What Paycheck Records Are Mandatory For The Employers To Keep?

• Reading Time: 2 Minutes
• Published: November 6, 2020
• Last Updated: January 23, 2025

A business owner keeps all records related to its business and its employees, including payroll records. These records include all information related to the compensation of the employees and all the deductions made in their payments, etc. The staff that calculates the payroll needs these records to check for the employees’ commissions, pensions, wages, bonuses, vacation pay, etc.

Each business must keep employee’s payroll records properly. At the time of the audit, businesses may have to pay fines and penalties because of the failure to keep these records. Moreover, you don’t have to go through all other documents to find the employee’s pay details. Business owners are supposed to keep these records so that no extra steps are required. These records must be reviewed beforehand to make sure they are proper as per the requirements of the IRS and FLSA. These records will include the following information-

• Name of the employee, address, occupation, date of birth, gender, and contact details.
• The day his/her work starts and other information.
• The number of hours worked each day/number of hours worked each week.
• The employee is paid hourly or is paid a salary.
• Any deductions or additions made in his wages.
• Overtime payments.
• Payment date.
• Other than these records, various documents need to be kept, like the W-4 Form, which authorizes additions or deductions, a form showing the rise in pay because of promotion or demotion, tax deductions, etc.

Other facts that one should know about keeping the payroll records are-

• Employees’ payroll records can be made on paper or stored electronically. Storing the records online would be safe as the record keepers would not have to worry about losing them.
• Not everybody is allowed to view the payroll records, as these are stored alongside the employee’s personal and identification information. So, only the human resource department, direct supervisors, or the employee himself, but only if an authorized person accompanies him, are allowed to view them.
• The records of the exempted employees are somewhat different from those of the nonexempted employees. Exempted employees may work under conditions with uncommon payment arrangements for whom some facilities are furnished. One must consult some higher authority if any of the employees fall into this category.

There are various service providers that provide payroll outsourcing services. They may help businesses in keeping a check on the payroll of their employees in an organized manner. One can also get online payroll services. It increases the efficiency in performing the tasks, there are very few error possibilities, it allows employees to access the data and simplifies the compliance in case of any new requirements in the documents. They have payroll experts for the tasks being performed so that there are no or minimal errors. Hence, the employees, as well as the business concern, are satisfied.

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