Quick Answer
- Making payroll checks breaks into two jobs: working out the numbers, and producing the physical check. This guide covers the second.
- Get the numbers from a reliable source. IRS Publication 15, a payroll service, or your accountant. Do not estimate withholdings.
- Choose a voucher format with a stub. The stub carries the earnings detail the check itself has no room for.
- Run an alignment test on plain paper before your first live print run. This is the step people skip and regret.
- Complete the stub before you write or print the check, so the record exists before the payment leaves your hands.
- Record every check in your register, including voided ones, and keep the numbering gap-free.
- Handwritten payroll is genuinely workable for a handful of employees if you use a carbonless duplicate format.
Paying your first employee by check sounds simple until you are holding a blank check and a calculator, wondering what actually goes where.
Making payroll checks is really two separate jobs. One is arithmetic and compliance. The other is production: picking the right paper, filling it in correctly, and keeping a record that holds up. This guide handles the second job thoroughly and tells you exactly where to go for the first.
Before You Start: Where the Numbers Come From
Worth being direct about this, because it is the part where mistakes get expensive.
Calculating gross pay, withholdings, and net pay is a tax matter. Rates and thresholds change, they vary by state, and getting them wrong creates liability for you and problems for your employee.
We print checks. We do not advise on tax withholding. For the numbers, use one of these:
- IRS Publication 15, the Employer's Tax Guide, which covers federal withholding.
- A payroll service or software package, which calculates and often files for you.
- Your accountant or bookkeeper, particularly for state and local obligations.
You will also need a completed Form W-4 from each employee, since that determines their federal withholding.
Once you have gross pay, each deduction, and net pay for the period, the rest is production. That is what follows.
What to Have Ready
Gather these before you start. Interruptions mid-run are how errors happen.
| Item | Why you need it |
|---|---|
| The payroll figures | Gross pay, itemized deductions, net pay, year-to-date totals |
| Employee details | Full legal name as it should appear on the check |
| Pay period dates | Start and end dates the payment covers |
| Pay date | The date wages are actually paid |
| Check stock | The correct format for your setup |
| Starting check number | Continuing from your last issued check |
| Your check register | To record each check as you go |
If you run payroll from a separate bank account, and most established businesses do, make sure you have that account's check stock rather than your operating account's.
Step 1: Choose the Right Check Format
Format is the decision that most often goes wrong, and a mismatched order is not partly usable. It is a total loss.
Voucher, check on top
The check sits at the top of the sheet with one or two stubs below. This is the standard for payroll and what most accounting software expects.
With two stubs, one goes to the employee and one stays in your records after the check is detached. That gives you a physical copy of every earnings statement you issued, filed in check-number order. See our computer checks.
Three checks per page
Three checks on a letter sheet, each with a stub. Suits a larger payroll batch where sheet efficiency matters more than a full-page voucher. See manual three on a page checks.
Manual with carbonless duplicate
For a handful of employees, handwritten payroll works fine. The key is a duplicate format: as you write, a carbonless copy forms underneath, so the record creates itself with no transcription step. See manual business checks.
Stock cut specifically for wage documentation is available as payroll business checks, and the full comparison is in our guide to manual business check formats.
Matching the format to your software
If you print rather than handwrite, your software decides the format, not your preference. Every accounting and payroll program has a check style setting that corresponds to a specific physical position on the sheet.
Check that setting inside your program before ordering. It is the authoritative answer for your version, and it takes two minutes. For QuickBooks specifically, our QuickBooks check compatibility guide maps layouts to settings.
Step 2: Run an Alignment Test
Do this once, before your first live run, and never on the morning payroll is due.
- Load plain paper, not check stock.
- Print one payroll check from your software.
- Hold the printout against a real check sheet up to a light.
- Confirm every field lands inside its box: payee, amount, date, and every stub field.
- Adjust the alignment setting in your software if anything is off, then print another test.
- Only when it lines up, load real stock and print one live check to confirm.
Two settings cause most alignment failures. Turn off any fit to page or shrink to printable area option, and print at actual size. Scaling shifts every field, including the MICR line at the bottom, which can cause bank rejections even when the check looks perfect.
Our guide to computer checks software covers printer settings in more detail.
Step 3: Complete the Pay Stub
The stub is what separates a payroll check from an ordinary business check. It is an earnings statement, and it has to show how the number on the check was reached.
| Stub field | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Pay period | Start and end dates covered |
| Pay date | Date wages are paid |
| Hours and rate | Regular and overtime hours, where applicable |
| Gross pay | Total earned before anything is withheld |
| Deductions, itemized | Each one listed separately, not lumped together |
| Net pay | The amount on the check |
| Year to date | Cumulative gross, deductions, and net |
Year to date is the field small employers most often skip, and it is the one employees rely on most when checking their withholding partway through the year.
On stub requirements: there is no federal law requiring you to provide a pay stub, though federal law does require employers to keep accurate payroll records. Most states have their own rules, and they vary. Confirm your obligations with your accountant or state labor agency.
Fill the stub before you write or print the check. Once a check is signed and detached, the instinct is to move on and the stub gets skipped.
Step 4: Write or Print the Check
If you are printing, your software handles this once alignment is confirmed. If you are writing by hand, a few things matter more on payroll than on a vendor payment.
Use the employee's full legal name. Nicknames and abbreviations cause deposit rejections.
Write the amount hard against the left edge of the amount box, with no gap a digit could be added into.
Strike through leftover space on the written amount line so nothing can be appended.
Use permanent ink. Gel and erasable pens are a check-washing risk.
The full mechanics are covered in our guide to writing a business check by hand.
Step 5: Record Every Check
This is the step that separates a payroll process from a pile of paper.
Every check gets an entry in your register: date, check number, employee name, net amount, and a running balance. If you print from accounting software, the register entry is created automatically when you record the payment.
Keep the numbering sequential and gap-free. An unexplained gap in your check numbers is a genuine audit flag and the earliest warning of a missing check.
Void properly. If you spoil a check, write VOID in large letters across the face without covering the check number, note VOID on the stub, and keep the voided check in your records. Never tear it up. The voided check is what closes the gap in your sequence.
If you use a bound checkbook, our 3-per-page binder format guide covers keeping stubs in sequence.
Step 6: Distribute the Checks
Hand delivery is simplest and gives you a natural opportunity to confirm the employee received it.
If you mail payroll, use window envelopes sized to your check layout. The employee address shows through from the check itself, so nothing is hand-addressed and nothing is misdirected. Our double window envelopes match standard check positions.
Whichever method you use, keep it consistent. Employees notice when payday logistics change without warning.
Making Payroll Checks by Hand
Software is not a requirement. For a small team, handwriting payroll is often faster than maintaining a payroll module, and plenty of small employers do it.
What you give up is automatic calculation. You are responsible for the arithmetic, which is exactly why the numbers should come from Publication 15, a service, or your accountant rather than memory.
What you gain is a physical record that exists the moment the payment is made.
If you go this route:
- Use a carbonless duplicate format so the record creates itself as you write.
- Complete the stub first, every time, before the check.
- Check that the duplicate copy is legible before you detach the original.
- Work front to back in the book so the sequence stays intact.
- Keep the book locked away between pay runs.
Whether handwriting or printing suits you better depends mostly on headcount and frequency. Our comparison of computer checks vs manual checks covers where the threshold sits.
Mistakes That Cause the Most Trouble
Five failures account for nearly every payroll check problem.
Skipping the alignment test. Discovering a misalignment mid-payroll wastes a box of stock and your morning.
Blank or incomplete stubs. The check goes out, the record does not exist, and nobody can reconstruct the calculation later.
Wrong format for the software. The data prints in the wrong place and the entire order is unusable.
Restarting the check number sequence. Duplicate numbers break bank reconciliation and can trigger fraud flags.
Running out of stock before payday. Entirely preventable. Set a reorder trigger at a fixed number of remaining checks rather than waiting for the box to empty. Our weekend and holiday shipping guide covers backward planning from a pay date, and out of checks covers same-day production if you are already there.
Uncashed Paychecks: Do Not Write Them Off
Worth knowing before it happens.
When an employee never cashes a paycheck, the money does not revert to you. Unpaid wages are treated as money still owed to that person, and uncashed paychecks typically carry shorter dormancy periods than vendor payments before unclaimed property rules apply.
Attempt contact, document the attempt, and follow your state's unclaimed wages process. Reversing the expense because the check went stale creates exposure rather than resolving it.
Our guide on how long a business check is good for covers the timeline and the reissue process.
Payroll Check Security
Payroll checks carry a specific risk profile: many recipients, a predictable schedule, and predictable amounts from an account a fraudster can learn about from a single check.
- Use security-featured stock. Watermarks, microprinting, and chemical-reactive paper each defeat a different attack. See high-security business checks.
- Ask your bank about Positive Pay, which matches presented checks against a list you submit.
- Lock the stock. Blank and preprinted checks belong in a locked drawer with quantities tracked.
- Reconcile monthly. An unexpected item is far easier to unwind at thirty days than three hundred.
When to Stop Doing This Yourself
Being honest about the limit is more useful than pretending there is not one.
Consider a payroll service when your headcount grows past a handful, when you have employees in more than one state, when you are handling garnishments or complex benefit deductions, or when the arithmetic starts taking longer than the rest of your bookkeeping combined.
Even then, you will still write paper checks sometimes. Final paychecks, corrections, off-cycle payments, and employees without a bank account all need paper. Keeping stock on hand is sensible regardless of how you calculate.
The Bottom Line
Making payroll checks is manageable once you separate the two jobs. Get the numbers from a source you trust, then focus on production.
Pick the format your software expects. Run the alignment test on plain paper. Complete the stub before the check. Record every check and keep the sequence gap-free. Do those four things and payday becomes routine.
If you are unsure which format matches your setup, contact us before ordering rather than after.