Payroll
Payroll journals and reconciliations
Finbryn records the payroll journal entry for every Australian pay run and reconciles it against the payroll platform's own STP report, so gross wages, PAYG withholding and the compulsory super contribution agree with your general ledger, under AASB where your books run on accrual.
Payroll reconciliation
Illustrative client · August 2026
AUD
- Payroll register agreed to the provider reportDone
- Net pay agreed to the bank debitDone
- Withholdings and employer costs postedDone
- Payroll liability accounts cleared to zeroIn progress
- Filing dates checked against the calendarNext
Illustrative. An example of the document, not a client's figures.
Why payroll needs its own reconciliation
A bank feed shows one payment leaving your account on payday. It does not show the gross wages behind that figure, the PAYG withholding, or the compulsory super contribution accruing alongside it. Recording payroll correctly means splitting that single bank line into every account it actually touches, then checking the result against what Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks Online or Employment Hero reported through Single Touch Payroll.
What the entry includes
Each pay period we record gross wages by cost centre where your chart of accounts supports it, PAYG withholding, the compulsory super contribution at 12% of qualifying earnings, any salary-sacrifice deduction, and the net pay clearing entry that ties back to what actually left the bank account.
Reconciling super under Payday Super
Since 1 July 2026, superannuation has to reach an employee's fund within 7 business days of payday rather than sitting as a quarterly liability, so the super payable account now clears far more often. We reconcile it against the fund's confirmation on that same short cycle rather than waiting for a quarterly review to catch a gap.
Catching problems early
A mismatch usually traces back to something upstream: an award rate that changed in the payroll platform but not on paper, a salary-sacrifice deduction that stopped but is still accrued, or an STP submission that ran before a late timesheet correction was entered. We flag the variance and trace it rather than forcing the entry to balance.
Where this fits
This service assumes payroll runs through Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks Online or Employment Hero; see Australian payroll coordination for the pay-run review that happens before these entries are posted.
Questions
Frequently asked questions: Payroll journals and reconciliations
Why doesn't the bank feed handle this automatically?
It only shows the net amount that left your account. It cannot split that into gross wages, PAYG withholding and superannuation, which is what the journal entry and reconciliation are for.
How often do you reconcile the superannuation liability now?
On the same short cycle Payday Super requires, since the contribution has to reach the employee's fund within 7 business days of payday rather than quarterly.
Do you need administrator access to our payroll platform?
Read-only reporting access is usually enough to pull the STP summary we reconcile against. We do not need access that lets us run a pay run ourselves.
What accounting standard do you follow for the accrual?
Australian Accounting Standards, where your books run on an accrual basis.
What is not included in payroll journal reconciliation?
We do not run the payroll calculation itself in this service; we reconcile the journal your payroll platform already produced against the bank and the general ledger, flagging any mismatch for correction.
Why does payroll need its own reconciliation separate from bookkeeping?
Payroll moves money and creates liabilities in ways a bank feed alone does not explain. A dedicated reconciliation catches mismatches between what was paid, what was withheld and what the ledger shows.
Do you need access to our payroll platform?
Read-only reporting access is usually enough. We do not need the access level required to run pay runs ourselves.
Who reviews the work before it reaches us?
Every deliverable under payroll journals and reconciliations is reviewed by a senior principal before it reaches you. You keep access to the underlying file at every stage, so nothing about the work happens somewhere you cannot see it.
What is included in payroll journals and reconciliations?
Payroll journals and reconciliations covers payroll journal entries recorded in your accounting software for every pay run and gross wages, withholdings and net pay reconciled against the payroll platform's summary report. The exact scope is agreed and set out in writing before work starts, so you know precisely what is and is not covered before the first deliverable arrives.
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Next step
Talk to the team that would run your books
A short call covers your setup, your software and what a first month would look like. You get a written scope and price after it.