I have an employee has is being garnisheed for child support for 2 children. I have setup the payroll accounts to do the deductions from the paycheck, and created a vendor to cut the checks, but I want to know where to expense the amounts on the checks. For the time being I posted the amounts to Payroll expense, but I know that's not right. I considered creating an account called "Child Support" and posting the expense there, but where does the other side come from. My payroll deductions items are called Child Support and Child Support 2 but where do they appear in the chart of accounts? Payroll Liabilities? So do I just offset the Child Support expense and post the other side in Payroll Liabilities?

I apologize if my wording of this question is faulty, and displays my lack of accounting knowledge. I hope someone here will be able to help me.

Randy Clay