Payroll

Solid Accounting doesn't run payroll. It doesn't calculate withholding, file 941s, deposit taxes, or print W-2s — those are heavily regulated and differ by state. You run payroll with a payroll provider, and Solid Accounting posts the results to your books.

Everything lives in the Payroll Center (Payroll → Payroll Center, or Payroll in the sidebar). It shows year-to-date gross pay, taxes and withholdings, net pay, and your recent pay runs. There are two ways to get payroll in today:

Live sync with payroll providers isn't available in release builds yet. Import your provider's export instead.

Account mappings

Before your first payroll, set up Payroll Account Mappings in the Payroll Center. Each payroll category maps to an account in your books:

• Expenses — gross wages and salaries, bonus and commission, PTO, employer Social Security and Medicare, FUTA, SUTA, employer health insurance, retirement match, workers' comp
• Liabilities — federal, state, and local income tax withheld; employee Social Security and Medicare; health insurance and retirement deductions; garnishments; other deductions

If the accounts don't exist yet, Solid Accounting can create a standard set for you (for example, 6200 Wages & Salaries, 2110 Federal Tax Payable). All three paths use these mappings, so every pay run posts the same way.

What a pay run posts

Bi-weekly payroll — period ending 04/26/2026

DR  Wages & Salaries                     45,200.00
DR  Employer Social Security / Medicare   3,457.80
DR  Federal / State Unemployment            220.50
DR  Health Insurance Expense              4,200.00
DR  Retirement Plan Expense               1,460.00

CR  Federal Tax Payable                   7,540.00
CR  State Tax Payable                     2,108.00
CR  Social Security / Medicare Payable    6,915.60
CR  Federal / State Unemployment Payable    220.50
CR  Health Insurance Payable              4,200.00
CR  Retirement Contributions Payable      3,560.00
CR  Garnishments Payable                    150.00
CR  Operating Checking (net pay)         29,844.20

Debits: wages, employer taxes, and employer-paid benefits. Credits: every amount you withheld or still owe, plus net pay out of the bank.

Ways to bring payroll in

Enter by hand. Choose New Payroll, enter the amounts from your provider's payroll register for each category, and post. Fine for owner-only or small monthly payrolls.

Import a CSV. Download the payroll journal or accounting export for the pay period from your provider, choose Import Payroll CSV, match its columns to the payroll categories, and post. One pay run becomes one journal entry.

Live sync (not available yet). Pulling pay runs straight from Gusto, OnPay, or ADP isn't in release builds. Until it is, import the export from your provider as above.

Paying payroll taxes

Withheld and employer taxes sit in the liability accounts until you pay them. When a deposit is due, pay it with Write Check (or record your provider's automatic debit) to the same liability account: DR Federal Tax Payable · CR Bank. After the deposit, the liability goes back to zero. Run the Balance Sheet to see what you still owe.

Common gotchas

Wages don't match the provider's register. Look for a missing pay period, a reimbursement posted to wages, or an off-cycle bonus run. Compare period by period.

Health insurance expense is doubled. The employee's share should credit Health Insurance Payable (a liability), not the expense account. Check your mappings.

A pay run is missing. Export only completed pay runs from your provider. Check the run's status there, then export and import it again.

A tax payable balance keeps growing. Deposits aren't being posted, or they're posting to a different account. Match them to the same liability account the pay runs use.

Related

• Vendors → 1099 setup — contractors are vendors, not employees
• Recurring transactions
• Banking