Consecutive periods in the employer file
An employer file usually keeps every pay period in order: weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. Consecutive means the next stub starts where the last one ended, and the year-to-date gross equals the prior year-to-date plus this period's gross.
This page is about that file. It is not a guide to assembling papers for a housing application.
How many periods to keep
Keep the periods you actually paid. A small employer who pays twice a month will have 24 stubs in a full year. A bi-weekly employer will have 26. There is no special count to manufacture.
This generator can emit weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly. It does not emit semi-monthly. If you pay semi-monthly, do not relabel a bi-weekly stub.
Year-to-date has to add up
Check three numbers before you file a stub: this period's gross, the prior year-to-date gross, and the new year-to-date gross. The third must equal the first two added together. The same check applies to each tax line.
Social Security year-to-date stops increasing once wages hit the wage base for that tax year. Medicare year-to-date keeps increasing.
A bundle is still a record of real pay
If several real periods need to sit in one PDF, the paid bundle rolls the year-to-date forward. You can create a free pay stub for a single period on a free design. Free: 3 PDFs every 24 hours. Enter only wages that were paid.
Do not misrepresent income
Do not create a run of stubs to suggest a longer work history or a higher wage than the one you paid. Real employee and contractor records only.