Accept an invitation

This guide covers: accepting a team-member invite into an accounting firm, first-time setup of the client portal, and first-time setup of the employee portal (including the W-4 onboarding wizard).

Accept a team-member invite

What it does: Creates your user account inside an accounting firm's team, with the role the owner assigned to you (Admin, Manager, or Viewer).

Where: Click the Accept Invitation link in the email titled "You've been invited to join [Firm Name] on Payrollix" (/accept-invitation?token=…).

Steps:

1. Open the email and click Accept Invitation.
2. You'll land on the Join Your Team page with the token in the URL.
3. Type your First Name and Last Name.
4. Type a Password (8+ characters) and Confirm Password.
5. Click Accept & Create Account.
6. You're redirected to /login with a green Welcome to the team! toast. Sign in with the email and password you just set.

Who: Anyone the firm owner or an admin has invited from Dashboard → Team → Invitations.

Notes: If you land on this page without a token, you'll see Missing invitation token — go back to the invite email and click the link directly (don't bookmark /accept-invitation). Invitations expire after a fixed window set by the firm; if yours is expired you'll see a clear error and the firm has to send a new one.

First-time client portal setup

What it does: Lets a client (your accountant's customer) create a password and access Client Portal to view payroll, paystubs, W-2s, and run summaries for their company.

Where: Click the Set up your portal link in the email titled "Your accountant invited you to the Payrollix Client Portal" (/client-portal/setup?token=…).

Steps:

1. Open the email and click Set up your portal.
2. You'll land on Client Portal Setup.
3. Type your New Password (8+ characters) and Confirm Password.
4. Click Set Password & Continue.
5. You're redirected to /client-portal/login — sign in with the same email the accountant invited and the password you just set.

Who: Clients invited by their accountant from Clients → [the client] → Invite to client portal.

Notes: If the link is missing the token, you'll see Invalid setup link — ask your accountant to resend the invite from the client overview page. Each setup link is one-shot — once you've set a password, future logins go through /client-portal/login instead.

First-time employee portal setup

What it does: Activates the employee's portal account (for paystubs, tax docs, time off, direct deposit) and, if onboarding is still required, drops them into the 7-step W-4 wizard.

Where: Click Activate your account in the email titled "Welcome to [Company Name] — set up your employee portal" (/employee-portal/setup?token=…).

Steps:

1. Open the email and click Activate your account.
2. You'll land on Employee Portal Setup and the page shows Verifying your invite link… while it checks the token.
3. When it greets you (Welcome, [your first name]), type a Password (8+ characters) and Confirm Password.
4. Click Set Password & Activate Account.
5. If your employer flagged onboarding as required, you'll be sent straight to the 7-step wizard at /employee-portal/onboarding. Otherwise you land on the employee dashboard.

Who: New hires invited by an employer from Clients → [the client] → Employees → [employee] → Invite to portal.

Notes: If your account was already set up the page redirects you to /employee-portal/login with Your account is already set up. If the link has expired (typically after a few days), you'll see Invalid Setup Link — ask your manager to resend.

The employee onboarding wizard

What it does: Collects the W-4, address, direct deposit, and consent that a new hire is legally required to file before their first payroll.

Where: /employee-portal/onboarding. Reachable automatically from setup, or from employee login if onboarding hasn't been completed.

The 7 steps (exact labels):

• Personal Info — first/last name, date of birth, SSN, phone.
• Address — home street, city, state, ZIP. Your residence state drives state withholding.
• Federal W-4 — filing status, multiple-jobs box, dependents, other income, deductions, additional withholding.
• State Tax — one row per state that taxes your wages. Your residence state is auto-seeded; click Add another state if you work in a different state. States with no income tax (AK, FL, NV, NH, SD, TN, TX, WA, WY) show a green "No state withholding form is required" banner.
• Sign W-4 — type your full legal name to electronically sign the federal and state W-4 forms in one go.
• Direct Deposit — bank name, account type, routing and account numbers. Tick Skip for now to deal with this later from inside the portal.
• Review — a read-only summary of every step. Tick the consent box and click Complete Onboarding.

Notes: You can click any earlier step circle at the top to jump back and edit. The Next button is hidden on Sign W-4 — that step uses its own Sign & Continue button.

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Related: Login, 2FA & password reset · Add your first client and run your first payroll · Team & permissions.