How To Add a New Employee in Patriot Software

As a new customer in the wizard, you will add employees after you have set up your company-level information.

To add a new employee after you complete the wizard, go to Payroll > Employees > Add Employee.  A blank set of fields will appear for you to complete.

Complete the Personal Information section.

All fields marked with a red asterisk are required.

• Enter the employee’s full Name as it appears on their W-4 form, mailing address, and Social Security number (no dashes).
• If your business has more than one location, enter the work location for this employee.
• Optional fields: Enter a middle name, phone numbers, email, hire date, birthday, and gender.  Note that the hire date may be required in some states.
• To change employee information after the section has been saved, go to the employee “Info tab and click “Edit” make changes as needed and click “Save.”

Complete the Payroll Information section.

Pay Frequency:  The company’s default pay frequency (e.g. weekly, biweekly) is automatically shown. If the employee’s pay frequency differs from the company default, select a different one.

Pay Type:  Select the Pay Type from the drop-down list, which determines the unit of pay for the employee: Hourly, Salary, or Salary Non-Exempt.  For more details about these three Pay Types, see Employee Pay Types in Patriot Software.

Entering pay rates will depend on whether the employee is Hourly or Salary/Salary Non-Exempt.

If this employee is Hourly:

Pay Rate:  If you select Hourly, enter the hourly pay rate (e.g. 14.75).

Pay Rate Description:  This is optional if you only have one pay rate for this employee.  If you add more pay rates, you will need to enter a description for each pay rate.  This description will appear when running payrolls, to differentiate each rate, along with reports and employee pay stubs.  When you start to type, the description will be suggested, based on what you have used before.

Add Another Pay Rate: If this employee is paid at more than one hourly rate, enter another pay rate and pay rate description.  You can add up to five different pay rates per employee.  

Always display on payroll runs:  If you want this additional pay rate to always display under the employee’s name when you enter payroll on Step 1, choose “Yes.”  If you choose “No,” you can still use this rate in Payroll Step 1 when you toggle “Show all Pay Types.” 

Use the Blended Overtime Calculation:  The first time you add an additional rate for an employee, you will see a box asking if you want to use the blended overtime calculation.  Most businesses should keep this box checked to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act rules. This setting applies for all employees, and can be changed later under Settings > Hours & Money Types.  For more details about blended overtime, see the help article Using Blended Overtime.

Pay Additional Repeating Money Type:  Check the box if this employee should be paid an additional flat dollar amount each payroll in addition to their regular pay.  If you have already set up at least one repeating money type at the company level under Settings > Payroll Settings > Hours & Money Types, you will see the money type(s) here to choose from.  If you have set up a default dollar amount at the company level, the amount will appear here, and you can enter a custom amount, if needed.  You can also create a new repeating money type here from the employee record that will be saved in your company settings.

If this employee is Salary or Salary Non-Exempt:

Pay Rate Type:   Choose to enter either an annual pay rate or per pay period.

For Salary or Salary Non-Exempt, enter either the annual salary or the pay rate per pay period (e.g. 1500.00 without commas).

• If you are entering a pay period rate, you should take the annual salary and divide by the number of pay periods for the year: Weekly = 52, Biweekly = 26, Semimonthly = 24, Monthly = 12.  The calculated annual amount will be shown, based on your pay frequency.
• If you are entering an annual pay rate, the calculated amount per pay period will be shown, based on your pay frequency.  This rate will be used when running payrolls.

You can also add repeating money types to salary employees.

To change employee pay frequency or pay types after the information has been entered and saved, please read our article,  “Changing Employee Pay Frequency or Pay Types.” I

Time & Attendance Information:

If you are a Patriot TIME customer, select the method of time entry for your employee.  Choose “Manual” if this employee can enter their time worked at any time during the day.  Chose “Time Punch” if this employee will be “punching” in and out in real time as it happens.  For more information, see Using the Time Punch Feature.

If you have Patriot Time, changing the employee pay frequency or pay types after the information has been entered and saved, will also change their time card. The employee’s time card will be deleted and replaced with a new blank time card when you change their pay frequency or pay type please read our article,  “Changing Employee Pay Frequency or Pay Types.”

Demographics Information (HR Only):

If you have the HR product, you can track data for EEO and/or veteran status reporting, if you are required.  Choose the Gender, Race, EEO Classification, or Veteran status.  For more information, see Tracking Employee EEO Data in Patriot and Tracking Veteran Status in Patriot.

Click Add Employee.

You have now added the employee’s record, and can enter the rest of the employee’s information.

Click Add Tax Info for This Employee. You must complete the tax withholding on the Taxes Page before running payroll. For more description of each field, see the article Editing Employee Tax Information.

After you have entered and saved their tax information, you will see links to pages at the top of the employee record: Employee Info, Pay Info, Direct Deposit (if applicable), Paychecks, Taxes, Deductions & Contributions, TIME Info (if applicable), HR Info (if applicable), and Employee Portal. To add, edit, or delete this information, click the appropriate link to get to that page, then click Edit.

Pay Info Page: For more information, see the article Editing Employee Pay Information.

Deductions & Contributions Page: For more information, see the articles Employee-Level Deductions in Patriot Software and Employee-Level Contributions in Patriot Software.