How to resolve the "Gross Pay Account" list error received when calculating payroll
When clicking the Calculate Payroll button on step 4, Calculate, you get an error page similar to the image below:
This error is caused for one of three reasons:
Distributions incomplete: Gross Pay Acct Distributions have not been fully filled out
Gross Pay Account Incorrect: An incorrect Gross Pay Account was added to an Employee's Time Card
Gross Pay Account left Blank: Noted by the [Blank Account] field on the report.
Check to ensure each Gross Pay Account Distribution has been populated
The first thing you will do is write down each unique Gross Pay Account listed on the error report. Even though there may be many lines of errors, there may only be a few Gross Pay Accounts. Write them down.
Next, go to Payroll, Setup, Account Distributions (5th item down under Basic Setup). At the top/right, in the Quick Find window, enter the first Gross Pay Account Shortcut you have on your list, select it, and click the Find Account button.
This will display every single possible Deduction or Benefit. Even though the deduction or benefit is not being used for this particular Gross Pay Account, a Liability Account and (at the bottom right) an Expense Account must be filled in for every single Deduction or Benefit. Any of these fields left empty will cause an error when that Gross Pay Account is used in Payroll.
After submitting your updates, go to the next Gross Pay Account on your list until you have update each Gross Pay Acct which generated an error.
Calculate Payroll
Once you have completed this task, you may complete the payroll calculation step by going back into Payroll, Payroll Process, Click on the uncompleted Payroll, Click #4 Calculate.
Note: Any time you add additional benefits or deductions, you must go into each Gross Pay Acct and add the corresponding account number(s).
Verify the Gross Pay account is the correct account
You can see the Accounts which are generating the error right in the error message. You must find the Employee with the wrong Gross Pay Account and edit their record to change the account to the correct Gross Pay Account. If you have too many employees to look at one by one, you can run the Employee Record Report (Payroll => Reports => Employee => Employee Record) choosing the View PDF option. Use the Ctrl-F function to Find the errant account.
To Fix the record:
- Go to the Employee's Pay Data Tab, click into the Account field.
- You will see an X to the right of the incorrect account:
- Click the X to remove this account
- Use the drop-down to add the correct Gross Pay Account
- If that was the only issue, you may calculate Payroll again.
Verify the Gross Pay account for each pay item is not blank on the Employee Time Card
When the error report lists a Blank Account for the Gross Pay Account, this most likely means an employee time card has a missing Gross pay Account for a Pay Item.
Missing account / Employee Time Card
To quickly find out which employee has the missing Gross Pay Account, run the Employee Record report as a PDF for all employees and scan through the report for the missing Gross Pay Account. As shown below, there must be a Gross Pay Account for every Pay Item.
Once you find which Employee Time Cards have missing Gross Pay Accounts, simply edit the Employee Time Card and add the Gross Pay Account. Then, calculate Payroll again.
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