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Entering beginning balances for in-house payroll

unavailable in ajeraCore unless you have the Payroll add-on

If you are starting mid-year, you must enter the year-to-date payroll amounts for each employee. In this way, you ensure that your pays, taxes, deduction and fringes calculate correctly going forward. This information is also needed for your year-end reports and W-2 forms. For your financial accounting needs, you do not need to enter journal entries for these amounts as they are included in your Beginning Balance Trial Balance entries.

We recommend that you enter one check per employee for each quarter. If starting mid-quarter, you also need to enter monthly checks for the partial quarter.

Note:

If Beginning Balances does not appear on the Company menu, be sure that the Beginning Balances Complete check box (on the General tab of Company > Preferences) is cleared. Make a note of the date in the Don't Allow Entries Prior To field so you can re-enter it when you finish entering your beginning balances.

Begin by creating a payroll for the quarter or the time period you are entering:

From the Company menu, click Beginning Balances > Payroll.

Multi-company only. Select a company. You can enter paychecks only for employees belonging to this company.

Click the New button.
Enter the following information:

For	Do this
Description	Change the description if you want to name this payroll something other than Beginning Balance Payroll.
Period beginning date	Enter the first day of this pay period. For example, you are entering a check for the first quarter of 2005. Your first pay date of the quarter was 1/5/2005 for the period of 12/16/2004 through 12/31/2004. You enter 12/16/2004 for the period beginning date.
Period ending date	Enter the last day of this pay period. For example, you are entering a check for the first quarter of 2005. Your last pay date of the quarter was 3/20/2005 for the period of 3/01/2005 through 3/15/2005. You enter 3/15/2005 for the period ending date.
Pay date	Enter the last pay date in this payroll.
Bank account	Select the bank account you want to use for this payroll.

Click OK. The Beginning Balances Paycheck List window appears listing all employees.
Review the list to determine if you need to add or delete paychecks:

To	Do this
Add a paycheck	Click the New button. Enter the employee in the Employee field. Click OK. The new check now appears on the last row of the Paycheck List window.
Delete a paycheck	Click the paycheck you want to delete, and click the Delete button. Click Yes to the message asking if you want to delete it.

For each employee, you now enter the pays, taxes, deductions, and fringes for this payroll. Click the employee you want to enter information for and then click the Edit button. The Beginning Balance Edit Paycheck window appears.

The Paycheck tab of this window is a view-only summary of the employee's pay information for the period you are entering. You use the other tabs on this window to enter information.

As you work with the tables on each tab, you:

Enter information, as applicable, for items Ajera has already added to a table, such as federal taxes.
Add items to a table by clicking the first field in the first blank row of the table.

You can also delete an item, if needed, by clicking the item and then the Delete button.

Click the Pays tab. For each pay you want to enter, do the following:

To enter pays for accruing and reducing hours, see Entering beginning balance hours for accrual.

To enter pays other than those used for accruing and reducing hours, do the following:

Note:

If you select to add a Regular pay, Ajera enters the employee's regular pay rate and the amount (which it calculates by multiplying the hours by the rate). Change the amount, as needed, to match the actual amount previously paid.

In the Pay field, make a selection.
In the Amount field, type the pay amount.
If hours are available, type the hours for this pay.

Click the Taxes tab. For each tax you want to enter:

Note:

You must complete the Taxable and Subject To fields to ensure that your W-2 reporting is accurate at year-end.

If adding a new tax to the table, in the Tax field, make a selection.
In the Taxable field, enter the taxable basis of the tax.
In the Subject To field, enter the amount of pay subject to the tax.
In the Employee Tax field, enter the amount of this tax withheld for the employee.
In the Employer Tax field, enter the amount of this tax paid by the employer.

Click the Deductions tab. For each deduction you want to enter:

In the Deduction field, make a selection.
In the Amount field, type the amount of the deduction.

Click the Fringes tab. For each fringe you want to enter:

In the Fringe field, make a selection.
In the Amount field, type the amount of the fringe.

Click Save.
Click Close. The Paycheck List window appears listing amounts for the employee you just entered.
When you finish entering beginning balances for all employees, click Close.