Payroll Summary Report: Types, Benefits, & Templates

Payroll summary reports are documents that include comprehensive information about employees, such as their salary or wage rate, employee benefits, overtime data, timesheets, and other factors related to their work compensation.

On the tax front, these documents can highlight employees' deductions, gross and net pay, and tax withholdings. Payroll reports can also offer a snapshot of the company's payroll obligations during a specific time frame. To give you the full idea of their usefulness, we'll look into the different types of payroll reports and their benefits.

» Who should produce payroll summary reports? Learn about HR vs. finance in handling payroll

Common Types of Payroll Reports

There are several types of payroll reports, each serving an important purpose of achieving different aims, whether it's ensuring payroll compliance or determining the number of hours employees are putting in at the office.

That said, here are the five common types of payroll reports:

1. Company Payroll Report

A company payroll report will essentially summarize and break down compensation, taxes, payroll deductions, and how many hours employees worked on any given day, week, month, or year. This can be a helpful document that provides insight into how much the company is spending on employees or business expenses without having to dig through staff members' paychecks.

2. Employee Payroll Report

An employee payroll report will give information on each workforce member's compensation, taxes, deductions, and other related data. Like a company payroll report, this document will help management figure out the investment the company has made in employees and ensure accurate payroll solutions.

3. Payroll Tax Report

A payroll tax report is widely used to garner details regarding employees' gross pay, taxable pay, and the amount of tax for a specific payroll deduction. This is a crucial report for ensuring that the correct deductions and withholdings are taking place. It's an essential document for complying with local tax laws, but also for retaining talent and contributing to a positive workplace culture.

» Want to reduce payroll tax? See 5 legitimate ways employers can do so

4. Certified Payroll Report

A certified payroll report is a special type of payroll report primarily used for independent contractors working on federally funded projects. This is a critical document that must be completed and submitted to government authorities to prevent complications and potentially ensure more work comes the company's way.

» Want to make an independent contractor a full-time employee? Here's what to consider

5. Time-Tracking Report

A time-tracking report is another feature of payroll management reporting that allows employers to easily track the time spent by employees during any determined period. This is superior to having to comb through every worker's timesheet submissions individually. It's a useful tool for calculating overtime and learning how workers are allocating their time, how productive they are, and if the return on investment (ROI) is justified.

Benefits of Payroll Reporting

Ultimately, payroll reporting is an imperative component of owning and operating a business that functions like a well-oiled machine, be it a startup or a corporation. Although these reports might seem redundant, they're useful in providing information to facilitate the advancement and development of the business.

Here are five benefits of payroll reporting:

• Costs: provides an in-depth picture of the company's overall labor costs
• Morale: adds to morale by calculating employee turnover and reducing it
• Expenses: assesses and monitors payroll expenses to ensure the business can improve its payroll management policies
• Visualize: enables fast and simple live payroll data visualization
• Data: outlines vital information, such as pay rates, hours worked, overtime hours, tax withholdings and deductions, and other relevant data

Easily Produce Payroll Summary Reports to Benefit Your Business

Are payroll reports important? Yes. Do they need to be difficult to produce? Not at all! It's vital to create clear and easy-to-understand payroll summary reports to track companies' dollars and cents, especially when more and more businesses are tightening their belts.

Although these take time and require a bit more resources to produce, companies can greatly benefit from payroll reports, from enhancing compliance rates to efficiently managing staff. Incorporating payroll software is one way to mitigate some of the manual work involved in writing payroll reports, as payroll software features that help with automatic calculations can save time and bolster compliance with local laws.

» Looking for an easy way to produce payroll summary reports? Read TBR's payroll software reviews and find the right solution to achieve this goal.