How to post the monthly accrual of holidays and allowances
What is it for?
Holidays and allowances are earned throughout the year, but paid later. The expense belongs to the month in which the work is done. So, every month, an estimate is recorded: staff expense against account 2722 Creditors for accrued expenses.
The payslip does not change. When a payslip pays the allowance, that payslip's journal entry first uses what has been accrued, and only the rest goes to expense.
When to use it?
- Every month, after processing the payroll. Once a month, fiscaldoo prepares the draft for the month that has just ended by itself: it appears in the list as Draft, for example Acréscimo 2026-10, and does not go to the accounts until someone posts it. The person who posts it is the Payroll Administrator, with the amounts decided with the certified accountant.
- When something changed in a month already posted (a salary, a new hire): use Recalculate the month.
Do not use this screen to pay anything: payment is made in the payroll batch. A company that pays allowances in twelfths only accrues the part that is not paid in twelfths.
Where to find it?
- Payroll › Close and review › Accruals of holidays and allowances
- Payroll › Close and review › Control and inventory › Accrual balance by worker
Before you start
- Your profile is Payroll Administrator. To post and recalculate you do not need an accounting profile: without one, you just do not see the Journal Entry button.
- The Payroll Processor only calculates: they do not have the Post to the accounts button.
- The posting templates of the three accrual pay items exist. Whoever creates them has an accounting profile: without one, Debit account, Credit account and Payroll journal are read-only and the template cannot be saved. The choice of accounts is decided with the certified accountant. The journal must be the same in all three (see How to post the payroll to the accounts).
| Pay item (in Posting templates) | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| Accrual: holiday pay and holiday allowance | 632 | 2722 |
| Accrual: Christmas allowance | 632 | 2722 |
| Accrual: employer's contributions on the allowances | 635 | 2722 |
The fourth pay item, Accrual: work accident insurance on the allowances, only needs a template when the run has a value in that column. On the credit side, account 231 is refused: “The accrual … cannot be credited to account 231290 Remunerações em processamento. …”.
How to use it
- Open Payroll › Close and review › Accruals of holidays and allowances. Open the month's draft, if it is already there. If not, click New.
- Check Year and Month. The Entry date follows the month and the name is filled in automatically, for example Acréscimo 2026-10, with the date 31/10/2026.
- In Method, choose A twelfth, cut by the days at service in the month or A whole twelfth for every month with service. Leave With the employer's contributions ticked, if that is the company's criterion, and choose the Rounding.
- Click Calculate. One line per employee appears, with Base of the month, Holiday pay and allowance, Christmas allowance, Contributions, Insurance of work accidents and Total amount.
- Check the amounts and click Post to the accounts. The state changes to Posted and Recalculate the month and Reverse appear. Users with an accounting profile also see Journal Entry.
- If something changes in the month, click Recalculate the month and then Confirm. A new run opens in Draft. Click Calculate and Post to the accounts: only at that point is the previous run reversed.
Example. In October 2026, with 8 employees, the total accrued is 3,576.37 €. Employee A, with a base of 2,400.00 €, has:
- Holiday pay and allowance: 2,400.00 € × 2 ÷ 12 = 400.00 €.
- Christmas allowance: 2,400.00 € ÷ 12 = 200.00 €.
- Contributions: 23.75 % of 600.00 € = 142.50 €.
- Total amount: 742.50 €.
The journal entry, in the Payroll journal, dated 31/10/2026:
| Account | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| 632 Staff remuneration (holidays, holiday and Christmas allowance) | 2,890.00 € | |
| 635 Charges on remuneration | 686.37 € | |
| 2722 Creditors for accrued expenses | 3,576.37 € |
Expected result
- The run is Posted and the list shows it with the Total accrued and the In force amount. The list footer only adds up In force: a run in Draft counts as 0.00.
- After Recalculate the month, the old run becomes Replaced by a new run and has a reversal entry. For each month and company, only one run counts. Nothing is duplicated.
- In Accrual balance by worker, the balance of each component goes up. After October, the total equals the balance of account 2722: 3,576.37 €.
