30+ Sample Payroll Change Forms

What is a Payroll Change Form?

A payroll register contains the necessary information pertaining to each company employee during a pay period. It contains more or less the same information as an employee payroll sheet. From time to time, both the payroll register and employee payroll sheet need to be updated especially when there is an increase in an employee’s salary due to basic annual salary increase or due to a merit increase incentive. There are several forms a company can use to record and update information changes in the payroll such as the use of Payroll Change forms. A payroll change form is a document that an employee needs to fill out and submit to his employer whenever there is a change in his personal information that can affect his payroll, such as change of name, change of address, change in a bank account, change in marital status, etc. Some of these changes can affect the deductions of an employee, thus making his net payout greater than his last paycheck. For example, a change in marital status and additional family member (additional baby in the household) could mean the employee is available for tax benefits due to additional beneficiary thus having lower tax deductions. In turn, it could mean he will be receiving a higher net payout for his next paycheck. Hence, it is vital for employees to take action and notify their employer for any personal changes that can affect their payroll.

Why is Using Payroll Change Forms Important?

Change is inevitable. It is highly likely for employees to have changes in personal information over the years or over the course of his employment no matter how long or brief. These employee records should be maintained diligently by the company, to save them from legal issues and efficiently performing internal administrative duties. In order to effectively manage change in the records, a company should invest in keeping a standard payroll change forms that their employees can easily fill-out whenever they need to report a change in information that can affect their payroll check.

Different Reasons For Filling-out a Payroll Change Form

Some employee personal information can directly affect the payroll checks of employees. Whenever an employee needs to report changes in his personal information he needs to submit a payroll change form to his superior. A few reasons why an employee needs to fill out and submit these forms are as follows.

  1. Change in name

    A change in an employee’s name could either be by reason of change of marital status or incorrect spelling of his or her name in the database. A female employee will have to legally change her last name to that of her spouse’s last name in the event of marriage. The same goes when an employee, who in the database appears to be married, but later on obtained a divorce from the court, can legally change her name and revert back to her old maiden name. In this situation or any other circumstances where you have changed your name, you need to notify your employer. Hence, you should fill out a form.

  2. Change in address

    It could be because you found a new apartment closer to your workplace, or have finally gotten your mortgage application granted, that prompted you to change dwelling place. A person can have multiple addresses; he could have a permanent address, a billing address, residential address, or provincial address. In the event you want to change the address listed in the company records to a new one, you will have to fill out a form to have it properly replaced.

  3. Change of bank account

    Most companies now pay their employees via direct deposits to their bank accounts. Often times, a company may take the initiative to open its employees a company bank account and there make the direct deposit after giving out their pay stubs. Other times, an employee may choose to have the direct deposit made in his or her own personal account. In the event, an employee changes or terminates that bank account, he needs to notify the payroll administrator to stop making deposits to that specific bank account and offer a new account.

  4. Change of marital status

    A change in marital status can be by reason of marriage, legal separation, or divorce. According to a 2017 research conducted by Statistica Research Department, 52% of Americans are married. A person can be accepted to work in a company single, but later on, he will eventually get married throughout the period of his employment. Or he could start off married but later on get a divorce and become single. In either case, he will have to report his change in marital status to the company.

  5. Change in work shift

    A company may offer multiple working shift schemes to its employees. If you started off working on the morning shift but want to change your work schedule to the night shift, you may have to fill out a payroll change form. Working in the night shift has certain benefits not available to the morning shift, for example, additional pay by reason of night shift differentials. This can significantly affect your payroll, hence you need to notify and have your employee information changed in the company database.

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How To Make a Payroll Change Form Using Google Docs

Keeping and maintaining an employee database is a major part of the Human Resource personnel’s workload. It is undeniably a time-consuming work but it needs to be done. Whenever there are changes, you need to constantly update your records and you need to make sure all entries are accurate and up to date. To help you keep your records system organized, it’s best to use an online document system such as Google Docs. Here is a step by step guide to creating a Payroll Change Form using Google Docs.

