I use a 3rd party payroll company and I'm having trouble using journal entries to record the health insurance premiums that are split between employee/employer

The employer portion is insurance expense and the employee portion should offset the accrued liability account.  If you are importing from the 3rd party payroll company for the Employee Insurance deduction or you previously made the journal entry to record the payroll, be sure to use the same liability account and the amounts imported/journaled match the statement amount for the employee. 

For example premium is $313.00 Employee is paying  25% employer pays 75%. If paid monthly deduction from employee is $78.25.

When the payment is made to Insurance company write a check or journal entry the following:

Credit Cash $313

Debit accrued liability Insurance account 78.25 (this is the amount that was deducted from paycheck)

Debit Insurance Expense 234.75

Hope this helps. 

C

@tina-fox 

Let's say the employee's premium is $400, split 50/50. 

On the pay date, when entering payroll, the journal entry (J/E) looks like this (obviously this is part of a much larger J/E):

When you pay the premium, if you enter a bill (best way), enter the employee portion assigned to the pre-tax employee liability account and the employer portion to your employer-portion expense account.  This will zero out the liability account and book the employer expense.  Then, pay the bill. 

Or, if you use a J/E to record the insurance payment: