Cannot release payroll batch due to processing error

Hi everyone,

I am going through the L100 Payroll module, and I’m processing a direct deposit payment batch.

I’ve created the batch, exported a pre-note file and an export file, and confirmed the batch as paid.  I’m now trying to release it to the ledger.  I keep getting the following error:

I checked the payroll batch used for the payment, and the cost codes for all employees are empty:

So, two questions:

1. The project I used to create the payroll batch has a cost code assigned of 00-000.  The documentation says that Acumatica will pull that information from the project data when it creates the payroll batch.  However, it didn’t do that.  Why?
2. Why would the system perform this check so late in the process?  This is after I entered, approved, and released all the time activity, after I created and processed the payroll batch [this seems like the logical point to perform the check], and after I created, processed, and paid the payment batch.  This is very late in the process and could save a lot of rework if this error was identified earlier.

Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks!