How to Edit a Pay Stub: 3 Ways to Correct Payroll Information

To edit a pay stub as an employer, you need to issue an adjusted copy, while employees must request a correction from their employers and not edit on their own.

If you’re running a business and issuing pay stubs, mistakes are bound to happen. Anything from a misspelled name or date, a missing overtime hour, or a wrongly calculated tax deduction requires you to know how to add missing or modify incorrect information on this document.

In this article, we’ll first briefly explain what a pay stub is and discuss when and why you should edit them. Then, we’ll explore the most common reasons that warrant modifying pay stubs before showing you legal ways to go about it. Finally, we’ll tell you what you should never edit on a pay stub, and show you how to prevent mistakes in the first place using our software.

What Is a Pay Stub?

A pay stub (also referred to as a pay slip) is a document an employer provides to their employees, detailing the employee’s pay for a specific period. It contains a breakdown of:

• Gross earnings. The total money earned before taxes.
• Payroll deductions. Federal and state taxes, insurance, retirement contributions, etc.
• Net earnings. Take-home pay.

Pay stubs serve as legal payroll records. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers are required to keep accurate records of the hours their employees worked and the compensation they received for it, among other information.

On the other hand, employees use pay stubs to verify that they’ve been paid appropriately and that the required amount of taxes has been withheld from their paychecks. Moreover, they can use pay stubs as proof of income when renting apartments, buying cars, applying for loans and mortgages, etc.

Since pay stubs are used not just by professionals but by financial institutions and government agencies, they must be 100% accurate.

Can You Edit a Pay Stub?

Whether you can edit a pay stub depends on who is making the changes and why.

In short, an employer can and must edit a pay stub if there is an error that needs to be corrected. Meanwhile, an employee is not allowed to edit this income documentation to alter any financial details for personal needs.

As we’ve mentioned previously, pay stubs are legal records, so if you want to modify pay stub information, you must do so in accordance with relevant laws.

Editing pay stub mistakes to correct them and ensure the accuracy of the document is a standard process that’s often referred to as “correction” or “adjustment.” This can encompass corrections like fixing typos in the names or addresses, or adjusting wages to reflect retroactive pay.

For example, if an employer underpays an employee by mistake and realizes it later on, they are required by law to pay the employee the difference and edit their pay stub to reflect the correction.

However, making arbitrary changes, such as modifying your pay stub to show a higher income and improve your chances when applying for a loan, is most often illegal. Submitting a document that’s edited in such a manner to a bank or lender is classified as bank fraud under the U.S. code (18 U.S. Code § 1014) and can result in severe penalties.

The bottom line is that you can and should edit a pay stub only when there’s been a mistake and the document doesn’t reflect the truth. Moreover, only employers (or payroll administrators) are legally allowed to alter these.

If, however, you’re an employee and you’ve noticed an error in your pay stub, you must contact your employer and have them correct it; do not do it yourself.

5 Common Reasons a Pay Stub Needs Editing

Now that you know who and when can edit pay stubs legally, let’s see what the most common reasons are for doing so.

#1. Incorrect Personal Information

Having incorrect personal information on a pay stub is one of the simplest and most common mistakes that need correcting. Common examples include a misspelled name or surname, an outdated address, or a typo in a person’s Social Security Number (SSN).

While these are minor mistakes, they can lead to big problems during the tax season. For instance, if a person has the wrong SSN on their pay stub, the IRS may not be able to match their income to their tax return. This can lead to complications and delays when filing taxes.

Any mistakes related to personal information should be rectified immediately to ensure the accuracy of pay stubs and Forms W-2.

#2. Wage or Hour Errors

Wage or hour pay stub errors typically occur when an employee’s gross wage doesn’t match their hours worked.

For example, the employer or payroll administrator forgot to account for several hours of overtime work, which are paid at a higher rate (at least 1.5x the regular hourly rate). They may have also applied the wrong hourly rate (e.g., using the outdated rate after an employee has been promoted).

These mistakes often lead to employee underpayment or overpayment, requiring an immediate payroll correction. When editing a pay stub with these mistakes, employers typically void the old one, provide a new document, and, if needed, issue another paycheck for the difference.

#3. Tax or Deduction Mistakes

Common tax or deduction mistakes include withholding too much or too little for federal income tax or forgetting to deduct health insurance premiums.

An employee’s tax withholding is determined on their Form W-4. If they have requested a specific amount to be withheld, and a pay stub shows zero withholding, this requires an immediate correction.

In addition to a corrected pay stub, the employee will likely have to make retroactive adjustments to their deductions and withholdings. Otherwise, they’ll likely have to pay a significant sum to the IRS in April, due to underwithholding. On the other hand, overwithholding may reduce the employee’s final tax bill but also lower their take-home pay.

#4. Classification Errors

Employee misclassification is a serious issue that can lead to severe legal and financial consequences.

A common instance in which this happens is when an employee is listed as an independent contractor. As a result, the employer doesn’t withhold taxes from their paycheck or provide them with employment benefits.

