Jack Wiebe

Modified on: Tue, 18 Sep, 2018 at 11:05 AM

Hire an Employee

When you hire a new employee you will need to setup an Employee Profile within Avanti for the employee. The Employee Profile holds all the information about the employee, from personal information like their name and address, to employment data such as what position they work, their Pay Group, Union Group, and so on.

Table of Contents

1. New Employee Profile Overview
2. Employee Profile
- 2.1. Review Earning Codes
- 2.2. Review Deduction and Benefits

1. New Employee Profile Overview

From the Employee Profile screen you can create a new Employee Profile for new employees. Each employee that you hire will need to have a basic profile where you can keep track of their personal and employment data—name, province of residence, SIN (social insurance number), province of employment, basic rate of pay, etc.

The new Employee Profile screen allows the most common fields of the Employee Profile to be entered in a single place, and depending on what values you have selected for the new employee additional setup screens will open automatically to complete further setup.

Let’s open the new Employee Profile screen now:

Open Canadian Payroll > Employee Profile > Employee Profile.
Open the New Employee wizard by pressing New Employee.

Tip:

Although there are many fields on the screen, not all fields need to be entered at this point, and many of the fields will be filled in automatically if you select a Defaults Group for the employee.

Summary of the New Employee screen

Figure 1. The New Employee wizard window where the employee information is entered.

1	Employee information including, Employee Number, name, province of residence, and the Defaults Group are entered here.
2	Employment Data information including, Pay Group, Location Code, Vacation Group, and Benefit Group are entered here.
3	Other personal information including, SIN (Social Insurance Number), birth date, and starting rate of pay are entered here.
4	Options for how the employee is paid and the related banking information can are entered here.

1.1. Enter employee name, province of residence, and e-mail

The employee personal information is at the top of the new Employee Profile screen—an employee number; their name, province of residence, and a default e-mail address to contact them at, can all be entered here.

Tip:

The address of the employee, additional contact information, and a preferred name can be entered from the Personal tab of the Employee Profile after it has been created.

Figure 2. Example Employee Personal Information fields.

1	An employee number is generated automatically.
2	The name of the employee can be entered in three parts (only the surname is required).
3	The Defaults Group for the employee is selected here.
4	The province of residence is entered here.
5	A default e-mail address can entered here (a default e-mail address is only required if e-mail statements are selected for the Payment Option).

In order to create the new Employee Profile an employee number, the surname of the employee, and their province of residence must be entered here.

An employee number is generated automatically, but if you require a specific employee number you can enter it now in the Employee Number field.
From the Province field select the province of residence for the employee.
Enter the employee name into the appropriate fields--Surname, Given Name, and Initial.
A Default E-Mail address can be entered for the employee.

The remaining field in this section is the Defaults Group for the employee. Choosing a Defaults Group is an important step in creating the new Employee Profile and will be covered in detail in the next section.

1.2. Select an appropriate Defaults Group

When setting up a new Employee Profile a Defaults Groups can be selected for the employee. The Defaults Group applies default settings for the employee Employment Data, Values, Earnings, Deductions, and Positions. (Pay Group, Vacation Group, Earning Codes, Benefit/Deduction Codes are commonly applied using a Defaults Group.)

Important:

Selecting a Defaults Groups now is recommended because they can apply settings that are not available from the new Employee Profile screen, and would otherwise need to be entered afterwards from the Employee Profile itself.

Tip

Defaults Groups are useful for maintaining data between many employees in the same group. They allow changes to be applied to the entire group instead of requiring that each employee profile is updated with the change.

Select the Defaults Group for the employee.

When you select a Defaults Group many of the fields in the new Employee Profile screen should have been filled in from the Defaults Group settings. (How many, and which fields depends on how the Defaults Group is setup.)

1.3. Review employee Employment Data

The employee Employment Data will determine how often the employee will be paid, the vacation options, benefits, and the basic g/l account for recording the payroll expense for the employee.

Take a minute to look the data over and ensure that the data is correct for the new employee and make any changes that are necessary.

Figure 3. Example Employment Data

Override Employment Data Values:

You can override any of the Employment Data fields filled in by the Defaults Group by selecting new values (any changes that you make to the value will only apply to this employee).

