Mixing up employee information or delaying salary payments due to disorganization can significantly impact employee morale, productivity, and engagement, as work takes up a significant portion of our lives. The average adult spends one-third of a lifetime, an estimated 90,000 hours, working.
When employees do not feel valued or confident that they will get paid on time and without friction, they start to disengage and look for better work opportunities. Business owners can reduce employee churn and dissatisfaction and attract top professional talent by creating an environment where work is rewarded promptly, accurately, and seamlessly for every pay period.
Pay stub templates help HR and finance departments collate employee information and standardize the organization’s process of collecting, sorting, and disbursing payments. In this article, we'll define what they are, share top benefits, and list four pay stub templates you can use to organize your company’s payroll processes.
What is a pay stub template?
Before moving on to the templates, let's first define pay stubs.
A pay stub is a piece of paper given by an employer or organization to an employee (or contractor) to serve as a record of payment. If an employee receives payments via bank transfer, a pay stub is attached to the deposit. If they receive payments through cheques, it is then attached to the paycheck.
Pay stubs provide information about each payment, including:
- Gross earnings
- Overtime pay
- Tax deductions
- Fund contributions
- Net earnings
They are used to calculate and estimate deductions for tax filing and make it easy for organizations to see how much is spent on payroll in a period and what each employee takes home. Pay stubs provide proof of payment for the employer and proof of income for employees.
Pay stub templates are editable documents or forms providing a consistent system for employers to document staff details and payments. A pay stub template can be called as a salary pay stub template as well.
They vastly improve efficiency in an organization's financial recording and bookkeeping processes and ensure compliance with relevant tax laws and other regulations.
These templates come in many styles and colors. They can be basic and simple or detailed and very well-designed. Every organization must consider its staff needs and industry requirements before settling on a template.
Why is utilizing a good pay stub template important?
Pay stub templates offer many benefits. Five of the most important are:
- Proof of income and employment: Pay stubs are helpful for employees to prove their ability to take on and pay back loans when needed. In some instances, they also serve as proof of employment.
- Saving time: Pay stub templates are created once and used many times, saving time spent starting from scratch to gather, sort, pay, and account for payroll every month or pay period. Users simply edit the form fields with correct figures based on each period.
- Consistency: These templates help to maintain a clean, consistent, and professional appearance for a company’s payroll management and accounting system.
- Provides data for tax filing: They provide collated payment information for a period for timely tax filing.
- Reducing bookkeeping errors: Pay stub templates compile and standardize all necessary employee or contract information once and for all, reducing the chances of human errors and oversight.
What are the different types of pay stubs?
Now we share four easy-to-use pay stub types you can choose from:
Basic stubs
A basic salary pay stub is simple and minimal. It contains all the necessary information about employee payments during a period, e.g., hours worked, overtime pay, and deductions. Basic stub templates are easily created and editable in word processing or spreadsheet software.
Document stubs
Document pay stubs are typically made in a Microsoft Word document. You can also create them with Google Docs or other word processors. Use the software you’re most familiar with and create and tweak your document pay stub template to cater to your organization’s style and needs.
Spreadsheet stubs
Spreadsheet pay stubs are made with spreadsheet software tools like Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. Creating spreadsheet templates may require you to be familiar with complex spreadsheet formulas to make the pay stubs easily editable and reusable.
You can download a free spreadsheet template online if you can’t create one on your own. These stubs make it easy to log and synchronize employee hours worked with the amount earned.
Electronic paystubs
Electronic pay stub templates are likely the best option of the group. They are typically made with online stub generators and tools, enabling employers to digitally pay salaries and create and send the associated pay stubs. This streamlines payroll processing and increases efficiency in an organization’s accounting.
Electronic pay stubs ensure uniformity and save time, as employees do not have to make frequent requests for their pay stubs. Most of the workflow may be automated, reducing delays and human errors. Electronic pay stubs can be created automatically using online pay stub generators and digital stub makers.
Tips for creating a salary pay stub template
There are two main ways to make a pay stub template:
- Manually with word processing or spreadsheet tools
- Digitally with online pay stub generators
Whether you choose to create one manually or digitally, keep the following tips in mind:
- Ensure the company name and contact information are at the top of the document
- Include fields for invoice number and other required employee information
- Create fields to show how each salary is broken down, e.g., hours worked and any deductions
Most payroll software systems today have built-in pay stub generators. You only have to tweak them to suit your needs and enter the details for each new pay stub. You can also find free online templates to modify, download, and share with employees.
How Wrike project management software can help create and manage pay stubs
When it comes to managing staff and contractor payments and pay stubs efficiently, having an organized system in place is crucial.
Creating a system that streamlines the payments and accounting process can significantly save time for companies and employees. Wrike’s project management software for accounting teams provides a range of functionalities that help create and disburse pay stubs efficiently. Some of these are:
- Time tracking: Wrike provides manual and automated time tracking features as a part of its robust work management platform. This helps organizations of many sizes to develop and manage a cohesive process of managing payroll, disbursing pay stubs, and synchronizing both processes to minimize human errors or missing payments and claims.
- Timesheets: The time tracking data gathered in the Wrike system can be manually or automatically shared with the finance and accounts department using timesheets. Wrike timesheets can be locked to minimize human manipulation. They can also be easily edited in cases where the timer wasn’t started on time. This makes it easy to ensure the accounting team receives the correct work hours for each employee and can pay out their salaries in time with accurate pay stubs.
- Budgeting: Wrike’s financial project management software simplifies project scoping, planning, and budgeting. Employers and managers align payroll and budgets and reduce the occurrence of cost overruns or delayed payments. This helps bring clarity and accuracy to project planning and budgeting for project managers and financial departments.
- Customizable templates: Wrike offers a rich library of templates that can help finance and accounting teams create or optimize their workflows and collaborations with other departments. This helps them get the data they need for payroll processing and disburse payments and pay stubs as needed. Wrike also offers Blueprints, a tool to help you organize and track collaborators and resources spent on specific projects and tasks, such as weekly salary calculations. Blueprints can be used to create unique payroll projects with specific compliance rules or workflows.
Are you looking to streamline, automate, and optimize aspects of your payroll processing system? Look no further. Begin today with a two-week free trial of Wrike.
