How a ledger differs from a register
Bookkeepers use ledger in two senses. In accounting it can mean the payroll accounts in your general ledger: wages expense, taxes payable, net pay payable. For running payroll it usually means the employee earnings record, a page per person that grows by one line every payday. This page is about that second meaning.
The ledger answers questions a single pay run cannot. Has this employee passed the $7,000 FUTA wage base yet? The $184,500 social security wage base for 2026? What should the year-to-date column on today's stub say? Publication 15 sets those annual limits, and only a cumulative record tells you when one is reached.
Ledger lines for one employee
| Pay date | Gross | Federal tax | Soc. sec. | Medicare | YTD gross |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Jan 2026 | $3,000.00 | $290.00 | $186.00 | $43.50 | $3,000.00 |
| 30 Jan 2026 | $3,000.00 | $290.00 | $186.00 | $43.50 | $6,000.00 |
| 13 Feb 2026 | $3,000.00 | $290.00 | $186.00 | $43.50 | $9,000.00 |
After the third payday the YTD gross is $9,000, so this employee's FUTA wages stopped counting partway through the third payment, at $7,000. After all 24 paydays the YTD gross column reads $72,000, the figure for W-2 box 1 if nothing pre-tax was deducted.
Where the ledger shows up for the employee
The year-to-date column on every pay stub is read straight from the ledger. If the ledger is right, the last stub of December matches the W-2 the employee gets. The 2026 W-2 instructions put the employee copies due on 1 February 2027, so a ledger kept up all year turns that job into copying totals.
DOL Fact Sheet 21 lists what the FLSA expects in payroll records, and the IRS wants employment tax records kept at least four years after the fourth-quarter return is filed. A ledger per employee meets both if it carries hours, rates and dates as well as dollars.
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Related terms
Questions
What is the difference between a payroll ledger and a payroll register?
Direction. A register runs across all employees for one payday. A ledger runs down one employee's paydays for the year. Most payroll systems produce both from the same data, and the totals must agree.
Can a payroll ledger be a spreadsheet?
Yes. The FLSA requires no particular form. A sheet per employee with a row per payday works, as long as each row records the date paid, the pay period, hours, rates, every deduction and the running totals.
Why do year-to-date totals matter?
They tell you when annual caps are reached, such as the 2026 social security wage base of $184,500 and the $7,000 FUTA base, and they become the figures on the employee's W-2.
Sources
- DOL: Fact Sheet #21, Recordkeeping requirements under the FLSA (read October 8, 2026)
- IRS: Employment tax recordkeeping (read October 8, 2026)
- IRS: Publication 15 (2026), Employer's Tax Guide (read October 8, 2026)
- IRS: General Instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3 (2026) (read October 8, 2026)
Figures are for the 2026 tax year unless the text says otherwise. This page explains a payroll term; it is general information, not tax or legal advice.