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Conto Documentation

How to Import a Payroll Journal into Conto

This guide shows you how to import a payroll journal file into Conto to create employee counterparties. This is needed when your client uses a third-party payroll provider (ADP, Paychex, Gusto, etc.) and the IIF import didn’t include employees.

When you need this

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QuickBooks Desktop only stores employees in its Employee Center when its built-in payroll module is active. If your client uses an external payroll provider, the IIF file will contain vendors and customers but zero employees. Without employee counterparties, Conto can’t match payroll checks on bank statements — they’ll all land in “Needs Review.”

The payroll journal from the provider contains the individual employee names that Conto needs.

Prerequisites

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  • A payroll journal exported to Excel (.xls) from the payroll provider
  • The IIF import completed first (so accounts and vendors are already in Conto)

Supported formats

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Conto detects payroll journal files automatically during bulk import. The file should contain:

  • Employee names (typically in “Last, First” format)
  • A numeric employee ID column

Currently supported layouts:

SourceFormatNotes
QuickBooks Payroll Journal.xlsEmployee ID in column A, name in column D

Steps

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1. Get the payroll journal from your client

Section titled “1. Get the payroll journal from your client”

Ask the client (or their payroll provider) for a payroll journal export covering the same period as the bank statements you’re reconciling. The file must include individual employee names — a summary report with only totals won’t work.

2. Upload the file

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Go to the client’s import page in Conto and upload the payroll journal .xls file. Conto auto-detects it as a payroll journal and extracts employee names.

3. Review the results

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Confirm the import summary shows the expected employee count. Conto normalizes name casing (e.g., “SMITH, JOHN” becomes “Smith, John”) and deduplicates automatically.

Verification

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After importing, confirm:

  • Employee counterparties appear in the client’s counterparty list
  • Names are in “Last, First” format with correct casing
  • Key employees you expect to see on checks are present

Troubleshooting

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Zero employees extracted

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The file may not match a supported layout. Open it in Excel and verify that employee names appear alongside numeric IDs. If the layout differs from the supported formats above, contact support.

Duplicate counterparties after import

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If employees were previously created manually or from another source, duplicates may appear. Merge duplicates in the counterparty list.

Names don’t match check payees

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Payroll journals use “Last, First” format but checks may print “First Last.” Conto uses fuzzy matching (trigram similarity and phonetic matching) during reconciliation, which usually handles this difference. If a specific employee’s checks still aren’t matching, add the check payee format as an alias on the counterparty.

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