Employment Data Fields

When you are reviewing the Employment Data fields you should keep the following questions in mind:

Is the Pay Group appropriate?
- Pay Groups determine the pay-roll calendar for the employee. (One Pay Group may have bi-weekly pay-periods, and another might be monthly.)
- The EI (Employment Insurance) & CPP (Canadian Pension Plan) groups are determined by the Pay Group.
What Location is the Employee Working from?
Select the appropriate Location Code.
How much vacation time should the employee receive?
Select the appropriate Vacation Group.
Should the Employee accrue vacation time, or be paid out each pay-period?
Select the appropriate Vacation Option.
Should the Employee have Workers Compensation Insurance?
Select the appropriate Worker’s Comp group.
Is the employee a member of a Union?
Select the appropriate Union Code.
Does the employee have a specific position?
Select the appropriate Position code.
Should the employee have benefits?
Select the appropriate Benefit Group.

1.4. Enter Other Employee Information

Various other information for the employee can be entered into the fields of the Other Employee Information section of the new Employee Profile screen.

To create a new employee profile you are required to enter the employee SIN (Social Insurance Number), Birth Date, Initial Hire date, preferred language, gender, and province of employment for the new employee.

Enter the employee SIN.
Select the Birth Date and Initial Hire dates.
Select a Language for the employee.
Select the Gender.
Select the Province Of Employment.

Province of Employment

The province of employment is not always the same as the province of residence.

Figure 4. Example of Other employee information fields.

1	Employee SIN is entered here.
2	Employee Birth Date and Initial Hire date are entered here.
3	Other personal information including, language, gender, marital status, and smoking status is entered here.
4	Other employment information including, hourly or salary status, province of employment, Grid Code and Grid Percent, and Basic Pay Rate are entered here.

Placeholder SIN (Social Insurance Number): If the SIN for the new employee is not known at this time, you can enter 000000000 as a placeholder.
Rate of Pay: If the starting rate-of-pay is known for the new employee, it can be entered now. (You can chose to specify the starting rate using both a Rate Grid and a Grid Percent, or enter the rate directly using the Basic Pay Rate field.)

1.5. Enter Deposit Information

How to pay the employee is controlled from the fields at the bottom of the new Employee Profile screen. The employee can be paid by cheque or paid by direct deposit, and a statement or pay-stub can be sent to the employee along with the payment.

Not Using Direct Deposit

If you choose not to enter the deposit information now you will need to select one of the Cheque… Payment Options. You can always change the payment option and enter banking information in the Employee Profile later.

Select one of the Deposit And… Payment Options.
Enter the banking information to use for direct deposits:
- Enter the Bank, Transit, and Account numbers.
- Enter an optional label for the account into the Type field. (This can be used to indicate if the account is a chequing or savings account for example.)

Frequency, %, and Amount

By default these fields are setup to pay the entire payroll amount into the specified bank account each pay period and should not be changed.

Deposit And Email Statement

When Deposit And Email Statement is selected a Default E-Mail is required to create the new employee profile.

1.6. Save Employee Profile

After you have gone through the previous steps you should take a moment to review the values entered and verify that they are correct.

Once you are satisfied that the information is correct you can save the Employee Profile by pressing OK.

2. Employee Profile

After creating an Employee Profile using the New Employee wizard the Employee Profile for the new employee will open. You should take some time now to review the Earning, Benefit, and Deduction codes and ensure they are correct for the new employee.

2.1. Review Earning Codes

Review the Earning Codes on the Employee Profile. In particular you should make sure that there is a code for regular earnings or the employee will not be paid.

Tip:

If you selected a Defaults Group when creating the Employee Profile the Earning Codes should have been filled in automatically. (You should still take a moment to check that they are correct.)

Open the Earnings > Earning Codes tab.
Check that all required codes are listed in the Earning Codes.

Figure 5. Example of the Earnings Codes on the Employee Profile.

Tip: Add missing Earning Codes

Missing Earning Codes can be added to the Employee Profile by pressing Insert at the bottom of the Earning Codes tab.

2.2. Review Deduction and Benefits

Review the Deduction and Benefit codes on the Employee Profile. In particular you should ensure that the CPP, EI, Income Tax, Vacation, and Worker’s Compensation codes are added.

Tip:

If you selected a Defaults Group when creating the Employee Profile the Deduction and Benefit Codes should have been filled in automatically. (You should still take a moment to check that they are correct.)

Figure 6. Example of the Deduction and Benefit Codes on the Employee Profile.

Tip: Add missing Deduction/Benefit Codes

Missing Deduction or Benefit Codes can be added to the Employee Profile by pressing Insert at the bottom of the Deduction/Benefit Codes tab.

Note:

Benefits such as dental, life insurance, LTD (long-term disability) should have an effective date listed next to them.