Introducing Pay Periods: Compare earnings with your pay stub
Updated: 1 day ago
Depending on how your employer handles tips, your paycheck may include hourly wages and credit card tips. Taxes and other payroll deductions reduce the amount you ultimately receive from that paycheck, and taxes on cash tips you’ve already received may also be withheld.
Your paycheck also covers shifts worked during a specific Pay Period, while payday may not come until days or weeks later. By then, remembering exactly what you earned or how many hours you worked during those dates can be difficult.
That’s why consistently tracking your hours and earnings with ServerLife matters. It gives you your own record to compare with your pay stub, rather than relying on memory weeks after a shift.
But making that comparison manually means finding the Pay Period dates, going back through your earnings history and adding up what you recorded during that time.
Now, ServerLife can do that work for you. Set your payroll schedule once, and the new Pay Periods feature automatically organizes your tracked hours and earnings into the same Pay Periods your employer uses.
All users can set one default Pay Period. With Premium, you can set a unique Pay Period for each job you track.
When payday comes, pull up the corresponding Pay Period and compare your records with your pay stub.
Set up your Pay Period
Open More → Preferences → Pay Periods.
Under Default Pay Period, tap Choose your pay schedule.
Choose the pay schedule that matches your employer’s payroll schedule by choosing how often you are paid and what day that Pay Period starts on.
For Weekly, select the day of the week the Pay Period starts. For Monthly, select the day of the month. For Twice a month, select both start dates. For Every 2 weeks, choose your Pay Period dates.
Check your Pay Period dates. The beginning and ending dates should match those on your pay stub — not the date your paycheck is issued or deposited.
Tap Save.
If you track multiple jobs with Premium, each job can use that default or have its own Pay Period.
To set a different Pay Period for a job, select it under Job Pay Periods and choose Use custom pay period. Follow the same setup steps you used for the default Pay Period, then tap Save. Repeat for any other jobs with different payroll schedules.
View a Pay Period
Open Totals and tap the date range. Set the date to fall within the Pay Period you want to review, then choose Pay.
If you only use a default Pay Period, you’ll see that Pay Period. If you track multiple jobs, select the job whose Pay Period you want to view.
To compare the selected Pay Period with the previous Pay Period or the same Pay Period last year, turn on Compare to and choose a comparison option.
By default, totals include shifts and paychecks. To view only your tracked shifts or only your recorded paychecks, tap the filter at the top right of the screen and choose what to display.
Why compare your pay stub with your own records?
Your total tracked earnings won't necessarily equal the amount deposited into your bank account.
For example, if you received cash tips during the pay period and reported them to your employer, you’ve already received that income. Those tips may still appear on your pay stub as taxable income, and taxes associated with them may be withheld from your paycheck.
Instead of comparing two totals, compare the hours, earnings, taxes and deductions that make up those totals.
Keep your earnings history up to date
Your Pay Period is only as accurate as the earnings history behind it. Record your shifts, hours and earnings consistently so your Pay Period totals reflect what you earned during those dates.
If you miss a shift or leave out part of your earnings, your Pay Period total won't give you a complete record to compare with your pay stub.
For a stronger record, keep a photo of your checkout slip at the end of each shift. With Premium, you can attach a photo to your shift in ServerLife for easy reference if your pay stub doesn't match what you recorded.
Compare what you tracked with your pay stub
Pull up the corresponding Pay Period in ServerLife and compare the information you recorded with what appears on your pay stub.
Hours worked: Compare the hours listed on your pay stub with the hours you recorded for your shifts.
Hourly wages: Check the wages reported on your pay stub against the hours and hourly rates you tracked.
Tips: Compare the tips you recorded during the Pay Period with the tip information on your pay stub. Cash tips you’ve already taken home may still appear as reported income for tax purposes, while credit card tips may be paid through your paycheck depending on how your employer handles them.
Taxes and other deductions: Review the taxes and other payroll deductions listed on your pay stub. These can help explain why your take-home pay differs from the total earnings you recorded.
A difference between your tracked earnings and take-home pay doesn’t necessarily mean there’s an error. The goal is to understand what you earned, what was reported and how your final paycheck was calculated.
What if something doesn’t look right?
First, make sure you’re comparing the same Pay Period dates and that you recorded all of your shifts during that period.
Then compare the individual details rather than only looking at your total earnings and the amount deposited into your bank account.
If you’re still seeing a discrepancy, you can use your tracked hours and earnings as a reference when asking your employer or payroll department about it.