Payroll GL Reconciliation

Other

Reconcile QuickBooks Online payroll GL accounts against payroll provider reports (Gusto, ADP, Paychex) across 12 categories. Produces an 8-tab Excel workbook covering discrepancies, 941 tax recon, W-2 box verification, headcount, per-employee cost, and CDC logging. Integrates with the Month-End Close pipeline.

Install

openclaw skills install payroll-reconciliation

Payroll GL Reconciliation Skill

What This Skill Does

Reconciles QuickBooks Online payroll GL accounts against payroll provider reports (Gusto, ADP, Paychex) to catch missed journal entries, manual adjustments, and tax filing discrepancies before they become audit findings or payroll tax penalties.

Use when:

Closing a period and payroll GL needs to match the payroll register
Preparing for 941 filing — verify GL matches what was reported
W-2 season — build per-employee annual totals for box verification
Client has a new payroll provider — validate initial period's entries
Controller flagged unexplained payroll variance in the P&L

Do NOT use when:

You need bank statement reconciliation → use bank-reconciliation-agent
You need broad P&L variance analysis → use pl-deep-analysis
You need payroll tax preparation or filing advice → CPA review required
You need multi-entity payroll consolidation (not supported)

Script Location

scripts/pipelines/payroll-reconciliation.py

Quick Usage

# Monthly reconciliation
python3 scripts/pipelines/payroll-reconciliation.py \
  --slug CLIENT_SLUG \
  --month 2026-03 \
  --payroll-file ~/Downloads/gusto-march-2026.csv

# Quarterly 941 reconciliation
python3 scripts/pipelines/payroll-reconciliation.py \
  --slug CLIENT_SLUG \
  --quarter 2026-Q1 \
  --payroll-file ~/Downloads/gusto-q1-2026.csv \
  --form-941-file ~/Downloads/941-q1.csv

# Annual W-2 helper
python3 scripts/pipelines/payroll-reconciliation.py \
  --slug CLIENT_SLUG \
  --year 2026 \
  --payroll-file ~/Downloads/gusto-annual-2026.csv \
  --w2-mode

# Custom date range
python3 scripts/pipelines/payroll-reconciliation.py \
  --slug CLIENT_SLUG \
  --start 2026-01-01 --end 2026-06-30 \
  --payroll-file ~/Downloads/h1-2026.csv

# Provider analysis only (no QBO connection needed)
python3 scripts/pipelines/payroll-reconciliation.py \
  --slug CLIENT_SLUG \
  --month 2026-03 \
  --payroll-file ~/Downloads/adp-report.csv \
  --skip-gl

# Custom output directory
python3 scripts/pipelines/payroll-reconciliation.py \
  --slug CLIENT_SLUG \
  --month 2026-03 \
  --payroll-file ~/Downloads/report.csv \
  --out ~/Desktop/reports

Arguments

Argument	Required	Description
`--slug`	Yes	Client QBO slug identifier
`--payroll-file`	Yes	Path to payroll provider CSV
`--month`	One of	YYYY-MM for single month
`--quarter`	One of	YYYY-Q1 through YYYY-Q4
`--year`	One of	Full year (YYYY) for annual/W-2
`--start` / `--end`	One of	Custom range (YYYY-MM-DD)
`--form-941-file`	No	Form 941 CSV for quarterly tax recon
`--w2-mode`	No	Enable full W-2 box verification output
`--skip-gl`	No	Skip QBO GL pull — provider analysis only
`--sandbox`	No	Use QBO sandbox environment
`--threshold`	No	Discrepancy threshold (default: $1.00)
`--out`	No	Output directory (default: current dir)

Provider Auto-Detection

The script auto-detects the payroll provider from CSV headers:

Provider	Detection Signature
Gusto	Headers contain `Check Date` + `Gross Earnings`
ADP	Headers contain `Pay Date` + `Total Gross`
Paychex	Headers contain `Check Date` + `Regular Earnings`
Generic	Fallback — best-effort column matching

For unsupported formats, rename CSV columns to match any of the above signatures, or use the Generic fallback with standard column names (Gross, FIT, SIT, etc.).

Reconciliation Categories

The pipeline reconciles 12 payroll categories between GL and provider:

#	Category	GL Keywords	941 Line
1	Gross Wages	wages, salaries, payroll-salaries	Line 2
2	Federal Income Tax (FIT)	federal withholding, fit, federal tax	Line 3
3	State Income Tax (SIT)	state withholding, sit, state tax	—
4	SS Employer (FICA-SS ER)	social security employer, ss er	Line 5a
5	SS Employee (FICA-SS EE)	social security employee, ss ee	Line 5a
6	Medicare Employer (FICA-Med ER)	medicare employer, med er	Line 5c
7	Medicare Employee (FICA-Med EE)	medicare employee, med ee	Line 5c
8	FUTA / SUTA	futa, suta, unemployment tax	—
9	Health Insurance	health insurance, medical, dental	W-2 Box 12C
10	401k / Retirement	401k, retirement, pension	W-2 Box 12D
11	Workers Compensation	workers comp, wc premium	—
12	PTO Accrual	pto, vacation accrual, leave accrual	—

Discrepancy threshold: ±$1.00 per category (configurable via --threshold).

