> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.plane.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Journal entries and exports > How Plane builds journal entries from your payroll and payments, and how to export them. Plane builds journal entries from the accounting items you prepare. This page explains which transactions produce items, what lines each item contains, and how items combine into the journal entries you export. ## What creates an accounting item | Transaction | Accounting items | | - | - | | Payroll | One per worker in the run, for employees and contractors | | One-time payment | One per payment to a contractor or vendor | | Plane invoice | One per invoice: your subscription, an EOR deposit, or another invoice | | Charge | One for a refund, or for a direct charge such as a separate tax payment | Skipped payroll items and canceled payments don't create accounting items. ## The lines in each item Every item balances: its debits equal its credits. **US employee payroll** | Debits | Credits | | - | - | | Earnings | Funds Plane debited from your bank | | Reimbursements | Employee deductions, and employer benefit contributions you owe a provider | | Employer taxes Plane pays for you | Taxes you pay yourself | | Employer benefit contributions | Net pay you paid outside Plane, if any | **Employer of record payroll** Earnings, reimbursements, taxes, and benefits are all debits, against a credit for the funds Plane debited. **Contractor and vendor payments** The payment amount is a debit to regular earnings and any reimbursement is a debit to the *Other* reimbursement category, against a credit for the funds Plane debited. Contractors paid through payroll use the full contractor earnings categories. **Plane invoices and refunds** Your subscription is a debit to the Plane subscription mapping. A refund is a debit back to your bank account. ## How items become journal entries When you prepare an item, Plane adds it to the journal entries for its month. * **One journal entry per funding charge.** Everything a charge paid for, such as a whole payroll run, lands in one journal entry, so each entry matches a transaction in your bank feed. * **Lines are summarized by account and reporting category, not listed per person.** Plane combines lines that share an account, a reporting category, and a side (debit or credit). For payroll and payment lines, the description lists the amounts each line combines by name: | Account | Description | Debit | | - | - | - | | Employer payroll taxes | Employer Social Security Tax · Expense: \$868.00, Employer Medicare Tax · Expense: \$203.00 | 1,071.00 | * **The bank line stays whole.** The funds-debited credit is never split by reporting category, so it matches the debits on your bank statement. If you add department rules to your bank account mapping, a payroll gets one bank line per bank account instead. * **Journal entries balance once complete.** While some items paid by a charge are still in **To prepare**, that charge's entry shows the full bank amount and won't balance until the rest are prepared. ## Dates, numbers, and memos **Posting date.** By default, each item is dated by the end of its pay period, and payments without a period use the payment date. You can date items by the charge date instead with the `accounting.grouping` [workspace preference](/reference/preferences/update). With the default, annual subscription invoices use the invoice date. EOR deposits and other invoices always use the invoice date, and refunds and direct charges always use the charge date. A journal entry takes the latest date among its items. **Number.** Journal entries are numbered *Plane 1*, *Plane 2*, and so on, in the order Plane builds them for your workspace. **Memo.** The memo names the transaction type, such as *Employee US Payroll*, *Contractor Payroll*, *Contractor Payment*, *Plane subscription*, or *EOR deposit*. **Currency.** Journal entries are recorded in US dollars. ## Example Say April includes a US payroll for two employees and a one-time payment to a contractor. * Maya, in Sales, earns \$8,000. Sam, in Engineering, earns \$6,000. * Employer taxes are \$1,071: \$868 of Social Security and \$203 of Medicare. * Medical coverage costs \$800: a \$500 employer contribution and \$300 of pre-tax employee deductions, both owed to the insurer. * The contractor is paid \$5,000 on April 15, with no pay period. Plane builds two journal entries. **Plane 41: Employee US Payroll, April 30** | Account | Debit | Credit | | - | - | - | | Salaries and wages | 14,000.00 | | | Employer payroll taxes | 1,071.00 | | | Employee benefits | 500.00 | | | Benefits payable | | 800.00 | | Operating account | | 14,771.00 | The bank line is what Plane debited from your account: | | Amount | | - | - | | Gross pay | 14,000.00 | | Less deductions you'll pay the insurer | −300.00 | | Plus employer taxes | 1,071.00 | | **Funds debited** | **14,771.00** | The 800.00 owed to the insurer stays in *Benefits payable* until you pay it. **Plane 42: Contractor Payment, April 15** | Account | Debit | Credit | | - | - | - | | Contractor fees | 5,000.00 | | | Operating account | | 5,000.00 | With [reporting categories](/product/accounting-mappings#reporting-categories) turned on, each payroll line except the bank credit splits in two: Maya's share tagged *Sales* and Sam's tagged *Engineering*. ## Exporting When your items are in **Ready to export**, open the period's journal entries and click **Export all entries** to post them to QuickBooks Online. Items move to **Exported** only once every journal entry has posted. If QuickBooks rejects an entry or the connection has expired, the export stays ready to retry. ## Supporting detail for each journal entry Journal entries are summarized, so you'll want the detail behind them when you review, reconcile, or close the books. The journal entries screen gives you two downloads. * **Statement PDF.** A record of the period's prepared and exported journal entries, with total debits and credits. Each journal entry is broken down by worker when that fits on about a page, which is 40 rows or fewer. Larger entries, such as a big payroll run, are summarized by account and reporting category instead, so the statement stays readable. Items still in **To prepare** are left out, and the statement says how many. * **CSV or Excel.** Every journal entry line, from the **Download** menu, with these columns: Journal entry ID, Date, Number, Memo, Account, Description, Reporting category, Debit, Credit, and Currency. For payroll and payment lines, the description lists the amounts each line combines. This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.