Payroll, Chart of Accounts & QuickBooks Settings

Only an Admin can change the settings described below. With the Payroll role, you can choose existing GL codes on payroll lines, but can't change the chart of accounts or generate, download, mark posted, or void QuickBooks packages.

Pay frequency, check numbering, and payroll approvals

These are in three places:

• Pay frequency is on the Business info stage of Company setup, and in the Payroll and approvals group of Settings → Company once Greenroom has approved your company.
• Starting check number is on the Bank & checks stage of Company setup, and on Settings → Banking & payment once approved.
• Payroll approvals (the control requiring someone other than the preparer to approve a run before it's submitted) and Start-work packet approvals (whether a payee's completed start-work packet is approved automatically) are on Settings → Company: cards of their own before approval, and switches in the Payroll and approvals group after.

See Company Settings for the Company tab and where your company's setup lives before and after approval.

Chart of accounts

Go to Settings → Chart of accounts to manage your GL (general ledger) codes — what used to be called "cost codes." This catalog drives your payroll coding summary and, together with the account mapping below, the QuickBooks package, so every payroll line lands in the right bucket.

Adding and editing codes

Click Add code to insert a new row inline, edit any existing row directly in the table, then save. Every row you've touched — new and edited — saves together from one save bar at the bottom; nothing commits until you click Save there.

Deleting a code asks for confirmation first. Past payroll lines that already used that code keep their coding — deleting only stops the code from being used on new lines going forward.

Importing codes from a spreadsheet

Instead of entering codes one at a time, bring in your existing chart of accounts. Above the table, the tab offers three controls:

• Import CSV / XLSX uploads a .csv or .xlsx file, up to 256 KB and 1,000 rows. From a workbook, only the first sheet is read.
• Paste rows opens a box for rows copied straight out of a spreadsheet. Include the header row; commas or tabs both work.
• Template downloads a starter file with the three columns already in place.

Either way, the first row has to name three columns: code (your account number; "account" or "gl code" also work), name ("account name" also works) and category ("type" also works). For the category, Greenroom accepts "Wages," "Fees" (or "Fees & Services"), and "Taxes" (or "Taxes & Fringe" or "Taxes and fringe"), not case-sensitive. Codes are kept exactly as written, as text, so a code isn't rounded or stripped of a leading zero. An .xlsx code cell formatted in a way Greenroom can't reproduce exactly is refused with a message naming the cell, asking you to enter the displayed code as text.

Import is unavailable while the table has unsaved edits ("Save or cancel your changes before importing a file.").

A workbook is compressed, so the rows read from it can be far larger than the file itself. If they're too large to send for review, the import stops with "Those rows are too large to send at once — split the file or shorten long cells." Split the rows into smaller files and import each one, or shorten the longest cells and import again.

Every import opens a Review import window before anything saves, listing every row with its category and a verdict:

Each row's category is a dropdown, with the value from your file shown underneath it, so you can set a missing category, or change any other, right there in the review. Everything else is fixed in your file and imported again. Nothing imports until every row is ready: the footer counts the rows that still need attention, and Import N codes stays disabled until it reaches zero. A successful import confirms with "Imported — N added, N updated".

QuickBooks account mapping

Go to Settings → QuickBooks to map your payroll categories — clearing, employee withholding, employer payroll tax, union dues and benefits, deductions, representative fees, GL-coded expenses, and so on — onto real account names from your QuickBooks Desktop file. This is a separate, more granular mapping than Chart of accounts above: it's what the QuickBooks package (QBD) report uses to generate a correctly-coded journal entry and settlement batch, and generation is blocked until every category your production has actually used is mapped and confirmed here.

The top of the tab says where that stands: Ready or Action needed, beside N of M required payroll amounts confirmed. While anything is outstanding, it adds "Package generation unlocks once every required payroll amount is confirmed. Compare each suggested account with this production's QuickBooks chart of accounts before you confirm it.", then one line per reason with its count and what to do: No mapping row (Seed from payroll history to create them.) and Needs confirmation (Confirm each in the table below.). Open a line to see those payroll amounts, grouped by section of the table; a line covering five or fewer starts open.

The table's first column is labelled Payroll amount — it lists the payroll figures needing an account, not accounting categories you define. Each row is named in words, such as Employee withholding — New York City, and the QuickBooks package's blockers name it the same way. When your payroll lines spell one union fund two ways, the two rows share a name, so each adds how its lines spell the fund: Fund name on payroll lines: “…”. Only Greenroom staff see the internal key behind a row's name. A row Greenroom knows about but that nothing on your payrolls has produced yet carries a Not observed badge rather than asking you to map something that doesn't apply. Withholding rows are listed by jurisdiction (Federal, NY, NYC) from the tax lines your runs have actually carried.

If your company has no union contracts, unused union dues, union benefit, and uncoded employer fringe mapping rows are hidden. A category your payrolls have actually used stays available to map, even without a current company union contract.

A handful of structural categories — clearing, the standard tax jurisdictions, employer tax — arrive pre-confirmed with sensible defaults so a new production isn't blocked immediately. Everything else (union funds, GL-coded expenses, representative fees) arrives as an unconfirmed suggestion the first time Greenroom sees it; you have to explicitly Confirm each one, or Edit it first if the suggested account name is wrong. Seed from payroll history pulls in every category your runs have used so far; on an empty table it's the main button in the Account mapping header, and the table itself reads No account mappings yet: "Seed from payroll history lists the payroll amounts this production posts, each with a suggested QuickBooks account. Clearing, withholding and employer payroll tax arrive confirmed. Compare the rest with your QuickBooks chart of accounts and confirm each one." Once the table has rows, that header's main button becomes Upload CoA (.csv / .xlsx), with Seed from payroll history beside it: upload a .csv or .xlsx export from QuickBooks Desktop to fill in real account names in bulk instead of typing them one at a time. Greenroom matches uploaded names against your existing rows and previews every match before applying anything.

See QuickBooks Package (QBD) for the full field-by-field detail and how the mapping feeds package generation.

Next Steps

See Company Settings for the Company tab and where your company's setup lives, QuickBooks Package (QBD) for what the account mapping produces, Team for who has access to your company, or continue to Running Payroll to process payroll.