The totals object

This object captures total employee, contractor, and company reimbursements, taxes, and benefits.

{
  "employee_gross": "961.54",
  "employee_reimbursements": "0.00",
  "employee_taxes": "249.23",
  "employee_benefits": "0.00",
  "post_tax_deductions": "0.00",
  "employee_net": "712.31",
  "contractor_gross": "100.00",
  "contractor_reimbursements": "15.00",
  "contractor_net": "115.00",
  "company_taxes": "73.56",
  "company_benefits": "0.00",
  "liability": "1150.10",
  "cash_requirement": "1150.10"
}

Let’s lay out a hypothetical example to illustrate how this works in practice.

Imagine a payroll that has has the following:

$1,000.00 gross wage payment to an employee. The employee opts to be paid via paper check, instead of direct deposit.
A $15.00 reimbursement for the same employee.
A $200.00 employee tax amount (e.g. Federal Income Tax)
A $50.00 employee benefit contribution
A $50.00 employee post-tax deduction
A $100.00 company tax amount (e.g. Employer FICA)
A $100.00 company benefit contribution

In this scenario, the payroll would have the following totals:

employee_gross: $1,000.00
employee_reimbursements: $15.00
employee_taxes: $200.00
employee_benefits: $50.00
post_tax_deductions: $50.00
employee_net: $715.00 ($1,000.00 gross, plus the $15.00 reimbursement, less the $50.00 employee benefit contribution, $50.00 post-tax deduction, and $200 employee tax amount)
contractor_gross: $0.00
contractor_reimbursements: $0.00
contractor_net: $0.00
company_taxes: $100.00
company_benefits: $100.00
liability: $1,215.00 ($1,000 gross, plus the $15.00 reimbursement, $100.00 company benefit contribution, $100.00 company tax amount — which is additional to the employee’s earnings, whereas the employee taxes are withheld from the employee’s gross wages)
cash_requirement: $300.00 ($200.00 employee tax amount plus $100.00 company tax amount. Check does not debit the company for employee net in this instance, because the employee is paid via paper check. Check does not debit the company for company benefits either — these are handled by the company itself. However, in all instances Check will debit the company for employee and company tax amounts, regardless of payment method, so that we can remit tax payments to agencies on time)

Attribute	Description
employee_gross string	Total amount of all employee gross pay, including taxable and non-taxable components. This is the sum of gross_pay for all payroll items.
employee_reimbursements string	Total amount of all employee reimbursements.
employee_taxes string	Total amount of all employee tax liability. This is the sum of all of the employee taxes on the payroll.
employee_benefits string	Total amount of all employee benefit contributions.
post_tax_deductions string	Total amount of all employee post-tax deductions.
employee_net string	Total amount that should be paid from the company to its employees, excluding employee taxes, employee benefit contributions, and imputed income. This is the sum of net_pay for all payroll items.
contractor_gross string	Total amount of all contractor gross compensation. This is the sum of amount for all contractor payments.
contractor_reimbursements string	Total amount of all contractor reimbursements.
contractor_net string	Total amount that should be paid from the company to its contractors, including reimbursements.
company_taxes string	Total amount of all company tax liability. This is the sum of all of the employer taxes on the payroll.
company_benefits string	Total amount of company benefit contributions.
liability string	Total amount that the company owes to employees, contractors, tax agencies, and benefits providers. This is the sum of `employee_net`, `employee_taxes`, `company_taxes`, and `company_benefits`.
cash_requirement string	Total cash amount that Check will withdraw from the company's account for the payroll after it is approved. Note: This number is impacted by the `payment_method` on each payroll item. Employees who opt to be paid via the `manual` payment method will not have their net pay withdrawn from employer accounts, and thus will not contribute to `cash_requirement`