Accounting › Payroll

Payroll, recorded and reconciled — inside your books.

Recording, inside monthly bookkeeping: $550–$1,800/mo

Every payroll recorded in your general ledger and reconciled each month, so wages, taxes and liabilities tie out. Recording is included in monthly bookkeeping; running payroll and payroll-tax filings are a scoped add-on, quoted in writing.

Not a PEO — your business stays the employer. We're not a CPA firm; tax strategy stays with yours.

Tied to your books

Reviewed before delivery: reports go out only after the accounts behind them agree with their statements and every open question is listed for you. What the review checks.

Quick answer

Payroll touches the books three ways: the payroll itself, the tax deposits and returns, and the ledger entries. We post the entries as part of the monthly close; operating payroll and its tax filings for you is an add-on, quoted in writing. If payroll lands as one lump sum, wages, taxes and liabilities stop reconciling, and the balance sheet drifts.

Recording payroll is included in monthly bookkeeping. Running payroll and payroll-tax filings are scoped as an add-on, in writing. What the monthly fee covers.

Scope, and where it stops

Payroll recorded cleanly, reconciled honestly.

Recorded and reconciled · included

Every payroll posts to the right accounts — wages, employer taxes, withholdings, deductions — and the liabilities reconcile to the provider's reports and the tax payments, so the monthly close ties and the balance sheet stays clean.

Running payroll and tax filings · scoped add-on

Employee setup, each payroll on schedule in QuickBooks Payroll, and the payroll-tax payments and forms it generates — available as an add-on, quoted in writing.

Where it stops

We're not a PEO and not a CPA firm — no employer-of-record role, no tax advice or planning. Those stay with you and your CPA; we keep the mechanics clean and the numbers tied out.

Who does what

Processing, recording and filing: who owns each payroll job.

Payroll is three jobs that are easy to blur into one. Recording payroll is included in monthly bookkeeping; running payroll and the payroll-tax filings are scoped as an add-on, in writing.

Payroll responsibility matrix: you, the payroll provider, Everholt & Co. and your CPA
The job	You, the employer	Payroll provider	Everholt & Co.	Your CPA
Who is hired, what they're paid, employee or contractor	Decides.	—	Flags a classification that looks wrong.	Advises where it's a gray area.
Processing each pay run	Approves hours and pay.	Calculates gross pay, withholding and net pay.	Add-on, scoped in writing: enters and submits each run in QuickBooks Payroll.	—
Payroll-tax deposits and returns	Stays the employer responsible for them.	Generates the deposits and forms.	Add-on, scoped in writing: keeps them on schedule.	Handles tax questions and notices.
Recording payroll in the books	—	Supplies the payroll register.	Included: wages, employer taxes and withholdings posted from the register.	Works from it at year-end.
Reconciling payroll liabilities each month	Answers questions on differences.	Supplies the deposit history.	Included: liabilities cleared against deposits.	—
Which states to register in	Decides, on the CPA's advice.	—	Sets the books up for that footprint.	Determines it.

A five-step process for recording one payroll: the provider's register arrives, it is posted as one balanced entry with wages and employer taxes as expense and each withholding as a liability, net pay is matched to the bank, each tax deposit clears its liability back to zero, and at the monthly close any liability that has not cleared after its deposit date is investigated. — A lump-sum entry for net pay alone would leave the liabilities and the employer taxes out of the books, which is why the register is posted in full.

From pay run to cleared liability: how one payroll is recorded
Step	What happens
1. The register arrives	The provider's register for the run: gross pay, withholdings, employer taxes, deductions and net pay.
2. One balanced entry	Wages and employer taxes posted as expense; each withholding and tax posted to its own liability.
3. Net pay matched	The net pay line matched to the money that left the bank.
4. Deposits clear liabilities	Each tax deposit and deduction payment brings its liability back to $0.00.
5. Checked at the close	Any payroll liability not back to zero after its deposit date is investigated.

Worked example · one pay run

One pay run, posted so the liabilities can clear.

The recording job in practice: the provider's register becomes one balanced entry, and every liability it creates is cleared when the matching deposit leaves the bank.

Illustrative example — not client data. Assumptions stated.

