Can I generate my own payslips?

Yes. There is no requirement to use payroll software — an employer can produce pay slips by hand, in a spreadsheet or with a tool like this one. What matters is that the pay slip carries every item in Fair Work Regulations 2009 reg 3.46 and reaches the employee within one working day of payment, per section 536 of the Fair Work Act. The format is up to you; the content is not. Once you are running more than a handful of employees, the risk shifts from the layout to the figures, which is where payroll integration earns its keep.

How do I generate a payslip for free?

Fill in the employer, employee, pay period and earnings above and press Download PDF. There is no account, no email gate and no watermark. The pay slip is built in your browser, so the employee’s name and pay figures never reach our servers. If you would rather work in a spreadsheet, use the free payslip template instead.

Where can I generate a free payslip online in Australia?

This tool is built specifically for Australian employers, which matters more than it sounds: a generic international payslip generator will not prompt you for an ABN, will not itemise award penalty rates and allowances separately as reg 3.46(1)(g) requires, and will not ask for the superannuation fund name that reg 3.46(5) demands alongside the amount. Those are the three fields most often missing from pay slips produced with overseas tools.

What is the best free payslip generator?

Judge them on one thing: whether the output carries all of reg 3.46. Most free generators produce a tidy document that is missing at least one required field — commonly the ABN, the hours behind an hourly rate, or the super fund name. This generator lists the requirements as you type and tells you which are still missing, so you can see the gaps before you send it. We would rather you notice a missing field here than hear about it from Fair Work.

Is my data stored anywhere?

No. Everything is computed and rendered in your browser, and the PDF is produced locally. Nothing is uploaded, so nothing is stored. That also means there is no history — if you need to keep pay slips, save the PDFs yourself. Employee records must be kept for seven years, which is a record-keeping standards obligation this tool does not discharge for you.

What has to be on an Australian payslip?

Reg 3.46(1) always requires the employer’s name, the employee’s name, the period the pay slip covers, the date the payment was made, the gross amount, the net amount, each separately identifiable entitlement (bonus, loading, allowance, penalty rate or incentive payment), and the employer’s ABN. On top of that: each deduction with the fund or account it went to (3.46(2)); for hourly staff the ordinary rate, hours and amount (3.46(3)); for salaried staff the annual rate (3.46(4)); and any superannuation contribution with its fund name (3.46(5)). The full list is in the table above.

How long do I have to give an employee their payslip?

One working day from paying them, under section 536 of the Fair Work Act. That catches a lot of employers out — the obligation attaches to the payment, not to the next pay cycle or the end of the month. It can be electronic or hard copy, and an electronic pay slip has to carry the same information as a paper one.

Can a payslip be emailed instead of printed?

Yes. Section 536 allows electronic form or hard copy. In practice email or a self-service portal is the norm, and the Fair Work Ombudsman’s guidance is that an electronic pay slip should be issued in a format the employee can readily access, print and keep. The content requirements are identical either way.

Do casual employees get payslips?

Yes — every employee does, with no exception for casuals, part-timers or staff on probation. For casuals the itemisation requirement in reg 3.46(1)(g) usually bites hardest, because the casual loading and any weekend or public-holiday penalty rates need to appear as separate lines rather than folded into a single hourly figure.

What are the penalties for not providing payslips?

Pay-slip and record-keeping breaches are enforced in their own right, separately from any underpayment — a Fair Work inspector can issue an infringement notice for a defective or missing pay slip even where the employee was paid correctly. There is also a practical consequence: where records are inadequate, a reverse onus can apply in an underpayment claim, meaning the employer has to disprove the employee’s account of hours worked rather than the other way around.

Does a payslip have to show leave balances?

No. Leave balances are not in reg 3.46, so they are optional — which is why they sit under “optional extras” in this generator. Most employers show them anyway because it heads off queries, and employees are entitled to ask for their balance at any time. Year-to-date totals are the same: useful, common, not required.

FREE TOOL

Free payslip generator for Australian employers

Build a pay slip that carries every field the law asks for. The generator lists the requirements from Fair Work Regulations reg 3.46 as you type and tells you which ones are still missing — then downloads a clean PDF.

Takes ~2 minutes No signup Nothing leaves your browser

Last verified: 25 August 2026

Disclaimer

This tool lays out a pay slip using the fields required by Fair Work Regulations 2009 reg 3.46. It formats and totals the figures you enter — it does not work out award coverage, pay rates, tax, or superannuation for you, and it is not legal, financial or tax advice. You are responsible for the amounts. Check your obligations with the Fair Work Ombudsman and the ATO, and get advice for your own situation.

🔒 Privacy: Pay slips are generated entirely in your browser. Employee names, pay figures and super details are never sent to our servers.

Employer details

Required by reg 3.46(1)(a) and (h)

Employer name *

ABN

Address (if no ABN)

Employee and pay period

Required by reg 3.46(1)(b), (c) and (d)

Employee name *

Classification (optional)

Period start *

Period end *

Date paid *

Pay basis

The regulation asks for different details depending on how the employee is paid.

