Jeff is a writer, founder, and small business expert that focuses on educating founders on the ins and outs of running their business. From answering your legal questions to providing the right software for your unique situation, he brings his knowle.
Jeff White ContributorJeff is a writer, founder, and small business expert that focuses on educating founders on the ins and outs of running their business. From answering your legal questions to providing the right software for your unique situation, he brings his knowle.
Written By Jeff White ContributorJeff is a writer, founder, and small business expert that focuses on educating founders on the ins and outs of running their business. From answering your legal questions to providing the right software for your unique situation, he brings his knowle.
Jeff White ContributorJeff is a writer, founder, and small business expert that focuses on educating founders on the ins and outs of running their business. From answering your legal questions to providing the right software for your unique situation, he brings his knowle.
Contributor Kelly Main Staff ReviewerKelly Main is a Marketing Editor and Writer specializing in digital marketing, online advertising and web design and development. Before joining the team, she was a Content Producer at Fit Small Business where she served as an editor and strategist c.
Kelly Main Staff ReviewerKelly Main is a Marketing Editor and Writer specializing in digital marketing, online advertising and web design and development. Before joining the team, she was a Content Producer at Fit Small Business where she served as an editor and strategist c.
Kelly Main Staff ReviewerKelly Main is a Marketing Editor and Writer specializing in digital marketing, online advertising and web design and development. Before joining the team, she was a Content Producer at Fit Small Business where she served as an editor and strategist c.
Kelly Main Staff ReviewerKelly Main is a Marketing Editor and Writer specializing in digital marketing, online advertising and web design and development. Before joining the team, she was a Content Producer at Fit Small Business where she served as an editor and strategist c.
Updated: Jun 13, 2024, 12:23pm
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A payroll report is a document created every pay period that displays specific financial information such as pay rates, hours worked and taxes withheld for the specific pay run. Some payroll reports are required to be filed with state and federal government agencies on an annual or quarterly basis. To make the process quick and easy, most businesses use payroll software or an outsourced payroll service to help process payroll and stay compliant with filing requirements.
A payroll report is a document that businesses use to provide specific payroll information to government agencies, and keep on file for their own pay records. These reports show the pay rate, total pay, taxes withheld, overtime incurred, overall benefit costs and more information about the company’s employees. Each payroll report is specific to a defined payroll run and is created every time the company pays its employees.
The point of filing a payroll report is to stay compliant with federal, state and local regulations that require each business to report on the taxes they withhold and their potential tax liability. This enables government agencies to match up payroll reports with tax filings so that the tax liability for both the employer and employee is correctly calculated. A good reporting system makes overall payroll management a lot easier.
There are many benefits to maintaining accurate payroll reports that can end up saving you time and money while protecting your business from potential fines, lawsuits or other penalties. Here are the most important benefits of payroll reports.
There are different types of payroll reports that are created for a variety of reasons. It’s important to understand the differences between these payroll reports so that you can identify which report you need to create and keep track of.
This is a report that a business will run for internal purposes. The report is typically run at the end of every payroll period after all pay for employees has been finalized. It shows a detailed overview of all company payroll expenses for the period, including taxes that were withheld and any additional tax liabilities that the company may have.
These reports are used by companies to help predict their payroll expenses for budgeting out their employee expenses. It also helps calculate numbers that they must provide on federal and state-level reporting, such as the quarterly FICA taxes. It is a best practice to keep these reports accessible for the minimum time that the company can be audited for a pay period.
One of the largest administrative responsibilities for businesses that hire employees is making sure that all taxes are appropriately accounted for and filed properly with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In fact, a company typically must collect data and file several different reports on a monthly, quarterly and yearly basis.
For example, businesses must file Form 941, Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return, on a quarterly basis. This form details the amount of taxes withheld from employee checks or payments. Then, on an annual basis, the business will be required to file a W-2 and W-3 form for each employee.
Depending on the state that your business calls home, and the state where your employees live or work, you may be required to fill out additional payroll reports or forms for those local governments.
A good example of this is if you have an employee working in a state that requires you to withhold state income tax. You would need to file the report with the state on a quarterly or annual basis, depending on the state’s requirements, showing how much you withheld for that employee.
An employee payroll report is typically automatically generated with any payroll software as it will show the details of the pay period for a single employee. This is generally delivered to the employee for each pay period either through a physical attachment to a check or via a document that can be accessed online.
This report will show how many hours the employee worked and was paid for, what taxes were withheld for the employee, the costs of benefits that were withheld for the pay period and potentially could show details on things such as reimbursements or paid time off. This report will also likely show the cumulative amounts of all of these figures for the year to date for that specific employee.
A payroll tax report is going to show the specific information needed for a variety of tax filings that the company is required to file. A lot of this information is available in other payroll reports, such as the employee report or the federal report.
However, these payroll tax reports will only detail the needed information for specific forms, such as Form 940 for the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA). Some payroll systems might show either these reports or the federal and state-level reports and may not have separate reporting.
It can be helpful to look at real-world examples of payroll reports to better understand how they might be applicable to your business and your personal situation. Here are three payroll report examples that you might want to familiarize yourself with.
Earnings Statement Example
This is showing an example employee report from Gusto where the employee can see what they have earned in the current pay period and year to date. It is also showing all of the withholdings and paid time off calculations.
Internal Payroll Report Example
This report is showing how a business can view its internal payroll reporting if it were to use Rippling. As you can see, the payroll costs can be broken down by department to see where the majority of the payroll budget is coming from, how much employees are making and what it is costing the business.
Quarterly Payroll Report Example
Here is an example of a quarterly payroll report that you can run if you use OnPay to process your payroll. It shows a breakdown of what was earned by each employee and what taxes were withheld throughout the time period.
