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Set Up Employer Journal Entries

CAUTION: Before you set up journal entries, make sure you have set up all tax information in the appropriate tax setup windows.

You can set up an automatic journal entry to enter the employer's portion of the FICA tax due from the paychecks. You can also set up an automatic journal amount to enter the quarterly FUTA and SUTA tax, if required, for a particular wage account.

If you don't want to use automatic journal entries, you must manually:
  • Enter the employer's portion of the FICA tax each time you print paychecks.
  • Enter the FUTA and SUTA entries each time you run the Payroll End of Quarter process.
  • Reverse the FICA entry each time a paycheck is voided.

There are two ways to set up automatic journal entries. You can create a default wage account or set up a journal entry for each department's wage account.

Set the Default Setup

You can create a default wage account for any wage accounts that don't have specific criteria. All wage accounts not specifically added to this list use the default setup.

  1. On the Payroll tab, click Employer > Journal Entry Setup.
  2. Select the Default account in the grid.
  3. For Wage Account, the default setup displays the message "All other wage accounts".
  4. Enter the liability and expense accounts for FICA, FUTA, and SUTA.
  5. At the top, click Save.

Enter a Set of Accounts for Each Wage Account

If you want to enter the employer's tax liability and expense for several departments, you must set up an automatic journal entry for each department's wage account. Without an automatic journal entry set up, all wage accounts use the default setup.

  1. On the Payroll tab, click Employer > Journal Entry Setup.
  2. Click Add Acct.
  3. Select the wage account.
  4. Enter the liability and expense accounts for FICA, FUTA, and SUTA.
  5. At the top, click Save.