Excel Output (8 Tabs)

Tab 1: Reconciliation Summary

All 12 categories: GL amount vs provider amount vs difference
MATCH / DISCREPANCY status per category
Net difference and overall balance status
Auto-suggested action for each discrepancy

Tab 2: Category Detail

GL transactions filtered and grouped by category
Running total per category
Full memo, account, and transaction type

Tab 3: ⚠ Discrepancies

Three sections:

Category discrepancies — GL vs provider gaps with priority and action
Missed journal entries — payroll checks with no GL match
Manual GL adjustments — GL journal entries with no provider match

Tab 4: Quarterly 941

Compares provider totals to Form 941 line items
Line 2 (wages), Line 3 (FIT), Lines 5a/5c (FICA), Line 6 (total taxes)
Works with or without Form 941 upload (shows provider-only when no form)

Tab 5: W-2 Helper

Annual totals per employee in W-2 box format:
- Box 1 (wages), Box 2 (FIT), Box 3/4 (SS), Box 5/6 (Medicare)
- Box 12D (401k), Box 12C (health), Box 16/17 (state)
Grand totals row for easy cross-check against W-3

Tab 6: Headcount

Active employee count per month
New hire names and termination names per period
Net headcount change month-over-month

Tab 7: Per-Employee Cost

Total employer cost per employee (wages + all taxes + benefits)
Effective tax rate and total cost/wage ratio
Sorted by highest total cost

Tab 8: CDC Log

Month-over-month changes in payroll cost by category
New hire / termination events
Discrepancy count changes (new or resolved)
Flags material swings ≥10%

Output File Naming

payroll-recon_{slug}_{period}.xlsx

Examples:

payroll-recon_sb-paulson_2026-03.xlsx
payroll-recon_willo-salons_2026-Q1.xlsx
payroll-recon_glowlabs_2026.xlsx

Dependencies

pip install openpyxl

Node.js QBO client (auth token required for GL pull).

CDC Cache

Change data is persisted at:

.cache/payroll-reconciliation/{slug}.json

Keeps last 24 periods. Delete to reset baseline.

Workflow: Monthly Close Integration

This pipeline integrates with the Month-End Close checklist (scripts/pipelines/month-end-close.py). Run sequence:

Get payroll provider report (CSV export from Gusto/ADP/Paychex)
Run payroll-reconciliation.py for the closed month
Review Tab 3 (Discrepancies) — post any missed JEs before closing
File Form 941 (quarterly) — use Tab 4 to verify GL matches before filing
W-2 season (January) — run with --year + --w2-mode for Box verification

Form 941 CSV Format

If providing a 941 CSV (--form-941-file), the pipeline expects columns:

line, amount

Example rows:

Line 2 - Total wages,  125000.00
Line 3 - Federal income tax withheld,  18750.00
Line 5a - Social security wages,  15500.00
Line 5c - Medicare wages,  3625.00
Line 6 - Total taxes,  37875.00

Column names are matched case-insensitively. Extra columns are ignored.

Common Issues

"QBO CLI error (exit 1)" → Refresh the QBO auth token for this client slug.

"Payroll file not found" → Verify the path in --payroll-file. Use absolute path if needed.

"Provider detected: Generic" → Column headers didn't match Gusto/ADP/Paychex signatures. Results are best-effort. → Rename columns or use the Generic field names listed in the parser section.

All categories show $0 for GL → GL pull succeeded but no accounts matched payroll keywords. → Check QBO account names — they may use custom names. Add keywords to PAYROLL_ACCOUNT_KEYWORDS.

Discrepancy threshold too sensitive → Use --threshold 5.00 to allow up to $5 variance (useful for rounding-heavy providers).

Architecture Notes

All financial math uses Decimal — no float arithmetic anywhere.
Provider detection is header-based — no reliance on file naming conventions.
GL categorization is keyword-based — matches account name + memo combined.
Missed JE detection matches net pay amounts within ±$1 threshold.
Manual adjustment detection flags GL journal entries with no provider counterpart.
CDC is cumulative — each run appends to the slug's JSON cache file.
W-2 Box 1 = gross wages minus pre-tax deductions (401k + Section 125 health).
W-2 Box 3/5 = gross wages (simplified — doesn't cap SS wage base per check). For exact SS wage base cap ($176,100 in 2026), verify high-earner employees manually.