A payroll register is the record of one pay run: a row for each employee showing hours, gross pay, taxes withheld, other deductions and net pay, with totals at the bottom. It is the summary an employer checks before money leaves the bank, and the source for tax deposits, the books and year-end forms.
Payroll software prints one for every run. If you pay people from a spreadsheet, the register is the spreadsheet. Either way it answers three questions: what each person earned, what was held back and why, and how much the business owes the IRS and the state.
What goes in a payroll register
A register usually carries one column for each line that appears on a pay stub, so the two always tie out:
- Who: employee name or ID, and the pay period and pay date for the whole run.
- Earnings: regular hours and rate, overtime hours and pay, salary, bonuses or tips, and gross pay.
- Withholding: federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare, and state or local income tax.
- Deductions: retirement contributions, health premiums, loan repayments, garnishments.
- Net pay and the check number or direct deposit reference.
Federal wage law does not ask for any particular form, but it does list 14 facts an employer must keep for each non-exempt worker. A register covers most of them for a pay period. Daily hours and personal details such as address usually live in timecards and the employee file instead.
A payroll register, filled in
Here is a register for an invented auto repair shop in San Antonio, Texas, with a salaried manager, two technicians who worked some overtime and a part-time service writer. The columns match our free Excel template, so you can see exactly what goes where.
| Employee | Hours | Rate | OT hours | Regular pay | OT pay | Gross pay | Federal tax | Social Security | Medicare | State tax | Other deductions | Net pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. Reyes Shop manager | Salary | $2,250.00 | $2,250.00 | $186.15 | $139.50 | $32.63 | $0.00 | $1,891.72 | ||||
| B. Okafor Lead technician | 80 | $28.00 | 6 | $2,240.00 | $252.00 | $2,492.00 | $131.35 | $154.50 | $36.13 | $0.00 | $40.00 | $2,130.02 |
| C. Nguyen Technician | 80 | $22.50 | 3 | $1,800.00 | $101.25 | $1,901.25 | $144.30 | $117.88 | $27.57 | $0.00 | $1,611.50 | |
| D. Walsh Service writer | 72 | $18.00 | $1,296.00 | $1,296.00 | $71.67 | $80.35 | $18.79 | $0.00 | $1,125.19 | |||
| Totals | 232 | 9 | $7,586.00 | $353.25 | $7,939.25 | $533.47 | $492.23 | $115.12 | $0.00 | $40.00 | $6,758.43 |
Read across a row and it is that person’s pay stub. Read down a column and you get the run’s totals: what the shop pays out in net pay, what it withheld for the IRS, and what it holds for other parties, such as the lead technician’s tool loan.
The state tax column is zero because Texas has no state income tax. In most states it would hold the state withholding calculated from the employee’s state form. Our pay stub generator works out each employee’s federal, Social Security, Medicare and supported state amounts one person at a time.
What the register does not show: the employer’s taxes
Every number in the register above comes out of the employees’ pay. The business owes more on top: its own matching share of Social Security and Medicare, federal unemployment tax (FUTA) and state unemployment tax. Many registers add these as extra columns on the right.
| Employee | Paid before this payday | Gross pay | Employer Social Security | Employer Medicare | FUTA | Texas unemployment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. Reyes | $45,000 | $2,250.00 | $139.50 | $32.63 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| B. Okafor | $49,840 | $2,492.00 | $154.50 | $36.13 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| C. Nguyen | $38,025 | $1,901.25 | $117.88 | $27.57 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| D. Walsh | $25,920 | $1,296.00 | $80.35 | $18.79 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Totals, Oct 16 | $7,939.25 | $492.23 | $115.12 | $0.00 | $0.00 | |
| Totals, first payday (Jan 9) | $7,939.25 | $492.23 | $115.12 | $47.64 | $214.35 |
In October the shop’s unemployment taxes are zero, because every employee passed the $7,000 FUTA base and the Texas base months earlier. The employer columns would have looked very different in January, as the last row shows, even though the hours were identical.
That pattern is why a register for a single payday can mislead you about cost. Budget for the heavier payrolls at the start of the year, and see what is FUTA and what is SUTA for how those two taxes work.
How to use the register’s totals
The totals row is not just a check figure. Each one feeds something you have to do:
- Deposit federal taxes. Withheld income tax plus both halves of Social Security and Medicare is what you deposit with the IRS on your monthly or semiweekly schedule.
- Fund the payroll account. Total net pay is what must be in the bank on payday.
- Pay other parties. Retirement contributions, insurance premiums and garnishments go to the plan, insurer or agency.
- Record it in the books. Gross pay and employer taxes are expenses; the withholding and deductions sit as liabilities until they are paid.
At the end of each quarter, the registers for that quarter add up to the wage and tax lines on Form 941. At year end, each employee’s column totals for the year should match their Form W-2. If they do not, the register is where you find the mistake.
Payroll register, pay stub and earnings record
The three records hold the same numbers, arranged for different readers:
| Record | What it covers | Who uses it |
|---|---|---|
| Payroll register | Every employee, one pay run | The employer, to check and pay the run and deposit taxes |
| Pay stub | One employee, one pay run, with year-to-date totals | The employee, to see how their pay was worked out |
| Employee earnings record | One employee, every pay run in the year | The employer, to prepare the W-2 and answer questions |
A pay stub is a single row of the register, reformatted for one person. How to read a pay stub walks through each line from the employee’s side.
Free payroll register template
Our payroll register template is an Excel file that also opens in Google Sheets. It has the same pay columns as the example above plus an employee ID, room for twenty employees, and a second sheet for year-to-date totals.
- Regular pay, overtime at time and a half, and gross pay calculate from the hours and rate you enter.
- Social Security at 6.20% and Medicare at 1.45% calculate from gross pay. Stop the Social Security column once an employee passes the $184,500 wage base.
- Federal and state income tax are typed in from the withholding tables or the pay stub generator, because they depend on each employee’s W-4.
- Net pay and the totals row add themselves up.
The template covers the employee side only. If you want the employer columns from the example, add four on the right: matching Social Security, matching Medicare, FUTA and state unemployment tax.
How long to keep payroll registers
Keep each register for at least 4 years. Federal wage law asks for 3 years for payroll records and 2 for timecards and rate tables, while the IRS asks employers to keep employment tax records for 4 years. Many states set their own periods, so check yours as well.
Store them where you can find a specific pay run quickly. A question from an employee, a state wage claim or an IRS notice usually starts with one payday, and the register is the fastest way to show what was paid and why.
Sources: U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #21, Recordkeeping Requirements under the FLSA; IRS Publication 15 (2026); Texas new employer unemployment rate and wage base from the U.S. Department of Labor, Significant Provisions of State UI Laws, July 2026. Checked October 24, 2026.