Step 1: Open Google Docs

If you already have a Google account, opening Google Docs is easy. All you have to do is go to google’s home page, find the one-dimensional rubric cube on the upper right corner of your computer screen, click it, find the word “drive” and click that, and it will redirect you to another page. Once redirected to the google drive page, click “new” on the upper left side and choose “Docs”

Step 2: Name the document

Don’t forget to name the document so it will be easier to find and update. You can pin the document on your home page so you can easily access it whenever you need to change some entries. You can share the file with the workplace drive so other employees can access it.

Step 3: Make an employee information sheet

The first row of your payroll change form should be a brief employee information sheet where an employee can fill out his name, employee identification number, the department he is working for, and his job position.

Step 4: Place an “information you want to change” row

Below the employee information sheet row should be the information he wants to change row and the information he wants to change it to. It would be better to place choice such as change name from x to x, change address, phone number, marital status, and others.

Step 5: Provide a “reason for change” row

You can write this as optional. Provide a blank space, at least three rows, where the employee can exhaust his explanation or reason why he wants to change x information to x.

FAQs

Who do I contact if my paycheck is wrong?

If you receive a wrong paycheck or your own paycheck but it does not reflect accurate information and you want to clarify it or have it corrected, it is best to know the person in the office who you should contact. Typically, the appropriate person or personnel you should talk to is anyone from the Human Resources Department or Payroll Department; however, if you don’t have either or you are working in a micro-business enterprise, the best person to go to is your boss, his secretary, or anyone who handles the employee payroll. You can ask to personally talk to him by knocking outside his office door or send him an email.

How long does an employer have to correct a payroll error?

An error in your payroll check can be a hassle. It can cause you not to get your check cashed by any bank. You won’t get to pay your bills on time since you technically have no money to pay for them. The logical thing to do is immediately talk to the person-in-charge of handling the payroll (payroll administrator) or in his absence, your boss, to get the check corrected or replaced. At the time you detect the error, and once you have your boss notified, he will immediately exert efforts to have it corrected. Generally, he will give you a new corrected check immediately or on the same day. However, there will be circumstances that the change will be delayed. Nevertheless, the process will not take over a week.

What happens if I receive an overpayment in my payroll account?

If you noticed you have been overpaid as reflected in your account, you should notify your company’s payroll administrator to clarify the situation. Chances are, he has made an accidental overpayment in your account which he needs to correct right away. By law, the company has a right to legally recover the overpayment made. The company can either deduct the amount to your next paycheck or decide to come up with a payment scheme agreeable to both of you. You also have a choice return the amount immediately, if it is still in your possession.

Can my employer take back money if they overpaid me?

It depends on which state you live in. Some states do not allow the employer to take back the money he overpaid by accident or mistake to an employee due to his negligence. However, the employer and the employee may consensually come up with a repayment agreement. Once the employee agrees to repay the overpaid amount to his bank account, he must sign a written agreement. The agreement must contain the total amount of money overpaid that he must return on a payment scheme basis to the company. At the time payment is fully made, the agreement may be dispensed with.

How to do payrolls manually?

Small businesses do not have the luxury of engaging the services of a payroll managing company or buying expensive computer payroll system or software. Instead, they hire an internal payroll administrator, who most of the time, has to manage the payroll manually. He can create his own payroll register using google sheets for easy management of information. When you choose to do payrolls manually you need to gather employee information, efficiently track employee time, manually calculate the payroll, determine the deductions, subtract deductions, pay employees their net pay, and pay the taxes. All mentioned are contained in the payroll register.


Whenever there is any change in pay rate, benefits or allowance coverage, tax changes, or a need to update employee information, a payroll change necessarily follows. If you are an HR personnel in-charge of managing payroll processing, it is essential to have a standard payroll change form to make it easier to manage employee information changes. To make your life easier, you can start creating the form now by downloading our sample templates above. Check out our free printable documents on payroll change forms. You can download the file in Microsoft Word or PDF format. Just browse, find one you can work with, download, fill it out, and save the file.