Paystub Suite Help Center

Guided tour, fictional demo, and sample PDF

Select Quick tour in the app header to reopen the six-step introduction at any time. On a new installation, it appears after the encrypted-vault and donation prompts are dismissed.

Load fictional demo

1. Select Load fictional demo from the tour.
2. The app fills the form with clearly labeled example information and displays a red demonstration banner.
3. Explore worker types, line items, YTD fields, batch controls, and tax/compliance sections.
4. Select Clear demo before entering real records.

View sample PDF

The sample PDF is bundled with the app and works offline. It contains fictional data and can be opened without entering or saving any payroll information.

Start here

Quick start: create one statement

1. Select and unlock a named encrypted vault with its passphrase, create a new vault, or choose Use private session if nothing should persist after the app closes.
2. Under Document setup, choose the worker type, document status, template, paper size, currency, locale, and document language.
3. Enter the employer/payer and worker/payee information. Uploading a logo is optional.
4. Set the pay frequency, pay-period dates, pay date, and payment method.
5. Add all current-period earnings. Use Hours × rate for hourly work or Fixed amount for salary, bonus, commission, reimbursement, or other fixed earnings.
6. Add actual deductions. The optional tax adviser can recommend amounts, but the recommendations must be reviewed before applying.
7. Add optional employer contributions, leave balances, and year-to-date values.
8. Review validation messages and check the authorization statement.
9. Select Exact preview to inspect the PDF page before saving.
10. Select Generate locally, then open, download, save, share, or export the first page as PNG.

Detailed walkthrough

Batch payroll: create statements for multiple workers

Batch mode lets you prepare up to 50 statement snapshots, then create a ZIP containing a separate PDF for each worker plus a combined payroll CSV.

Recommended batch workflow

1. Save an employer profile. Complete the employer section and select Save current under Company profile. This avoids retyping the same payer information.
2. Load or create the first worker. Complete all worker, period, earnings, deductions, YTD, contribution, and leave information.
3. Review optional tax recommendations separately for that worker. W-4 choices, prior wages, residence/work state, and local taxes may differ by employee.
4. Check authorization and validation. Batch queue entries must pass the same validation as an individual statement.
5. Select Add to batch. The worker appears in the Batch queue with pay date, gross pay, and net pay.
6. Load the next worker profile or replace the worker fields. Adjust that worker’s earnings, deductions, YTD, tax inputs, and leave balances.
7. Select Add to batch again. Repeat until all intended workers are queued.
8. Review the Batch queue. Use Remove beside one entry to discard only that snapshot.
9. Select Generate batch ZIP. The app creates one PDF per queued worker and a file named payroll-summary.csv inside the ZIP.
10. Select Combined CSV when you need only the queue summary without generating PDFs.

What is inside the ZIP?

• One independently generated PDF for each queued worker.
• A combined CSV with worker, pay date, gross, deductions, net pay, and the generated local record ID.
• No app password, vault key, full SSN/TIN, or authorization checkbox.

Batch safety checklist

• Confirm the pay period and pay date for every worker.
• Apply tax recommendations only after reviewing each worker’s inputs.
• Confirm YTD figures are worker-specific and not copied from another employee.
• Open several PDFs from the ZIP before distributing the entire batch.
• Use Clear after safely storing the finished ZIP if the queue is no longer needed.

Document setup, worker types, and templates

Worker type

W-2 employee

Ordinary employee earnings statement. Tax adviser and payroll deductions may be relevant.

1099 contractor

Independent-contractor payment statement. Do not present recommendations as employer withholding unless legally appropriate.

Owner draw

Documents an owner distribution or draw rather than ordinary employee payroll.

Statutory employee

For workers treated under applicable statutory-employee rules. Confirm tax treatment separately.

Reimbursement-only

For a statement containing reimbursements rather than ordinary wages.

Templates

Professional, Compact payroll, Detailed itemized, Modern, Minimal, and Ledger change visual layout only. They do not change the underlying calculation or legal requirements.

Paper, currency, locale, and language

Paper size controls PDF dimensions. Currency and locale control symbols, decimal separators, and date formatting. Document language changes supported PDF labels. These choices do not automatically make a statement compliant in another country.

Profiles, backups, and data tools

Company and worker profiles

• Save current: saves the current company or worker profile in the encrypted vault. Company profiles can include the resized logo.
• Load: copies the selected saved profile into the current form. Existing fields of that profile type are replaced.
• Delete: deletes the selected saved profile after confirmation. It does not remove previously generated PDFs.

Encrypted backup

Creates a JSON backup protected by a separate passphrase. It can include the current draft, profiles, history, and batch queue. Remember the backup passphrase; support cannot recover it.

