Writing paychecks
Printing paychecks
Recording recurring paychecks
Finding paychecks
Reviewing your payroll information
Changing, removing and reversing paychecks

In MYOB AccountEdge, paychecks are transactions that you use to pay your employees. Like ìregularî checks, paychecks can affect your companyís checking accounts, credit card accounts, petty cash accounts and other cash accounts. Many companies, however, use a special ìpayroll checkingî account from which they pay their employees.

Writing paychecks

Step 1: Be sure your payroll information is completely set up
Step 2: Identify where the money for the paycheck will be drawn from
Step 3: Enter the employeeís name
Step 4: Review the paycheck information that appears automatically
Step 5: Distribute vacation and sick pay (optional)
Step 6: Distribute other types of wages (optional)
Step 7: Choose what you want to do with the transaction

Setting up payroll information

Creating paychecks in AccountEdge is a quick and simple process -- if youíve taken the time to carefully set up your companyís payroll information. If you havenít done so already, be sure to review the following topics to learn how to completely set up your payroll:

Identifying where the money for the paycheck will be drawn from

The list in the upper left corner of the Write Paychecks window displays all the checking accounts youíve set up. Remember that check accounts can be used for any cash disbursement method. Credit cards, petty cash, money market accounts and other methods for making payments may be displayed in this list.

Only accounts youíve specifically designated as checking accounts or credit card accounts appear in the list. If you want a particular account to appear in this list, youíll need to create the account first. See Creating accounts for more information.

Entering the employeeís name

If youíve fully set up your payroll information, the process of writing a paycheck in AccountEdge is as simple as entering an employeeís name in the Write Paychecks window. When you enter an employeeís name, AccountEdge automatically calculates all the employeeís wages, accruals, deductions, employer expenses and payroll taxesócollectively.known as payroll categories in AccountEdgeóand displays the appropriate amounts in the Write Paychecks window.

Reviewing the paycheck

All payroll categories assigned to the employee you entered in the Payee field appear in the scrolling list in the lower section of the window. If the employee is paid on an hourly basis, enter the number of hours he or she worked for each of the wage categories assigned to him or her. The payroll categoriesí amounts are calculated automatically and displayed in the Amount column of the scrolling list.

Before you record the paycheck, itís very important to you and your employee that the information that appears in the scrolling list is correct. Be sure to take a few moments to review the line items in the scrolling list to ensure the proper amounts appear, and that the proper accounts are affected by the transaction.

Distributing vacation and sick pay

You can distribute vacation or sick pay accrual wages on an employeeís paycheck. To do this, you should have already created accruals for your employeeís sick or vacation time. See To create an accrual for more information.

Distributing other types of wages

. You can include other types of pay, such as sales commissions, bonuses or non-cash wages, on an employeeís paycheck. To perform this step, the wages you intend to pay should already exist in the AccountEdge system, and should be assigned to the employee. (For example, if you wish to pay a bonus to the employee, a wage called ìBonusî should already exist in the AccountEdge system and should be assigned to the employee.See To create a wage to learn how to create wages, and To enter payroll details (employees only) to learn how to assign wages to employees.)

Choosing what you want to do with the transaction

When youíre finished making entries in the Write Paychecks window, there are a number of tasks you can perform with the transaction. Be sure to review all the options before you choose what you want to do.

Printing paychecks

You can print and reprint individual paychecks, or you can print several paychecks at the same timeóthe choice is yours.

You can also customize the look of your printed paychecks. See Customizing forms for detailed information about customizing your printed forms.

After youíve recorded a paycheck, you can print it. You can also choose a specific set of paychecks to print. If you want to print some paychecks youíve already printed, be sure the Unprinted Checks Only selection is not marked in the Forms Selection window before you proceed with printing the checks.

If youíre unable to make entries or selections in your print window, your printer driver software may not be up to date. See Preparing your Windows computer for more information.

Before you begin printing

See Printing forms if you need information about:

  • Aligning forms in your printer
  • Previewing the look of your forms before you print them
  • Customizing the look of your forms

Recording recurring paychecks

If you plan to record the same paycheck on a regular basis, you may want to consider creating a recurring paycheck. When you create a recurring paycheck, the transaction information is saved in a separate ìholding area,î where you can retrieve the transaction as many times as you want in the future. Until you record them, recurring paychecks have no effect on your financial records. See To store the paycheck as a recurring paycheck for information about creating recurring paychecks.

You can record a recurring paycheck as many times and as often as you want.

Finding paychecks

After you record a paycheck, youíll probably want to view the transaction again sometime in the future. AccountEdge allows you to easily find paychecks and recurring paychecks.

Reviewing your payroll information

Keeping your payroll information up to date and accurate must be one of your businessís primary concerns, for the sake of both you and each of your employees. AccountEdge contains a number of tools which help you gain a quick picture of your payroll information.

  • The To Do List provides a quick way to review your transactions in AccountEdge, including recurring checks, recurring deposits and other General Journal transactions.
  • The Analyze Payroll window helps you understand the details of your payroll information. It can help you spot possible inaccuracies in the amounts youíre paying to and withholding from your employees. The Analyze Payroll window will help you perform this important task by providing various summaries of your employeeís payroll data.
  • In the Transaction Journal window, you can view a list of all your paychecks, as well as all other types of transactions youíve entered in the AccountEdge system. Depending upon your preference, you can either print lists of your payroll activity or display them on your computer screen.

Changing, removing and reversing paychecks

Occasionally, youíll find it necessary to make a change to a paycheck youíve already recorded. Unlike most other types of transactions in AccountEdge, once a paycheck is recorded, you canít directly change it. However, you can change a paycheck if you remove or reverse the entire paycheck and then write a new paycheck that contains the information you want.

There may be times when you simply want to remove a paycheck. When this is the case, you can quickly remove the effects of such a transaction from your records.When you remove a recurring paycheck, the paycheck is removed from your list of recurring paychecks only. Any transactions you recorded using a recurring paycheck you remove wonít be affected.

An important point to consider is if the paycheck is changeable or unchangeable. If the transaction is changeable, you can remove the check altogether from your ledger.

Unchangeable transactions work differently. By reversing an unchangeable paycheck, the effects of the original will no longer be part of your ledger; however, a record of the reversed check, called a reversing transaction, will remain. Then, if you want, you can enter a new, correct transaction to replace the one you reversed. See What are changeable and unchangeable transactions? for more information.

Paychecks Overview