How to post payroll to accounting

What is it for?

After validating the month's batch, payroll must go into the accounts: the staff expense, the Personal Income Tax (IRS) withheld and the contributions to be paid to the State, and the net amount payable to employees. fiscaldoo makes that journal entry by itself from the payslips, in the payroll journal, provided every pay item with an amount has a posting template: the rule that says which account gets the debit and which gets the credit.

Templates are set up once and serve every month. Each month's journal entry is made from the batch, with Account, and is mandatory before the transfer file: paying the salaries settles that entry.

When to use it?

• Before the first payroll run, to create the templates for all the pay items the company uses.
• When a new pay item appears on the payslip (an allowance, a bonus) and the validated batch warns “Accounting account of every rule with an amount (Blocks the close)”.
• Every month, right after processing and validating payroll and before paying the salaries.

Where to find it?

• Templates: Payroll › Configure › Pay item setup › Posting templates.
• Form of the journal entry: Payroll › Configure › Company › Payroll settings › company line › Accounting section › Post the salaries.
• Month's journal entry: Payroll › Process › Process the month › open the validated batch › Account.

Before you start

• Your profile is Payroll Administrator: only this profile sees the Configure menu and the Account button. The Payroll Processor does not see them.
• Choose the company in the selector in the top-right corner: in the demo, the Payroll Administrator opens in Empresa Teste Portugal, where the Posting templates list is empty and there is no payroll batch. Choose Empresa Demonstração, Lda.
• To choose the accounts and journal of a template, the same user also needs the Accountant profile. A Payroll Administrator without that profile sees those fields as read-only. In the demo, the administrator has both profiles.
• The accounts of each pay item have been decided with the certified accountant. fiscaldoo does not choose accounts on its own.
• The month's batch is Validated.

How to use it

1. Open Payroll › Configure › Company › Payroll settings, open the company's line and check, in the Accounting section, the Post the salaries field: Added up by batch (the value for new companies: one line per account and per batch, without employee names) or By worker (each employee's net pay, IRS and contributions on their own third-party account). The same section holds the Social Security (partner) and Tax authority (partner) used by the journal entry.
2. Open Payroll › Configure › Pay item setup › Posting templates. In Empresa Demonstração, Lda, the list shows one template per pay item, with Employee class, Debit account, Credit account, Partner, Payroll journal and Valid from.
3. Click New and fill in:
   • Company: filled in with the company chosen in the selector;
   • Salary rule, for example Meal allowance;
   • Employee class: Staff or Governing bodies (each class has its own templates);
   • Valid from: the first day the template applies (for example 01/10/2026); leave Valid until empty until it changes;
   • Debit account and Credit account;
   • Partner: who the third-party side of the line belongs to (Worker, Social Security, Tax Authority (AT), Trade union or Other third party);
   • Payroll journal (Salários in the demo) and, optionally, Analytic policy (No analytic distribution, Analytic distribution optional or Analytic distribution required).
4. Save the template. The record title shows the pay item, class and start date, for example “Subsídio de alimentação Pessoal (01/10/2026)”.
5. Open the month's validated batch and click Account. No message appears: the warning “Accounting account of every rule with an amount (Blocks the close)” disappears from the batch.
6. Check the journal entry in Accounting, in the Salários journal (in October 2026, SAL/2026/00005, dated 31/10/2026 with the reference “Salaries of October 2026”): the status Balanced and equal debit and credit totals.

Example. In the demo, the accounts of the templates for Base remuneration and the payslip lines already existed; the template for Meal allowance was missing, created in step 3 with a debit to 632 Remunerações do pessoal and a credit to 231290 Remunerações em processamento. The October 2026 batch (8 payslips, Added up by batch) generated a single posted journal entry, SAL/2026/00005:

Account	Partner	Debit	Credit
632 Remunerações do pessoal (base remuneration 11,560.00 + meal allowance 968.63)		€12,528.63
231290 Remunerações em processamento			€12,528.63
231290 Remunerações em processamento		€12,528.63
2312 Ao pessoal (net pay payable)			€10,382.03
242 Retenção de impostos sobre rendimentos (IRS withheld)	Autoridade Tributária		€875.00
245 Contribuições para a Segurança Social (11% from employees)	Segurança Social		€1,271.60
635 Encargos sobre remunerações (company contribution)		€2,745.52
245 Contribuições para a Segurança Social (company contribution)	Segurança Social		€2,745.52
Total		€27,802.78	€27,802.78

Account 231290 ends at zero: earnings (€12,528.63) equal IRS, employees' Social Security and net pay (875.00 + 1,271.60 + 10,382.03). When the bank pays, the salary payment debits 2312 Ao pessoal for the same €10,382.03. Pending validation by a certified accountant: accounts of the demo chart (net pay in 2312 “Ao pessoal”; meal allowance in 632).

Expected result

• The validated batch no longer shows “Accounting account of every rule with an amount (Blocks the close)”.
• There is a posted journal entry in the Salários journal: one per batch with Added up by batch; with By worker, with each employee's lines on their own third-party account.
• The payslip shows the journal entry in Payment and obligations › Journal Entry, and the batch now accepts the Transfer file.

Important notes

• The mode changes the detail, not the totals. With Added up by batch, someone who only sees the accounts does not see how much each employee received: that detail stays in Payroll. With By worker, the net pay, IRS and contribution lines carry the employee. The totals per account are the same. Changing the option applies to batches not yet posted.
• A template applies by dates. fiscaldoo looks for the template in force on the last day of the batch's month. To change account mid-year, fill in Valid until on the old template and create a new one with Valid from the next day, instead of changing the old one.
• Posting is mandatory before paying. The transfer file is refused until the batch is posted. See How to pay the salaries.
• This article does not cover the link to Odoo Enterprise payroll (its own bridge). Pending validation on screen: differences in the Enterprise edition.

Common problems

Account replies “Posting blocked”

• Symptom: “Invalid Operation. Posting blocked: 1 pay item(s) with an amount have no posting template on 31/10/2026: Subsídio de alimentação. 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).”
• Cause: a pay item with an amount on the batch's payslips has no template in force on the last day of the month, for the employee's class.
• What to do: click Close, create the template for the indicated pay item (steps 2 to 4) and click Account again. See who to correct, in the batch warning, shows the same explanation per employee.

I cannot save the template

• Symptom: “Some required fields are empty. Fill in the fields marked in red to be able to save.”, with Salary rule, Valid from, Debit account, Credit account and Payroll journal in red.
• Cause: required fields are missing.
• What to do: fill in the fields in red. If the accounts and the journal cannot be typed in, ask the administrator for the Accountant profile or ask someone who has it to create the template.

The Payroll Processor does not see Account

• Symptom: on the validated batch, the Payroll Processor only sees Generate payments, Transfer file, Bank executed and Mark as paid; the transfer file replies “Invalid Operation. The transfer file cannot be made yet. What happened: 8 payslips are not posted, and the bank transfer is an Accounting payment that settles the payslip's journal entry. … How to fix it: ask a Payroll Administrator to use “Account” on the batch and click “Transfer file” again.”, with the list of all the payslips.
• Cause: posting belongs to the Payroll Administrator.
• What to do: ask the Payroll Administrator to post the batch before the file.