A payroll voucher is the one-page record that authorises a payroll run. It says how much the business is paying out, to whom, for which period, and who approved it. Search for the term and most of the results come from American payroll and school-district sites, where it often means the stub attached to a cheque. In Nigerian accounting practice it is closer to a payment voucher for salaries, and it does a more important job: it connects the payroll register, the bank payment and the ledger.

This guide explains what a payroll voucher contains, shows one filled in with naira figures, and covers why it still matters when payroll runs on software.

What is a payroll voucher?

A payroll voucher is an internal document that approves one payroll payment run and records where the money is going. It is prepared after the payroll register is finished and before the bank transfers are released. Think of it as the signed cover sheet for the month’s payroll.

There is no single statutory format in Nigeria that we could find, so most businesses use their standard payment voucher and attach the payroll papers. What makes it a payroll voucher is the content: totals for gross pay, each deduction, net pay and employer contributions, with references to the register and the bank schedule behind them.

In US usage the term can mean something different. A US government manual, for example, describes a biweekly payroll voucher that a certifying officer must sign, and US consumer sites use “voucher check” for a cheque with a detachable pay stub. Nigerian employers who read those results will find the principle useful but the layout unfamiliar.

What a payroll voucher should contain

A good payroll voucher fits on one page and answers four questions: what are we paying, who receives it, who approved it, and where is the proof. The sections below cover the usual content.

Two of those fields are easy to overlook. PAYE has to be split by the state where each employee lives, because the money goes to the revenue service of that state and not necessarily to the state where the company is based. Pension needs to be split by administrator, since each employee’s contribution is remitted to their own chosen Pension Fund Administrator.

A payroll voucher worked example

Take a company with ten employees, each earning ₦300,000 a month, paid entirely as basic, housing and transport. All ten live in the same state, none has claimed rent relief, and the employer is covered by the pension scheme. Under the 2026 PAYE bands, each employee’s PAYE is ₦32,180 a month and pension is ₦24,000.

For one employee: annual pay is ₦3,600,000, pension is ₦288,000, taxable pay is ₦3,312,000, and tax is ₦330,000 on the income up to ₦3,000,000 (15% of the ₦2,200,000 above the first ₦800,000) plus 18% of the remaining ₦312,000, which is ₦56,160. That gives ₦386,160 a year, or ₦32,180 a month, and net pay of ₦243,820.

For all ten, the voucher totals are:

The debits and credits agree at ₦3,300,000, which is the first check any reviewer will make. The voucher also tells the finance team what has to happen next: pay ₦2,438,200 to staff, send ₦321,800 to the state, and send ₦540,000 to the pension administrators within seven working days.

How a payroll voucher links the payroll register, bank schedule and ledger

A payroll run creates three records, and the payroll voucher is what holds them together:

1. The payroll register lists every employee with gross pay, deductions and net pay. It is the detail.
2. The bank schedule lists each payment to be released, with account numbers and amounts. It must add up to the net pay on the voucher.
3. The ledger entry posts the expense and the payables to the accounting system. It must match the debit and credit totals on the voucher.

When a reviewer approves the voucher, they are confirming that the three agree. If the bank schedule total is ₦2,438,200 but the register net pay is ₦2,483,200, the difference shows up before any money leaves the account. That is where transposed digits and added names tend to be caught, which is also why preparing, approving and paying should be done by different people, a point we make in who does payroll in a company.

Why a payroll voucher matters in an audit

Records are only useful if they can be found and understood years later. The Nigeria Tax Administration Act requires books and records to be kept for at least six years after the year of assessment to which the income relates, and employers must file an annual return by 31 January listing each employee’s earnings and the tax deducted.

A filed payroll voucher for each run gives an auditor or tax inspector a clear route through your payroll. They can pick any month, see who approved it, trace the totals to the register and the bank, and confirm that the PAYE and pension amounts match what was remitted. Without it, you are assembling that trail from emails and bank statements at the moment someone is asking questions, and the missing pieces are the ones that cost you.

Common payroll voucher mistakes

Most problems with a payroll voucher come from the same few habits:

• Signing after payment. An approval dated after the transfers defeats the purpose. The voucher should be signed before money moves.
• One signature for everything. If the same person prepares, approves and pays, the voucher records a decision that nobody independent has checked.
• Totals without attachments. A voucher that states ₦3,000,000 gross pay but has no register behind it proves very little. Attach the supporting papers every time.
• Ignoring state of residence. Combining all PAYE into one number hides the fact that staff in different states need separate remittances.
• Missing remittance references. Writing down the PAYE and pension payment references after the money has gone, on the same voucher, lets you prove the full cycle closed.

Each of these is easy to correct once you have a standard form. Pick a layout, print or save it as a template, and use it for every run, including the months when only one salary changes.

Do you still need a payroll voucher if you use payroll software?

Yes, and the voucher becomes easier to produce. Software removes the arithmetic errors and generates the register and the bank file, but it does not remove the need for someone to authorise the payment. A software-generated payroll voucher is usually a summary report with the same fields as the paper version, plus a log showing who prepared, reviewed and approved the run and when.

The practical differences are these:

• Totals are calculated and cross-checked automatically, so debits equal credits.
• PAYE and pension are already split by state and administrator.
• The approval trail is time-stamped and cannot be edited after the fact.
• Previous months are searchable, which helps when an inspector asks about a specific period.

If you are using a spreadsheet today, you can still produce a good payroll voucher manually, and our upcoming guide on the payroll template shows what fields the spreadsheet itself needs. The voucher is a control, and it works with any tool.

A simple routine for every payroll run

Each month, before releasing payment:

1. Finish the payroll register and have a second person review changes since last month.
2. Prepare the payroll voucher with totals, ledger codes and attachments.
3. Check that the bank schedule total equals the net pay on the voucher.
4. Obtain the approver’s signature and date.
5. Release payments, then record the PAYE and pension remittance references on the voucher.
6. File the voucher with the register, bank advice and remittance receipts.

These six steps give you a record that stands up to scrutiny. For the wider picture of how each of these amounts is calculated, see our guide on how payroll works.