Another common mix-up happens with non-exempt and exempt employees. Exempt employees aren’t entitled to overtime, which can lead to reduced wages if these employees work overtime hours.

These are serious mistakes that directly affect how taxes are handled. If a classification mistake is discovered, employers must correct pay stub errors and pay the missing taxes or employees’ wages.

#5. Retroactive Pay or Back Pay

Certain adjustments (like raises or past underpayment corrections) can be owed retroactively. Retroactive payments must be processed accurately and accompanied by appropriate documentation.

Therefore, when processing payroll, employers must add the correct wages and taxes to these periods while updating pay stubs to reflect these changes.

3 Legal Ways to Correct a Pay Stub

When you spot one of the mistakes described above, you can’t just open a PDF editor and update a pay stub. You must follow specific steps to ensure that the process is legal and creates a valid paper trail.

#1. Requesting a Corrected Pay Stub From Your Employer

If you’re an employee who needs a pay stub correction, the only legal way to go about it is to contact your employer. As soon as you discover a mistake, you need to notify your manager, HR, or payroll departments officially and in writing.

Make sure to point out a specific mistake and describe it accurately (e.g., “My pay stub shows 40 hours worked, but I worked 45”). This makes it easier for your employer or another responsible person in the company to verify your claims against their data.

Once they edit a pay stub, they’ll issue you a new one and add it to their records, as well.

#2. Issuing an Adjusted Pay Stub (For Employers)

When you’re an employer, you can’t simply “white out” a mistake in a pay stub; you must issue an adjusted one.

After encountering an error in a pay stub, the right course of action is to void it in the payroll system and generate a new one with the correct information. Moreover, both documents need to be kept in the records for audit purposes.

That way, the original pay stub stays on file and remains a part of the payroll history, while the new and correct one is in effect to reflect the reality. This makes it easy to prove what changed and why, and to stay compliant with labor and tax laws.

#3. Using Payroll Software or Pay Stub Tools

Professionals who own a business and manage their payroll are likely using dedicated payroll software or pay stub generators. If you used a generator to issue an incorrect pay stub, you can use it again to regenerate the document.

The new document must reflect the payments and tax withholding that were actually made. You can’t use these tools to create pay stubs and update records for money that wasn’t exchanged.

What You Should Never Edit on a Pay Stub

While pay stub accuracy is paramount, these edits are illegal and delve into the realm of fraud:

• Income that wasn’t paid. You should never change the gross or net pay on a pay stub if it doesn’t reflect reality. It’s illegal to do so in an attempt to make a stronger proof of income when looking to qualify for a loan or an apartment. Lenders can verify the information with your employer or the IRS, catching you in fraud.
• Employment dates and employer names. Modifying employment dates to cover gaps in employment or create a fake work history is falsification. The same goes for faking the name of your employer in an attempt to embellish your professional career.
• Someone else’s pay stub without authorization. Changing the information on someone else’s pay stub without their knowledge or approval breaks multiple laws, including those regarding privacy and payroll record-keeping.
• Deductions. Removing wage garnishments from your pay stub or reducing tax deductions in an attempt to make your take-home pay look higher is also illegal.

How Paystub.org Helps With Accurate Pay Stubs

The vast majority of pay stub mistakes happen due to input errors, and Paystub.org can help you reduce those to a minimum. We developed a professional pay stub generator perfect for freelancers, contractors, and small business owners.

The tool comes with ready-made templates where you simply fill out the form with your information. The generator calculates gross income based on the rates and hours, and also determines net pay after you’ve included the deductions. This makes it impossible to make mistakes that happen with manual calculations.

On top of that, we also have a Form W-2 generator to help you maximize your efficiency with tax reporting and document creation.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, it’s not just about knowing how to edit a pay stub, but also when you’re allowed to do it. The editing process involves creating a new document, not merely overwriting the details on an existing one.

Regardless of whether you’re an employee asking for a correction or an employer performing a payroll adjustment, the goal must be to align the document with reality. Properly issuing, handling, and correcting pay stubs is critical in ensuring legal compliance of your business and helps prevent disputes and penalties and report income and taxes accurately.

How to Edit a Pay Stub FAQs

#1. Is it legal to edit a pay stub?

It is legal to edit a pay stub only if there is a genuine error that needs to be corrected, and this should be done by the employer or payroll administrator. It’s illegal to edit pay stubs to show higher or lower income, inflate wages, or otherwise alter them for fraudulent purposes.

#2. Who can correct a pay stub?

Only the original issuer of the pay stub can correct it, generally the employer or the payroll administrator. If an employee notices that they need to correct a pay stub, they must contact the person or department in charge and request a change.

#3. Do corrected pay stubs affect taxes?

Corrected pay stubs affect taxes if the edit was related to income or withholding amounts. If there was a small administrative mistake (e.g., a typo in the personal information section), a corrected pay stub won’t change anything regarding an employee’s tax situation.