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Employment records

If you employ people, you have to keep employment records. You’re legally required to keep some employment records for 7 years, such as:

  • employee details
  • how much they were paid, including any deductions
  • information about hours of work, including overtime
  • leave taken and accrued
  • details of superannuation contributions
  • how the employment was ended.

It's a good idea to keep other employee records to provide a full employment history. These include:

Tax and super records

You must keep some records relating to an employee's tax and super for 5 years. This includes: 

  • records of payments made to employees
  • how you calculated the superannuation contribution for each employee
  • how you met your obligations to give eligible employees a choice of super fund.

Pay slips

As well as paying your employees correctly and on time, you have to give them pay slips.

The legal requirements of pay slips include:

  • providing a pay slip within one business day of pay day
  • ensuring pay slips have all required information (including the amount paid and tax withheld)
  • not mentioning paid family and domestic violence leave on a payslip
  • issuing the pay slip either electronically or on paper.

It’s also a good idea to:

  • write pay slips so they are easy to understand
  • include an employee's leave balance on their pay slip
  • provide pay slips in a format that is easy to print
  • give pay slips to staff securely and confidentially
  • make sure your staff can access and print pay slips in private.

You may be fined if you don't provide a pay slip on time or don't provide the right information.

Rosters and timesheets

You may need to create rosters and timesheets to record your staff's hours of work. It's a good idea to keep these records.

Rosters

A roster is a timetable that shows the days and times your employees are required to work. It usually includes:

  • each employee’s name
  • the dates and hours to be worked
  • any scheduled breaks.

Under most awards you and your employee must agree on the hours of work and rostering in advance, especially if they're full-time or part-time. A roster needs to be given to employees in advance and displayed in a place that is easy for them to access.

If you want to change an employee's regular roster or hours of work, you must discuss it with them first.

Your award or enterprise agreement may also have rules about:

  • when and how a roster should be displayed
  • the process you need to follow to change it.

The Fair Work Ombudsman has more information on rosters, including a free roster template. 

Timesheets

A timesheet is a timetable that shows the days and times an employee actually worked.

Your employees will usually complete this document.

The pay slip you give an employee reflects the hours they actually worked.

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