Once a payroll is approved and released, you download the list of who to pay and, where Sahora has set up your bank, the bank's own file. You also download the journal entry for your books. This guide covers both.
Before you start
- The payroll is approved (see Submitting and approving a payroll).
- Finance or the owner has released it: on the payroll page, click Release payroll and confirm. See Releasing a payroll. Until then the Payout card says "The downloadable list is available once the payroll is approved and released."
The Payout card
On the payroll page, the Payout card shows net pay by bank (each employee's primary account), the number of employees and the total, with the pay date as the credit date. It also lists:
- employees with no net pay, who are not in the list;
- pays held until the final pay, which are left out of the payout list and the bank files (see Holding a salary).
Download the disbursement list
- Open Payroll and click the period.
- In the Payout card, under Internal disbursement list (not a bank upload file), click Excel or CSV.
The list has each employee's full account number, for your bank upload or for cash or check release. It is your own list, not a file in a bank's format. Every download of full account numbers is recorded in the activity log.
Bank files
Below the list, each bank your employees use has a Generate … file button with the bank's name.
- The button works for banks whose file Sahora has set up and whose payroll enrollment details the owner has entered in Company setup → Bank payroll files → Open Banks.
- If Sahora hasn't set up that bank's file yet, the button is off and the screen says "Bank template not yet configured. Contact Sahora support."
- If the bank is set up but your enrollment isn't, the screen says what to add on the Banks page.
Downloading the disbursement list or a bank file marks the payroll as paid out. From then on it can't be unlocked, and a held pay can no longer be taken off hold. Corrections go through an adjustment run (see Adjustment runs and back pay).
The journal entry
The payroll page shows Journal entry links under the register:
- Click Excel or CSV.
- Paid plans Or click QuickBooks Online or Xero for a file ready to import into that software.
- Paid plans To split expenses by cost center, use the links under By cost center (expenses split, payables as one line).
The accounts come from Company setup → Accounting. See Accounting and the payroll journal.
For several payrolls at once, use Reports → Journal entry: it combines the approved payrolls paid within the dates you choose into one entry, and can split expenses by cost center, department or branch. See Payroll reports.
When Owner / Management, a payroll officer or Finance downloads the journal entry of an approved payroll, it is marked as exported and can no longer be unlocked. A journal entry downloaded before approval is marked DRAFT and doesn't count.
What can go wrong
- "The journal entry doesn't balance … so it can't be exported." Sahora won't give you a file while debits and credits differ. Check the payroll's lines and the account mapping in Company setup → Accounting, or contact support.
- "Bank files are available once the payroll is approved and released by Finance (or the owner)." Release the payroll first.
Good to know
- Adjustment runs have their own journal entry and payout files on the adjustment's page, once approved and released.
- Reports → Bank payout shows the same totals by bank with the last four digits of each account.