Payroll - Create Accounts Payable Entries ?

[Pops]

When we create accounts payable entries from payroll, one of the accounts is missing. An example from May payroll is below:

CR <blank> **UNKNOWN** 1077.52
DB 01-2114 Employee SSI 149.54
DB 01-2116 Employee Medicare 34.98
CR 01-1112 Checking 184.52
DB 01-2118 SSI Employer 149.54
DB 01-2120 Medicare Employer 34.98
DB 01-2112 FIT Withholding 893.00

where it should be:
CR 01-1112 Checking 1262.04
DB 01-2114 Employee SSI 149.54
DB 01-2116 Employee Medicare 34.98
DB 01-2118 SSI Employer 149.54
DB 01-2120 Medicare Employer 34.98
DB 01-2112 FIT Withholding 893.00

Everything in our setup appears to be correct, unless I'm overlooking something because I expect it to be right or something like that. At one time, it came out correct. But that was in test mode before we went live, tweaking out CoA in the process. The one thing that stands out is that I seem to remember that, before, there was only one liability account for everything, which seemed to cause problems elsewhere. So, we split them out.

Oh, one other thing. The account information for the vendor record only has the credit account filled in, not the debit account. But, I tried using one of the liability accounts just to see, but it had no effect.

Any ideas?

Btw, we're on v11.1

[JohnDMeyers]

You lost me on the first sentence.

Are you using Payroll module or Accounts Payable module?

You mentioned vendor records, so I am assuming you are using the Accounts Payable module to do your payroll.

Is that correct?

You seem to have a vendor without a CR account setup for a default account, or possibly pointing to an account that is not active.

[Pops]

Sorry, I was in a hurry when I posted.

We use the Payroll module for payroll. Each month we have to submit our tax liability. To do so, we use the "Create Accounts Payable Entries for Deductions" option in the Payroll menu system (if this option is in the AP module, I've never seen it). This creates either an invoice or manual check for the tax liability in the AP module (we use the manual check option as our liabilities are paid via EFT).

So, when we do this, it creates a manual check in AP that we then post. The problem is, the entry is as I described. It's easily fixed, sure, but it seems if it can create the entry in part, it should be able to create in whole.

I mentioned the vendor record, because a vendor has to be associated with the transaction. That vendor, our bank in this case, has a credit account (bank), but no debit account (expense). When I filled it in, it had no effect.

I can't figure out why the "UNKNOWN ACCOUNT" is showing up in the manual check entry, thus splitting the CR as two lines. That's my question.

[JohnDMeyers]

The place to look is in Payroll / Setup / Maintain Item Descriptions for the item that is attached to the employee.

I'm guessing you do not have a CR account assigned in that particular Item Description.

[Pops]

The place to look is in Payroll / Setup / Maintain Item Descriptions for the item that is attached to the employee.

I'm guessing you do not have a CR account assigned in that particular Item Description.

You mention an item attached to an employee. Are you thinking this is a paycheck? If so, it's not, it's the monthly tax liability. And I've double-checked (several times) the item descriptions. They all have a liability account assigned, as well as an expense account where appropriate.

[JohnDMeyers]

What I meant was that you need to see which Pay Item is the offending one.

You need to go into Payroll / Maintain List of Employees / [Pay Items tab]

and see what the Pay Item number is. This Pay Item is "attached" to the employee. That is what I referring to.

[Pops]

I'm so confuuuuuused,

I cycled through the "Pay Items" tab of all employees (6). They all have their appropriate pay items listed and checked. By appropriate, I mean the particular salary item and tax items. Clergy has some tax items checked, but not all. Staff has them all checked. If I edit one of the items, the only thing relating to accounts is an option to "Use default GL accounts for this item" which is selected.

I have also (several times now) cycled through ALL pay item descriptions. They ALL have the appropriate accounts assigned. At least I think they do. Most ask for a single liability account, which is set. The employer share items ask for a liability account and an expense account. These are both set.

I'm not seeing how the pay items are the problem. When the manual check is created, there is something that is splitting the CR to the checking account into two entries. One split credits the checking account for the sum of the employee share of SSI and Medicare. The other split credits an **UNKNOWN** account for the sum of the employer share of SSI, Medicare, and federal withholding. There should be one credit to the checking account for the sum of employee SSI, employee Medicare, employer SSI, employer Medicare, and federal withholding.

If there is a problem with pay items, it appears to be employer share SSI, employer share Medicare, and federal withholding. I just can't see it.

[JohnDMeyers]

The key is to isolate the specific Pay Items, which you have done.

I would write down the account numbers assigned to the CR and DB (I guess the CR is the one that is the problem), and go into Fund Accounting / Setup / Maintain Chart of Accounts.

Locate those accounts. Make sure they are ACTIVE in the Detail tab.

If you have to, assign a new number to them, just to try to see if you can make it work.

[Jeff]

Call into support. We might need a copy of your data to figure out what is going on.

[Pops]

All accounts assigned to all pay items are active in the CoA.

Just for grins I tried something. First, I merged the FIT, employer SSI and Medicare share into 1 account. Then I verified that account was properly assigned on the appropriate pay items (it was, the move/merge function did it). Next, I created the AP entries to see if there was a change. There was, but the only thing changed was the DB entry for the above accounts had been combined into a single split.

This is all in a test environment btw, using a backup from the live system.

Then, I tried again. This time, I merged all liability accounts into a single account. This didn't work either. The AP manual check looked like this:

CR <blank> **UNKNOWN** 1077.52
DB 01-2112 FIT Withholding 1262.04
CR 01-1112 Checking 184.52

Next step ... call support as Jeff suggested.

[JohnDMeyers]

It's probably a tech support issue. However, it's trying stuff like that where you learn a lot about how the system works. So, if nothing else, you learned something.

[Jeff]

Tracy and I worked on the problem and we think we figured it out. There is a problem in the program with how it is determining which bank account to use. If you post in payroll first before creating the AP entry it is working correctly. If you in advanced mode, it is working correctly. If you are in the default mode and use the AP entry option before posting it is not figuring out which bank account to use correctly.

We have written it up and will get it fixed in a future maintenance release. For the time being if you can post before using this option it will create the transaction correctly.

[Pops]

I just got off the phone with support. This was a call-back to report on the problem. They reported what Jeff did in his post. I ran a test on it and it did run fine after posting payroll. Thank you! I have to give props to PC and the support staff for their help. This wasn't a time-critical issue but it was pretty much treated as such. Good work.

And thank you John for your help, it is appreciated as well.