You are not thinking of things correctly. If employees spend their own money on petty cash expenses, the proper way to enter the transaction is as an expense claim. You allocate the claim (for the debit side of the transaction), to the appropriate account, depending on what the employee has purchased for the company. The credit must go to Employee clearing account, and this happens automatically. See the Guide: Use expense claims | Manager.
Do not think of Employee clearing account as “payroll.” That is only one thing it is used for. This account is a record of all transactions between the business and the employee, just like a customer or supplier account.
What, exactly, are you trying to record? Why do you think using the built-in control account (which is related to many functions in Manager) is not appropriate?