Payroll accounting consists of filing and tracking employee compensation data, such money withheld from each paycheck, taxes and benefits the employee receives. It is not just simply delivering someone's salary.

Payroll accountants use financial journal entries to summarize an organization's transactions and total cash flow. It’s an important and lengthy process of managing calculations, payroll tax statements, year-end taxes and more.

Payroll entries fall under the scope of a general ledger that sorts all financial information.