Understanding Payroll Totals
How Greenroom adds up a payroll run, and exactly what number needs to be in your bank account
Payroll Summary shows this run's money at three levels of detail: a funding card at the top, a summary card below it, and a fee & tax breakdown and coding summary for the accounting side. Two different totals can appear, and they cover different payments: Total to fund, everything the run pays out of your account, and, once our tax partner has priced the run, Cash Required for This Payroll, the part that is debited from your account for this payroll. This page covers each of them.
Total to fund: what needs to be in the bank
Near the top of Payroll Summary, below any warnings, the Payroll funding summary card adds up everything this run costs, then subtracts what never touches your bank account. Print / share on the card opens the same stack as the printable Payroll funding summary, whose rows read:
| Row | What it is |
|---|---|
| Gross wages | Same figure as Total gross wages on the summary card below |
| Reimbursements & allowances | Added on top of wages — real money out, but not part of gross |
| Employer taxes | FICA, Medicare, FUTA, and for New York payees NY SUI (with the Re-employment Service Fund) and MCTMT; see Payroll Calculations for estimate-vs-synced status |
| Employer union fringe | Same figure as Union fringe & benefit funds on the summary card |
| Platform fee | Greenroom's own fee — see Platform Fees & Billing for how it is calculated. Greenroom adds nothing for paper checks, whether you print them or we mail them |
| = Total payroll cost | The sum of every row above — this run's full liability |
| Less: settled via .045 — no check this week | Union box-office settlements some funds are paid through instead of a check — Greenroom never moves this money, so it's subtracted here |
| = Total to fund | What has to be in your account for the whole run, including what you pay outside the debit, such as union fund checks and paper checks. On screen this row reads Total while the card has no figure from our tax partner to show beside it |
Only .045 is subtracted — funds you pay directly are not
A union fund can settle three ways, and two of them are described in the app as "no check required." Only .045 comes off this stack. A fund marked paid directly — where you send the wire or ACH instead of Greenroom cutting the check — stays in Greenroom's funding estimate, because that cash still has to be in the account. See Fund Routing.
Net pay to payees (what payees actually take home) is shown alongside this stack for context — it's already inside "Total payroll cost," not an additional amount on top of it.
The amount and the day it is debited
The line under the card's title says what to have in your account and when the money leaves it: "Make sure [amount] is in your bank account.", then "Direct deposits and taxes are auto-debited from your account in one lump sum on [day], not on payday." Submit Payroll's funding card starts with the same line.
The amount is Total to fund: everything this payroll takes out of your account. That is the debit (direct deposits and the taxes remitted for you) plus what leaves another way, such as union fund checks, paper checks and the platform fee. Before our tax partner has priced the run, it is Greenroom's estimate of that total.
The day is the approval deadline's. At the end of each business day our tax partner collects every payroll whose approval deadline falls on that day and debits its cash requirement, so a payroll approved early is still debited on its deadline's day, before the check date. When Greenroom can't read the deadline, or it has passed, the sentence ends "…on the day of the approval deadline, not on payday." instead. A payroll funded some other way than ACH, by wire for example, gets no debit sentence.
The amount is left out, and only the debit sentence stays, whenever it can't be stated truthfully: our tax partner's figure is higher than Total to fund, the named parts don't account for the whole difference between the two (a match within a cent counts as unexplained), or the preview would withhold less in post-tax deductions than Greenroom recorded. The badge and the notices on the card say why.
Where no money moves, the line says so instead. On a demo company's payroll it reads "Demo estimate for the [date] check date. No money moves.", and in our tax partner's test environment, or with no connection to it, "No funds debit in this environment." A live company our tax partner doesn't hold yet gets no line. A submitted run's card in History has no line either, apart from a demo's: it records the figures, and isn't an instruction.
Estimate or confirmed figure
Until our tax partner has priced the run, the ledger's last row, Total, is the card's large figure. It is Greenroom's estimate, with an Estimated amount to fund badge under it, and a short note under the total says why there's no confirmed figure yet, for example "The funding figure isn’t available yet; this is Greenroom’s estimate."
