Payroll Breakdown and Details
How the payee-by-payee detail on Payroll Summary is organized, and how to read one payee's numbers
On Payroll Summary, every payee's number is a rollup. The Payee detail by union & module section is where you drill into what actually makes it up.
Grouped by union, not department
Payees are grouped into cards by union — AEA, ATPAM, IATSE, Local 764, Local 798, Local 802, SDC, Teamsters 817, USA 829 — using whichever unions your production actually has payees in. Everyone without a union code falls into one of three remaining groups: Production — Non-Union (non-union employees and loan-outs), Creative & Production Services (contractors), or Accounts Payable (vendors). Each card's header shows a payee count and a running gross and net for that group.
AEA's card additionally splits into Performers — Principal, Chorus, Swing and Stage Management, based on each payee's department.
Note: "Department" is a per-payee field, not its own breakdown section here — it's what separates AEA's Performers from its Stage Management, and it carries through to the QuickBooks export as a class code. It doesn't drive a standalone department totals view on this screen.
AEA, ATPAM, and SDC cards start open by default; the rest start collapsed. Use Expand all sections to open every union/module card at once, and Expand all payees inside a card to open every payee row within it.
Expanding a payee row
Click a payee's name to expand their detail panel. What you see depends on their payee type:
| Payee type | Columns shown |
|---|---|
| W-2 employees | Wages & reimbursements · Employee taxes & deductions · Employer taxes & fringe |
| Loan-outs | Wages & reimbursements · Deductions |
| Vendors & contractors | Wages & reimbursements only |
The third column on a W-2 employee's panel — employer taxes and fringe — is money the production owes, not money withheld from that payee. It's labeled "not deducted from payee" on screen, and it never reduces their check.
Two toggles above the union/module cards change what each line shows:
- Show GL coding adds each line's accounting code next to its name.
- Show variance vs last payroll flags how each number changed from that payee's prior run, with a short explanation of what moved (only available once there's a previous run to compare against).
Editing from here
The pencil icon on a payee's row opens the same edit drawer described in Reviewing Payroll — hours (for hourly payees), and grouped fields for wages & earnings, reimbursements & allowances, and deductions. Save & recalculate re-estimates that payee's taxes immediately for W-2 employees; loan-outs and 1099 payees skip tax recalculation entirely.
Payment method and check numbers
Each payee's expanded panel shows whether they're paid by Direct deposit or Check. Check numbers aren't assigned until you submit the payroll — before that, this area is blank.
Next steps
See Payroll Totals for how these payee-level numbers roll up into the run's headline figures, or Payroll Calculations for how each line is actually computed.