In every plan at launch
Zoho Books
Finalise a payroll run and the journal appears in Zoho Books with the accounts you mapped. Pay your staff, and a settlement journal is ready to match your bank feed.
What posts where
Account mapping
A Kenyan or Tanzanian template suggests accounts for PAYE, NSSF, SHIF, Housing Levy, NITA, HELB, SDL, WCF and HESLB. Missing accounts can be created for you. Rules can send Sales salaries to Sales Salaries, or casual wages to Casual Labour.
Payroll journal
Reference PR-{run}-v{n}, with the payroll summary PDF attached. Posting checks for an earlier entry first, so one run version can never post twice.
Net-pay settlement
When you mark a payment batch paid: Dr Net Pay Payable, Cr your Zoho bank account, one line per bank or M-Pesa file, so it matches the bank feed.
Reconciliation
A report compares the run with what's in the ledger, account by account. You see a tick when they agree and the difference when they don't.
Corrections
A new run version reverses the old journal if published, or deletes it if draft, then posts the new one. Locked periods are respected.
Dimensions
Plus planDepartments and cost centres become reporting tags, projects become Zoho projects and branches become locations, on every line.
Statutory vendor bills
Plus planOne bill per authority per run, with due dates, clearing each payable into Accounts Payable. Staff loans post to their own sub-ledger, after launch.
A sample journal
Three employees in a Kenyan August 2026 run, paid 50,000, 30,000 and 50,000. Net pay is what you transfer, and everything above it is what you owe the authorities.
| Account | Debit (KES) | Credit (KES) |
|---|---|---|
| Salaries & Wages | 130,000.00 | |
| Employer NSSF Expense | 7,800.00 | |
| Employer Housing Levy Expense | 1,950.00 | |
| NITA Levy Expense | 150.00 | |
| PAYE Payable | 12,422.95 | |
| NSSF Payable (employee + employer) | 15,600.00 | |
| SHIF Payable | 3,575.00 | |
| Housing Levy Payable (employee + employer) | 3,900.00 | |
| NITA Payable | 150.00 | |
| Net Pay Payable | 104,252.05 | |
| Total | 139,900.00 | 139,900.00 |
What you need
- A Zoho Books organisation, on any data centre
- Permission to authorise the connection (Zoho admin)
- Reporting tags and projects enabled if you want dimensions
Does the journal post as draft or published?
You choose. If your organisation uses journal approvals, it's submitted for approval instead of published.
Can we post one line per department?
On Plus. Summary posting is one line per account. By-dimension posting splits lines by department, cost centre, project or location.
What happens if we disconnect?
The refresh token is revoked and the history of posted journals is kept for your audit trail.