Payslip Template Australia: Free Download Built for Fair Work and Payday Super

What Is a Payslip in Australia?

Ask an employee what they check first on payday.

It is not the payslip. It is the banking app.

The payslip only comes out when the number in the app looks wrong. That is exactly when it matters, because it is the one document that explains, line by line, how an hourly rate turned into the money that landed.

Under section 536 of the Fair Work Act 2009, every employer must give each employee a payslip within one working day of paying them for work. The content is set by the Fair Work Regulations 2009, and the payslip must not be false or misleading. Think of it as a receipt for one payday: what was earned, what came out, where it went, and what was paid into super. Every field in the Enerpize Payslip Template Australia maps back to that receipt.

Are Payslips a Legal Requirement?

Yes. Issuing payslips is a civil remedy provision under the Fair Work Act, not a courtesy you skip on a busy week. It covers full-time, part-time and casual employees, even when they are on leave.

The penalties are only half the story. Under section 557C, if you miss your payslip or record-keeping obligations without a reasonable excuse and an employee claims underpayment, the burden flips. You have to prove you paid correctly. A missing payslip quietly turns their word into the evidence.

Payslip vs Income Statement vs Payment Summary

These documents get mixed up because they all carry dollar figures and an employer's name. Single Touch Payroll changed which ones employees still receive.

The rule worth remembering: a payslip is the receipt for one payday, the income statement is the receipt for the whole year, and a contractor sends you a bill instead. If someone runs their own ABN and invoices you, they need a contractor invoice template, not a payslip.

Fair Work Payslip Requirements: What Every Payslip Must Show

A payslip with a name, a total and a logo looks finished.

It is not.

The Fair Work payslip requirements read like a checklist, and every payslip template Australia employers rely on has to carry each item. There is no single mandatory payslip format Australia wide, but these fields must be there.

The line that catches small businesses out is the one that looks smallest: separately identifiable entitlements. A Saturday penalty folded into the ordinary hours total is not itemized. It is a guess the employee cannot check. Fair Work does allow one shortcut for casuals: a note saying the hourly rate already includes the casual loading.

What Must Never Appear on a Payslip

Three things stay off the page.

Paid family and domestic violence leave. Employees can access 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave under the National Employment Standards, and payslips must not mention it, the leave taken, or its balance. Record those hours as ordinary hours, or as another type of leave if the employee asks. The goal is a payslip that looks exactly as it would have without the leave, because someone else may see it.

A Tax File Number. There is no reason to print one on a document that gets forwarded to landlords and lenders.

A full bank account number. It is not a required field. The last four digits prove where the money went.

The New Employee Super Fund Exception

New starters often arrive before their super paperwork. Fair Work lets you leave the fund name off payslips issued within 14 days of a new employee's first payday, if they have not chosen a fund and you have not yet obtained their stapled fund details from the ATO. The super amount still goes on. Only the fund details wait.

What the Enerpize Payslip Template Australia Includes

We did not start with a layout. We started with section 536, the Fair Work Regulations and the ATO's Payday Super rules, then built every cell to answer one of them. The Enerpize Payslip Template Australia has six tabs in Excel, and you type into only one. The payslip fills itself in, so it works as an Australian payslip template Excel users can run every week without rebuilding a thing.

A Clock on the Super Line

Every payslip shows the date super must reach the fund: payday plus 7 business days, skipping the public holidays you list.

Super on the Right Base

Each earnings line is marked Yes or No for qualifying earnings, and the base prints on the payslip, so the employee sees what super was calculated on, not just the result.

The Running Scoreboard

Year-to-date totals sit beside every entitlement, deduction, net pay and super figure.

A Goodbye Field

Switch on the termination option and the payslip adds the pay rate on the last day of employment.

Four Digits, Not Eight

Only the last four digits of the bank account print.

A Pre-Flight Checklist

The Required Fields Check tests each payslip against the Fair Work payslip requirements, 16 checks in all, including whether it went out within one working day.

A Paper Trail That Lasts Seven Years

The Payslip Register logs each payslip, flags late super, and calculates a "keep until" date seven years out.

Silence Where the Law Demands It

There is no line for family and domestic violence leave, and the instructions explain how to record those hours instead.

A Word Version That Mirrors the Layout

The payslip template Australia Word version mirrors the layout, with an asterisk on every required field and a filled-in payslip example Australia employers can copy from. It is an editable payslip template Australia teams can rebrand in minutes.

How Payday Super Changes Your Payslips

For years, super ran on a different clock from wages. Staff were paid weekly or fortnightly, and super could land months later.

That clock stopped on 1 July 2026. So what is Payday Super, exactly?

What Is Payday Super?

