Issue worker payments

This article explains how to submit pay statements, generate checks or electronic payments, generate a positive pay file for payroll, and post the payment journal.

You can pay workers by check or by electronic payment. When you submit pay statements, an invoice is created and posted to the general ledger for the sum of the worker's net pay for the payroll vendor that is set up on the Payroll parameters page. A payment journal that has lines is created, so that you can generate and post payments. When you submit payments, you can optionally post the payroll costs that are associated with workers to the general journal.

Prerequisites

The following table shows the prerequisites that must be in place before you start.

Category	Prerequisite
Country/region	(USA) The primary address for the legal entity must be in the United States.
Related configuration tasks	You must complete these tasks before you can post payroll and generate vendor invoices: Set the Payroll clearing account field on the Calculation settings tab on the Payroll parameters page. Set the Check method of payment, Vendor account for worker payments, Payment journal name, and Procurement category fields on the Payment issuance tab on the Payroll parameters page. Before you can generate a positive pay file for payroll, you must set up positive pay. If you generate electronic payments, make sure that the Electronic method of payment field is set on the on the Payment issuance tab on the Payroll parameters page. Additionally, make sure that you've entered the bank account disbursements for each worker.

For more information, see Set up and generate positive pay files.

Submit pay statements for multiple workers in a pay period

Use this procedure to create a payment journal for multiple pay statements at the same time. Before you generate pay statements, you must generate and release earnings. For more information, see Generate earnings for workers.

To submit pay statements for multiple workers at the same time, follow these steps.

1. Generate pay statements, so that earnings, benefits, and taxes are calculated. For more information, see Generate and work with pay statements.

   Tip

   Before you generate pay statements, we recommend that you view the Pay statements to recalculate list page to verify that no pay statements must be recalculated. For more information, see "Modify pay statements" in Generate and work with pay statements.

2. On the Submit pay statements page, in the Pay cycle field, select the same pay cycle that you selected when you generated and released earnings.

3. In the Pay period field, select the same pay period that you selected when you generated and released earnings. The list includes only the pay periods that are available for the pay cycle. The default pay period is the first open pay period, but you can select any open pay period in the list.

4. Click OK to submit the pay statements. A vendor invoice for the sum of the net pay for all pay statements is created and posted. A payment journal that has lines is also created and posted, so that you can generate and post payments.

5. When you receive a message that states that the payment journal was successfully generated, and that a voucher and invoice details were created, close the message. The Submitted pay statements page shows a list of submitted statements. An icon in the first column of the Pay statement grid indicates that the payment was submitted.

6. View the payment journal, and then generate checks and electronic payments by using the Payment journal page.

Submit individual pay statements

To create a payment journal for an individual pay statement, follow these steps.

1. Generate pay statements, so that earnings, benefits, and taxes are calculated. For more information, see Generate and work with pay statements.
2. On the Calculated pay statements page, select the worker pay statement to create the payment journal for, and then click Submit for payment. The Submit for payment button is also available on the Pay statement page.
3. Optional: Select the Post the selected pay statement check box to post the pay statement. You can post the pay statements as a separate step at any time by using the Post pay statements page.
4. Click Submit to submit the pay statements. A vendor invoice for the net pay of the pay statement is created and posted. A payment journal that has lines is also created, so that you can generate and post the payment.
5. When you receive a message that states that the payment journal was successfully generated, and that a voucher and invoice details were created, close the message. On the Submitted pay statements page, an icon in the first column of the Pay statement grid indicates that the payment was submitted.
6. View the payment journal, and then generate checks and electronic payments by using the Payment journal page.

Continue with the next section, "Generate checks or electronic payments for a payment journal."

Generate checks or electronic payments for a payment journal

To generate checks and electronic payments for workers, follow these steps after you submit the pay statements and generate the payment journal.

Important

If you didn't finish the bank account disbursements before the pay statements were generated, the workers will be paid by check.

1. On the Payment journal page, select the payment journal, and then, on the Action Pane, click Lines to open the Journal voucher page.

2. Verify that the number of vouchers is correct. There is one journal voucher line for each check pay statement, and one or more journal voucher lines for each electronic pay statement.

3. On the Functions menu, click Generate payments.

   Note

   You must generate electronic payments and check payments separately. Therefore, if you're generating both electronic payments and check payments, you must complete this step two times.

4. On the Generate payments page, select the method of payment and the bank account.

5. Click OK to generate the payment for the records that match the method of payment and the bank account.

   • If you selected the check method of payment, the Payroll check payment page opens. In the From field, verify the starting check number, verify the printing destination, and then click OK to print the checks.
   • If you selected the electronic method of payment, the Payroll electronic (Direct deposit) page opens. Enter the path where the ACH file should be created. (The path that you enter must include the file name.) Enter an effective date and the printing destination, and optionally select the Pay statement check box to print the pay statements. Click OK to create the ACH file.

   Tip

   You can print pay statements later, from the Reports menu.

   The payment status is set to Sent for every payment that was generated.

Generate a positive pay file for payroll

You can generate an electronic list of payroll checks that is provided to the bank. When a payroll check is presented to the bank, the bank compares it to the list. If the check matches a check in the list, the bank clears the check. Otherwise, the bank holds the check for review.

To generate a positive pay file for payroll, follow these steps.

1. On the Payroll positive pay page, in the Cut-off date field, enter the last check date to include in the positive pay file. All checks that haven't been included in a positive pay file through this check date are included in the file.
2. Click OK.

Confirm a positive pay file for payroll

After the checks that are listed in a payroll positive pay file are paid, you receive a confirmation number from the bank. You can then confirm the positive pay file in your organization's data. When you confirm a positive pay file, you record the confirmation number that you received from the bank.

To confirm a positive pay file, follow these steps.

1. On the Payroll positive pay file summary page, select a payroll positive pay file that has a status of Created.
2. Click Confirmation.
3. Enter the confirmation number that you received from the bank, and then click OK.

If required: Recall a positive pay file

If you must change a payroll positive pay file, you can recall it. When you recall a positive pay file, the field that indicates whether each check has been included in a positive pay file is reset. You can then create a new positive pay file.

To recall a positive pay file, follow these steps.

1. On the Payroll positive pay file summary page, select a payroll positive pay file that has a status of Created.
2. Click Recall. You receive a message that states that the recall process was successful.

Post a payment journal

You can post a payment journal after you generate checks and electronic payments as described earlier in this article.

To post a payment journal, follow these steps.

1. On the Payment journal page, select the payment journal, and then, on the Action Pane, click Lines to open the Journal voucher page.
2. On the Post menu, click Post. The payment journal lines are settled to the vendor invoice that was created and posted. You receive a message that indicates the number of vouchers that were posted.