Managing General Ledger Codes in BambooHR

How do I add General Ledger codes to my Journal Entry reports in BambooHR?

Purpose: This guide will walk Account Owners, Full Admins, Payroll Admins, and custom payroll users with access through the process of adding General Ledger codes to Journal Entry reports within the Journal Entry section of Settings. 


Journal Entry in Payroll Settings

The Journal Entry feature in Settings allows your company to save and store your unique General Ledger (GL) Codes directly in BambooHR which will then populate into your Journal Entry reports automatically. The ability to manage your codes independently will save you time with data entry, increase accuracy in payroll recording, and allow flexibility in storing multiple sets of GL codes...a lifesaver when it comes to company restructures or changing accounting software. Let's get started! 

Permissions

By default, the Account Owner, Full Admin(s), and Payroll Admin(s) can view and manage the Journal Entry section of Payroll Settings for the EINs they are assigned

Customers can allow custom payroll users access to the Journal Entry section by checking the box next to Payroll in the Settings section of Custom Access Level settings. Please note they must still also assign that user an EIN to manage the GL Codes.


Initial Setup 

Users with access can add and manage GL Codes by navigating to Settings > Payroll > Journal Entry

Upon initial setup, you will see the screen above. If you have multiple payroll EINs, select which EIN you would like to add codes for from the dropdown menu. A list of all available EINs will show, but you will only be able to select those to which you have access. If your company does not have multiple EINs, you will not see the dropdown menu option. 

Setup Your Journal Entry Report

The next step is to select which Journal Entry report they are using to create codes. The three report options in Settings will match exactly to the report download options on the Reports Tab: 

  • Summary (No Segmentation)
  • Segmented by Division
  • Segmented by Department

This ensures you know which report you are adding the GL Codes to and where they will show up after they are set up. 

Once the report is selected, you can click the blue Preview Report link to double-check that you are working with the correct data. Once in the preview, you can sort the data by category and division or department. The data shown will populate from the last two years and one month into the future to capture as many permutations from your payrolls as possible. You can then download the file to gather the necessary GL Codes more efficiently. You can also send this file to your accountant to fill out and return, or use Excel to do Vlookups, sort, copy/paste, etc.

The Preview Report option will not generate an actual Journal Entry report with populated debits/credits since a Pay Date or Date Range is not selected. It will only provide the customer with their specific payroll information and all the permutations/plausible rows that could require a GL Code.

Add General Ledger Codes

After you have selected the correct report, you can then begin assigning GL Codes to the report. The maximum number of GL Codes applicable to the report will display above the the Add General Ledger Codes button. When you are ready, click that button to land on the Add General Ledger Codes page.

In this section, you can view all potential combinations in the Journal Entry report, derived from pay types, deductions, and taxes used in your payroll account settings over the past two years and projected one month into future payrolls. This page allows you to input all necessary GL Codes at once, ensuring all required GL Codes are stored for future use. Consequently, all future Journal Entry reports can be generated with complete information from the get-go. 

From here, click into the General Ledger Code field to assign a code to each memo captured. The General Ledger Code field can accommodate up to 100 characters including numbers, letters (upper and lower), symbols, and special characters. Click Add General Ledger Codes to complete the setup or click Cancel to return to the Journal Entry settings page. 

It is not required that all General Ledger Codes be filled out, but if you click the Add General Ledger Codes button, a new modal will alert the customer that not all codes have been entered. You will have the option to save what you've entered by clicking Yes, Add General Ledger Codes, or you can click Cancel to return to the General Ledger Code page. Anything entered will not be saved if you click Cancel.

When should I set up GL codes?

We recommend setting up GL codes after running your first payroll, but before running a Journal Entry report. Regardless if you have or have not used the tax, deduction, or pay type in an actual payroll run, entering all the GL Codes at once makes it so the Journal Entry report will always populate with the needed GL Codes the first time the report is run. Let's say your company pays sales commissions out once a quarter. Instead of waiting for that pay type to be used in payroll, adding that sales commission pay type in advance will eliminate time wasted running the Journal Entry report for that payroll, seeing the GL Code is missing, going back to settings to add the GL Code, and then re-running the Journal Entry report. 


Managing GL Codes 

Once you have successfully added/saved your GL Codes to the first report, you will return to the Journal Entry page in Settings. Here you will now see the report they added the GL Codes to in a table. You can perform the following actions on this page: 

  1. Add GL Codes to another report: To add another report, click the gear dropdown and select Add Another Report Configuration. Repeat the steps outlined above to create the new report and codes. Once you are done, the new report will appear in this table.
  2. Download file: Hover over the report and click the download icon to download the GL Code file. This file will include all the plausible rows within the report and any GL Codes that were entered and saved. This is a great tool for you to double-check that each memo is filled out and entered correctly. 
  3. Edit: Click the pen icon to edit the GL Codes within the report. The Add General Ledger Code page will appear. The rows that don’t have a GL Code will populate in a sub-table called “Needs Attention” at the top to help you easily identify the new memos. Search and filter will also be available while editing.
  4. Delete: If you create a report by accident or simply want to clean up your journal entries, you can delete the report by clicking the trash icon. Once you delete a report it can't be recovered, so be sure of your actions.

If new pay types, deductions, taxes, etc., are added after the codes were assigned and the report was initially created, you will need to return to the correct report and add the respective GL Codes.  

5. Caution sign: If there are missing GL Codes within a report, there will be a caution icon next to the Ledger Codes count in the main table.

Once the GL Codes have been assigned, you can run your Journal Entry reports with Payroll Reports and the GL Code field will now populate.


Please keep in mind that this is separate from creating a custom General Ledger report and is specific to creating and mapping codes for the Journal Entry report in BambooHR. If you want to request a custom General Ledger report, click here