Available to Basic Payroll, Full Service Payroll
Understanding Employee Statuses
Hire Date vs. Effective Date: The Hire Date is used for internal record-keeping and does not affect payroll calculations or payment schedules. The Effective Date, on the other hand, determines when the employee becomes active in the payroll system and is often the same as the Hire Date.
Each employee status reflects their employment standing and affects whether they appear on the payroll screen (step one of payroll):
Active: The employee is currently working and included in payroll.
Inactive: The employee is not currently working but is still on file (e.g., seasonal or furloughed).
New hires are “inactive” until the effective hire date, but can be paid before the effective hire date by indicating a Payroll Start Date.
Inactive employees are not included when running payroll past the Payroll End Date.
Leave of Absence: The employee is on approved leave and temporarily not working. Employees on Leave of Absence are included when running payroll.
Terminated: The employee is no longer employed and is excluded from payroll. This can be due to the employee quitting or being fired. Terminated employees are not included in payroll based on the effective date or past the Payroll End Date.
See Viewing Employee Status History to view all recorded status changes.
How to Update an Employee’s Current Status
There are two ways to update or edit an employee’s current status effective today from the employee list or the employee record:
From the Employee list:
Payroll > Employees > Employee List.
Click the dropdown by the employee’s name in the status column.
Select the Status from the dropdown list: Active, Inactive, Leave of Absence, or Terminated.
Enter the Effective Date of the status change.
Effective dates in the future will show on the employee list in the Pending Status column.
(Optional) If updating the employee status to Inactive, or Terminated, enter the Payroll End Date.
(Optional) Enter a Reason.
(Optional) Enter any Comments.
Click Save.
From the Employee record:
Payroll > Employees > Employee List > {select Employee’s Name} > Employee Profile tab.
Find the Status Info section and click Show Status History.
Click the Edit icon in the current status row.
Select the Status from the dropdown list: Active, Inactive, Leave of Absence, or Terminated.
Enter the Hire date if this is a new employee, or the Effective Date if changing a status.
The Hire Date is for record-keeping purposes and does not impact payroll calculations. The Effective Date determines when the employee becomes active in the payroll system.
You will be able to view all future status changes on the employee list in the pending status column.
Enter payroll effective dates.
(Optional) Click the Pay this employee before the Hire Date box, and enter a Payroll Start Date, if adding a New Hire and you want to pay the employee before the hire date.
(Optional) Enter the Payroll End Date, for Inactive, Leave of Absence, or Terminated, if you want to pay the employee the last paycheck at a later time, such as a commission payout. Otherwise the employee will not show on payroll past the current pay period.
(Optional) Enter a Reason.
Optional) Enter any Comments.
Click “Save.”
Understand How Rehire Dates Work
If you rehire an employee, the rehire date will be shown on the Employee Profile tab under the status section. The original hire date will remain in the Status History section.
Patriot HR reports include both the Hire Date and a Rehire Date (if there is one). The Hire Date in the reports will be the value of the first Hire Date field on the employee’s record. The Rehire Date will be the most recent effective date associated with an Active Status in the Status History section.
How to Correct a Previous Status or Effective Date on an Employee
To correct a previous effective date on an employee, you’ll edit the Status History of the Employee.
Go to Payroll > Employee List.
Click the employee’s name.
Scroll to the Status Info section on the Employee Profile page.
Click “Status History.”
Edit the active status by clicking the “Edit” icon.
In the modal that appears, edit the “Effective date” to correct the date.
(Optional) If the entry is incorrect, you can delete it by clicking the trashcan.
Also see the help article, “Viewing Employee Status History.”