Because of its frequent revisions, Clients & Profits doesn’t handle payroll accounting directly. Instead, it works with a payroll program called CheckMark Payroll by CheckMark Software.

CheckMark is a stand-alone system that tracks employees, deductions, and other payroll issues apart from Clients & Profits. Information about your payroll, however, can be extracted from CheckMark Payroll on a monthly basis then imported into Clients & Profits.

Importing payroll eliminates entering payroll records twice, so it saves time. Your payroll costs are imported, verified, then saved as unposted journal entries. You can then proof these payroll entries just like other journal entries, make changes, then post them. Posting updates your payroll and cash balances on your financial statements.

Since Clients & Profits and CheckMark Payroll are not actually linked, you’ll need to make sure your G/L accounts are the same in both programs. Payroll entries exported from CheckMark get a G/L account number, which is verified when the data is imported. If the account number is wrong for any reason, the journal entry will be saved into Suspense -- and should be changed before it is posted.

For more information on CheckMark Payroll see their web site.

To export your payroll data from CheckMark Payroll

1 From the CheckMark Payroll program, Choose Reports > Check Information.

2 Select the correct month.

3 Highlight the payroll checks to be included in this journal entry.

4 Select Posting Summary.

5 Choose M.Y.O.B. from the text file format pop-up menu.

6 Click on the Text button to export the payroll summary data.

7 Name the text file something like 1/98 Payroll then click OK. This text file, containing your payroll entries, will be saved to your hard drive. Now it is ready to import to Clients & Profits X.

8 Quit CheckMark Payroll.

To import your payroll data into Clients & Profits X

1 Choose Accounting menu > General Ledger

2 Select the Import Payroll button



The Import Payroll window opens, prompting you to enter an accounting period.

3 Enter an accounting period.

The accounting period is used by the payroll entries to update your financial statements. Your current accounting period is entered automatically, but can be changed. Any unlocked period can be used.

4 Click Import.

You’ll be prompted to find the payroll text file. Any kind of text file will appear in the Import dialog box, so be careful to select the right text file.

You’ll then be prompted to open your payroll text file.

4 Select your payroll text file, then click OK.

Your payroll entries import one after another (you’ll see the record count as they’re imported).

If the text file isn’t tab-delimited, you’ll get an error message. Payroll text files must be tab-delimited.
Once imported, the G/L account number of the entries is verified. If an account on the payroll entry doesn’t exist, the entry will be posted to the Suspense account (#999998). You’ll see these entries on the proof list; they should be fixed before they are posted.

Be very careful not to import that same payroll text file more than once. If so, your payroll entries may be posted twice. For security, trash (or otherwise file away) your payroll text files once they’ve been successfully posted.

Any payroll entry that has the G/L account of #999998 had an invalid account, and should be fixed. Don’t post these entries until they’re correct.