Illustrative journal entry for one pay run: accounts, debits and credits
Account	Debit	Credit	From the register
Wages expense	$14,200.00		Gross pay for the run
Payroll tax expense	$1,299.30		Employer Social Security and Medicare $1,086.30; state unemployment $213.00
Cash, operating account		$11,125.70	Net pay, matched to the bank
Federal payroll taxes payable		$3,560.60	Income tax withheld $1,388.00, plus employee and employer Social Security and Medicare
State unemployment payable		$213.00	Employer's share
Health-insurance deductions payable		$600.00	Employee contributions withheld
Totals	$15,499.30	$15,499.30	Balanced

When the provider's federal deposit of $3,560.60 leaves the bank, it clears the federal liability to $0.00. At the monthly close, any payroll liability that isn't back to zero after its deposit date is investigated. A lump-sum entry for the net pay alone would leave $4,373.60 of liabilities and $1,299.30 of employer taxes out of the books entirely.

Assumptions:

One pay run for a small staff paid through a payroll provider; the amounts are invented.
The unemployment rate behind the state line is made up; real rates are set per employer.
Health-insurance premiums are paid to the insurer separately, which clears the deductions payable.
Which taxes apply to your payroll is for your provider and CPA; this shows only how they're recorded.

Pairs with

Where payroll fits.

Monthly bookkeeping

Payroll ties to the books best when we keep the books — the reconciled monthly close.

Monthly bookkeeping

Sales-tax support

Sales tax tracked and reconciled; filed where we are the named filer by written agreement.

Sales-tax support

Outsourced accounting

Payroll recorded and reconciled as part of the whole finance function.

Outsourced accounting

Payroll FAQ

What owners ask about payroll support.

What does your payroll support include?

Recording payroll is included in monthly bookkeeping: every payroll posted to the general ledger — wages, employer taxes, withholdings and deductions — and the payroll liabilities reconciled each month to the payroll provider's reports and the tax payments, so your close ties out. Running payroll (setting up employees, processing each payroll on schedule) and the payroll-tax filings are a scoped add-on, quoted in writing.

Are you a PEO, or do you handle payroll taxes yourselves?

We're not a PEO and we don't become the employer of record — your business stays the employer. Where we take on running payroll and its tax filings, that is a scoped add-on, done inside QuickBooks Payroll, which calculates and files the payroll taxes and forms. We're not a CPA firm and don't give tax advice: we keep the payroll records clean and tied to your books, and coordinate with your CPA on anything that touches tax strategy.

Payroll never matches the books — can you fix that?

Yes — and it's a fixable mess. When payroll lives in one system and lands in QuickBooks as a lump sum — or not at all — wages, taxes, and liabilities stop reconciling and the balance sheet fills with unexplained payroll balances. We set payroll up to post correctly, clean up the historical mismatch as part of a cleanup if needed, and keep it reconciled every month going forward.

Can payroll be an add-on without the monthly bookkeeping?

Recording payroll comes with monthly bookkeeping, because the point is that payroll ties to the books — hard to promise if someone else keeps them. Running payroll is a scoped add-on to a monthly or outsourced-accounting engagement rather than a standalone service. The free review tells you plainly whether a payroll-only arrangement makes sense for you.

Can you handle both W-2 employees and 1099 contractors?

Yes, and keeping the line between them clean is part of the value. Employees are paid through payroll with taxes withheld; contractors are paid and tracked for year-end 1099s, with no withholding. Where it gets expensive is misclassification — treating someone as a contractor who's really an employee is a costly mistake with the IRS and the state, and it's one we'll flag when the way someone actually works points that way. The classification decision itself can carry tax and legal weight, so a genuine gray area is one we'd have you confirm with your CPA or attorney rather than guess.

What about employees in more than one state, or remote workers?

Multi-state payroll adds real complexity — each state has its own registration, withholding, and unemployment rules, and a remote employee can create an obligation in a state where you've never registered. QuickBooks Payroll can handle multi-state once it's set up correctly, and we keep it reconciled; operating it for you is part of the scoped add-on. The strategic side — where you have nexus, which states you must register in — is a tax determination, so we coordinate with your CPA on the footprint.

How do you handle new hires, terminations, and changes mid-period?

Those are routine. You tell us about a hire, a departure, a raise or a new deduction, and we make sure it lands correctly in the books: a new hire changes your payroll expense and liabilities, a termination has final-pay implications, and if those don't reconcile, the balance sheet drifts. Where running payroll is part of your add-on, the same change goes into the next payroll too, so it is handled once and right in both places.

Part of the accounting offer.

Numbers that hold up

Get payroll that ties to your books.

We look at how payroll reaches your books today and scope a fixed monthly fee that keeps it recorded and reconciled; running payroll, if you want it, is quoted as an add-on. The first look costs nothing.

Free books review Request a call

Reviewed before delivery Reconciled to your books Fixed fee, in writing