Payroll Accounting
Reconciliation vs. Roll-forward
Does your staff reconcile your payroll and benefit liability accounts or do they merely do a roll-forward of the account activity?
If they aren’t tying year-to-date activity to your payroll reports and your plan administrator reports then they aren’t reconciling the account. A zero balance in your 401(K) liability account does not guarantee that your 401(K) plan has been funded properly. Failure to book to G/L and fund a special payroll run is only identified with a proper account reconciliation.
A roll-forward is a useless exercise. A reconciliation will verify the accuracy of your payroll bookings and catch payroll processing errors.
Payroll Cash Account
Is the balance in your general ledger payroll cash account equal to the outstanding checks on your bank statement?
Many companies have difficulty reconciling payroll cash. Often times an entry in the payroll system may be correct from payroll’s standpoint but it may cause an error in accounting. It takes a special skill set to accurately reconcile payroll cash. L Marie Consulting has that skill set: accounting knowledge, payroll knowledge and an understanding of the impact of payroll entries on accounting. This unique combination of skills allows L Marie Consulting to accurately reconcile payroll cash and to clearly communicate with your payroll staff, asking the right questions and instructing them on how to clear reconciling items.
Accounting Services
Account Reconciliation Clean-up
L Marie Consulting can bring your account reconciliations up-to-date, giving your staff a fresh starting point. We will instruct your staff on how to clear current reconciling items and document reconciliation procedures for your staff to follow in order to properly reconcile your payroll liability, benefit liability and payroll cash accounts going forward.
Payroll Journal Entry Balancing
Balancing the payroll journal entry to the payroll reports prior to posting to the G/L is a proactive step to ensure your financials are accurate. L Marie Consulting will develop an account level balancing method to validate that each payroll run’s activity has been properly booked to your general ledger. The cash balancing section will provide the detail necessary to reconcile your payroll cash account. We will train your staff on this new procedure.
Payroll Tax Return Reconciliation
Although your payroll provider may file your payroll taxes, it is still your company’s responsibility to ensure filings are done timely & accurately.
L Marie Consulting will develop a reconciliation process your staff can perform to verify that tax payments and tax returns are accurate.
