Designing a better payslip
You know there’s something seriously wrong when your payslip is three pages long and comes with a two page explanatory leaflet. Payslips are often pretty cryptic but the one I received today was so bad it took me over half an hour to work it out. All I really care about is how much have I earned, how much am I getting and, most importantly, where did the rest go?
The only way I could decipher this mess was to draw a kind of bar chart and fill in the numbers. Once I finished I realised that I had inadvertently created a hugely more readable representation of the information contained in the payslip. So here’s a copy of the original payslip and my effort at an improved version.
Click each image to expand and do spend a few minutes trying to make sense of them.
This improved version displays the same information condensed into one page while clearly showing the relationship between the figures.
Now bear in mind that I’m not an accountant, nor am I an information designer. I’m not even a graphic designer. But I am someone who receives payslips and wants to understand them. And from that point of view I hope you’ll agree it’s a vast improvement.
The principles of usability apply to more than websites & software. Just about everything can benefit form a bit of sensible design.
Comments
October 8th, 2009 at 10:23
Well, I approve!
October 8th, 2009 at 12:35
I think it would cost too much to print, but I’d love to receive the colored one.
October 8th, 2009 at 13:17
It doesn’t have to be colour and if you’re worried about toner you could use outline blocks instead of solid ones. But I think the improvement in employee happiness justifies a little extra effort.
As it happens Parasol send their payslips as PDFs so printing costs are not an issue.
October 8th, 2009 at 16:57
This is so much clearer. You can see what’s what at a glance. It can be a pain getting info together from payslips produced by different employers. Something as simple as this should be standard.
October 9th, 2009 at 11:15
Sorry as we discuss national health insurance in the US I got distracted by the cost of NI. 15% ???
Is that just for health care or it also covers old age insurance?
October 9th, 2009 at 11:25
@Marino I’m not sure why it’s that much. I’m pretty certain it shouldn’t be. For administrative reasons I’ve been put on the ‘BR’ tax code which essentially means they’re not sure how much I should be charged yet. I hope to get some of it back because currently they’re taking nearly 35% Tax + NI.
Here’s a table of UK National Insurance rates but that’s even more incomprehensible than my original payslip.
October 9th, 2009 at 21:34
According to Wikipedia the UK NI covers health insurance, unemployment insurance and pension. That’s not bad at all.
In the US we have 15% withholding (half payed by employer and half by employee) for Social Security which is for pension and health benefits after the age of 67!!! Unemployment contributions, health insurance (if offered) and taxes are extra.
December 3rd, 2009 at 21:55
For your finances…
Maybe you need FreeAgent.
Here is a post by a compatriot of yours written around the same time.
http://john.onolan.org/freeagent-big-review-giveaway/
I’ve also heard good things about http://www.mint.com/ but it may be more US oriented.
December 16th, 2009 at 15:52
Yes I use Parasol as well and their payslips are completely incomprehensible – so bad that I’ve thought about leaving them. If only they’d use a design like yours…great idea.
June 1st, 2010 at 11:14
Hi,
I run a small business building online HR applications. We were approached by a client in China asking us to build online payslips for them. They operate payroll for many companies in China. We’re releasing a system where employees get an SMS with their login details, and summary details of their gross and net pay. They can then login and view their detailed payslip online.
I’d love to bring the solution to Europe or the US. We’re based in Ireland. If you think your payroll provider might be interested let me know.
Cheers,
John
Add a Comment