Before you can pay someone, you’ll have to hire them. Typically, the H/R department will have recorded them as a recruit, or they’ll be in the H/R system because they’ve worked for you previously. If they aren’t in the H/R system, add them there, or request the appropriate people add them for you.
Next, navigate to the Employee Entry screen. Enter [c] Payroll, then [a] Employee.


You can use the filter fields to look for the employee. If you’re looking for a past employee, remove the file filter so Abio searches historical records. If you have a large number of past employees, you’ll need to narrow the list down. Enter a partial given and/or surname.

If you don’t find the employee in your list, you’ll use the ‘Add’ action on the Details tab.

If they are in the list, but not currently employed, you can re-employ them with the Y action:

When you add an employee, you select them from the H/R list of persons. You can search by employee number:

Or, you can search on a partial name:

Once you’ve selected your person, you’ll enter their details:

Basic Settings
We’ll explain how the fields on this screen are used.

Employment Type
- Y – Used for taxable employees.
- N – Not an employee.
- S – Employee is treated as a subcontracted worker.
Employees
If employment type is ‘Y’, payroll cheques will be created for this employee. Union dues and incentives are applied, and CRA amounts are withheld. Cheques, ROE’s and T4’s are issued through payroll.
Non-employees
You cannot create cheques for a non-employee, but you can record and report their hours.
Subcontractors
Subcontractors are treated in a fashion similar to employees for posting timesheets, union, and costing. However, unlike employees, CRA amounts are not withheld and cheques, ROE’s and T4’s are not issued through payroll.
You must specify a GST number for subcontractors.
Subcontractors will have timesheets posted in payroll but their cheques will be issued from the accounts payable system. Union dues and remittances, along with incentive calculations, behave in the same fashion as true employees.
The net pay amounts are set up as liabilities in the subcontract owing control account.

A Subcontractor vendor must be specified.

Abio will warn you if the vendor you select is using a different GST number than the subcontractor it’s being assigned to.
Only vendors associated with the current employee can be assigned as the subcontract vendor:

A payables invoice will be created for the subcontract vendor when payroll is posted to the general ledger. Upon approval, an accounts payable cheque will compensate the subcontractor.
SIN
Social Insurance Number, for T4 purposes
Birth Date
The birth date helps differentiate employees with the same name. It’s also used to determine whether pension amounts are remitted to the union pension plan or just paid out.
Employees must be at least 10. Warnings are issued if the employee is less than 14, less than 18, or older than 70.
Employees over 70 can’t contribute to pension or RRSP.
GST
This is the CCRA Business Number. If the employee is a subcontractor the subcontractor vendor will use this number.
Hire & Termination

hire date
Must be entered as the employees start date in YYYY.MM.DD format. Warnings are issued when posting timesheets prior to the hire date.
local?
A memo field only which can be used for report selection criteria.
restrict access?
Defaults to ‘N’o – any user that has access to payroll entry or payroll report functions will be able to see information on this employee, if the default is changed to ‘Y’es, only “privileged” users from T/B User Profile Entry will be allowed access to the restricted employee data. The intention is to let some staff see all employee data and other staff to only see a restricted subset. Note that changing this value also changes the associated cheques and timesheets.
termination date
Last day the employee worked – this information is used in the production of the employee’s ROE.
reason
Reason for the employee’s termination, if a termination date has been entered this field must be populated, attempting to tab through this field for a terminated employee will bring a drop down list of valid terminations reasons.
reminder date
If, during posting timesheets, the timesheet date is on or after the reminder date, a message is issued. The feature can be used for tracking rate changes required, etc. An LOA change date may also be specified to alert timesheet entry that LOA rates need adjustment.
note
Displays on Record of Employment for reason K.
message
May be specified and, if so, it is displayed during timesheet entry for that employee.
Occupation

union or employee group
The entry in this field determines the frequency of pay, weekly or bi-weekly. Unions and employee groups are set up in P/R – Union Entry. It can also be used for unionized companies to determine field dues and employer remittances.
occupation
The occupation determines the base regular, time and half and overtime hourly rates of pay. Note the union and occupation can be overridden during timesheet entry to temporarily reclassify an employee.
Federal & Provincial

tax province
Determines the provincial component of the income tax calculation and is defaulted to the G/L Company table value. The tax province must be set up in S/T P/R Province Entry.
zone deduction
If entered must be between 0 and 8000 – this field indicates the federal deduction for living in a prescribed zone.
EI exempt?, CPP exempt? and tax exempt?
These fields default to ‘N’o – the defaults may be overridden for those employees who have clearance for exemptions. Care must be taken when changing the default ‘N’ to ‘Y’ as these entries determine deductions taken by the system during the production of P/R cheques.
WCB from job?
Must be one of ‘Y’es, WCB class will default to the job WCB class during timesheet entry or ‘N’o.
WCB class
Used during payroll timesheet entry to ascertain the WCB classification for that timesheet entry. The WCB class entered is this field is the WCB class used during Timesheet Entry. Generally this field is only specified for employees where the WCB class is not subject to change.
federal TD1 claim
Amount defaults to the value in Cross Company Table – Federal Tax Entry.
provincial TD1
This field will default to the Cross Company Table – Provincial Tax entry.
Assignment

Job/area/centre
Memo field only which can be used for report selection criteria. If a job is specified, it will be used for the default job in new timesheet postings. This default may be overwritten.
GL account
If populated, this field will be used as the default g/l account in timesheet entry if no job is entered. This default may be overwritten in timesheet entry.
shift pattern type
Must be valid in Cross Company table shift_pattern. Used for determining when the employee is scheduled to work
supervisor
Field can be used to indicate the employee’s direct report.
shift start date shift pattern start date
This works in conjunction with the shift pattern length in weeks. The start date is NOT advanced. Used for determining when the employee is scheduled to work
shift cycle
Memo use only, may be used to track shift rotation cycles
shift
The entry in this field is used as the default in Timesheet Entry – the default may be overwritten