View a Paystub

How do I view paystubs in BambooHR?

Purpose: To show you how an employee can view their own paystub information in BambooHR. 


Pay Info tab

Are you an Account Owner, Full Admin User, or Payroll Admin user and need to enable access for your employees to view their paystubs? Click here!

To view a paystub, navigate to the Pay Info tab on an employee's profile. Click View Paystub in the top right corner to view the current paystub. Click a specific pay date in the Paystubs table to view the previous paystubs.


Details of a paystub

When clicking to view a paystub, a pop-up box will appear with the paystub details. An employee's paystub includes the following information:

  1. Quick access to download or print the paystub.
  2. Pay Period and Direct Deposit: (Only the last four digits of the account number will show on the paystub.) Additionally, if you add a note to the employee's paystub, it will appear under the Direct Deposit details.
  3. A summary stating Total Gross Earnings, Taxes, Deductions, and Take-Home Pay for a specific pay stub.
  4. You Paid Taxes On: A table that shows the number of regular and overtime hours worked broken down by category, the hourly pay rate (for hourly employees), and the total taxable amount. Additionally, this table will show all other post-tax pay types that an employee has received payment for in the current calendar year.
  5. You Didn't Pay Taxes On: A table that shows all pre-tax pay types the employee has received payment for in the current calendar year.
  6. Taxes: A table that shows a breakdown of tax deductions from the employee's paycheck.
  7. Your Tax Withholding Info for this Check: A section that shows federal and state withholding elections on the employee's W-4 form.
  8. Deducted from Your Check: A table that shows the itemized deductions from the employee's paycheck, including benefit and non-benefit deductions.
  9. Paid by Your Employer on Your Behalf: A table that shows the itemized deductions the employer pays, including benefit and non-benefit deductions.
  10. Time Off Balances (Hours): This table reflects any time off categories an employee can view according to their access level settings. It also tracks time off in different sections—Used This Pay Period, Earned YTD, Used YTD, and Available Balance. Please note that the Available Balance column will reflect what is accurate based on the end date of the pay period. Therefore, any updates made during the pay period will be included in the balance total.
  11. Time Off sync warning: After a payroll is processed and closed, BambooHR Payroll will perform a sync to capture any edits to an employee's time off hours during the run payroll process. This warning will appear if you or your employee views their paystub between the close of payroll and the sync process (typically within 24 hours of approving payroll). No warning will appear if the sync is complete and the accurate totals are displayed. 
  12. Each paystub includes a fun fact on what the employee could do with the money.
  13. The Payroll and Pay Cycle ID will display at the bottom right corner of the paystub as [Payroll ID]-[Pay Cycle ID]. 

Employees will receive an email notification on the morning of payday with a link to view their paystub in BambooHR. 


Hours on the paystub

Please note that the payroll calculation uses four decimals, but only two decimals will be displayed on the paystub.

BambooHR understands the importance of transparency and being compliant with state laws when it comes to displaying the types of hours an employee has worked. A breakdown of an employee's regular rate pay types will display under the Hours column on the paystub. The pay type breakdown will be displayed in descending order based on the number of hours. The Worked Hours type will include the employee's regular working hours. If other pay types with the regular rate are used within the same pay period, the difference between those will be subtracted from Worked Hours and broken into their own categories, as shown below.

The example above displays an hourly employee's hours. Their regular hours will fall into the Worked Hours category, and their time off hours are separated by time off category.

The Pay Per Hour column will also display the rate of each type of pay.

This example displays a salaried employee's breakdown of hours. This employee has their Regular hours broken down into Worked Hours and time off hours broken down by category (Holiday and Vacation).

What if I am using Project Tracking for employees with multiple rates of pay? 

The Taxable and Non-Taxable sections of the “What You Were Paid, and What For” will display rows for Project/Task data. The rows will display the wages as [Pay Type] - [Project Name] or [Pay Type] - [Project Name] » [Task Name] and group the rows by Pay Type (Regular, Overtime, Double Time). Each Project/Task will display the employee’s Hours, corresponding Pay Rate, Paycheck Total, and YTD Totals for the Project/Task. 

