This article focuses on how to add a new employee to your PaySauce payroll set up. If you’re a new customer looking to get set up with PaySauce, our team will be able to help you through this process - we can easily set up import lists to set up multiple employees quickly.
We’ve got you covered here with instructions for using PaySauce on a computer or on your mobile app. There’s lots of different ways employees can be set up so we’ve covered the most common bits here for you, and we also have plenty of other articles on setting up specific types of payments or deductions if you need.
If you want to set up and pay a contractor, check out our article on setting up contractors here.
Using the employee set up tool on the web
If you’re using PaySauce on a computer, this is how the employee set up process will appear for you. If you are adding a new employee using the mobile app, check out the mobile app instructions further below in this article.
Select the Employees icon in the left-hand panel.
On the right-hand side of the screen, click the + New Employee button.
The 'New Employee' window will open. You can't save progress so you will need to complete the process in one go, ensure you have these details handy. You can also invite the employee to supply details as part of the set up process once you are through this set up flow.
To invite an employee, you’ll need at least their name and email address. You can leave the IRD number and bank account fields blank if you want the employee to submit them as part of the new employee onboarding flow. If you won’t be doing this, you will need to enter an IRD number so their filing can be correctly sent to IRD and a bank account number for them to be paid into.
Enter the employee's first name, last name and email address.
Enter the employee’s IRD number, bank account, start date and job title.
If you don’t have the IRD number or bank account number yet, leave it blank to allow the employee to add it later.
Enter the tax code as provided to you by the employee on their tax code declaration form (IR330).
If the employee is contributing to KiwiSaver, select the correct employee deduction rate and company contribution rate.
ESCT can be left on auto-calculate.
If the employee is not contributing or is exempt from automatic enrolment, turn KiwiSaver off by clicking the toggle.
Enter Leave options
If the employee is working set hours (e.g. a salaried employee, or a waged employee always working the same hours), select Standard Hours.
Enter the days paid in the normal pay cycle and the total of hours usually paid.
If employee is not casual but works variable hours, select ‘Varied Hours’ in the type option. If the days are not standard, enter 0 in the Days paid box. You will enter the days at pay time.
If you have selected ‘Casual’ as the work hours type, you see a check box appear for ‘automatically pay out leave each pay period’. Toggle this box on if the employee’s employment agreement specifies that their leave will be paid on a pay-as-you-go basis (e.g 8% is paid out for their leave entitlement each time they are paid).
If you know that the employee usually works 5 days, but the hours vary on the days that they work it's fine to enter the '5' in the days paid here.
In the ‘Weeks holiday per year’ box enter the number of annual leave weeks that the employee is entitled to.
⚠️ All employees are entitled to a minimum of 4 weeks annual leave per year as set out in the Holidays Act. You should enter 4 weeks unless their employment agreement gives them a higher entitlement.
Select the Rate rule:
Average Wkly earnings
last 52 weeks' average rate compared to the ordinary rate (the higher of the two rates is paid).
4 Weekly Ordinary
The higher of the last 52 week average, the last 4 week average and the ordinary rate. This option is preferred when an employee’s earning are variable and you may not be able to determine what an ordinary week of earnings looks like, so the 4 week average is added as an alternative way of determining ordinary weekly pay.
Leave Anniversary: This will automatically populate to 12 months from the the start date entered earlier, you can manually amend it by clicking into the date box.
All other leave types will default to being available with relevant anniversary dates being 6 months from the start date.
Tagsets
If any tagsets are set up at your company level, you can apply them to your new employee. You should have the NZ Holidays tag set set up. If you don't, you can set it up after adding this new employee.
Check that out here: Set up regional holidays
Payments
You can choose to add a pre-existing payment set up at your company level or to create a new payment for this employee.
Selecting ‘Add from company’ will show a list of available payments. Mark the selection box to select, then Apply.
To create a new payment, select Create New Payment.
Select the + button to open up the new payment settings.
Set up an hourly rate
To set up an hourly rate for a waged employee, select ‘hourly’ in the rule option.
You can change the title of the payment - it will default to hours/rate when selecting an hourly payment method.
Leave the ‘taxable’ selection as yes.
If the employee works different hours each period, select Variable for the frequency.
If the employee will record their worked hours on the PaySauce mobile app, set the ‘use template’ option to yes and then select the timesheet template. Enter 0 for the Hours field - they'll be entered through the timesheets instead - and enter the employee's ordinary rate in the Rate field.
If the employee will not be timesheeting on the PaySauce mobile app, select No for the Use Template option.
Set up a salary
Select Salary in the Rule. Select ‘annual’.
The frequency option should be set to regular.
Enter the annual salary amount in the Amount field.
