Adding a new employee

Have these on hand:

Name: First and last name are required. These are the names reported to IRD in your payday filing.

Email: Enter the employee's personal email address. This is where their PaySauce invitation will be sent.

Enter the IRD number from the employee's IR330. IRD numbers are 8 or 9 digits, usually written as 123-456-789.

PaySauce checks IRD numbers using IRD's own validation method. If you see an "IRD number is invalid" message, first check you've entered the right number of digits. If the digits are correct, the number hasn't passed IRD's validation and isn't a valid IRD number. Ask the employee to confirm it.

What if I don't have the employee's IRD number?

Tick "Don't have the employee's IRD number" if the employee hasn't given you their IRD number yet, or doesn't have one. This hides the IRD number field and sets the tax code to the no-notification rate.

Employees without an IRD number are taxed at the no-notification rate of 45%. This is an IRD requirement for any employee who hasn't provided their IRD number and tax code. Once you have the number, update the employee's record so the correct tax code applies from their next pay.

Choose the tax code the employee declared on their IR330. The employee is responsible for choosing their own tax code, so don't guess or choose it for them.

If the employee hasn't given you a completed IR330 by the end of their first pay period, you must use the no-notification rate. When they hand it in, update the tax code and the correct code applies from their next pay.

If the employee isn't sure which tax code to use, point them to IRD's tax code questionnaire on the IRD website.

Click Next to continue.

Enter the employee's first day of work, as set out in their employment agreement. You can use the date picker or type the date.

The time entry model sets how hours are recorded on this employee's timesheets, both when the employee enters their own time and when you enter it for them. It applies to this employee only, so changing it won't affect anyone else.

Every employee has access to timesheets, and this can't be turned off. If you don't need an employee to submit timesheets, they just don't need to. Timesheets always need approval. For salaried employees, timesheets don't change how much they're paid by default. They're a record of time worked.

If you want to use a time clock and haven't set one up yet, finish adding the employee first, then set up the device in Company Settings.

Choose the employment type that matches the employee's employment agreement: Permanent, Fixed-term, Casual or Contractor.

Choose how the employee is paid.

Enter the employee's gross annual salary or hourly rate from their employment agreement.

If the employee is on a total remuneration agreement (where their pay includes your employer KiwiSaver contribution), enter their salary or hourly rate less the employer KiwiSaver contribution.

The KiwiSaver contribution will be calculated and paid on top of what you enter here. Check out our Inclusive Rates article for more information:
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Custom rates are extra hourly rates on top of the employee's base pay, for example an overtime rate or a weekend rate. Salaried and hourly employees can both have custom rates. Click + to add one.

Each custom rate has:

A multiplier rate is calculated from the employee's base pay at the time of each pay. When the base rate changes, multiplier rates update automatically, so you don't need to change them yourself.

Custom rates are treated as ordinary earnings. They're always taxable, always included in KiwiSaver calculations, and always included in gross earnings for leave (GEFL).

For each custom rate, you can also choose whether it's included in Relevant Daily Pay (RDP) and Ordinary Weekly Pay (OWP).

Tick Include in RDP if the employee regularly earns this rate on the kind of day they might take as sick leave, bereavement leave, family violence leave, a public holiday or an alternative holiday, and they would have worked those hours on that day. Under the Holidays Act, that rate then has to form part of their pay for that day.

For example, an employee who works every Saturday at a weekend rate and takes a Saturday off sick should be paid their weekend rate for that sick day.

Tick Include in OWP if the employee regularly earns this rate as part of their normal working week. Regular, predictable extra pay counts as part of their ordinary weekly pay, which is used to calculate annual leave. For example, if they get regular overtime, include it in OWP. If it is paid very irregularly, you could exclude it from OWP.

Click Next to continue.

The work pattern sets out the hours the employee is expected to work. Fill in:

The work pattern start date isn't connected to the pay period start date. For example, your pay period might run Monday to Sunday while the employee's work pattern starts on a Thursday.

