Purpose
Before UZIO can post a payroll to QuickBooks Online, every payroll amount needs a home in your QBO chart of accounts. This article explains the Settings you choose first, the two mapping modes (Basic and Advance), how Class or Location tracking works, and the rules that decide whether a journal entry balances.
Who can do this: any Employer Portal user with payroll access, once the connection is established.
Where: Integrations > expand the Quickbooks Online tile > Manage. The screen has two tabs, Settings and Mappings. The Mappings tab stays disabled until Settings is saved.
Note: The product uses two spellings for the granular mode. The radio button reads Advance and the sentence above it reads Advanced. They are the same option; this article uses "Advance" to match the button.
Step 1: Settings
Every control on the Settings tab, in the order it appears:
| Setting | What it controls | Options |
|---|---|---|
| Quickbooks Online Company | Display only. The QBO company you authorised at connection. To change it, disconnect and reconnect | Not editable |
| Mapping type | How finely payroll amounts are split across accounts | Basic: Simple Mapping, Group by Class or Location / Advance: Granular Mapping, Group by Class or Location. |
| How would you like to sync your payroll data with your QuickBooks Online Account? | Whether journal entries post on approval or on demand | Manually click "Sync to QuickBooks Online" on the payroll approval page / Automatically sync with QuickBooks Online on payroll approval |
| Journal entry date | Which date the entry carries in QBO, and therefore which accounting period it lands in | Pay Date / Pay Period End Date / Payroll Approval Date |
| Have you enabled class tracking or location tracking in your QuickBooks Online account? | Whether journal-entry lines carry a QBO class or location | Yes / No |
| Select the tracking you have enabled. | Appears only when the answer above is Yes | Class / Location (one or the other, not both) |
The entry-date popover carries one rule worth knowing: "If you use UZIO platform to pay your contractors, and you select Pay Period End Date, the journal entries for contractor payments will be created with Pay Date." Contractor payments have no pay period, so they fall back to the pay date.
Click Save. The Mappings tab unlocks.
Warning: Changing the Mapping type (Basic to Advance or back) after mappings exist deletes the mappings you have entered when you save. Changing the tracking field (Class to Location or back) keeps only the company-level mappings and deletes the per-segment overrides. UZIO warns you before applying either change. Plan the mode before you start mapping.
Which mapping mode do I need?
The choice follows how your payroll taxes are handled.
- UZIO debits your taxes every payroll and pays the agencies for you. The taxes stop being your liability the moment they are debited, so you do not need liability accounts. Basic mapping is enough: all wages to one expense account, all employer taxes to another, and so on.
- UZIO does not debit your taxes each payroll. The taxes stay on your books as a liability until you pay them, so you need each tax mapped to a liability account as well as an expense account. Use Advance mapping. Basic will not give you the breakdown.
Advance is also the right choice if you want regular wages, overtime, and bonus in separate accounts, or if each deduction and contribution has its own account.
Basic mapping
Each of the eight categories must be linked to one QBO account:
| Category | What it covers | Account type offered |
|---|---|---|
| Bank Account (Direct Deposit Net Pay) | Net pay made by direct deposit | Bank |
| Bank Account (Check Net Pay) | Net pay made by check | Bank |
| Bank Account (Other Payroll Cost) | Everything else that leaves the bank: employer and employee taxes, employee deductions, employer contributions, workers' compensation | Bank |
| Employee Earnings | Regular wages, bonus, commissions, and other pay components | Expense |
| Employer Taxes | FUTA, SUTA, and similar | Expense |
| Employer Benefit Contribution | Employer cost toward health benefits, 401(k), and similar | Expense |
| 1099 Box 1 (Nonemployee Compensation) | Payments to 1099 contractors | Expense |
| Workers' Compensation | Employer cost toward workers' compensation insurance | Expense |
If direct deposits and checks come out of the same bank account, map both net-pay categories to that account. If a category does not apply to you, choose Not Applicable; every category needs a value before you can save.
Note: In Basic mapping the dropdowns offer only your Bank and Expense accounts. Advance mapping offers the fuller list below.
Advance mapping
Every payroll item gets its own row: each earning, each employee deduction, each employer contribution, and each tax. Debit-side items (earnings, employer taxes, employer contributions) map to an expense-type account. Credit-side items (deductions, employee taxes, net pay, the credit side of employer taxes and contributions) map to a liability or bank account.
- For Employee Taxes and Employer Taxes, a Yes/No toggle lets you map every tax to its own account or send them all to one account. Employer Benefit Contributions and Workers' Compensation are always mapped item by item; there is no combine option for those.
- Map items you do not currently use as well. UZIO syncs only items that appear in a payroll, but the first time an unmapped item is paid, that payroll fails to balance.
- FUTA Credit Reduction is not offered as a separate tax line. It is included with FUTA.
Account types you can map to
| Side of the entry | Allowed QBO account types |
|---|---|
| Earnings, Employer Taxes (debit), Employer Contributions (debit) | Other Current Asset, Cost of Goods Sold, Expense, Other Expense |
| Deductions, Employee Taxes, Net Payment, Employer Taxes (credit), Employer Contributions (credit) | Bank, Long Term Liabilities, Other Current Liabilities, Accounts Payable, Credit Card |
Accounts of any other type in your chart of accounts do not appear in the dropdowns.
Class and Location tracking
If your QBO company tracks classes or locations, mirror it here so each journal-entry line carries the same dimension. Choose how UZIO should align your QBO classes or locations:
- By Department
- By Division
- By Work Location (the location alias name in UZIO)
- By Work Location State (VA, FL, WA, and so on)
Save the company-level mapping first. The per-department, per-division, or per-location override tabs stay locked until you do. Then override only the segments that use different accounts. Any segment you leave un-overridden posts through the company-level account as one consolidated line.
Note: The consolidated line carries no class or location tag in QBO. If your reporting depends on every line being tagged, override every segment.
Note: Setting a specific segment's override to Not Applicable excludes that category from the journal entry for that segment. It does not fall back to the company-level account. Leaving the segment un-overridden is what gives you the fallback.
Tip: To check whether tracking is on in QBO: gear icon > Account and Settings > Advanced. Classes are listed under Bookkeeping > Chart of Accounts > All Lists > Classes.
What never appears on the mapping screen
- Workers' compensation codes. UZIO payroll does not calculate workers' compensation premiums; it reports wages by class code separately. Record the premium expense in QBO yourself using UZIO's Workers' Compensation Report. The Workers' Compensation category on the mapping screen is for the employer cost UZIO does carry in payroll.
- Cash net pay. UZIO payroll does not pay net wages in cash, so there is no line to map. Record any cash payment manually.
Common problems
The account I want is not in the dropdown
Either it does not exist in QBO yet, or its account type is not one UZIO allows for that side of the entry (see the table above). Create or retype the account in your QBO chart of accounts, then refresh the UZIO mapping page. UZIO reads the chart of accounts again on refresh.
My mappings disappeared
You changed the Mapping type or the tracking field on the Settings tab and saved. Both changes clear mappings by design (see the warning above). Re-enter them in the new mode.
A journal-entry line has no class or location
That line is the consolidated fallback for segments you did not override. Add an override for each segment that needs its own tag.
The journal entry will not balance
An item in the payroll has no account on one side of the entry. The syncing article lists which mapping fixes each version of the "not balanced" error.
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