Earnings

Ordinary hours per reg 3.46(3); every loading, allowance, penalty rate and bonus must be shown separately per reg 3.46(1)(g)

Ordinary rate ($/hr)

Ordinary hours

Amount $0.00

Separately identifiable entitlements

Penalty rates, overtime, allowances, loadings, bonuses and commissions each need their own line — lumping them into gross breaches reg 3.46(1)(g).

Deductions

Each deduction needs its amount and the fund or account it was paid into — reg 3.46(2)

PAYG withholding ($)

This tool does not calculate tax. Use the ATO tax withheld calculator or your payroll software.

Other deductions

Superannuation

The contribution amount and the fund name are both required by reg 3.46(5)

Contribution ($)

Fund name (and member number)

Optional extras

Not required by reg 3.46, but common and useful. Leave blank to omit.

Year-to-date gross ($)

Year-to-date tax ($)

Annual leave balance (hours)

Personal leave balance (hours)

Preview

Required fields (reg 3.46)

What an Australian pay slip must include

Pay slips are not a courtesy. Section 536 of the Fair Work Act 2009 requires one within one working day of paying an employee, in electronic form or hard copy, and regulation 3.46 of the Fair Work Regulations 2009 sets out exactly what has to be on it. This is the full list.

Requirement	When it applies	Reg
Employer's name	Always	3.46(1)(a)
Employee's name	Always	3.46(1)(b)
The period the pay slip covers	Always	3.46(1)(c)
The date the payment was made	Always	3.46(1)(d)
Gross amount	Always	3.46(1)(e)
Net amount	Always	3.46(1)(f)
Each bonus, loading, allowance, penalty rate, incentive payment or other separately identifiable entitlement — itemised	Where any were paid	3.46(1)(g)
The employer's ABN, if it has one	Always (since 1 Jan 2010)	3.46(1)(h)
Each deduction, plus the name (or name and number) of the fund or account it went to	Where anything was deducted	3.46(2)
Ordinary hourly rate, hours worked at it, and the amount paid at it	Hourly-paid employees	3.46(3)
The annual rate as at the latest date the payment relates to	Salaried employees	3.46(4)
Each super contribution made or intended, and the fund name (or name and number)	Where super was or will be paid	3.46(5)

Source: Fair Work Regulations 2009 reg 3.46 and Fair Work Act 2009 s 536. A first pay slip issued inside 14 days may omit the fund name where no chosen or stapled fund is known yet — reg 3.46(5A).

Three things a pay slip generator can't do for you

Worth being blunt about, because the penalties attach to the numbers rather than the layout.

Work out the right pay rate

A pay slip records what you paid. Whether it was enough depends on the modern award and classification that covers the role — start with the award pay guides.

Calculate PAYG or super

You enter those figures; the tool only totals them. Tax comes from the ATO's tables, and super from the current guarantee rate — see superannuation guarantee.

Keep your records for you

Employee records must be kept for seven years. Generating a PDF is not record-keeping — see record-keeping standards.

Where pay slips most often go wrong

Fair Work can issue infringement notices for pay-slip breaches on their own, separate from any underpayment. These are the recurring ones.

Everything lumped into one "gross" figure. Reg 3.46(1)(g) requires each loading, allowance, penalty rate and bonus to be separately identifiable.
Hours missing for hourly-paid staff. Reg 3.46(3) wants the rate, the hours at that rate, and the amount — not just a total.
Super amount shown with no fund named. Reg 3.46(5) asks for both.
No ABN. Required since 1 January 2010 wherever the employer has one.
Issued late. Section 536 gives you one working day from payment, not "with the next pay run".
Deductions with no account named. Reg 3.46(2) requires the destination, not just the amount.

More on the patterns behind these in payslip errors that trigger payroll complaints.

Prefer a spreadsheet? Use the payslip template

If you would rather keep pay slips in Excel or Google Sheets — handy when you are producing several at once — download the free Australian payslip template. It carries the same reg 3.46 fields as this generator with the totals already formulated. For the wider pay run, the pay run checklist and the payroll reconciliation template cover the steps either side of issuing pay slips.

Get the figures right before you put them on a pay slip

A pay slip records what you paid. These work out what you should have paid.

Award pay rate guides

Minimum rates, penalties and allowances for 34 modern awards, each with a calculator.

Timesheet calculator

Turn clock-in and clock-out times into payable hours, including breaks.

Casual loading calculator

Work out the loaded casual rate that needs its own line on the pay slip.

Payday super calculator

Contribution amounts and timing under the payday super rules.

Overtime & penalty rate calculator

Each penalty needs a separate pay slip line — this is where the amounts come from.

Payslip, defined

What a pay slip is, what goes on it, and the common line items explained.

This free pay slip generator is provided by RosterElf. RosterElf's paid plans cover rostering, time and attendance, and payroll integration with Xero and MYOB, so approved timesheets flow through to payroll with award rates already applied — which is where itemised pay slips come from without retyping anything.

Pay slips from hours that were actually worked

RosterElf records clock-ins against the roster so the hours on the pay slip match the hours worked, not the hours scheduled.

Start free trial See See time & attendance

Generating pay slips one at a time gets old fast

RosterElf turns approved timesheets into payroll-ready data with award rates already applied, then pushes it to Xero or MYOB — which is where itemised pay slips come from without retyping anything.