1. Confirm the pay period and pay date
The pay period tells you which work dates are included. The pay date tells you when payment was issued. They are not always the same. If hours near the end of a period are missing, they may have moved to the next payroll cutoff rather than disappeared.
2. Match hours and rates
Look for regular hours, overtime hours and any categories such as holiday, sick or vacation pay. Multiply hours by the listed rate as a basic reasonableness check. Overtime rules vary by location and job, so a calculator alone cannot decide legal compliance.
3. Read gross pay
Gross pay usually combines regular pay, overtime, bonuses, commissions and other earnings before taxes and deductions. If the gross amount looks unfamiliar, check each earnings line before looking at the final deposit.
4. Separate taxes from other deductions
Federal, state and local withholding may appear beside Social Security and Medicare in the United States. Benefits, retirement contributions, insurance, garnishments or after-tax deductions may appear separately. A higher deduction is not automatically an error; it may reflect changed elections, benefit timing or a one-time adjustment.
5. Find net pay
Net pay, take-home pay or amount paid is the amount after deductions. If direct deposit is split across accounts, the sum of those deposits should generally match the net amount shown.
6. Use YTD totals carefully
Year-to-date totals help track earnings and deductions across the year. They can reset with a new calendar year, change after payroll corrections and differ across employers. Never add a current-period amount to YTD unless you know whether the displayed YTD already includes it.
What to verify before raising a concern
- The correct employee and employer.
- The right pay period and pay date.
- Regular and overtime hours against your own records.
- Rate changes, bonuses, reimbursements or benefit deductions.
- Whether a missing amount appears in YTD or on an adjacent line.
- Whether the document is a statement, correction or voided check.
Let the document be the starting point
Paycheck Radar scans a photo or PDF on your device, highlights fields to review and compares this check with the one before it.
Frequently asked questions
Is a paystub the same as a paycheck?
The paycheck is the payment. The paystub is the statement explaining earnings, deductions and the resulting payment.
Why does my YTD not equal the checks I added?
You may be missing a check, mixing employers or years, or looking at a YTD figure that includes a correction or off-cycle payment.
What if the document is hard to read?
Use the original PDF when available. If you scan it, review every recognized field against the original and leave unknown values unknown rather than guessing.