Employee Centre

The Employee Centre lists everyone on the payroll with how they are paid and, just as important, what is still missing for each of them. Open a person to see and change everything a pay run, the bank payment, the year-end slip and a record of employment need to know about them.

Open it

• Employees ▸ Employee Centre
• Home Page ▸ Employees band ▸ Employee Centre
• From Pay Employees, press Employees.

The screen is titled Payroll employees and its subtitle says how many people are on the payroll, for example 8 on the payroll. The note under the title reminds you that the province shown is where somebody is employed, which decides their provincial tax, not where the business is.

The employee list

Nothing in the Missing column stops a pay run from calculating. Each gap fails later instead: a missing SIN at filing time, missing bank details when you pay the run, a missing start date when you need a record of employment, and a missing date of birth at the PIER review. Use the column to fix them while there is time.

Like other SeroBooks lists, the table has a Search this list… box, column headings you click to sort, Filters and saved views, Columns to show or hide columns, and Email and Export buttons for the rows you are looking at.

Buttons

Double-click a row, or select it and press Enter, to open that employee's page.

An employee's page

The page is titled with the employee's name. The subtitle summarizes their pay, for example $52,000.00 a year · paid biweekly · employed in ON. The page has a Refresh button and five cards. Each card that holds sensitive or separately dated details is changed on its own.

Employment

Shows Employed in, Paid, Salary (or Hourly rate), Started and, for someone who has left or is inactive, Ended. Where a detail is missing, the card says what the gap will cost, for example:

• No province set — provincial tax cannot be worked out without it
• Not recorded. A record of employment needs the first day, and so does deciding whether somebody had been employed long enough to be paid for a statutory holiday
• Marked inactive with no last day. Service Canada wants the date, not the status

Press Change to open the payroll setup form for this person. See Add or edit an employee.

For the return (social insurance number)

Shows the Social insurance number masked, never in full. If it is missing, the card explains that the slip can still be filed but will never reach the employee's own tax return, and that CRA charges a penalty per slip.

To add or replace it:

1. Press Add (or Replace).
2. In the Social insurance number box, type the nine digits in SIN.
3. Press Save, or press Enter.

SeroBooks checks the number the way CRA does, using its check digit, not just its length. If the number is not valid, the page shows SeroBooks' message saying so; check the digits against the employee's SIN document and try again. The number is stored encrypted and shown masked everywhere except in the year-end return itself.

Where the money goes (bank details)

Shows Institution, Transit, Account (masked) and, if entered, In the name of. If no account is entered, the card warns that the person is left out of the pay run's payment list rather than the list being written without them.

To add or change bank details:

1. Press Add (or Change). The Where name is paid page opens.
2. Fill in the fields below, copying them from a void cheque or the bank's direct deposit form.
3. Press Save. Press Back to leave without saving.

SeroBooks checks each number separately and shows its message if one is not valid.

Benefits and deductions

Lists the benefits and deductions assigned to this person.

Items whose last day has passed are dimmed.

If the business has not defined any benefits or deductions yet, the card says so and points you to the Benefits & Deductions screen. See Payroll Items.

Assign a benefit or deduction

1. Press Assign. (The button is unavailable until at least one benefit or deduction has been defined.)
2. On the Assign a benefit or deduction page, fill in the fields below.
3. Press Assign. Press Back to leave without saving.

If you leave What or the amount empty, SeroBooks says Choose what it is, and how much — a percentage of pay or an amount per period.

Stop a benefit or deduction

Benefits and deductions are ended by date, never deleted, so pay lines already produced keep pointing at them.

1. Double-click the row of an item that is still running (or select it and press Enter).
2. In Stop name, enter the Last day (YYYY-MM-DD). It defaults to today.
3. Press Save.

What they are owed

Shows Vacation owing, Accrued this year, Paid out this year and Banked overtime (in hours). These figures are read-only: they build up from posted pay runs, so they cannot be typed over. Until the first pay run is posted, the card says Nothing accrued yet. See Vacation and banked time.

Permissions

Adding someone, changing their employment details, their SIN, their bank details, and assigning or stopping a benefit or deduction all need the Edit Payroll Setup permission under Payroll ▸ Employees. Without it, SeroBooks asks someone whose role has it to approve the change.

Common problems

• The list is empty but staff exist. People appear here only once they have been added to the payroll with Add someone. Staff who sign in to SeroBooks are not on the payroll automatically.
• Somebody is missing from a pay run. Check that they are active, that their Paid frequency matches the run's frequency, and that they have a province of employment.
• Somebody is missing from the payment list of a pay run. Their bank details are missing or incomplete. Add them on the employee's page.
• A pay stub will not email. The employee has no email address on their staff record. Add one, or open the PDF and hand it over.

Related articles

• Add or edit an employee
• Payroll Items (benefits and deductions)
• Pay Employees (pay runs)
• Vacation and banked time
• Records of Employment