Import backup

Imports a compatible plain or encrypted JSON backup and migrates older supported schemas. Import replaces the current draft, profiles, history, and batch queue in the active vault.

Summary CSV and Text summary

These export a readable summary of the current form. They are not a replacement for the formatted PDF and may contain payroll information, so store them securely.

Pay-period controls

• Set current: calculates the pay-period dates containing today according to the selected frequency.
• Previous: shifts all period dates one pay period backward.
• Next: shifts all period dates one pay period forward.
• Duplicate previous stub: loads the newest saved history record, moves it to the next pay period, enables YTD roll-forward, and clears authorization. It requires saved history.

Always confirm semimonthly boundaries and actual payday policies; the date tools are conveniences, not an employer calendar or banking schedule.

Optional tax and compliance adviser

The adviser estimates 2026 federal withholding and FICA from the information entered, then provides a state estimate and local review notes. It is optional and does not automatically change the deductions section.

How to use it

1. Enable the adviser.
2. Confirm residence state, work state, work locality, filing status, W-4 entries, prior YTD Social Security wages, and prior YTD Medicare wages.
3. Enter the worker’s taxable earnings in the Earnings section.
4. Select Calculate recommendations.
5. Read the assumptions, source links, effective dates, collection dates, bundle version, and signature status.
6. Select Apply recommended deductions only when the recommendations are appropriate. Applied lines are fixed deduction snapshots and can be edited or removed.

Recommendation-data buttons

• Check for updated sources: requests the latest signed rules catalog when online. No payroll data or coordinates are included.
• Use bundled data: removes the downloaded catalog and returns to the rules included with the installed app.
• Use device location: suggests a likely state from coordinates processed on the device. The user must confirm work and residence jurisdictions.

Expand Federal, state, and local compliance checklist to review advisory fields and official-source links. The collection date shows when the source was last reviewed by the catalog process.

Earnings, deductions, contributions, and leave

Add earning

Adds a line for regular pay, overtime, bonus, commission, piece rate, reimbursement, or another earning. Choose Fixed amount or Hours × rate. The Taxable checkbox affects the adviser’s taxable-wage input.

Add deduction

Adds tax, pre-tax, post-tax, garnishment, or other deduction lines. Fixed amounts are exact current-period values. Percentage deductions calculate from gross pay. Category labels do not by themselves perform a complete taxable-wage ordering calculation.

Remove

Removes that line. If the final earning line is removed, the app creates a blank earning line so the form always has an earnings area.

Add contribution

Adds employer-paid benefits or costs. Contributions increase displayed total compensation but do not reduce employee net pay.

Add leave type

Adds vacation, sick, PTO, compensatory-time, or another leave balance with accrued, used, remaining, and unit fields.

Year-to-date values and recurring items

Roll forward YTD totals adds the current period’s gross and deductions to the previous YTD gross and deductions. Use the prior completed statement, not another worker’s totals.

When roll-forward is disabled, enter YTD gross, deductions, and net manually. Line-level YTD fields can be shown for individual earnings, deductions, and employer contributions.

Optional settings

• Save non-sensitive details in encrypted local history: adds a record after successful generation.
• Reuse current items for the next pay period: preserves recurring earnings, deductions, contributions, and leave items in the workflow.
• Watermark: adds custom text, color, opacity, bold, and italic styling. Draft and void statuses may also warrant clear visual markings.

Original, corrected, replacement, voided, and draft statements

• Original: first issued version of the statement.
• Corrected: changes information from an earlier statement. Enter the earlier local record ID in Replaces record ID.
• Replacement: reissues or supersedes an earlier record. Enter the earlier record ID.
• Voided: marks a statement as canceled. Do not use it as an active payroll record.
• Draft: not finalized. Use a visible watermark and do not distribute it as a final record.

The record ID and document hash help identify and detect later modification of a file. They do not verify that the underlying employment or amounts are true.

Review, preview, generation, and exports

• Clear form: clears the current draft after confirmation. Saved profiles and history remain.
• Add to batch: validates and stores a snapshot in the encrypted batch queue; it does not generate a PDF immediately.
• Exact preview: builds a temporary PDF and displays it without completing the final generation workflow. Review page count, wrapping, logo, totals, and warnings.
• Generate locally: validates, assigns a local record ID, calculates a document hash, and generates the PDF entirely on the device.
• Open PDF / View PDF: opens the generated PDF in the browser or native viewer.
• Download / Save PDF: saves the PDF to the browser download location or native Documents storage.
• Share: opens the device share sheet when supported.
• Export first page PNG: creates an image of page one. Multi-page statements require the PDF for all pages.

