Two different jobs get confused here. Calculating payroll — gross to net, federal and state withholding, FICA, benefits, garnishments — is regulated, changes annually, and belongs to payroll software or a service. Printing the resulting check and stub is a document problem. This guide is about the second.
What belongs on a pay stub
Requirements vary by state, and several states mandate specific contents, so check your own. The commonly expected fields:
- Employer name and address
- Employee name, and often a partial identifier
- Pay period start and end dates, and the pay date
- Hours worked, including regular and overtime, for hourly employees
- Rate of pay
- Gross pay
- Each deduction itemized — federal income tax, state and local tax, Social Security, Medicare, insurance, retirement, garnishments
- Net pay
- Year-to-date totals for gross, each deduction and net
- Accrued leave balances, where applicable
Some states require a stub even for direct deposit, which is why "we do not print checks" does not remove the obligation.
Format
Payroll almost always uses a check-in-the-middle voucher layout: stub above, check in the middle, stub below. One stub goes to the employee, one is retained. The check itself is an ordinary check drawn on the business account — see business vs personal check layout.
Where the numbers come from
Your payroll process produces the figures; the printing software places them. In practice that means one of:
- Payroll software that exports a file of check data.
- A payroll service that gives you the figures but leaves you to print.
- A very small operation calculating manually — possible, but the responsibility for correct withholding sits entirely with you.
Practical points that cause trouble
- Number sequence. Payroll usually runs on a separate account or at least a separate number range. Overlapping ranges cause returned items.
- Timing. Print and sign before the pay date, not on it.
- Storage. Payroll checks and stubs contain personal data; the copies you retain need to be secured accordingly.
- Voided checks. Void, record and keep. Never destroy the record of a consumed number.
- Direct deposit employees still typically need a stub, printed or electronic.
What software should not promise
Be sceptical of any check printing product that implies it handles tax compliance. Withholding tables change every year, state rules differ, and getting it wrong creates a liability that no document-printing feature can offset. The correct division is: payroll system calculates, check software prints.