Once our tax partner's figure for the run is available, the ledger's last row reads Total to fund and is still the card's one large figure. Cash Required for This Payroll sits in its own block under the ledger, at the size of the rows above it. It is the amount debited from your account for this payroll, the lump sum the first line dates. It covers only that debit, so it is usually lower than Total to fund: it leaves out what you pay another way, such as employer union fringe, the platform fee, deductions withheld from payees' pay that aren't part of the debit, and net pay by paper check. Greenroom checks it against its own cost for the same payees and payments.
Under the cash required, one line says how the two amounts differ and names the parts of the difference, for example "Total to fund is $1,716.38 higher than the cash required. The difference is platform fee (+$250.00); employer union fringe (+$1,466.38)." When the card can't state the amount to have in your account, the line goes on "The cash required is only what is debited for this payroll. Manual payments, and deductions or taxes paid outside that debit, are not part of it."
So Total to fund is what must be in your account. The cash required leaves it in one debit on the day of the approval deadline, and the rest leaves it separately, for example as union fund checks and paper checks.
If the figures disagree by more than a cent, Funding: figures don't match (under the cash required) and Approval blocked — funding does not reconcile show the problem. Funding: not confirmed, Funding: declined, and Funding: unreadable also hold approval. See What can block submitting.
On a submitted run in History, a confirmed actual debit also has no funding-source badge. Funding: as submitted means the panel is using the figures recorded at submission.
On a demo company's payroll the note under the total says "Demo payrolls use Greenroom’s estimates. No money moves and no funding figure is requested."
Once our tax partner has priced the run, the printed Payroll funding summary keeps Total to fund as its total and adds a box with Our tax partner's cash requirement and Greenroom's amount for the same scope, plus Cash requirement difference when the two disagree. Under them it says how much higher or lower Total to fund is than our tax partner's figure and names the parts of the gap, for example "platform fee (+$250.00); payee deductions already included in gross wages (+$525.00)", followed by "Our tax partner's figure covers only its debit; it excludes manual payments and deductions or taxes it does not remit." The printed summary names our tax partner where the screens don't, because it's the document you share with your accountant.
Its footer says "Total to fund is what must actually be available in your account." For a live payroll that hasn't been submitted yet, it adds the debit line, without a date because the print doesn't read the deadline: "Direct deposits and taxes are auto-debited from your account in one lump sum on the day of the approval deadline, not on payday." In our tax partner's test environment, or with no connection to it, the total is marked (no money moves) instead of (your bank account), and the footer reads "Total to fund is what a live payroll would need in your account."
On a demo company's payroll, the printed summary marks the total (demo estimate) instead of (your bank account), says "Demo estimates only. No money moves and no payment is sent to our tax partner.", and heads its payment split Estimated payment split, with Estimated direct deposits + taxes in place of Auto-debited.
Tip: Print / share gives you the Payroll funding summary to send to whoever manages the bank account, if that isn't you. Its Total to fund includes what you pay outside our tax partner's debit.
Post-tax withholding
When our tax partner's post-tax withholding differs from Greenroom's
Every post-tax deduction on an employee paid through our tax partner (union dues, the deductions on the payee's record, lines added on the run, and a representative's commission) is sent to it with each payroll, for it to withhold from the payee's pay. Once our tax partner has priced the run, a notice here (and on the submit screen) compares the two with three numbers: what Greenroom recorded, what will be withheld, and the difference. Post-tax deductions match confirms they agree. If they don't, the notice says how, and what it takes to submit. When the preview would withhold less than Greenroom recorded, the notice is These post-tax deductions will not be withheld: approval refuses those lines, so the notice says what clears them, and the card states no amount to have in your account until they're confirmed. A separate Additional deductions set up outside Greenroom notice lists any deduction set up directly with our tax partner rather than in Greenroom, with whose it is; it doesn't block approval, but review it before submitting. When a deduction set up outside Greenroom and one from Greenroom could be the same obligation, the notice reads A deduction would be withheld twice, and the payroll can't be submitted until one of them is removed; see A deduction held by our tax partner and one from Greenroom on the same payee. A deduction bigger than what is left of a payee's pay blocks approval too; see A deduction that can't be withheld in full. Processing Payroll covers post-tax deductions in full.
