What to Prepare Before You Create a Paystub

Before you create a paystub, gather six groups of details: employer information, worker information, pay dates and frequency, earnings figures, deduction amounts and year-to-date totals. Take each figure from a record such as a timesheet, offer letter, benefits statement or previous stub, and work out per-period amounts before you open the form.

Having everything ready does two things. It stops you guessing halfway through the form, and it lets you check each entry against its source instead of against memory. To see how these groups look on a finished document, the overview of fields a pay stub carries shows each one in place.

The six field groups and where each figure comes from

Use the table as a gathering list. The right-hand column is the record to open, so every number you type has somewhere to point back to.

PayStubGo's form asks for the company first, then the employee, then the pay period and pay date, then earnings. Arranging your notes in that same sequence lets you type straight down the page without switching between documents.

Employer and worker details

Small inconsistencies here outlast everything else, because they repeat on every stub.

• Business name: use the name your other records use. If invoices say "Harbor Street Design LLC", the stub should not say "Harbor Design".
• EIN: the nine-digit employer identification number, written like 12-3456789. Some sole proprietors without employees do not have one; leave the field empty rather than inventing a number.
• Worker name: spelled exactly as in payroll or onboarding records, including hyphens and suffixes.
• Addresses: current ones, with the correct state, since the state often matters for which tax lines apply.
• Social Security number: many stubs carry none. If one appears, the last four digits are the most it should show.

Pay frequency and dates

Settle the pay frequency before anything else. It fixes how long each period runs and how a salary divides, and a wrong choice here makes every later figure look inconsistent. If you are unsure which schedule applies, the explainer on choosing the pay frequency compares them.

Then collect three dates for each stub: the period start, the period end and the pay date. Take the pay date from the bank deposit or check record rather than from the usual schedule, since holidays and weekends can move it. If you need several consecutive stubs, write out every period and pay date in a list first so you can see the pattern before typing any of them.

Working out earnings before you type

Doing the arithmetic on paper first means the form only receives finished numbers, and the preview becomes a check instead of a calculation.

Illustrative example (made-up figures): An hourly employee paid $18.00 an hour works 44 hours in the first week and 38 hours in the second week of a biweekly period, with overtime at 1.5 times the rate for hours over 40 in a workweek.

• Week 1: 40 regular hours and 4 overtime hours
• Week 2: 38 regular hours and 0 overtime hours
• Regular pay: 78 × $18.00 = $1,404.00
• Overtime rate: $18.00 × 1.5 = $27.00
• Overtime pay: 4 × $27.00 = $108.00
• Gross pay: $1,404.00 + $108.00 = $1,512.00

Averaging the two weeks would have produced a different answer: 82 hours is 2 hours over 80, so 80 × $18.00 + 2 × $27.00 = $1,494.00, which is $18.00 less. Overtime depends on the workweek, not the pay period. Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, the US Department of Labor generally requires overtime at no less than 1.5 times the regular rate after 40 hours in a workweek, and some states add their own rules, such as California's daily overtime threshold. Check your state labor agency if you are unsure which rule applies.

Salaried pay needs a different calculation: annual salary divided by the number of periods in the year.

Illustrative example (made-up figures): A salaried employee earns $62,400.00 a year.

Bonuses, commissions and reimbursements belong on their own lines with their own amounts. Reimbursements in particular are often recorded differently from wages, so read up on reimbursements versus earnings before deciding where one goes.

Deductions: labels and amounts from a record

Collect each deduction as a pair: the label as it appears on the source and the amount for this period. The latest stub is the best starting point, but check it against anything that changed since then.

• New elections. Benefits enrollment or a new dental plan changes the amount from the first affected pay date.
• Percentage contributions. A retirement contribution of 5% on the $1,512.00 gross above is $1,512.00 × 0.05 = $75.60, so it moves whenever gross pay moves.
• Pre-tax or post-tax. Note which kind each deduction is, because that affects taxable wages; the guide to pre-tax and post-tax deductions explains the difference.
• Contractor payments. A payment summary for an independent contractor often has no withholding at all, and that should be a deliberate entry rather than a skipped one.

If you cannot find a source for a deduction amount, stop and find it. A missing figure is a question for the payroll records, not a gap to fill with an estimate.

Year-to-date totals from the last stub

Open the most recent stub and copy its YTD values: gross pay, each tax and net pay. The new stub's YTD figures will be those values plus the current period's amounts.

Two situations change that. On the first pay date of the year, YTD values equal the current period, because the count starts again. After a job change, YTD values cover only pay from the current employer, which trips people up often enough that there is a separate explainer on YTD after a job change.

If there is no previous stub, rebuild YTD from pay records: list each pay date so far this year with its gross and net, then add them. A bank statement showing each deposit is a useful check on the net column.

Where to look when a figure is missing

Gaps turn up even with good records. Before estimating anything, try the record most likely to hold the answer:

• Hourly rate or salary: the offer letter, a pay change notice or the most recent stub.
• Hours worked: the timesheet, a time clock export or the scheduling app the business uses.
• A deduction amount: the benefits portal, the plan's enrollment confirmation or a retirement plan statement.
• The pay date: the bank statement line for the deposit, or the check itself.
• Previous YTD values: the last stub of the year so far, or a total of each deposit on bank statements for the net column.
• An employer detail: an invoice, a tax notice or the business registration record.

If none of those holds the figure, the person or provider who ran the payment is the right one to ask. A stub prepared with one estimated line can mislead, because a reader cannot tell which figure was estimated.

Preparing for several stubs at once

When you need a run of consecutive periods, preparation shifts from single figures to a small schedule. Write one row per period with its start date, end date, pay date, hours or salary, and any change that took effect that period, such as a raise or a new deduction.

That schedule catches problems early. A missing period shows up as a gap in the dates, a raise shows up on the exact period it began, and the YTD values can be pre-calculated row by row so each stub's totals are known before you open the form.

Details to leave off the stub

Preparation also means deciding what not to include:

• Full Social Security numbers and dates of birth.
• Bank account and routing numbers.
• Personal phone numbers or email addresses that are not needed to identify the worker.
• Internal notes, such as reasons for a pay change, which belong in your own records.

A readiness check before opening the form

Run through this list once everything is gathered:

1. Employer and worker details match the names and addresses used in other records.
2. Pay frequency is chosen, and every period and pay date is written down.
3. Earnings are already calculated per period, with overtime worked out by workweek.
4. Every deduction has a label, an amount and a source.
5. YTD values from the last stub are to hand, or rebuilt from pay records.
6. Sensitive details you will not include are set aside.

With that done, walk through the creation steps or open the paystub builder and enter the figures group by group.

Careful preparation still does not make a paystub an official payroll record. PayStubGo formats the figures you enter and does not calculate taxes authoritatively, so confirm withholding questions with the employer's payroll provider or a tax professional.