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 for each pay run via email or as a physical paper copy (to suit different needs).

A payslip template must include the following information:

• the total amount of pay (salary earned), 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 workers are paid hourly, the payslip should also contain their ordinary hourly rate and hours worked at that rate. If an employee receives a fixed salary, the salary rate should also be included.

Additional information, such as leave balances, house rent allowance, and incentive-based payments, may also be included, depending on your business or employment arrangements.

As an employer, you must provide payslips or a salary slip within 1 business day of your employee receiving their pay. 

Providing payslips on time is not only legally required but also considered payroll best practice for maintaining transparency and accurate employee records.

As an employer, you must retain your employees’ details, employment status, timesheets, and payroll information for 7 years. For more information, see the Fair Work Ombudsman.

There is no specific format that a payslip must follow as long as it contains all legal requirements under the relevant Australian jurisdiction.

However, there is a level of commonality between most payslips that employees recognise and understand. It makes sense to keep your chosen format consistent with standard payroll conventions, such as showing gross pay before net pay, displaying deductions, and clearly including employer information at the top of the document.

Using a clean and tailored format can help employees understand their earnings and payroll information more easily.

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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 Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and Fair Work requirements, including Single Touch Payroll reporting obligations. Once you have processed your employee pay, you still need to submit the payroll information to the ATO via an STP-enabled payroll software solution.

Our payroll software helps businesses fulfil their reporting obligations, streamline payroll management, and ensure employee payments are processed accurately and efficiently.

For more information on STP-compliant products, visit our range of payroll solutions.