When the allowances are paid
There is nothing to do on this screen. The release happens automatically when the payslip that pays the allowance is posted (see How to pay the holiday and Christmas allowances).
Example. Only October was accrued. The batch Natal de dezembro de 2026, with 7 employees, has 10,083.01 € of allowance. On clicking Account, the journal entry debited:
| Account | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| 2722 Creditors for accrued expenses (Christmas 859.16 € and contributions 204.05 €) | 1,063.21 € | |
| 632 Staff remuneration (the allowance that was not accrued) | 9,223.85 € | |
| 635 Charges on remuneration (the rest of the contributions) | 2,190.68 € | |
| 2312 To staff (net pay) | 8,232.88 € | |
| 242 Income tax withheld | 741.00 € | |
| 245 Social Security contributions | 3,503.86 € |
The same entry also shows account 231290 Remunerações em processamento (payroll in process), with 10,083.01 € on the debit and the credit side, which cancel each other out.
The total balance went down from 3,576.37 € to 2,513.16 € (the difference is 1,063.21 €), and the Christmas allowance balance of the 7 employees became 0.00 €. Employee H, with a contract until 30/11/2026, is not in this batch and keeps the 104.17 €.
When an employee leaves, handling the balance is part of How to handle an employee's departure.
Important notes
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The month's draft. Once a month, fiscaldoo prepares by itself a draft for the month that has just ended, already calculated, for example Acréscimo 2026-10, with 8 employees and 3,576.37 €. It never posts it: the Payroll Administrator reviews it, with the amounts decided with the certified accountant, and clicks Post to the accounts.
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When the batch is already posted. The Account button disappears from the batch, because there are no payslips left to post.
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It is an estimate. The real amount is only known when it is paid. The accrual does not change the payslip or the month's Social Security.
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The balance must match account 2722. If it does not, a manual entry was made in that account: the balance by employee only sees what came from the accruals and the payslips.
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A reversal cannot be undone. Reverse creates the opposite entry and the run stops counting. A posted run is never changed or deleted. Once a payslip has used the accrual, Reverse refuses (see Common problems).
Common problems
“Posting blocked: 1 pay item(s) with a value have no posting template”
- Message: for now, on Post to the accounts, “Oops! Something went wrong... If you are stuck, send the report to technical support.” opens. The sentence that explains the case is in See technical details: “Posting blocked: 1 pay item(s) with a value have no posting template on 31/10/2026: Accrual: holiday pay and holiday allowance. What happened: the journal entry cannot be built without an account for each line. How to fix it: create a template for each one (Payroll › Configure › Pay item setup › Posting templates).”
- What to do: ask someone with an accounting profile to create the three templates in the table under “Before you start”, with a Valid from date earlier than the entry date, and click Post to the accounts again.
“The accrual cannot be calculated”
- Message: “The accrual of Acréscimo 2026-11 cannot be calculated. What happened: no accounting class: Novo Colaborador, Novo Colaborador 2. How to fix it: register the class of the worker (Payroll › Prepare › Workers and contracts › Worker files) and the Social Security scheme in the contract; nothing is assumed.”
- What to do: on the file of each employee listed, in the Work tab, fill in the Accounting class and the Social Security scheme and click Calculate again. An archived employee with a contract in force also counts: the message adds “(archived: open the “Archived” filter of the list of workers to find him)”.
“The run … has no workers”
- Message: “The run Acréscimo 2026-11 has no workers. What happened: nothing was calculated, or no worker has service and retribution in the month. How to fix it: press Calculate; if it stays empty there is nothing to accrue.”
- What to do: click Calculate. In a company with no employees (tested in a company with no contracts), the run stays empty, with a total of 0.00 €, and there is nothing to post.
“The balance … would be negative”
- Message: “The balance of “Christmas allowance” of Employee name would be negative (- 200.00 €). What happened: payslips already used more than what this run leaves accrued. How to fix it: keep the run, or post a new run with at least what was used.”
- What to do: keep the run. In the example, it appeared on Reverse, with the Christmas batch already posted. If the month's amounts changed, use Recalculate the month: in the example, it worked with the Christmas batch already posted.