An employer’s guide to producing perfect payslips
One of your duties as an employer is to provide your employees with payslips.
These record their wages for the period of time up until their payday.
Since most employees are paid monthly, you will typically need to produce payslips at the end of every month.
Other pay frequencies are also possible, and paying employees more regularly may help them out in the current financial climate.
Whatever frequency you decide, you need to be prepared to produce payslips for all your employees.
What does a payslip need to include?
While there are plenty of digital tools out there, it is still worth knowing the constituent parts that make up a payslip. This will allow you to ensure that your payslips are complete, and to understand them.
A typical payslip will include as a minimum the following information:
Your business’s name, address, and contact information
The name and ID number of the employee
Their gross pay (before deductions) for the period covered
Each deduction and its amount
Their net pay after deductions
Their pay so far in the current tax year
For hourly employees, you’ll also include the hours worked in that period, as well as any overtime and the rates for that.
How do you make a payslip?
There are a few options when it comes to making payslips for your small business.
You can create them yourself using Excel or another spreadsheet program.
You can make use of the many free online tools and templates.
Or if your business uses accounting software, you can use the in-built features to generate payslips.
Creating your own payslips in Excel
You can create your own payslip template by using the information above. You’d likely simply plug all these details into a spreadsheet and customise it to suit your business.
This is a good option if you want complete control over your payslips, including their contents and appearance.
You will need a decent working knowledge of Excel or any other program you’re using, particular how to use formulae. This is because you’ll want to save time by automating the calculations for each part of the payslip.
The more simple calculations, like taking the gross pay and subtracting the deductions to get the net pay, won’t be too taxing.
But more complicated areas could prove a little more difficult, so make sure you don’t get in over your head.
The DIY approach will probably take a little more time than using an online tool, but you know exactly what you’re getting yourself into.
Use free online payslip templates
If the above sounds like too much work for you, you might consider using a free online template or tool.
With the wealth of resources available online, there’s unlikely to be much need for many business owners to create payslips from scratch themselves.
There are multiple free online templates and tools available which make it easy to generate payslips for your business.
Use your accounting software
If you use accounting software for your business, you will likely be able to generate payslips through this at no extra cost. QuickBooks, Xero, and Sage are some of the most popular options out there and all come with some level of payslip functionality.
Most tools will have options to generate payslips automatically, and they tend to offer a reasonable level of customisation as well. That said, producing branded payslips that match your business’s style or colour scheme can be a premium feature.
If you’re just getting started, keep things simple
It can be tempting as a new business owner or manager to want to get things perfect first time.
And while we certainly aren’t suggesting that you should rush the creation of your payslips, or allow errors to slip through, you don’t need to produce masterpieces either.
Save worrying about custom branding, styles, and ‘nice to know’ information for further down the line.
For now, get the basics that your employees need to know onto their payslips, and gradually look to make improvements as your business grows. Good luck!