Purpose

This article provides a step-by-step guide for expensing payroll for QuickBooks Desktop from Aspire.

Check Before Expensing Payroll

If you are reading this article, you should have already:

📑 Read Payroll Setup for QuickBooks Desktop here.
📑 Read Syncing Aspire to QuickBooks Desktop here.
📑 Read Exporting Payroll Hours from Aspire to QuickBooks Desktop here.
📑 Read Payroll Reconciliation with QuickBooks Desktop here.

Expensing Payroll from Accrued Payroll Holding to the Profit & Loss Statement

Payroll hours exported to QuickBooks Desktop each pay period are used to create payroll checks in QuickBooks. The gross payroll for these employees accumulates in the Accrued Payroll Holding Liability Account in QuickBooks.

Be sure to complete the QuickBooks payroll reconciliation before performing this process.

📑 Article Reference: The article, Payroll Reconciliation with QuickBooks Desktop can be found here.

To move the gross payroll from the Accrued Payroll Holding account in QuickBooks to the Profit and Loss Statement Labor Expense Account by Division, you will need to perform the following steps in QuickBooks:

Go to the Balance Sheet.
Click into Accrued Payroll Holding.
Specify date From the payroll check date To the same payroll check date (a and b).
In QuickBooks, gross payroll will show in the Accrued Payroll Holding account.
- This will be by paycheck date, not the actual pay period.

In Total By Field, choose Class (c).
To change the name to the Employee name,
- Go to Customize Report.
- At columns, unclick Name and click Source Name.
- Click OK.
Use this report to create a Payroll Journal Entry.
Date the journal entry by the check date.
Debit the gross dollars from the Transactions by Account list.
- Labor-Indirect (d)
- Direct Labor-Snow (e)
- Direct Labor-Maintenance (f)
- Direct Labor-Enhancements (g)

Credit the Accrued Payroll Holding Account.
After the journal entry is completed, the Balance Sheet Accrued Payroll Holding account should be -0-.

Obtaining Additional Details for Indirect and Overhead Labor

To enter more detail on your Profit and Loss Statement for overhead labor expenses instead of coding all overhead or indirect gross payroll to one overhead or indirect expense account, you will need to create an Hours Pivot Report to properly summarize this information.

Create an Hours Pivot Report and add the following fields:

Report Name	Purchases Pivot Report for Employees’ Gross Indirect Pay
Location in Aspire	Reports ➡️ Standard Reports➡️ Hours Pivot Report
Filter Fields	Work Date Year (filter to year), Work Date Month (Filter to month), Work Date (filter to days), Pay Schedule
Data Display Fields	Base Cost, OT Premium, Total Labor Cost no Burden
Row Display Fields	Division (Filter to Overhead or Indirect Division), Service Name, Employee (Last, First)
Column Display Fields	None

Choose the correct year at the Work Date Year filter.
Choose the correct month at the Work Date Month filter.
Choose the correct work dates at the Work Date filter.
Choose Overhead (or Indirect) at the Division filter.
If there are any employees or pay schedules excluded on the export, uncheck that employee at Employee filter or at Pay Schedule filter.
Click the arrow to the left of Overhead to expand the Overhead detail
Make sure the Total Labor Cost amount matches the Overhead dollar amount from QuickBooks Desktop.
From the pivot report, click Export to Excel.
Use your exported file to create more detailed journal entries in QuickBooks Desktop.

Entering OT Premium as an Indirect Labor Expense

If you are not expensing overtime premium to Cost of Goods Sold Labor, you will need to create a journal entry to back out the overtime premium dollars from your Cost of Goods Sold Labor and post it to the Overhead Expense Account where you want to code the overtime premium.