Practical guides for preparing clear payroll statements.
PAYROLL RECORDS
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.
WORKER RECORDS
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.
BEFORE YOU DOWNLOAD
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.