How to Create a Pay Stub From Payroll Records
A step-by-step guide to employer details, pay periods, earnings, withholding, and reviewing a completed payroll statement.
Read the guide →Understand Your Pay Stub
Use these guides to organize and check your payroll records before downloading.
Gross Pay vs. Net Pay on a Pay Stub
Understand the difference between earnings before deductions and take-home pay, with a simple worked example and a review checklist.
Read the guide →What Does YTD Mean on a Pay Stub?
Learn how opening balances and current payments build year-to-date earnings and deductions, and how to review a batch of payroll statements.
Read the guide →Getting Year-to-Date Balances Right
Year-to-date totals are running balances for the calendar year in which wages were paid. Use actual opening gross earnings and withholding from your employer’s records before the earliest payment in your new batch.
Enter periods in any order; the generator sorts them by pay date. When a payment falls in a new calendar year, the running balances reset to zero. If you are documenting a partial year, enter the correct opening balances instead of assuming they can be calculated from salary.
Employees and Contractors
Use an earnings statement for employee payroll. For an independent contractor’s payments, choose Contractor so the document is labeled Payment Statement. It records payments and any actual deductions you supply, without automatically applying employee payroll withholding.
A payment statement does not determine a worker’s classification and does not replace required year-end reporting.
A Simple Review Checklist
- Verify the employer and worker names.
- Check each period’s dates, hours, and rate.
- Reconcile deductions and net pay with payroll records.
- Confirm opening YTD balances.
- Save your draft and final PDFs securely.