Generated PDFs are not retained inside the app automatically. Saving history stores a sanitized record, not the PDF bytes.

Recent statements and local analytics

Recent statements

• Load: loads a sanitized history record back into the form.
• Next period: loads the record, moves dates forward, uses its YTD values as the prior totals, and clears authorization.
• Clear history: permanently removes the encrypted history list from this vault after confirmation.

Analytics

Analytics summarize only saved local history: statement count, gross, deductions, net, and monthly gross chart. They do not read PDF files or cloud payroll records. If history saving is disabled, those statements will not appear in analytics.

Encrypted vault and private sessions

The app asks how it should handle sensitive payroll information before the form opens. Both choices perform payroll calculations and PDF generation locally on the device. Neither choice uploads payroll records to the Paystub server.

Encrypted vault

Saves drafts, company and worker profiles, batch records, and statement history on this device as AES-256-GCM encrypted data. Every named vault has its own passphrase, encryption key, and isolated records. Your passphrase is never transmitted or stored by the app.

Private session

Keeps payroll form data only in memory for the current visit. The app does not autosave the draft, profiles, batch queue, or history. Refreshing the page, closing the app, or ending the browser session clears that information.

Using multiple vaults

1. Choose a vault from the list on the entry screen and enter that vault’s passphrase.
2. Select Create another vault to make a separate workspace. Up to 20 vaults can be stored on one browser or app installation.
3. After unlocking, use Switch or create vault to lock the current vault and return to the chooser.
4. Use Rename vault or Delete vault only after that vault has been unlocked.

Only one vault is unlocked at a time. Profiles, drafts, history, analytics, and batch records do not cross between vaults. Backups also contain only the currently unlocked vault’s exported data.

An existing single vault is automatically migrated to the list as Primary vault. Its encrypted payload and original passphrase remain unchanged.

What can remain after a private session?

Files you deliberately download, save, print, or share—such as a PDF, CSV, ZIP, image, text summary, or encrypted backup—remain in the destination you selected until you delete them. The installed app shell and non-payroll settings may also remain so the PWA can work offline.

Which option should I choose?

• Choose an encrypted vault on a trusted personal or business device when you want drafts, reusable profiles, history, analytics, or batch records to be available later.
• Choose a private session on a shared or temporary device, or whenever you do not want the app to retain payroll form data.
• If an encrypted vault already exists, choosing a private session does not unlock, change, or delete it. You can unlock it on a later visit.

Passphrases and recovery

Use at least 10 characters and store the passphrase somewhere secure. The app has no account or recovery server, and support cannot read or reset the vault. An encrypted backup uses its own passphrase and follows the same no-recovery rule.

Storage controls

• Storage meter: estimates the app storage used on this device. Browser estimates may be approximate.
• History retention: limits how long encrypted statement history is kept and how many records it contains.
• Erase current vault data: clears the draft, profiles, history, and batch queue inside the unlocked vault while keeping the empty named vault available.
• Delete vault: permanently removes the unlocked named vault and all of its encrypted records. Other vaults and exported files are not affected.

Complete button reference

System status, diagnostics, and retention

Open System status from the app header or footer to check offline readiness, encryption support, storage usage, recommendation freshness, policy links, location-permission state, and the local PDF assets.

Privacy-safe diagnostics

The diagnostic report contains app version, platform, browser capabilities, storage totals, policy-link configuration, and recommendation metadata. It intentionally excludes names, addresses, wages, tax IDs, document contents, vault contents, and precise coordinates.

History retention

1. Choose how long to keep generated-statement history.
2. Choose a maximum of 25, 50, or 100 records.
3. Select Apply retention. Expired records are removed from the encrypted history, but exported PDFs and backups are not deleted.

Feedback and support packets

Open Feedback from the app header or footer to describe a bug, accessibility issue, tax-rule concern, store issue, or feature request.

• Never include real names, wages, addresses, tax identifiers, bank information, complete PDFs, or vault passphrases.
• Download feedback packet creates a JSON file you can inspect before sharing.
• Open email draft creates a message to the configured support address.
• Copy summary copies the non-sensitive report to the clipboard.
• Optional diagnostics include app version, platform readiness, storage totals, and recommendation-catalog metadata only.

Troubleshooting

Important limitations

• This app prepares self-generated, independently unverified earnings statements.
• Tax and compliance results are recommendations, not legal, accounting, or tax advice.
• A hash can detect document changes but does not prove employment or income.
• Users remain responsible for correct records, current official rules, lawful use, and secure distribution.

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