Payroll · Daily operations · 8 min read

Approve, post and publish a payroll run

Acknowledge exceptions, approve the run, post one journal to accounting and release payslips to employees.

Before you begin

• The run is Calculated.
• You are not the person who created, froze or calculated it. 'A payroll run is approved by somebody other than the person who created, froze or calculated it.'
• Approving needs payroll.approve; posting needs payroll.post. Publishing needs the run to be posted.

Steps

Acknowledge exceptions

1. Open the run and the Exceptions and variance tab.
2. For each open review exception, click Acknowledge.
3. Enter Why is this acceptable? (up to 500 characters), for example "Joined mid-month, proration checked".

Approve

1. Check the Totals card and the payslips.
2. Click Approve. The button works only when no exception is open.
3. The run is Approved and its fingerprint is recorded.

Post to accounting

1. A user with payroll.post clicks Post to accounting.
2. Open the Journal smart button to see the entry.

Publish payslips

1. Click Publish payslips. Publishing twice changes nothing.

What happens next

• Approved. The run is locked. Recalculating, going back to draft or cancelling is refused. Changes are made with a correction run.
• Posted. One balanced journal dated the period end is created. Example for employee A only: debit the earnings account 5210 with 15,000; credit the deduction account 2210 with 300; debit employer cost 5220 with 450 and credit its liability 2220 with 450; credit the package's net pay account with 14,700. Posting again returns the same journal. DEMO runs are marked [DEMO RULES].
• Published. Employees see payslips in the employee portal under Payroll, with the bank account masked and no employer cost.

Good to know

• 'The run no longer matches the fingerprint you reviewed.' if someone recalculated while you reviewed. Reload and re-check.
• '1 exception(s) are still open. Acknowledge each one with a reason, or fix the cause and calculate again.'
• 'The payslips changed after calculation. Calculate again.' and 'The payslips no longer match what was approved...' are tamper checks.
• Acknowledging needs payroll.approve and is refused on a closed or cancelled run: 'This run is finished.'
• Approving and posting are not separated by the permission rules themselves. The shipped roles keep them apart; assign them to different people to keep the control.
• The net pay ledger account must be set on the package, or posting is refused.
• Payroll posts to the general journal; it is not yet linked to the accounting payroll period close.
• Next: Payment instructions, bank files and WPS.