Payroll records and payslips: what an internal compliance audit should test

Published by SESAY · 2026-10-07 · General Australian payroll guidance

What to understand first

Fair Work requires employment records and compliant pay slips; its guidance sets out the required details and retention rules. A file existing somewhere is not the same as a usable audit trail. Test whether a reviewer can connect the approved input, calculation, payment and employee-facing document.

Practical checks

• Sample payslips across pay groups and unusual payment types.
• Check required fields against current Fair Work guidance.
• Confirm records can be retrieved without relying on one staff member.
• Restrict access and preserve correction history rather than overwriting evidence.

Fictional example

A fictional services firm changes payroll software and keeps only the opening balances. Months later, an employee asks about a prior allowance. The firm discovers that the old detailed history was not included in the handover. Its remediation plan restores the archive and establishes retrieval checks before the old subscription ends.

Your next step

Run a timed retrieval exercise for one employee and one historical pay period. Do not send the records to an unrestricted group mailbox. Record what was missing and test again after remediation. Include leavers and archived entities in the retrieval scope.

How SESAY can help

SESAY can support a records inventory, payslip field review and migration handover checklist within an agreed access and retention framework.

Official sources

• Fair Work — Pay slips
• Fair Work — Record-keeping

Sources researched 2026-10-07. Examples are fictional and use stated assumptions. Confirm current rules and your circumstances before acting. This is general information, not individual tax or legal advice. SESAY is independent of the regulators linked here.