FIXED: General Ledger payroll postings show duplicated expense lines and large adjustments

How do I know I have this issue?

1. The 1-3 Journal Transaction for a posted payroll record will show a large Adjustment amount that credits direct or overhead labor and duplicate expense lines.

2. The 2-3-61 General Ledger Cost Comparison report shows a large variance between job costs and direct expenses.

3. Posting payroll in Summary causes the 2-4-21 GL report to show a large negative ending balance on the clearing account.

After identifying this issue, what steps can I take?

If you posted payroll in 5-2-6 without selecting Post in Summary

1. Open 1-6 Period/Fiscal Year Management.

2. Click Audit Books, then Audit Books again.

3. The result will show audit errors – click Yes to view the audit error report.

4. The report identifies payroll posting transactions with large adjustment amounts and instructions to open these transactions in 1-3 Journal Transactions. The report lists affected ledger record numbers.  Make note of the affected record numbers.

5. Open 1-3 Journal Transactions and drill down on one of the record numbers listed on the audit report.

6. The program displays a message that states the record has duplicated expenses and a large adjustment.

7. The message asks if you want to fix all records in this state. If you don't wish to fix them now, click No, and the message will close. Otherwise, click Yes and proceed to the next step.

8. Run the repair and confirm the corrected record numbers.
 NOTE:  If the message “0 records corrected” appears, click OK to close it. This action will trigger the “Duplicated expenses” message again. At this point, click No to exit the message loop.  Correcting the transactions requires a file fix.  The “0 records corrected” message typically appears for transactions with the description “Void Regular Payroll.”

9. Click OK, and the record will immediately refresh. You'll no longer see duplicated expense lines or a large adjustment line in the transaction lines. This action repairs all affected standard payroll posting records, not just the one displayed.

10. Re-run the audit from Step 1.  You'll now have no errors related to payroll posting transactions.

If you posted payroll in 5-2-6 by selecting Post in Summary

1. Run the 2-4-21 General Ledger report for the payroll posting summary account. The account will have a large negative ending balance instead of a balance at or near 0.00. This is an example of what you'll see in the report:

2. On the report, find the first Payroll Summary credit to the summary account that leaves a large, nonzero balance.

3. Double-click the record number to open the transaction in 1-3 Journal Transactions.

4. When the record opens, go to the Options menu and select View Summary Payroll Posting Log. The program displays a message stating that the record has duplicated expenses and an incorrect posted amount to the offsetting clearing account.

5. Click No to view the summary posting log and the affected records.

6. When the log opens, scroll through the payroll records to view records that have duplicated expense lines and a large adjustment amount.

7. To correct the errors, close the log and reopen it from the Options menu.

8. The message will ask if you want to create and post a correcting entry.

• This entry reverses the duplicated expenses and the large adjustment, bringing your costs and expenses into balance.
• It will have the same date and posting period as the original summary posting.

9. Click Yes to create the correcting entry transaction. The program displays a message indicating the creation of an adjusting entry.

10. Click Yes to see the entry. Notice that the adjusting entry record has an Important Note attached.

11. Click the yellow Note icon to view the details. The note will state the original issue and provide the record number of the original posting. The original record will have a similar note referencing the correcting adjustment entry record.

12. To verify the results, re-run the 2-4-21 General Ledger report from Step 1.
 NOTE: If more payroll postings don't net to zero, repeat steps 2-10 until corrected and the account balance approaches 0.00.

13. If you see a variance in costs and expenses in the 2-3-61 Cost Comparison report, review it to confirm it's within limits.

Important: To correct payroll summaries in a fiscal year archive, copy the adjustment to the current company and post to period zero.