In this article
Background
An essential part of payroll is being able to export your payroll data to your accounting software. This process involves mapping various payroll costs to specific accounts depending on the company's structure.
Pento provides accounting integrations with Xero and Quickbooks, however, there are many other accounting systems that our customers use.
Most customers are manually manipulating data exported from the payroll report in Pento each month to fit the required format for their accounting system. This is a huge pain point since the payroll export is not meant for this, and the structure of the data is very different from the journal format required.
Summary of Feature
The payroll journal export allows you to configure a template to map accounts based on your accounting setup in order to produce a report that can be used to import into your accounting system with minimal manipulation.
Using the Feature
1. Edit the Template
The payroll journal can be found in Reports > Payroll Journals.
The first step is to configure the template to your preferences.
You can click on "Edit Journal Template" in the top right. If this is your first time editing your template, you will also find a prompt on the page.
2. Split by Org Structure
You can choose to split your journal into up to two org structures. The org structure options will display as configured in your system.
3. Configure Pay Items
You can choose to show pay items separately on the journal. Items that are not separated in the journal will be grouped under salaries.
Standard Pento Pay items are listed as checkboxes. Custom pay items can be selected from the drop-down menu.
4. Preview Journal
To verify the configuration of the journal you will be able to preview it. The preview will use data from the draft payroll.
If you select "Preview Journal", the journal will be downloaded in an Excel format.
NB. the account codes will be blank as these are configured in the next step and the amounts might not balance if there are errors in the journal (e.g. unassigned employees)
5. Account Code Mapping
You now get an option to choose how you want to map account codes.
- Only by pay items: choose this option if you want to allocate the same account code to all pay items regardless of the org structure
- By Pay Items and Organisational Structure: choose this option if you want to assign individual account numbers to each pay item and associated org structure
Click Next.
6. Summary
The summary tab will confirm the configuration of the journal and you can then save your configuration.
7. Downloading the Journal
You will be able to download the journal for both draft and submitted payroll. The template can also be amended at any time and changes will apply when downloading existing and new reports.
FAQ
Here are some common queries we received during our Beta Testing:
What is an unallocated cost?
If you see an unallocated cost line on your journal it means that there is something within your payroll that hasn't been allocated a code within your journal. All unallocated costs will be combined together and displayed in a single line.
Why is the template less detailed than I expected?
The template needs to be configured first, or it will not have many details. The Payroll Journal was designed to meet your needs, so configuring it is crucial.
I can’t download my journal!
In order to download the journal, it will need to have the correct balance. If you are splitting by org structure, each employee in the specified payroll will need to be assigned an org structure.