This will display in all versions of the paystub across the platform including paystub previews, PDF downloads, Pay Info tab preview, and in TRAXPayroll.

What if I'm using shift differentials for employees with different pay rates?

Shift differential data will display on the paystub in a very similar way to project tracking data. The rows will display the wages as [Shift Name] or [Project Name] > [Task Name] | [Shift Name] or [Project Name] | [Shift Name] and group the rows by Pay Type (Regular, Overtime, Double Time). Each shift differential will display the employee’s Hours, corresponding Pay Rate, Paycheck Total, and YTD Totals for the shift differential.


Time Off Balances (Hours) on the paystub

The Used this Period, Used YTD, and Available Balance columns within the Time Off Balances (Hours) section of the employee paystub will include the following hours: 

  1. All previously used time off hours. 
  2. Hours with an effective date within the pay period AND a recorded date before the close (approval) of payroll. This includes the following scenarios:
    1. Example 1 - The standard Time Off request: The current pay period is from 6/1 to 6/15. On 5/1, an employee requested 8 hours of time off on 6/10. These hours will be included on the current payroll and in the paystub calculations as they were requested before the close of payroll, and the effective date of the time off falls within the pay period time frame.
    2. Example 2 - Edits made to time off during payroll: The pay period is from 6/1 to 6/15, with a payroll due date of 6/17. On 6/3, an employee makes a time off request for 8 hours on 6/14. Since the effective date (6/14) falls within the pay period (6/1-6/15), and the request was recorded on 6/3 (before payroll was approved on 6/17), these hours will be captured. Keep in mind you may need to reset your payroll, so the new balances are reflected in the run payroll process. 
    3. Example 3 - Requests made between the pay period and approving payroll: The current pay period is from 6/1 to 6/15 with a payroll due date of 6/17. On 6/16, an employee submits a time off request for missing 8 hours of work on 6/14 due to a family emergency. As long as you haven't already approved payroll, these hours will be included in the current payroll run and will reflect accurately on their paystub. Even though the request was made after the end of the pay period on 6/16, it was made before payroll was approved, and the effective date (6/14) fell within the pay period. Again, in this instance, don't forget to approve the hours and reset the payroll to have them pull through. 
    4. Example 4 - Requests that span over two pay periods: The current pay period is from 6/1 to 6/15 with a payroll due date of 6/17. On 5/25, an employee requested 7 days (56 hours) of time off starting from 6/13 to 6/19. Because this request spans over the course of two pay periods, only the hours that are effective within the first pay period (6/13-6/15) will reflect on the current payroll and in the paystub calculation. The rest of the hours will appear on the next pay period. 
  3. Edits made to an employee's time off during the run payroll process. 

An employee’s Available Balance and Used time off that appear on the paystub may differ from the balance/used values displayed on the employee's Time Off tab in BambooHR. This is because the paystub only reflects the time off that falls within the pay period, but in BambooHR there is no pay period constraint. 

Example: Let's say an employee had a 100-hour balance in BambooHR. In scenario 4, the entire 56-hour Time Off request will be deducted from their BambooHR balance on 6/13 (the start of the request). Their new available balance on their Time Off tab in BambooHR will now equal 44 hours. However, only 24 hours were used on the first paystub, so the available balance (on the paystub) will show 76 hours instead of 44. On the second paystub, when the rest of the hours are represented, the paystub and BambooHR balance will match at 44 hours.

The following scenarios will not include hours on the employee's paystub:  

  1. Time off hours with an effective date after the pay period, including those that are part of a request that starts within the current pay period (see example 4 above).
  2. Time off hours with an effective date that falls within the pay period, but were recorded after payroll was approved.

What does a downloaded paystub look like?

If an employee downloads a paystub, the PDF file will also include the following information:

  • A breakdown of regular rate hours worked by category
  • Time off balances (used this pay period, earned YTD, used YTD, and available balance)
  • Company's name and address
  • Employee's name and address
  • Payroll and Pay Cycle ID in the footer