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August 21, 2025
Question

when i pay wages my in quickbooks balance doesnt change

  • August 21, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 2 views

When i process pay run in quickbooks.. my balance in quickbooks doesnt change? the following day when i update transactions and categorise them i see the wage bill but i dont want to enter it because it will record that i paid wages twice?

1 reply

JenoP
QuickBooks Team
August 22, 2025

Your bank balance will not be automatically affected after a pay run is finalized, Sales320.

 

Instead, the wages will be temporarily posted under the payroll clearing or a default account. This is one of the special accounts created when activating payroll in QuickBooks.

 

Payroll transactions must be categorized in the online banking before the bank balance is updated. This also ensures that wages or transactions are not duplicated in your records. Here's how:

 

  1. Go back to the Bank transactions tab.
  2. Choose the bank account you use for paying employees, then find and select the transaction.
  3. Click the dropdown list for Transaction type, then select Expense.
  4. From the Category dropdown, select the payroll account, for example, Payroll Clearing.
  5. You can also select the name of the employee in the Supplier/Customer/project field.
  6. Proceed to the GST dropdown, then select an appropriate tax code.
  7. Click Add or Confirm.

 

 

After that, this will create a transaction to debit the bank account and credit the Payroll Clearing account. Follow the same steps for the rest of the paychecks.

 

Then, check that the Payroll Clearing account has a balance of zero. Here's how:

 

  1. Go to Settings ⚙ and select Chart of accounts.
  2. Look for the clearing or default account and select Account history.

 

 

Here's an article about this process for more details: Matching payroll payments in QuickBooks Online.

 

You can always ask for help in the Community if you need anything else.