im not using QB payroll

Hi Elaine

Ask as many questions as you like:)

If you are not using the Quickbooks to run your payroll firstly if you can set up your employees to do this you can either  set up employees as suppliers in the expenses section or in the Employees section on the left hand side  and then this will mean  in the suppliers section

This will mean you can then create an expense for each individual employee for Paye  and NI

Have you set up liability accounts for PAYE and NI?

Thanks for replying.

There is a employers NI contributions set up as an expense account - but no others

Hello ElaineR,

You can create another account using your chart of accounts to then record the other portion of expense. Have any of the payroll expenses been recorded already? Was it the person running your payroll who created the NI contribution account?

Thanks Edward, will do that.

Presume when i make the payment i will split it between the two expense accounts 

Nothings been recorded yet - 

I have a similar query. I have employees salaries where  I want to split out the Nat ins / pension amounts and then apply percentage splits to the "salary" portion of the amount - e.g split this 50/50 between different projects. Is there a way to do this which will work?

Thanks for joining this thread, @Mrs H. Yes, there's a way to do that which will work. 

I'd suggest creating three separate expense accounts for your National Insurance (NI), pension, and salary amounts for your employees. When you're ready to pay them, you'll have to use these accounts when entering an expense. This way, you'll be able to split their amounts. Also, you can only apply figures instead of percentage when splitting "salary" between different projects.

Before that, I recommend consulting your accountant. They can help you determine the three appropriate expense account and detail types. Once verified, proceed with the steps below. 

1. Go to Accounting from the left menu. 
2. Select Chart of Accounts.
3. Click New.
4. Choose the correct expense Account Type.
5. Select the appropriate Detail Type.
6. In the Name field, enter your preferred name. For example, use National Insurance for the NI amount. 
7. Click Save and Close. 
8. Repeat the process above for pension and the "salary" portion of the amount. 

The screenshot below shows you the fourth to seventh steps. 

Once done, create an expense to split the amounts. Let's take an example. If the total amount of your employee's salaries is £150.00, you'd split the NI and pension amounts for 25.00. For the "salary" portion, you'd convert the 50/50 percentage splits into figures. Thus, you can enter 50.00 for Project A and 50.00 for Project B. Please make sure you select the appropriate employee from the Payee drop-down. Here's what it looks like: 

After that, run the Account QuickReport of the three expense accounts. These will help you track the transactions associated with them for a particular period. Just go back to the Chart of Accounts page and enter the name in the Search box. Then, click Run report from the Action column. View the screenshot below for your visual reference. 

Also, I recommend visiting this website: Managing Projects. It contains six steps that'll help you track your income, costs, and profitability for each project. 

I'll lend a helping hand if you need anything else. Keep safe always, @Mrs H.