Match Payroll to QuickBooks

The payroll register gives GrantLink the detail for each employee, and QuickBooks records the payroll expense in your books. When you match each imported payroll run to its QuickBooks expense lines, you show which accounting lines the employee-level report represents.

Payroll matching reads your synced QuickBooks data. It does not create or edit a journal entry or any other record in QuickBooks.

Ask GrantLink to match a run

1. Connect and sync the correct QuickBooks company.
2. Open Allocations > Payroll, choose Report, and choose the pay-date range.
3. If the report says the payroll runs need to be matched to QuickBooks, choose Resolve QuickBooks matching. GrantLink opens the assistant with a request to match the runs in that range.
4. The assistant finds each imported run in the range that is not matched. It then looks for the QuickBooks expense lines that record the earnings in that run.
5. Review the lines and any difference that the assistant reports. If a match is wrong, ask the assistant to change it or clear it.

The assistant must select individual QuickBooks expense lines. It does not use net pay, a bank withdrawal, or the total of a journal entry as payroll expense.

When a run counts as matched

A run counts as matched when its selected QuickBooks expense lines add up to exactly the total of the imported run. If the lines add up to less or more than the run total, the run is not matched, and the payroll report stays Working.

GrantLink rejects a line when:

• the transaction is missing or deleted in QuickBooks;
• GrantLink does not have the full line detail for the transaction;
• the line's currency differs from the payroll currency; or
• the line already supports another active payroll run.

If the amount of a matched line changes in QuickBooks after you match it, that line stops counting toward the run. The report then returns to Working until you match the run again.

Each new selection for a run replaces the previous selection. To remove a mistaken match, ask GrantLink to clear the selection for that run. If someone changed the selection after the assistant read it, GrantLink rejects the request and the assistant must review the current match. GrantLink keeps earlier selections in its records.

Employee-level payroll or a transaction split

Use employee-level payroll when you need named employee detail, Initiative evidence, a report by employee and grant, and a history of corrections.

Keep using a transaction split when your payroll or QuickBooks process already gives an adequate split by grant and you do not need employee detail.

Do not use both methods for the same expense line. GrantLink does not let you match a line to payroll if the line already has a grant allocation in GrantLink. It also does not let you allocate a line that is already matched to payroll. GrantLink applies both rules so that the same cost is not counted twice.

What matching does not do

Matching does not:

• change QuickBooks;
• post a payroll reclassification;
• change paychecks, cash, taxes, deductions, or liabilities;
• decide whether a cost is allowable under an award; or
• create an accounting line to cover a difference.

There is no screen for picking QuickBooks lines, and GrantLink does not create payroll journal entries. Use chat to match payroll runs. If the payroll accounting in QuickBooks is wrong, work with your bookkeeper, payroll provider, or accountant before you rely on the report.