Tick the checkbox 'Reduce by Leave taken' if you wish the system to automatically adjust the salary when any type of Leave is entered for this employee. This is the recommended option.
Enter the hours that the employee is working for this salary. This is vital to help the Leave payments be as accurate as possible.
In this example the employee is paid weekly and works 40 hours per week for his salary.
Set up any other payments
If your employee receives other payments, you may also wish to create additional payments now but you may also come back and add them to the employee’s settings later. We’ve got additional guidance on some of these other payment types which you can check out too:
Setting up timesheeting for a salaried employee
Setting up allowances
If you would like your employee to receive a payslip, select Yes (this will be confirmed again in the Finalise screen when running a pay).
If Child Support payments are required, select the toggle to on then enter the amount to deduct from each pay. If your employee is being paid fortnightly or monthly, make sure you check that you are entering the value to be deducted each pay time and not just a weekly value.
Deductions work similarly to Payments. If any are set up at your company level, you can apply them from ‘Add from company’. Otherwise you can select ‘Create New Deduction’ or Next if no deductions are required.
⚠️ Some types of deductions that go to IRD should be set up using the specifically provided options, such as child support and extra student loan repayments. For more information on setting up deductions, check out our other help articles.
Lastly, choose whether to invite the employee to download the app so they can fill in timesheets, request leave etc.
If you select Yes, the employee will receive an email invitation to download the PaySauce phone app. They will be able to enter their own details in (e.g. bank account, IRD number, tax code, KiwiSaver employee details). They will only be able to enter specific fields such as hours if they are set up to timesheet, but not payment items such as pay rates or deductions.
Adding a new employee on the mobile app
Log into the PaySauce app using your employer login
Tap on the ‘employees’ button
Tap on the plus symbol in the top right hand corner
If you wish to complete the employee’s details yourself (or the employee is not able to use the PaySauce app) then leave the ‘invite’ toggle off and press ‘next’.
If you wish to invite the employee to complete their own personal details, toggle the ‘invite’ option on, complete the employee’s name and email address then press ‘invite’.
Refer to the instruction above for adding an employee on the web/computer, as the information you must select is the same except presented on shorter screens on your mobile. If you have invited the employee they will complete their personal details, but you must still complete information relating to their employment and payment.
At the end of the employee set up process you will see the button at the bottom says ‘activate employee’.
Adding employees to a pay cycle
Depending on how your pay cycles are set up, you may still need to add the employee to a pay cycle so that they appear at pay time. If you have multiple pay cycles or if your pay cycle is not set to automatically include all employees, employees only appear in a pay cycle once the pay cycle has been edited to include the new employee.
Click on the Run a Pay icon.
Click on the Edit pencil next to the payroll date at the top.
Scroll down to the bottom of the Edit window.
The two options are All (to select all staff) or Selected (to choose staff to add)
If All is clicked, all available staff will be in the pay cycle.
If Selected is clicked, you can scroll a bit further and tick on the employee(s) you need to see.
Click Ok at the bottom of the window and check your employee is visible.
Troubleshooting and tips
Here are some of the common questions we get regarding new employee setups.
Employee doesn't appear in pay run
Employee doesn't appear in pay run
If you can’t see a new employee in your pay run and you’ve added them to the pay cycle, double check the employee’s start date and the dates of the pay run you are processing.
Employee’s won’t appear in the pay run area until their start date matches the date range of the pay period you are processing.
Email already in use
Email already in use
If you want to send out an invitation to a new employee (to download the PaySauce phone app and start recording timesheets), and you receive the message that the “Email is already in use”… it just means that the employee has been employed somewhere else and the email address is still linked to their old login with their previous employer.
Contact the Support Team at PaySauce and provide them with the email address for the login that needs to be archived.
The old login will be deactivated and you’ll be able to send out the invitation once you receive the go-ahead from the Support Team.
IRD number not valid
IRD number not valid
IRD numbers are checked to see if they are valid by using a specifically prescribed method from IRD. If the account number is returning as invalid, please ask the employee to re-check their IRD number.
Not sure of tax code
Not sure of tax code
We often receive questions from employers about which tax code to use for their employee. As an employer, it is your responsibility to ensure you provide employees with an IR330 (tax code declaration). It is the employee's responsibility to tell you their tax code and IRD number on the form. The form has a flow chart to help the employee decide. This is a mandatory form that you must ask new employees to complete.
Not sure of KiwiSaver rate
Not sure of KiwiSaver rate
As an employer, it is your responsibility to ensure you provide employees with a KS2 form (unless the employee is exempt from automatic enrolment). It is the employee's responsibility to tell you their KiwiSaver deduction rate on the form.