Payroll accounting

What the work produces

We reconcile payroll inputs, expense allocation, deductions, employer charges and settlement entries. The output includes an accounting bridge from the payroll register to bank and statutory balances.

The agreed handover can include a payroll journal, department or project allocation workings, salary-payment reconciliation and movement schedules for outstanding balances. It identifies the payroll version used and any exceptions awaiting HR or finance confirmation.

We keep the approved payroll, proposed accounting entry and actual payment evidence connected. A change to one of these records should trigger a check of the others rather than an unexplained adjustment to the ledger.

Inputs to organise

• Approved salary register
• joining and exit changes
• attendance or variable-pay inputs
• deductions
• reimbursements
• payment and statutory challan records.

Confirm the employing entity, payroll period and final approval before handing over the register. Identify off-cycle payments, arrears, reversals and exit settlements separately. Provide the account and cost-centre mapping together with the person authorised to resolve classification questions.

Limit employee-level records to the people who need them for the work. Use the agreed private transfer channel, and avoid adding identity or bank details to the public contact form. Retain enough reference information to reconcile payments without circulating unnecessary personal documents.

What good records help you see

An unpaid salary amount at month-end should remain visible as a liability. A bank payment in the next month must clear that balance rather than create a second expense.

1. Reconcile gross pay, employee deductions and net pay to the approved payroll register.
2. Map expenses and employer charges to the agreed accounts and allocation basis.
3. Compare payment records with net pay and identify rejected, delayed or duplicate payments.
4. Reconcile opening liabilities, current-period entries, payments and closing balances.
5. Record unresolved differences with the HR, payroll or finance owner who can explain them.

Example: one payment is rejected and retried later. Retain both payment statuses and link the successful retry to the original liability. The retry should not appear as a second salary expense merely because it arrives in a later bank statement.

Agree the boundaries

Payroll calculation, employment-law interpretation and statutory returns are not assumed merely because payroll accounting is included.

Confirm the covered entities, periods, systems, deliverables and fees before work starts.

State whether the assignment includes preparing journals only or also posting approved entries. Identify who calculates pay, approves changes, authorises payments and handles returns or remittances. Reconciliation can highlight a missing payment record, but it does not prove a statutory filing was completed.

Coordinate the result with monthly close. If the underlying payroll process is being established, the hiring journey outlines the input and approval handoffs to prepare before the first run.