Re: [SL] Payroll

[Angus C. <ac...@sa...>]

Stuart Luppescu wrote:

> Well, I'm about to do payroll for the first time. We don't have that 
> many employees so I can do the withholding calculations in a 
> spreadsheet without trouble. But I don't know what to do after that. 
> Do I make the employees vendors, and put their pay in AP transactions? 
> This looks likely, since account 5410 appears in the account 
> pull-down. Do I also make the government a vendor for the purpose of 
> paying withholding? Do I just do a cash transfer from the checking 
> account to 2110 Accrued Income Tax - Federal, and 2120 Accrued Income 
> Tax - State, and then pay the AP from these accounts when the tax has 
> to be paid at the end of the quarter?
>
> Thanks in advance for any help.
>
That's more-or-less what we do here.
I calculate the earnings with cdnpayroll, which tells me what to put in 
the boxes. Then, I prep an AP transaction for the employee. In notes, I 
put the number of hours worked, and then put a straight amount in the 
box coming from "wages and salaries payable". For deductions, I put a 
negative amount in the boxes for tax, CPP & EI (We're in Canada). These 
go to the appropriate Payable accounts.

At the end of each month, I prepare a single GL entry which moves 
everything around properly, including the employer contributions for 
CPP, EI and WCB. Then, I do an AP Transaction for the government, and an 
AP transaction for the WCB to zero those accounts. That happens on the 
last day of the month, so that I can have all of payroll happen at 
month-end, which is how I am supposed to do it for the government.

I think that's the right approach, but I'm sharing for the sake of 
participating in a discussion of the whole thing, as I can always use 
some thoughts from people as they come up.

Angus Carr.