Argenta allows you to track payroll distributions and easily integrate them into the General Financials system. This article shows you how to enter a payroll distribution in Argenta and explains how it gets entered in your General Journal.
To get started, select Staff & HR > Payroll - from the Argenta main menu on the left side of the screen.
This will open your Payroll Distribution screen. From here, select the "Add New" button.
This will open the Add A New Payroll Distribution screen:
From here you need to enter this information:
- Payment Date - Enter a payment date, which should be the date you run payroll and give checks to your staff members. You can enter this manually or use the calendar selector. This is a required field.
- Period Start Date - Enter the pay period start date. This is the start date for your employee pay period. You can enter this manually or use the calendar selector. This is a required field.
- Period End Date - Enter the pay period end date. This is the end date for your employee pay period. You can enter this manually or use the calendar selector. This is a required field.
- Staff Member - Select the staff member you're paying, from the drop-down list. This is a required field.
Once these fields have been completed, click the "Create Distribution" button to create the payroll distribution and continue to the next screen where you will enter the details of the distribution.
This opens the Payroll Distribution Workspace:
Here is where you will enter the specific details of the payment, including taxes. You will also indicate whether you want to add the distribution to the General Financials system. If you want the transaction to be automatically recorded in all of the proper accounts, check the Add Payroll Distribution To The General Journal box:
- Fund - If you decide to add the transaction to your accounting system, you can choose a corresponding fund (if applicable). This is a required field.
- Bank Account Used for Payment - Next, select the checking or asset account you will use to make the payment. This is a required field.
You will notice the accounts from your Chart of Accounts are already selected for you. Argenta provides the appropriate payroll accounts for you. You can change the account numbers if you choose, but the account names cannot be changed. This is because a payroll transaction is very specific and Argenta does all the journal work automatically, so you don't have to. The following is the distribution of payroll as it is entered into your General Journal:
- Payroll Acct (Expense) - Payroll Expenses: Wages - The employees Gross Pay goes into this account and gets removed from the bank account chosen above. This is your total payroll expense.
- Payroll Tax Acct (Expense) - Payroll Expenses: Taxes - This is where you debit your employees portion of their taxes. Employees
pay 1/2 of their Medicare + Social Security Taxes. You deduct that from
their Net Pay and this is where it goes.
- Federal Tax Account (Liability) - Payroll Taxes Payable: Federal - This is where you credit the total amount of federal taxes you must pay
for this employee for this payroll distribution. It includes Federal
Income Taxes, Total Medicare Taxes, Total Social Security Taxes and
Federal Unemployment Taxes (FUTA).
- State Tax Acct (Liability) - Payroll Taxes Payable: State - This is where you credit the total amount of state taxes you must pay
for this employee for this payroll distribution. It includes State
Income Taxes, and State Unemployment Taxes (SUTA).
Next you will enter the details of your distribution and fill in these fields:
- Staff Member ID - This field is pre-filled with the staff member you selected from the previous screen. If you need to change the staff member you can click the Lookup
button to search for and select another staff member. This is a required field. - Payment Date - This field has been pre-filled with the date you entered on the previous screen as well. If you need to make changes you can do that here by manually typing in a new date or by using the calendar selector. This is a required field.
- Pay Period Start Date - This field has been pre-filled with the date you entered on the previous screen as well. If you need to make changes you can do that here by manually typing in a new date or by using the calendar selector. This is a required field.
- Pay Period End Date - This field has been pre-filled with the date you entered on the previous screen as well. If you need to make changes you can do that here by manually typing in a new date or by using the calendar selector. This is a required field.
- Regular Hours - You need to enter your staff members regular hours worked in this field. This is the numerical hours like 80.
- Overtime Hours - If your staff member worked any over time hours, the numerical hours go here. ie. 10.
- Regular Pay - Here is where you will enter your staff members pay. ie. if your staff member worked 80 hours and they get $20 and hour, you would put 1600 in this field.
- Overtime Pay - This is where you will enter your staff members overtime pay. ie. if your staff member worked 10 hours of overtime and they get $30 an hour for overtime, you would put 300 in this field.
- Commission Pay - If your staff member is paid by commissions, you would enter the commission amount here.
- Commission For Month - If your staff member is paid a monthly commission you would enter the month that you are paying your staff member the commission based on here.
- Federal Income Tax - Enter the amount of the federal income tax to be withheld from the staff members paycheck here.
- State Income Tax - Enter the amount of the state income tax to be withheld from the staff members paycheck here.
- Medicare Tax - Enter the amount of medicare tax to be withheld from the staff members paycheck here.
- Social Security Tax - Enter the amount of social security tax to be withheld from the staff members paycheck here.
- Employer Taxes Paid - Employers are responsible for paying 1/2 of the total of the employees social security and medicare taxes. The Employer Taxes Paid should contain that amount. If you add this payroll distribution to the general financials system the Employer Taxes Paid are combined with Employee Taxes Paid and all other federal taxes and credited to the Payroll Taxes Payable: Federal Liability Account.
- Employee Taxes Paid - Employees are responsible for paying 1/2 of the total of the employees social security and medicare taxes. The Employee Taxes Paid should contain that amount. If you add this payroll distribution to the general financials system the Employee Taxes Paid are combined with Employer Taxes Paid and all other federal taxes and credited to the Payroll Taxes Payable: Federal Liability Account.
- Fed Unemployment Tax (FUTA) - Enter the amount of federal unemployment tax to be withheld from the staff members paycheck here, if applicable.
- State Unemployment Tax (SUTA) - Enter the amount of state unemployment tax to be withheld from the staff members paycheck here, if applicable.
- Total Taxes To Be Paid - Enter the total taxes that are being paid here. Federal Income Tax + State Income Tax + Employer Taxes + Employee Taxes + FUTA + SUTA
- Total Other Deductions - If the staff member has any other deductions, those would go here. ie. extra withholdings.
- Gross Pay - Enter the staff members gross pay here. ie. Regular Pay + Overtime Pay + Commission Pay
- Net Pay - If you use the General Journal, entering the Net Pay is very important!
This is the amount deducted from your bank account. It should reflect
the amount of the check that was cut or the payment that was made to the
staff member. This figure should be your Gross Pay - Total Taxes To Be Paid - Total Other Deductions
- Payment Method - Select your payment method from the drop-down list here. This is how your paid your staff member. ie. Check, Bank Deposit, etc. This is a required field.
- Check/Ref. Number - If you have a check number or reference number for the payroll distribution you can enter that here.
- Related Files - Like all other modules and sections in Argenta, you can also add an
unlimited number of related files to this payroll distribution. Make sure to save your
changes first before adding related files. If you would like to add
any related files to this distribution you can do so here. This could be a copy of
the payroll check or their time sheet. Simply click the "Browse" button to search
for and select a file from your computer or drag and drop the file into the
"Drag & Drop File Box".
- Notes - If you would like to add any notes to the payroll distribution you do so in the Notes section. To add a note, click the "Add
Note" button. This will open the "Add A New Note" screen
where you can type a note. Click the "Save & Add This Note"
button to save the note and be returned to your payroll distribution workspace.
Once everything has been filled out, you will click the "Save All Changes & Exit" button to add the payroll distribution and be returned to your full list of payroll distributions.