Auto-debited vs. paper checks
The funding card also splits the money by how it leaves your account. On a demo company's payroll these figures are labelled as estimates, nothing moves, and the bar at the bottom of the screen reads Demo · no money moves:
- Auto-debited: what is debited from your connected bank account, meaning direct deposits plus the taxes remitted for you. Once our tax partner has priced the run this is its own figure (the caption reads what is debited — direct deposits + the taxes remitted for you); before then it's Greenroom's estimate, and the caption says so. If a tax is withheld from payees but not debited, that amount is listed underneath as Withheld, not debited, and the bar at the bottom of the screen shows it beside the auto-debit figure. Where no money moves (our tax partner's test environment, or no connection to it), the tile and the bar read A live payroll would debit instead, or A live payroll would have debited once the payroll is submitted.
- Net pay by paper check: what the run's paper-check payees take home, plus any Separate trust remittances for minors paid by paper check. As the card says, "Net pay for paper checks is not part of the debit." (on the printed summary, "Net pay for paper checks is not collected by our tax partner.") Once our tax partner approves the payroll, Admin and Payroll teammates print those checks from the run's Paper checks card with Print checks, or, where mailing is turned on for your production, have us print and mail them with Mail checks. Neither adds anything to these totals. On a demo company's payroll nothing is printed or mailed, and the Paper checks card shows estimates only. See Physical Checks.
The headline numbers
Below the funding card (and below the Paper checks card, on a run that pays anyone by paper check), a summary card shows:
| Metric | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Total gross wages | Every payee and payment on the run, before any deduction |
| Employee & loan-out wages | The W-2 and loan-out slice of gross wages |
| Contractor & vendor payments | The 1099 and vendor-bill slice |
| Union fringe & benefit funds | Employer-paid union contributions, with a link to the report when one is available. Admin and Payroll open the Union Reports step; Approvers open the printable report. With no report, the figure reads No unions on this payroll. |
A company with no union contracts and a run with no union activity or money has three headline metrics: the union metric, employer union fringe row, and .045 row are hidden. Actual union money remains visible.
Fee & tax breakdown card
A separate card on the same screen, Fee & tax breakdown, shows the arithmetic behind the stack. It starts closed; open it when you need the detail:
- Employer taxes & reimbursements — the same employer-tax figure as above, with a note on whether it's an estimate or synced with real numbers, plus reimbursements & allowances and their subtotal
- Platform fees & payment breakdown — your platform fee (with a "show math" link explaining the specific calculation for this run) and the same total payroll cost figure
The auto-debited and paper-check figures appear only on the funding card, not again in this card.
See Platform Fees & Billing for exactly how the platform fee is calculated by production tier and run type — this page doesn't repeat that math.
Once a payroll has been submitted, its fee is frozen: the run's page in History shows the platform fee the payroll was submitted with, never a fresh recount. If today's pricing of the same run would come out different, the explanation reads "The platform fee this payroll was submitted with." A payroll submitted before Greenroom stored that figure shows "Not recorded — this payroll was submitted before Greenroom stored the platform fee, so it is not included in the total."
Coding summary
A third collapsible card, Coding summary, groups the run's expense lines by GL (accounting) code, in three columns: Wages, Fees & services, and Taxes & fringe, each with its own subtotal. Withholdings and deductions are not expense postings, so they don't appear here. A line coded to an account in your chart of accounts sits in that account's column. A line with no code is listed as — Uncoded in the column of its own kind: earnings and allowances under Wages, reimbursements under Fees & services, employer taxes and fringe under Taxes & fringe. A code that isn't in your chart is listed as Uncataloged (with the code), placed the same way. Employer tax lines never carry a code, whether they're Greenroom's estimate or our tax partner's figures, so a run that pays employees shows an Uncoded row under Taxes & fringe. This feeds your books, not payroll accuracy — most productions won't need to check it line by line unless reconciling with accounting.
When the company and run have no union activity or money, the third coding column is Taxes instead of Taxes & fringe.
Verifying totals
There's no separate "verification" screen — the notices at the top of Payroll Summary are Greenroom's automatic checks. Below-minimum pay, missing fringe, unchecked-rate notes and Installments reduced (a deduction with a lump-sum target cut to what the check can cover) are informational, but Deductions exceed pay names a payee with negative net and blocks sending, approving, and submitting until corrected. See Payroll Calculations for the full list. Beyond that, comparing this run's headline totals to a recent, similar payroll is the fastest manual sanity check.
Next steps
See Payroll Breakdown and Details for how these totals build up payee by payee, or Payroll Calculations for the underlying formulas.