Expenses on check register don't match exp. on Budg. Rept.

[tongieko]

I give our Finance Committee a Check Register and a Budget Report, among other reports each month. The problem this creates for me is that the expenses on the Check Register are higher than those on the Budget Report. After much tearing and comparing I have found that it is some of the payroll withholding that I have been charging to, for example, State Taxes Payable (a liability account) instead of an expense account, then when the quarterly check is written to pay the State taxes I charge it to an expense account. If I charged these taxes to an expense account when I do payroll what would I do when I actually write the check to pay the taxes? I have tried to tell our auditor that they don't need to match, but he wants the amounts to be the same on both reports. I have worked with this so long, that I can't think clearly about it anymore! That plus the fact that it has been YEARS since I took accounting courses contribute to my confusion. Can anyone help me?

[tborgal]

I may be missing something here. But you should not be charging any expense account when you pay the quarterly payment to the State. You should be crediting the bank account and debiting the liability account. The expense account was debited when you wrote the original payroll check by the gross amount of the check. This may be why your register and budget don't match.