Payday Super is the rule that employers must pay each employee's super guarantee for every payday, with the contribution reaching the fund within 7 business days, instead of quarterly. The law passed in November 2025 and started on 1 July 2026. The rate stays at 12%.

Why bother? AustralianSuper estimates unpaid super cost workers around $24.4 billion over the five years to 2026, with roughly 1 in 4 workers underpaid or unpaid each year. Matching super to payday makes a missing contribution visible in days, not months. Our Payday Super guide covers the employer side in depth.

Qualifying Earnings vs Ordinary Time Earnings

Super used to be 12% of ordinary time earnings. Now it is 12% of qualifying earnings: ordinary time earnings plus all commissions, salary sacrifice contributions and other amounts previously counted as salary or wages for super. Overtime and expense allowances usually stay outside.

Salary sacrifice is the trap. If an employee sacrifices $200 a fortnight, super is still calculated on their pay before that $200 comes out. Get it wrong and you underpay $24 every fortnight. Small number. Long time.

The 7 Business Day Rule in Practice

Take a payday of Tuesday 29 September 2026. Count 7 business days and the contribution must reach the fund by Thursday 8 October 2026. A public holiday inside that window moves the deadline, which is why the Enerpize Payslip Template Australia keeps a holiday list.

The ATO lists other changes too:

• Funds now have 3 business days to allocate or return a contribution
• The ATO assesses the super guarantee charge for late payments
• Penalties are 25% or 50% of the unpaid charge, depending on prior penalties
• The Small Business Superannuation Clearing House is gone
• Qualifying earnings and super liability are both reported through Single Touch Payroll

The law does not require the due date on a payslip. Ours shows it anyway, because a deadline you can see is a deadline you meet.

How to Fill In a Payslip Template Australia: 8 Steps

The first payslip takes about ten minutes. After that, two.

Step 1: Enter the employer and employee details

Open the Enter Details tab of the Enerpize Payslip Template Australia and add your business name, ABN and address, then the employee's name, employment status, award and classification. The award line is optional, but it ends arguments about why a rate is what it is.

Step 2: Set the pay basis, pay period and pay date

Choose hourly or salary, then enter the rate, the period start and end, and the date the money is paid.

Step 3: List every entitlement on its own line

Ordinary hours, penalties, overtime, allowances, loadings, leave and bonuses each get a row with hours and a rate. If you track hours in a timesheet template, copy the totals across. This step turns a total into an explanation.

Step 4: Mark which lines count as qualifying earnings

Ordinary hours, penalties for ordinary hours, paid leave and commissions are usually Yes. Overtime and expense allowances are usually No. When unsure, check the ATO's guidance before guessing.

Step 5: Enter PAYG withholding and other deductions

Type in the PAYG amount from the ATO tax withheld calculator or tax tables. The template does not calculate tax on purpose: tax tables change, and a wrong formula is worse than a blank cell. List every other deduction with its fund or account.

Step 6: Add the super fund and check the due date

Enter the fund name, USI and member number. The template calculates the super guarantee, adds salary sacrifice and extra employer contributions, and prints the due date.

Step 7: Run the Required Fields Check

Open the checklist tab in the payslip template Australia workbook and fix anything marked Missing. Two minutes here beats two weeks of emails later.

Step 8: Send it within one working day and file it

Save the payslip as a PDF, send it, and log it in the Payslip Register. Fair Work requires 7 years of time and wage records.

Australian Payslip Examples: Three Worked Scenarios

Rules make more sense with numbers attached. Here is how the payslip template Australia fields fill in for three common situations. Treat each as a payslip sample Australia employers can map their own figures onto. Every figure is illustrative, not an award rate.

Casual Café Worker With Saturday Penalty Rates

Sam is a casual on $34.20 an hour, including the 25% casual loading. This week: 18 ordinary hours, 5 of them on a Saturday attracting an extra $6.84 an hour.

• Ordinary hours: 18 × $34.20 = $615.60
• Saturday penalty: 5 × $6.84 = $34.20
• Gross pay and qualifying earnings: $649.80
• Super guarantee: $77.98

The payslip notes that the rate includes casual loading. No leave balances appear, because casuals do not accrue annual or personal leave.

Salaried Employee With Salary Sacrifice

Priya earns $78,000 a year, paid fortnightly, and sacrifices $200 a fortnight into super.

• Gross pay: $78,000 ÷ 26 = $3,000.00
• Salary sacrifice: $200.00, listed as a deduction with the fund name
• Qualifying earnings: $3,000.00
• Super guarantee: $360.00, so $560.00 reaches the fund this pay

Calculate super on $2,800 instead and Priya loses $24 a fortnight, about $624 a year.

