Adding an employee and the 201 file

This guide shows how to add an employee one at a time, what goes into their record (the 201 file) and how to keep it complete. To bring in many employees at once, see Importing your data.

Before you start

• Set up at least one pay group. Every employee belongs to one (see Pay groups and pay schedules).
• Add your branches, departments and cost centers if you use them (see Branches, departments and cost centers).
• Owners, payroll officers and HR admins can add and edit employees. Only owners and payroll officers record pay and allowances.

Add an employee

1. Open Employees and click Add employee.
2. Under Personal information, fill in the Employee number, Last name and First name (required), then the rest you have. The Email is used for payslips and the employee portal. The ZIP code and RDO code appear on BIR Form 2316; leave the RDO code blank to use the company's.
3. Under Employment, enter the Hire date (required), the Employment type and, if known, the Regularization date. Fill in the Contract end date only for fixed-term, project or seasonal contracts.
4. Leave Minimum wage earner (tax) on Automatic unless you have a reason. If you choose Always MWE or Never MWE, write why in Why (minimum wage earner).
5. Switch on Managerial employee only for managers. They are left out of the 13th month list unless you tick them in there.
6. Under Assignment, choose the Pay group (required) and, if you use them, the branch, department and cost center.
7. Under Starting salary, choose how the employee is Paid (monthly, daily or hourly), type the Amount and the Effective from date, usually the hire date.
8. To give fixed allowances from the start, click Add an allowance for each one. Bonuses and one-time amounts are added later on the employee's page.
9. Enter the government numbers and bank account now, or later (see Government and bank numbers).
10. Click Add employee. The employee's page opens with "Employee added."

What can go wrong

• "That employee number is already used.": each employee needs their own number.
• "The starting salary can't be effective before the hire date.": change the date.
• "Employee added, but these were not saved: …": the employee exists, but the part named (salary, numbers, bank account or allowances) wasn't saved. Enter it again on the employee's page.
• If you are an HR admin, the starting salary goes to the owner for approval and shows under "Waiting for the owner's approval" (see Salary changes and scheduled increases).

The employee's page

The page is split into sections you can jump to from the top:

To change the 201 file, edit the fields and click Save changes. Changes to status, position and employment type are also listed under Employment history.

Keep the record complete

• If the salary history starts after the hire date, the Salary history card warns you: payroll can't be computed for those days.
• The Employees page lists numbers marked not available yet, shared bank accounts and employees paid below the minimum wage.
• The 201 file completeness report shows what each employee has on file (see People and attendance reports).

Good to know

• Pay and time records is for people such as owners paid as officers: Pay set each payout and No time records.
• The owner can switch on Confidential salary on the Status card.
• Pay from a previous employer this year: see Moving to Sahora mid-year. Contributions not deducted: see Special cases.