Distribute Payroll Expenses

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Payroll expenses such as wages, employer taxes and benefits can be distributed to various profit centers, locations or projects. Expenses are distributed by percentage and are distributed at the time the pay runs are performed.

Step A: Create an Account Distribution

Step B: Assign Accounts to the Distribution

Step C: Test the Distribution (optional)

Step D - Setup Employees that use Account Distribution

Step A - Create an Account Distribution

Select Setup > Accounts > Distribution.
Enter an Abbreviation (optional), Name and Description to easily identify this account distribution.
The Active check box will automatically be selected, clear the check box if this distribution is no longer active. If the check box is cleared, accounts cannot be assigned on the Assign Accounts tab and if accounts are assigned when the distribution is inactivated, a message displays reminding you that the accounts will be removed when the distribution is saved.
Select the Distribution Detail tab. The distribution tab will be used to identify how the expenses should be distributed. A distribution can be dispersed to an unlimited number of profit centers, locations or projects.
Click New in the lower left corner.

Enter a Name for this portion of the distribution, such as Payroll Expenses.
Select the appropriate Type. Percentage will allow you to distribute based on a percentage of an amount.

Select the appropriate Timing option. Choose between:
- Later: This option should not be used for distributing Payroll expenses.
- At Transaction: At the time the transaction is entered, it will record the expense and it will automatically distribute it to the previously defined profit centers.
Note: If you are changing the timing for an existing distribution, an Are you sure you want to change the distribution timing? message will display to inform you that the timing selection affects the account activity included in Processes > Periodic > Apply Distributions and affects editing a general journal transaction that used this distribution. Click Yes to continue or No to cancel the change to the timing for the existing distribution.
Enter the Percentage of Total Amount for this portion of the distribution.

In the grid, select the appropriate Profit Center for this portion of the distribution.

Repeat steps 4-8 to identify each disbursement breakdown in the distribution. The Total Distribution field on the left will keep a running total of all details included in the distribution.
Click Save.

Step B - Assign Accounts to the Distribution

Select Setup > Accounts > Distributions. Highlight the appropriate Distribution and click Edit.
Select the Assign Accounts tab.
The Assign Accounts to Distributions area will list all accounts not already assigned to other distributions on the left side of the screen. Each account that should use this distribution should be moved to the right side of the screen by double-clicking on the account or using the green arrow buttons located between the account lists.

Once all appropriate accounts for this distribution have been selected, click Save. If you have additional distributions that need accounts assigned, you can also use the green left and right arrows to the left of the Close button to move to the next or previous distribution. The distribution name will be displayed directly below the tabs.
You can verify the distributions you have assigned to accounts by printing any of the Chart of Accounts reports found in Reports > Reports > Setup Lists > Accounts > Chart of Accounts, Chart of Accounts with Levels or Chart of Accounts by Distribution.

Step C - Test the Distribution (optional)

The Test Distribution step allows you to verify that a distribution has been setup correctly. The test does not actually distribute the amounts, it just displays an example of what would happen if transactions were entered for that amount.

Select Setup > Accounts > Distributions. Highlight the appropriate Distribution and click Edit.
Select the Distribution Detail tab and click on Test in the lower left side of the screen.

Enter an amount in the Distribute This Amount field and click Distribute.

The total dollars are allocated based on the distributions defined on the Distribution Detail tab.
Click Close.

Step D - Setup Employees that use Account Distribution

Select Setup > Employees.
Select an employee that uses account distribution.
Click Edit.
Select the Earnings tab.
On the left side of the screen, select the earning that uses account distribution.
On the right side of the screen, select the Use Account Distribution check box. If the check box is selected, you must specify a distribution.

Select the General Ledger Account, Percentage, and the Distribution that should be used for this employee.

Click Save.
Repeat this process for all employees that use account distribution.
Click Save.
The screen shot below is an example of how payroll account distribution would display on the General Ledger report.

Document: 3077