, the Medicare Additional Amount is included in the Gross to Net by Employee Report and the Check Register Report.

The Reconciliation Gross to Net by Employee report is a key element in the Costpoint audit trail and we recommend that you retain it each time it is printed and posted to the General Ledger. For this reason, you cannot post the Reconciliation Gross to Net by Employee report to the General Ledger without first printing the Payroll Journal. You can, however, print the reconciliation without posting it so you can review and correct it before posting it to the General Ledger.

Posting the Reconciliation Gross to Net by Employee report to the General Ledger debits (decreases) the accrued salary account and credits (decreases) the payroll cash account and each of the withholding and other deduction accounts. Employment tax and employer contribution accruals credit the appropriate liability accounts that you have entered on the Configure Payroll Settings screen and debit the appropriate expense accounts.

Post the reconciliation after you have computed payroll, reviewed the Payroll Edit Report, created your direct deposit file(s), and printed paychecks and/or direct deposit advices.

After posting the Reconciliation Gross to Net by Employee report to the General Ledger, you can close the pay period.

You do not have to close the pay period after posting the reconciliation. You can hold the pay period open until you are ready to create the next payroll. By doing this, you have a longer window of time for processing adjustments to the current payroll. Adjustments affecting gross pay are normally rolled into the next pay period if checks have already been distributed. However, you can issue a check outside of the normal cycle, if necessary.

You can close the pay period later by entering the Manage Pay Periods screen and clearing the Open Flag check box for this time period.

The Reconciliation Gross to Net by Employee report data must be posted to the General Ledger and the pay period closed before you create payroll for the next pay period. In your month-end closing process, make sure you have posted the Reconciliation Gross to Net by Employee report data for each payroll that was paid during the accounting period.

When posting Cash Out for Benefits or Flexible Spending amounts, Costpoint uses the account assigned to that pay type in the Benefit Pay Type Accounts table window of the Configure Benefit Settings screen.

There are three primary conditions that affect an out-of-balance payroll posting journal:

1. If there are records on the Manage Local Tax Override by Taxable Entity screen, even if from another company, and the local taxes are not set up for the taxable entity of the login company. In this circumstance, an out-of-balance condition is created.

2. If the login company did not complete processing on the Configure Payroll Settings screen by entering the accounts located in the Posting Accounts group box, an out-of-balance condition is created. The login company has a partial Configure Payroll Settings screen created when the login company is set up using the Configure Company Information application, but the accounts are left blank. Since there are no validations or warnings in other applications, the Post Payroll Journal application creates an out-of-balance condition.

3. If the login company has not completed processing on the Manage Deductions screen by entering the accounts located in the Posting Accounts group box, an out-of-balance condition is created. The login company has partial Manage Deductions screens created when the login company was set up in the Configure Company Information application, but the accounts are left blank. Since there are no validations or warnings in other applications, the Post Payroll Journal application creates an out-of-balance condition.

To alert you of these and similar scenarios, an error message is triggered during the printing of the payroll journal related to out-of-balance conditions for the Manage Local Tax Override by Taxable Entity screen as well as missing accounts from the Configure Payroll Settings and Manage Deductions screens.

Multi-state functionality was added to a number of applications. This functionality allows the proper calculation of withholdings for employee who work in multiple states during a single pay period. Because new tables are needed for multi-state calculation, this application now looks at new tables to hold the tax data.

Location

Retention

Always retain the Reconciliation Gross to Net by Employee and Worksheet Reports that are printed when you post the Journal to the General Ledger. You can use this report for bank reconciliations and in support of IRS and State Payroll Reports. This is an essential part of your system audit trail.

Selection Ranges

Pay Cycle

Use these options to enter the pay cycle code to post to the General Ledger.

Option

This field always displays One.

Start

Enter, or click to select, the start date for the pay cycle range.

Accounting Period

Use these options to enter the accounting code to post to the General Ledger.

Option

This field always displays One.  

Fiscal Year

Enter, or click to select, the open fiscal year related to the accounting period in which you want the payroll journal to be posted.

Period

Enter, or click to select, the open accounting period within the Fiscal Year in which you want the reconciliation to be posted. Normally, you post the Reconciliation Gross to Net by Employee into the period in which the payroll was actually paid.

The Reconciliation Gross to Net by Employee posts the following to the General Ledger:

•  Debit to accrued salary, credits to cash, and withholding tax accounts.

•  Accruals for employer's contribution expense.

•  Direct charge of fringe costs for union payrolls.

•  Accruals for employer's FICA, FUTA, and SUTA expense.

Usually there is a time lag between the pay period ending date and the pay date. Therefore, for the payroll at the end of the accounting period, your accounting policy can dictate that your accruals be posted into the current accounting period, whereas the cash basis portion of the entry must be made in the future accounting period.

Because the accruals usually involve more accounts, it is more expedient in this case to post the Reconciliation Gross to Net by Employee into the current accounting period and make an automatically reversing entry for the cash basis portion of the entry, also in the current accounting period. This entry cancels the effect of the cash basis portion of the reconciliation. By designating the one entry as Reversing, it automatically records the effect of the cash basis portion of the Reconciliation Gross to Net by Employee in the next accounting period.

Subperiod

Enter, or click to select, the open subperiod related to the accounting Period for which you want to post the Reconciliation Gross to Net by Employee.

If you click to print the posting reports, the actual posting process does not take place. After printing the reports, you are still in the application. You then have the option to click , and the process proceeds.

When you change any of the print options or selection criteria after printing the Reconciliation Report, is grayed-out. You must print the reconciliation reports again before the posting process occurs. If you click and select Print/Post Payroll after having changed a parameter, the reports print automatically as part of the posting process.

Include only records with check numbers

Select this check box to process only records that have check numbers.

Post Payroll

When you first enter this screen, is grayed-out. If you click and select Post Payroll after printing the reconciliation report as part of this session ( becomes available after printing), you receive a message box asking if you really intend to post. If you click OK, the posting process proceeds.

Print/Post Payroll

You can click and select Print/Post Payroll upon initial entry into this screen. If you do, you receive a message asking if you really intend to post. If you click OK the reconciliation report prints with the posting following immediately.

After posting begins, a "DO NOT INTERRUPT" message and a message showing records processed displays.

• Table Information

  Changes to this screen update the following tables:

  • Financial Summary — FS_SUM

  • Reference Summary — REF_SUM

  • General Ledger Summary — GL_POST_SUM

  • General Ledger Detail — GL_DETL

  • Timesheet Header — LD_TS_HDR

  • Employee Earnings History — EMPL_EARNINGS

  • Employee Pay Types History — EMPL_EARN_PAY_TYPE

  • Employee Worker's Comp History — EMPL_EARN_WC

  • Employee Deductions History — EMPL_EARN_DED

  • Employee Contributions History — EMPL_EARN_CNTRB

  • Employee Local Tax History — EMPL_EARN_LOCAL

  • Employee Payroll Table — EMPL_PAYROLL

  • Employee Earnings Direct Deposit — EMPL_EARN_DD