Posting Payroll Journals

The Payroll module creates General Ledger journals at two points in the payroll process: when a pay is completed, and when a batch payment is made to employees.

Previewing Payroll Journals

While a pay is still in the OPEN state, no General Ledger journals have been created; however, it is possible to preview the journal entries that will be created:
  • To preview the journals that will be created for the entire pay, click the View Journal Entries option from the Action dropdown on the Pay Run Details (MP.PP.31.20) form.
  • To preview the journals that will be created for an individual employee, click the View Journal Entries toolbar button on the Employee's Current Pay (MP.PP.31.30) form.

Journals Created on Completing a Pay

When a pay is completed, the General Ledger journals for that pay are created. Journals are posted to the accounts specified by the General Ledger Purposes and Posting Classes linked to the pay items and liabilities in the pay.

Note: While pay expenses are debited from the GL account specified by the relevant GL purpose and posting class, pay liabilities (i.e. wage or salary amounts that have not yet been paid to employees) are credited to the Pay Clearing Account specified on the Payroll Preferences (MP.PP.11.00) form.

If your organisation has a single branch, one GL batch is created for the pay run. If your organisation has multiple branches, one batch will be created for each branch involved in the pay run, e.g. if employees from three branches are included in one pay run, three GL batches will be created.

In an integrated system, the journals can also be automatically released and posted, depending on your preference settings:

  • If the Auto Release Journal Entries option is ticked on the Payroll Preferences (MP.PP.11.00) form, payroll journals will be released as soon as they are created.
  • If the Automatically Post on Release option is ticked on the General Ledger Preferences (GL.10.20.00) from, payroll journals will be posted as soon as they are released.
Note: The recommended setup is for both of these options to be ticked. This setup provides the greatest security, as it provides no possibility of anyone altering the journals after they have been created.

Journals Created on Paying Employees

When employees are paid by processing the relevant batch payment(s) on the Batch Payments (MP.PP.34.00) form, new journals are created, debiting the Pay Clearing Account, and crediting the company cash account. As above, these journals can also be automatically released and posted, depending on your preference settings.

Viewing Created Journals

Journals appear on the Journal Transactions (GL.30.10.00) form in the General Ledger module (choose "PA" from the Module dropdown to view payroll journals). If the options to automatically release and/or post journals have not been enabled, journals must be released/posted manually from this form.

Posting Journals in Standalone Mode

When using MYOB Advanced Payroll in the standalone General Ledger mode, journals are exported to an external system, rather than being posted to the General Ledger module in MYOB Advanced Business.

When standalone mode is enabled, the Post GL Entries (MP.PP.50.10) form is available on the Processes tab of the Payroll module. After completing a pay run, journals must be exported manually using this form, then imported into the external ERP system.