Free payslip template for small businesses

A payslip is a document that records an employee’s income earned over the pay period. It is broken down into three key areas: gross pay, tax and deductions, and net pay, which is the amount the employee actually receives. Payslips help employees keep track of payments and deductions and ensure they are being paid correctly.

As an employer, you must provide a company payslip at every pay run via email or a physical paper copy (to suit different needs).

A payslip template must include the following information:

• the amount of pay, both gross (before tax) and net (after tax);
• the date of receiving the pay;
• the pay period;
• any loadings, bonuses or penalty rate entitlements;
• deductions;
• superannuation contributions including the name of the super fund;
• the employer’s name and ABN if they have one; and
• the employee’s name.

If you workers are paid hourly, the payslip template should also contain their ordinary hourly rate and how many hours they worked at that rate. If an employee is paid an annual salary, the rate should be as on the last day of the pay period. While this is not a legal requirement, it is best business practice to include the balance on each payslip.

As an employer, you must provide payslips within one business day after your employee receives their pay.

As an employer, you must keep your employee details, timesheets, and payroll information for seven years. For more information, see the Fair Work Ombudsman.

There is no specific format that your payslip should follow as long as it contains all the legal requirements. However, there is a level of commonality between most payslips that most people recognise and are familiar with. It makes sense to keep your chosen format similar to these known conventions, e.g. employer name at the top, gross pay before net pay, insurance, etc., as it will help employees understand their payslips easily.

A payslip is generated from your payroll & employee information.

You can use our free payslip template to create a payslip manually. However, one of the easiest ways to generate your payslips automatically is via your payroll solution.

Need payroll software? Check out Reckon’s affordable range.

Yes, you still must provide your employees’ payslips even if you are reporting via STP.

However, the STP Finalisation Declaration has replaced the need to produce Payment Summaries for employees. The information provided on the Payment Summaries is available in their MyGov account and is known as an Income Statement. If an employee doesn’t have a MyGov account, their accountant will be able to access this information via the Tax Agent portal.

Sending your payslips is only part of your compliance obligations as an employer and small business. You are also required to comply with specific rules from the Australian Tax Office (ATO) and Fair Work Australia. One of these obligations relates to Single Touch Payroll. Once you’ve processed your pay run you still need to submit the payroll information to the ATO via an STP-enabled software solution. For more information on STP-compliant products, visit our range of payroll solutions.