A Professionally-Generated Example Paystub: What It Features

What does a paystub look like and what does it need to contain in order to meet all legal requirements? Looking at an example answers those questions and gives you some additional useful information. Finding a legit example you can count on depends on several things.

A good example paystub can be generated via an online platform or another kind of software, as long as you understand the legal requirements and you have sufficient personalization capabilities. To assess platforms effortlessly, check out the example below and the types of data that are required by law.

What a Paystub Example Should Feature

While certain fields can be omitted or added depending on your preferences, certain types of information should always be featured in a paystub:

• Employee name and information
• Company name and information
• Hours worked and hourly rate or fixed pay
• Gross pay
• Net pay
• Deductions and taxation information (taxes – both state and federal), voluntary contributions
• Employer contributions
• Overtime pay, sick leaves, vacation days

Other Fields

The types of information mentioned above are the must-haves.

In some instances, however, you could be looking for additional elements in a paystub example. These can be beneficial for branding, making the information more accessible for your workers or making sure that your database is organized in a way that meets your criteria.

So, when looking at a paystub example, you may want to have it featuring a couple of elements like:

• Some space to display your company logo or other branding elements
• A quick summary that highlights the most important takeaway from the paystub for that respective period
• Rate categories for different kinds of hourly work
• Information on insurance premiums (usually not required by law but can be quite beneficial for workers to see in the document)

The Complexity of a Paystub Depends on the Size of Your Business

Generally speaking, a paystub’s complexity depends on the size of your business.

Usually, small and mid-sized businesses have fewer mandatory fields to include in their employee paystubs.

Thus, it’s a good idea to look at examples that correspond to your company’s parameters before using those to base paystubs on.

A simple paystub usually contains only the mandatory fields like:

• Gross wages
• Deductions
• Employer contributions
• Net pay

And that’s it. You don’t have to get things more complicated than that unless you’re required to feature other kinds of data by law. So, do check regulations and make sure that you’re ensuring compliance with the types of documents that you issue for your customers.

These are some of the paystub best practices to focus on and to base an example upon. Once you find a good example, you can use it to create identical paystubs. They’ll meet local legal requirements and they’ll also be beneficial as far as retention and archive maintenance go.

Good examples of paystubs can be generated both via free and paid-for software products. If you’re not confident about the quality of an example that you’re looking at, do consult a professional. Accounting and HR experts can guide you through the essentials and even guide you towards the types of paystub examples worth checking out.