Add an employee

This guide covers: Open the new-hire form, Personal info & SSN, Pay rate & schedule, W-4, Work location, Save & invite to portal.

Open the new-hire form

What it does: Loads the full new-employee form for the client.

Where: Accountant dashboard → Employees → Add Employee (/clients/{clientId}/employees/new).

Steps:

1. From the client sidebar, click Employees.
2. Click Add Employee in the top right.
3. The form opens with the Worker Type card at the top. Pick W-2 Employee or 1099 Contractor — this controls which sections appear below.

Who: Accountant or SMB admin.

Notes: Picking 1099 Contractor hides the Federal W-4, State W-4, Work Location, and Direct Deposit cards, and adds a Contractor Information card (business name, EIN, contractor type, payment terms). Everything else in this guide assumes W-2 Employee.

Personal info & SSN

What it does: Captures the legally required identifying data — name, SSN, date of birth, contact info, emergency contact.

Where: Personal Information and Emergency Contact cards on the new-employee form.

Steps:

1. Fill First Name and Last Name.
2. Enter SSN in the format XXX-XX-XXXX — the field masks input as you type.
3. Enter Date of Birth (date picker).
4. Optionally enter Email and Phone — email is required to invite the employee to the employee portal later.
5. Optionally fill the Emergency Contact card: Contact Name, Contact Phone, Relationship.

Who: Accountant or SMB admin.

Notes: SSN is encrypted at rest with envelope encryption. The masked display (last four digits) is what appears everywhere else in the app. Email is optional at creation but required to send a portal invite — you can add it later from the employee detail page.

Address & local tax

What it does: Captures the employee's home address and auto-detects local tax jurisdictions (Ohio school district, PA/MI/OH city tax, Indiana county, etc.).

Where: Address card.

Steps:

1. Fill Street Address, City, State (2-letter dropdown), ZIP Code (12345 or 12345-6789).
2. After you fill all four fields, the Local Tax Lookup runs automatically. If the address falls in an Ohio school district, a PA local taxing locality, or another city/county tax jurisdiction, a card appears with the detected jurisdiction and rate.
3. If auto-detection fails or multiple jurisdictions match, pick from the dropdown the Local Tax Lookup surfaces.

Who: Accountant or SMB admin.

Notes: Include ZIP+4 for the most accurate jurisdiction match — five-digit ZIPs can straddle two PA Act 32 districts. Ohio school district is detected at the street level when available; if not, a manual override appears.

Pay rate & schedule

What it does: Sets the hire date, pay type (hourly/salary/project), and rate.

Where: Employment Information card.

Steps:

1. Enter Hire Date (date picker). This date drives new-hire reporting to the state registry within 20 days.
2. Pick Pay Type: Hourly, Salary, or Project-Based (1099 only).
3. Enter the rate: hourly = $/hr, salary = annual gross (the payroll engine divides by pay-period count automatically), project = per-project amount.

Who: Accountant or SMB admin.

Notes: For salary employees, the per-period pay is computed from the client's pay frequency (weekly = ