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Enter payroll checks

Generate liabilities for handwritten payroll checks

After entering each historical check separately, choose which liabilities to generate from that data and whether to generate them as open (unpaid) or closed (paid).
To generate liabilities, use the following steps.
  1. On the
    Enter Transactions
     screen, select
    Generate Liabilities for Handwritten Payroll Checks
    . 
  2. From the
    Select the check type
     dropdown list, select the type of handwritten checks to generate liabilities for.
    1. 3rd Party Sick Pay
      : When you select this option, the liabilities generated for the checks in the Checks grid will be open for all employer taxes (FICA-SS, FICA-Med, FUTA, and, in some cases, SUI, and Local). No liabilities will be generated for employee taxes (including the employee portion of FICA-SS and FICA-Med).
      note
      If the employee status on a payroll check is Independent Contractor, the check won’t be associated with any employer taxes and will therefore not generate any liabilities.
    2. Handwritten Checks
      : When you select this option, historical payroll checks remain posted to the general ledger (GL), and all liabilities, both the employee and employer portions, will be generated as open. This includes liabilities related to tax agents and payroll agents. 
    3. Historical Checks
      : When you select this option, all tax agent liabilities related to the employee, both employee and employer portions, will be generated. When you select the
      Generate
       button, the
      Select Liabilities
       window displays for you to choose which liability types to generate as open or closed.
      1. Closed liabilities
        : These will transfer to the payroll tax forms as payments, but they won’t post to any GL accounts, nor will they appear in a bank reconciliation.
      2. Open liabilities
        : These become available to process tax payments for in the Print Checks screen or the Manage Impound Payments screen. When those tax payments process, these payments will post to the proper GL accounts and will appear in a bank reconciliation. Note that you can select to exclude from fund processing any open liabilities that you generate.
      note
      • Historical checks don’t post to any GL accounts and won’t appear in a bank reconciliation. When a manual/handwritten check is changed to a historical check, the application removes the transaction from the GL.
      • To revert a historical check back to a manual check, you need to delete the historical check and enter a new manual check to replace it.
  3. The Checks grid displays the list of all handwritten payroll checks for the current client that meet the criteria you specified in the
    Filter
     field and for which liabilities haven’t already been generated. Mark the checkboxes next to the checks you want to generate liabilities for.
    note
    • If the
      Do not create tax liabilities
       checkbox is marked on the
      Payroll taxes
       tab on the Clients screen, no checks will be available to generate liabilities for.
    • Payroll checks that are marked as cleared in the Reconcile Bank Accounts screen are not listed in the Checks grid.
  4. When you have selected all the checks, select
    Generate
    .
    1. For 3rd party sick pay and handwritten checks: The liabilities will be created as specified in step 2 and the
      Generate Liabilities
       window closes.
    2. For historical checks: The
      Select Liabilities
       window displays, where you can choose whether specific types of liabilities should be generated as open or closed.
  5. If you're recording historical checks, for each tax type choose whether to generate the liabilities as open or closed. All tax types display in this window whether or not the client has employees subject to that tax type (local withholding, for example).
    note
    • Choosing
      Closed
       will generate both the liability and a payment for the full amount of the liability, so it is recorded as paid.
    • Choosing
      Open
       will generate only the liability, recording it as unpaid.
  6. Select
    Generate
     to generate the liabilities as you have specified and return to the Enter Transactions screen.
    note
    After the liabilities have been generated for a payroll check, it can no longer be modified. You can delete the check and then re-enter it.

This article applies to:

  • Product: Accounting CS
  • Subject: Payroll checks

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