... a non job-related expense..

Hi Sam

Can you please provide a screenshot of the payroll calculation you are using to reimburse the expense?  Each account type should be represented appropriately.  But also, if the job is flagged as WIP in 3-5, then you are correct it will hit the WIP GL account instead of Direct Expense but both will still create job costs.  So if that job is not supposed to be WIP then uncheck the box.  

Is this what you mean?  This is the Payroll calculation and below is the Journal transaction it created and the job cost - with the difference being the amount of the phone reimbursement  

I should have been more clear. The calculation in 5-3-1

of the item you are using to reimburse. So #159?

but is the job supposed to be WIP (owned property) so showing as an asset or not? Most companies do not use the WIP box unless you are a developer or maybe manufacturing

Oh - okay.  See below. We use an outside payroll company to process our payroll - but we record the hours in Sage for job costing and reconcile to the payroll company.  

And Yes - our job costs belong in WIP (assets) because we are use the completed contract method. But I don't want the telephone reimbursement to go to WIP - it should be Telephone expense. 

This is the issue. You cannot use an overhead acct in all those boxes. Each one must be in its proper  designated expense range. However if you need it to hit 6003 then it is best pay it as AP not through the payroll service.  You can still do it as direct deposit

Or enter the reimbursement as a separate payroll record with no job so it does hit 6003. 

I'm sorry, but it sounds to me that it doesn't really matter how I set it up - even if I designate the proper expense ranges - it's not going to work properly unless I write them a seperate check.  So, I think the issue is Sage - and it really shouldn't be. Reimbursing employees on payroll checks is a common, recurring event and Sage should be able to handle it.    Sorry. 

Sage does handle it.  But you are asking it to book to an overhead expense on a job that is designated as WIP.  So do the separate payroll record without a job and it will work just fine. You can give it the same check number.

I can do that, but I want to understand what you mean by I'm "asking it to book to an overhead expense on a job" so if something else comes up.  Because I think I'm asking it to book an expense to an expense account.  It works fine if I reimburse someone who doesn't work on a job - like myself. It puts gross pay to wages and the reimbursement to expense.  But when I reimburse someone who's hours need to be job costed - which means their gross pay goes to WIP - it combines the telephone expense with the wages and posts both to WIP.  This is the part I don't understand.  Why does it do that?  In my mind, It should put gross pay to WIP and Telephone reimbursement to expense, like it does for admin people. I'm really not trying to be difficult.  I sincerely want to understand because I know this will help me with other things.  Thank you for your help.    

That is correct, any "adds" from a payroll calc that is not part of a paygroup assigned to specific job lines (the ones that show up on the calculation tab and not the timecard) will get distributed to the same accounts that the payroll is.  So a payroll record with no job would automatically hit the overhead or admin account that is assigned on the employee positions tab.  When there are adds and that employee is job costed, the add gets job costed.  If the timecard is split between job and non-job time then the add also gets split.  But because you have the job labeled for WIP, you cannot post a payroll record to direct expense.  You would have to do it as a separate payroll record, or start paying reimbursements through AP so you directly control what account is affected.