Final Payslip on Termination

Leo resigns after three years as a full-time employee on $31.50 an hour. His final Australian payslip example shows his last week of ordinary hours, untaken annual leave paid out on its own line, the pay rate on his last day, and super on the qualifying parts of that pay. Unused annual leave paid out on termination is usually not one of them. Long service leave depends on the state, covered below.

Sending Payslips by Email and Keeping Records

Yes, you can email payslips.

Fair Work accepts electronic payslips that hold the same information as paper ones. Send them securely, in a printable format, somewhere the employee can open them in private. Saving a payslip into a database the employee never sees does not count as giving it to them.

A password-protected PDF to the employee's nominated email covers it, and every free payslip template Australia employers download should export to a clean PDF for exactly that reason. Then keep a copy for 7 years, legible, in English and ready for an inspector.

Payslips for Different Employment Types

One free payslip template Australia employers can use for five kinds of worker. The simple payslip template Australia small businesses need is one that flexes, not five separate files.

Casual employees. Show the casual loading on its own line or note that the rate includes it. No leave balances.

Part-time employees. Same fields as full-time. Leave balances are best practice, and you must provide them on request.

Salaried employees. Show the annual salary as at the last day of the pay period, with any overtime, allowances or bonuses on separate lines.

Piece-rate workers. Show the rate per piece, the number of pieces and the total, so the math can be checked.

Apprentices and trainees. They are employees, usually on award rates that rise each year of training.

Independent contractors invoice you. Treating an employee as a contractor to dodge a payslip is the kind of shortcut that ends up in front of a regulator.

Payslip Rules in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland

The payslip requirements Australia wide are federal. The Fair Work Ombudsman's pay slip rules apply the same way in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. But three state rules shape the paperwork around every payslip: payroll tax, long service leave, and the public holidays that move your Payday Super deadline. The Enerpize Payslip Template Australia keeps a holiday list so you can add yours.

New South Wales

Grow past a certain wage bill in NSW and a tax arrives that never appears on a payslip.

Payroll tax. Revenue NSW sets the 2026 to 2027 tax-free threshold at $1.2 million in annual wages, with a 5.45% rate above it. The employer pays it, but the wages on your payslips are what it is calculated on.

Long service leave. Under the Long Service Leave Act 1955, NSW employees get 2 months (8.67 weeks) after 10 years of continuous service.

What to check on NSW payslips:

• Show long service leave balances as employees approach 10 years
• Add Labour Day (Monday 5 October 2026) to the holiday list
• Watch monthly wages against the payroll tax threshold

Practical note for NSW businesses: the Payslip Register doubles as an early warning. When wages trend toward the threshold, register with Revenue NSW before you cross it.

Victoria

Victoria has the lowest threshold of the three, so smaller businesses meet payroll tax here first.

Payroll tax. The State Revenue Office Victoria sets the annual threshold at $1 million and the rate at 4.85%, or 1.2125% for eligible regional employers. The threshold phases out between $3 million and $5 million in Australian wages, and super counts as taxable wages.

Long service leave. Under the Long Service Leave Act 2018, employees accrue 1/60th of their continuous employment and can take it after 7 years, roughly 6.07 weeks at that point.

What to check on Victorian payslips:

• Track long service leave from day one, since access starts at 7 years
• Add Melbourne Cup Day (Tuesday 3 November 2026) if you are in metropolitan Melbourne
• Check whether the regional payroll tax rate applies

Practical note for Victorian businesses: casual service can count toward long service leave, so a long-serving casual is not an exemption.

Queensland

Queensland has the highest threshold of the three, but the rate climbs as a business grows.

Payroll tax. The Queensland Revenue Office sets the threshold at $1.3 million. The rate is 4.75% for employers paying $6.5 million or less in Australian taxable wages and 4.95% above that. Regional employers may get a 1% discount until 30 June 2030, and a mental health levy applies above $10 million.

Long service leave. Under the Industrial Relations Act 2016, employees get 8.6667 weeks after 10 years of continuous service, with pro-rata payment possible after 7 years in some cases when employment ends.

What to check on Queensland payslips:

• Add the King's Birthday holiday (Monday 5 October 2026) to the holiday list
• Show long service leave balances for employees past 7 years
• Check whether the regional payroll tax discount applies

Practical note for Queensland businesses: the threshold uses total Australian wages, so a group with staff in several states must look at the whole payroll.

How Enerpize Handles Payslips and Payroll

What happens when your payslip template Australia setup works so well that you hire your fifteenth employee?

The spreadsheet starts to sweat. Enerpize picks up where it stops, and more than 40,000 businesses already run on it.

Pay Runs Built From Salary Components

In Enerpize's payroll and HR management software, each employee's pay is built from salary components you set once: base pay, allowances, deductions and contributions. Every pay run applies them, so a Saturday penalty never depends on someone remembering to type it.

