Posting a client's wages journal into their books
When a firm can post a client's approved pay run straight into the client's own Achekam books, why posting is refused otherwise, and what to do instead.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa
Payroll is finished when the employees are paid. The accounts are not. Somebody still has to get salaries, PAYE, UIF, SDL and the net pay into the client's general ledger, and in many bureaus that means printing a payroll summary, retyping it as a journal in the client's accounting package, and hoping the control accounts agree at month end.
Retyping is where the errors creep in: a deduction posted to the wrong liability, a month's journal entered twice, a correction run never carried across. The cleaner answer is to post the approved run straight into the books it belongs to.
Achekam can do that, but only in one situation. Knowing which situation, and what happens outside it, saves a bureau a frustrating first month-end.
Three possible destinations, one rule
When an approved pay run is posted, Achekam writes a wages journal. Where it goes depends on whose payroll it is and where that employer's books are kept:
| Payroll for | Where the books are | What posting does |
|---|---|---|
| The firm's own staff | The firm's books on Achekam | Writes the journal into the firm's own books |
| A client | The client's books on Achekam, with the firm appointed to them | Writes the journal into the client's books |
| A client | Anywhere else, or not linked | Refuses to post |
The rule behind the table is simple: Achekam writes into a client's books only when those books are on Achekam and the firm is appointed to them.
How the appointment link is made
The appointment starts with the client. A business on Achekam appoints its accounting firm by entering the firm's Achekam address or firm code. The firm then accepts or declines the invitation, and on accepting it links the business's books to one of its client records.
Once appointed, the firm works directly in the business's own ledger. No copy is made, so what the firm posts appears in the business's own accounting screens. The wages journal from an approved run therefore shows up in the client's books exactly where the client's own bookkeeper will see it, with no import step and no second version to reconcile.
For a bureau, that link is worth setting up before the first pay run for any client who keeps their books on Achekam, and worth checking again whenever a posting is refused for a client you expected to be linked.
The link can also end. Either the business or the firm can end an appointment, giving a reason that is kept on the record and shown to the other side. The firm then loses access to the books and the business keeps them. From that point, a pay run the firm still processes for that client can no longer be posted into its books, so a client who changes accountants but keeps the bureau for payroll moves into the next section.
Refused when the books are not linked
For a client whose books are not linked, posting is refused. That is deliberate: Achekam does not guess where a journal should go.
There is a gap here that a bureau should know about. No screen was found that exports the wages journal instead. For clients whose books live in another package, the bureau still prepares the journal itself, using the run's figures, and enters or imports it into that package.
If that applies to a large part of your book, plan for it. Build a standard journal layout per client, mapped to the client's own chart of accounts, and have a second person check it against the approved run before it is posted. The separation of duties that applies to the run itself, where the preparer cannot approve, is worth copying for the journal.
The bank payment file for the client
Posting the journal and paying the staff are separate steps. For an approved run, Achekam produces a bank payment file, either in FNB's CSV template or as a CSV in a column order the firm sets up for the client's bank. The file is imported into online banking by whoever holds that access. Achekam does not pay anyone.
A custom layout counts as untested until the firm records that the bank read a file correctly. Do that on a small, low-risk run before relying on it for a full payroll.
Bank accounts that have been changed but not yet verified by a second person are listed at approval and left off the bank file. If an employee is missing from the file, that is the first place to look.
A month-end routine for each client
- Approve the run, with a different person from the preparer.
- Check the list of unverified bank accounts shown at approval, and resolve each one.
- Produce the bank payment file and send it to whoever releases payments.
- Post the run. For linked clients, confirm the journal appears in the client's books.
- For clients not on Achekam, prepare the journal from the run, have it checked, and enter it in the client's package.
- Reconcile the PAYE, UIF and SDL control accounts in the client's ledger to the run.
- Treat any correction run's journal the same way, so the ledger never runs behind the payroll.
SARS's guide to completing the monthly employer declaration (EMP201) explains how the PAYE, SDL and UIF in those control accounts, together with ETI, are declared and paid each month.
Setting up each client as its own employer is covered in running clients' payroll as separate employers. Year-end preparation for tax certificates is in clearing missing employee details, and the cases the calculator leaves to you are in what the payroll calculator will not work out.
Go through your payroll clients this week and sort them into two lists: those whose books are linked to the firm on Achekam, and those that need a hand-prepared journal. The second list tells you how much retyping is still left.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