Use Weekly for an employee who works the same hours each week. Enter the hours for each day, and the total weekly hours display below the pattern.

If the employee's hours will vary on some days, tick Hours will vary. No hours are pre-loaded for those days, but the employee can still record time on them.

Use Fortnightly when the employee's hours differ between two weeks, for example if they work every other Friday. Enter the hours for week 1 and week 2, and a separate total displays for each week.

Check the work pattern start date lines up with the first week of the employee's fortnight, or their weeks will be the wrong way round.

Use Variable for patterns that don't fit a week or fortnight, such as rosters with days on and days off.

Click Add item to add days until you have the full cycle, including the days off with 0 hours. For example, for 8 days on and 3 days off, add 11 days in total: 8 days with their expected hours, then 3 days with 0 hours. The total number of days in the cycle displays, and the pattern repeats once it reaches the end.

Click Next to continue.

Enter the number of weeks of annual leave the employee is entitled to each year.

Choose how annual leave is calculated for this employee.

Leave this unticked in almost all cases. PaySauce works out ordinary weekly pay from the employee's pay setup.

Only tick it if you need to set a fixed Ordinary Weekly Pay amount based on the employee's agreement and circumstances. An Ordinary weekly pay field appears when you tick it.

This is the date each year the employee becomes entitled to annual leave.

Enter the number of sick leave days the employee gets at each entitlement date. The default is 10 days, which is the legal minimum and the lowest number PaySauce accepts. Only increase it if the employment agreement gives more.

Enter the number of months from the employee's start date until they first become entitled to sick leave.

The sick leave cap is the most unused sick leave the employee can carry over. The default is 20 days, which is the legal minimum cap and the lowest number PaySauce accepts.

If you've agreed there's no cap for this employee, tick No sick leave cap. It's unticked by default. With no cap, the employee's sick leave balance keeps growing every year they don't use it, so only tick this if their employment agreement provides for it.

FBAPS stands for the leave types paid on a daily rather than weekly basis: Family violence leave, Bereavement leave, Alternative holidays, Public holidays and Sick leave. Choose how these are paid for this employee.

Pay RDP and Pay ADP only set the starting point. You can change the method for an individual payment at pay time. Choose every pay time suits employees whose circumstances change often enough that neither makes sense as a default.

Relevant Daily Pay is the legal default. You can only use Average Daily Pay if relevant daily pay can't be worked out or isn't practical to work out, or if the employee's daily pay varies within the pay period in which the leave is taken. This is a legal test, not a preference. If you can work out RDP, you should use it.

Choose which regional anniversary day applies to the employee: Auckland, Canterbury, Canterbury (South), Chatham Islands, Hawke's Bay, Marlborough, Nelson, Otago, Southland, Taranaki, Wellington or Westland.

Click Next to continue.

Enter the name on the employee's bank account. PaySauce currently only uses the account name when the employee opts out of KiwiSaver, because IRD needs the account name and number to process an opt-out.

Enter the employee's New Zealand bank account number. This is where their pay is sent.

Click Next to continue.

Choose the scenario that best describes the employee's KiwiSaver situation. Some scenarios show extra fields to fill in.

Make sure the employee has filled in a KS2 KiwiSaver deduction form, which they can download from the IRD website. The employee uses the KS2 to choose their contribution rate. Keep it on your company records. You don't send it to IRD.

Enter the employee's KiwiSaver contribution rate and your employer contribution rate. The minimum for both is currently 3.5%.

ESCT (employer superannuation contribution tax) is the tax on your employer KiwiSaver contribution. We recommend you set this to Auto Calculate.

When you've finished the KiwiSaver step, choose one of:

Once invited, employees can submit timesheets, request leave, view their payslips and submit reimbursement requests.

To invite an employee while you're adding them, select Create and invite at the end of setup.

To invite an employee after they've been added:

If an invitation expires after 7 days, send a new one using Send invitation.