"Departmentalization" by G/L Account Segment

The option to "Departmentalize" by G/L account segment in the US Payroll company configuration sets you up to "departmentalize" Payroll expenses and liabilities - that is, you are able to post Payroll expenses and liabilities to accounts with segments that represent different departments or cost centers. Turning on this option lets you easily base the "department" segment portions of your Payroll expense and liability accounts on employees' departments.

The "department" segment can be called anything you wish. It should be the account segment in your Chart of Accounts that you use to differentiate and analyze costs across the components - departments, divisions, locations, cost centers, or whatever you use - of your company.

You select the segment that represents the cost components (for example, "Department" or "Location"). You can give meaningful names to the different values for the segment (for example, "Administration" or "Tulsa"). You assign employees to these "departments."

When you select the option to "departmentalize" by G/L account segment you have the option in each pay factor setup to "departmentalize" the pay factor. ("Pay factors" are earnings, deductions, taxes, and so on.) Thus, certain expenses and liabilities that do not need to be tracked at the departmental level can be posted to company-wide accounts.

Department Accounts are automatically created

You do not have to manually "departmentalize" your Chart of Accounts by segment -- that is, you do not have to add accounts to the COA with all the values you intend to use for the "department" segment. You simply configure the pay factor to post to the base account, which does need to exist in the COA -- for example, Salary Expense 6000-00. The first time you post Payroll to the various employees' assigned departments, the system creates the "department" accounts for you -- for example, 6000-01, 6000-02, and 6000-03 -- if they don't already exist!