The payroll summary report¶

The payroll summary report adds up your payroll over a period you choose — a month, a quarter, or a whole financial year. Instead of looking at one pay at a time, it rolls many pays together into totals.

It usually shows the totals by employee, and an overall total for the whole business. This lets you see both what each person was paid and what your team cost as a whole.

In one line

The payroll summary report totals your payroll over a chosen period — gross wages, PAYG withholding, super, deductions and net pay — by employee and overall.

Why this matters¶

At some point you need the big-picture numbers, not each individual pay — for example to see what a person earned this year, to work out your total wage cost for a quarter, or to check the tax and super that has built up. The payroll summary report gives you those totals in one place.

What you will learn¶

What the payroll summary report shows
What each total on the report means
What the report is used for

Understanding the concept¶

The report covers a period you set, and totals the same handful of numbers that appear on every pay.

Gross wages — the total amount earned before anything is taken out. This includes ordinary pay plus any loadings, allowances, bonuses or penalty rates.

PAYG withholding — the total tax held back from pays. PAYG stands for pay as you go. The ATO explains that an employer holds an amount back from a worker's pay and sends it to the ATO, going towards the worker's tax for the year.

Super — the total superannuation the employer owes on top of wages. The ATO sets super as a percentage of an employee's earnings, paid into the employee's super fund. This is a cost on top of gross wages, not a deduction from it.

Deductions — other amounts taken out of gross pay, such as an amount an employee has agreed to.

Net pay — the total take-home amount that lands in employees' bank accounts, once PAYG withholding and any other deductions are taken from gross wages.

Seeing these totals by employee and overall lets you answer both "what did this person get?" and "what did payroll cost the business?" for the period.

For accountants & bookkeepers

The summary is a period roll-up of pay-run data, so it is a natural place to reconcile against other figures — for example gross wages and PAYG withholding against what has been reported through STP, and super totals against what has been paid to funds. Because super is an employer cost rather than an employee deduction, it sits outside the gross-to-net path and is totalled separately.

Example¶

At the end of a quarter, a business owner runs the payroll summary report for the three months. The report lists each employee with their gross wages, PAYG withholding, super and net pay for the quarter, then an overall total row at the bottom. The owner uses the overall gross and PAYG withholding totals to check the quarter's figures, and the super total to confirm what is owed to the funds. One glance gives the whole quarter's staff cost.

Common mistakes¶

Reading net pay as the cost of payroll — the real cost is gross wages plus super.
Treating super as a deduction from the employee — it is an employer cost on top.
Choosing the wrong period, so the totals do not line up with what you are checking.

How this works in myaccountant¶

In the app — myaccountant can produce a payroll summary that totals your pays over a period you choose. It shows the totals per employee and an overall total for the business, covering gross wages, PAYG withholding, super, deductions and net pay, so you can review your staff costs and the amounts owing.

Key points¶

The payroll summary report totals payroll over a period you choose.
It shows totals by employee and an overall total.
Gross wages is the amount earned before anything is taken out.
PAYG withholding is the tax held back and sent to the ATO.
Super is an employer cost on top of wages, not a deduction.
Net pay is the total take-home amount paid to employees.

Learn next¶

General information only — not tax, super or financial advice.

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