Payslips From Every Pay Run

Payslips come straight from each pay run, with contracts and employee loans in the same module. Nobody copies totals between files, so the payslip and the payment come from one record.

Leave and Attendance That Feed the Numbers

Attendance logs, shifts and leave live in Enerpize too, so payslip hours match recorded hours. Payroll sits beside accounting, inventory and sales, so wage costs reach your books without a second round of typing. Comparing options? Our guide to payroll software for Australian businesses covers what to look for.

Payslip Checks for Different Industries

A free payslip template Australia businesses download gets the basics right. Each industry then adds its own favorite way to break a payslip.

Hospitality

Evening, weekend and public holiday penalties each need their own line, and casual loading must be visible. Enerpize's restaurant management software keeps rosters, sales and staffing cost in one place.

Retail

Junior rates, part-time hours that change weekly and weekend penalties all collide here. Keep the ordinary hours line honest and itemize every penalty. Enerpize's retail store management software links that labor cost to stock and sales.

Construction and Trades

Tool, travel and site allowances pile up, and apprentice rates change every year. NSW, Victoria and Queensland also run portable long service leave schemes for building and construction workers, so check who is covered. Enerpize's construction management software ties labor to each job's cost.

Clinics and Allied Health

Clinics mix salaried staff, hourly reception teams and contracted practitioners. Only employees get payslips. On-call and higher duties allowances need their own lines. Enerpize's clinic management software keeps appointments, billing and staff together.

Key Takeaways

1. Every employee must get a payslip within one working day of payday, on paper or electronically, under section 536 of the Fair Work Act.
2. The Fair Work payslip requirements cover employer name and ABN, pay period, payment date, gross and net pay, rates and hours, itemized entitlements, deductions with fund names, and super.
3. Payslips must never mention paid family and domestic violence leave or print a Tax File Number.
4. Since 1 July 2026, Payday Super requires super to reach the fund within 7 business days of payday, at 12% of qualifying earnings.
5. Payroll tax and long service leave are state rules, with different thresholds and qualifying periods in NSW, Victoria and Queensland.
6. Keep every payslip for 7 years. A free payslip template Australia employers can trust, with a built-in register, makes that a two-minute job.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I give my employees payslips by email?

Yes. Fair Work accepts payslips by email or a secure online portal, as long as they hold the same information as a paper payslip and the employee can open and print them privately.

What must be included on a payslip in Australia?

The payslip requirements Australia employers must meet: employer name and ABN, employee name, pay period, payment date, gross and net pay, hourly rate and hours or annual salary, each loading, allowance, penalty or bonus, every deduction with its fund or account, and super contributions with the fund name or number.

How soon after payday must a payslip be given?

Within one working day of payday, even if the employee is on leave.

Are payslips a legal requirement?

Yes. Section 536 of the Fair Work Act requires them, and Fair Work Inspectors can issue infringement notices when payslips are late, missing or incomplete.

Does a payslip have to show superannuation?

Yes. It must show the contributions made or intended for the pay period and the fund name or number. Fund details can wait up to 14 days for some new employees.

What is the 7 day rule for Payday Super?

From 1 July 2026, super guarantee contributions must reach the employee's fund within 7 business days after payday, with some exceptions such as new employees.

What are qualifying earnings for Payday Super?

Ordinary time earnings plus commissions, salary sacrifice contributions and other amounts previously counted as salary or wages for super. The 12% super guarantee is calculated on this figure.

Do I need payslips if I report through Single Touch Payroll?

Yes. Single Touch Payroll sends pay information to the ATO. Payslips are a separate Fair Work obligation to your employees.

Should leave balances be on a payslip?

It is best practice, not a requirement, but you must provide balances on request. Casual employees have no annual or personal leave balances.

How long should payslip records be kept?

Fair Work requires 7 years of time and wage records, including payslips.

Is there a payslip template in Excel?

Yes. The Enerpize Payslip Template Australia comes in Excel, calculating gross pay, net pay, qualifying earnings, super, year-to-date totals and the Payday Super due date. It doubles as an Australian payslip template Excel users can reuse every pay run. The payslip template Australia Word file, PDF and Google versions are included.

About the Author

Omar El Bahr is a Senior Digital Growth Specialist at Enerpize, where he leads SEO, content strategy, and organic growth across international markets. He is a Forbes Communications Council contributor and has written for Entrepreneur on business communication and digital strategy.

Disclaimer: This template and its examples are general information, not legal, tax or payroll advice. Figures are illustrative, rules change, and Enerpize is not affiliated with the Fair Work Ombudsman, the ATO or any state revenue office. Check official sources or a registered tax or BAS agent for your situation.