A Small Business Guide to Paystubs

Small businesses need to take charge of myriad administrative tasks, and paystubs are a small but significant part of the wider payroll puzzle.

If you are a small business owner and paystubs have left you baffled, here are a few things you need to know.

Creating paystubs is a breeze

The good news is that from a practical perspective, it has never been easier to make and manage paystubs, whether for your employees or for your own use if you manage a microbusiness.

With the help of a paystub creator, you can conjure up comprehensive, professional-looking paystubs in minutes, which are useful for everything from tracking pay over time to providing proof of income as and when this is necessary.

 The other advantage of using the latest software to produce paystubs is that a lot of the process can be automated, meaning that you do not have to spend a lot of your precious time doing tedious calculations to ensure that the figures included on each paystub are accurate. This is not just an efficiency advantage, but also one which means that human error is less of a factor when handling payroll matters in your small firm.

Knowing what to include is essential

While every paystub will obviously be unique in its own way, you still need to tick some basic boxes in terms of the information you include on every one.

Firstly you need to add the personal info relating to the employee in question, as well as the period of time to which the stub refers. Make sure to partially redact any especially sensitive info, such as the Social Security number of the recipient, in order to avoid the stub being a security risk if it falls into the wrong hands.

Next you need to include the number of hours worked, as well as the gross pay including both basic wages and any earnings from tips, commissions and bonuses. Deductions come next, encompassing things like tax, pension payments and insurance, followed by the net pay for the period covered by the stub.

You have some optional extras to include if you wish at this point, such as totting up the amount of vacation time that an employee has accrued, or including the figures that show how much they have made in the year so far, not just in the most recent week or month.

Considering employee status is important

You can issue paystubs to all sorts of people who work for or with your business, but understanding how their role and status impacts the pay they receive and thus the details included on the stubs is important.

For example, there are different tax codes and obligations for workers depending on whether they are full time employees of an organization or freelancers, contractors or any other non-permanent team member.

Clearly these elements have an impact on deductibles, and should also be considered carefully because they will of course have ramifications with regards to your broader business tax submissions and payments.

Paystubs benefit employees and employers alike

On the outside, it might seem like paystub creation is another duty to add to your already overburdened to-do list, but in actuality there are advantages across the board, on top of those mentioned so far.

For employees, it means more transparency regarding pay, as well as better job satisfaction if in-depth stats are provided to show how much progress they are making over time.

For employers, it is a clear, concise way to document payroll data and also gives you evidence to pull up if necessary to resolve misunderstandings or disputes.

So in short, providing paystubs is both straightforward thanks to modern technology and eminently useful for everyone involved with your business.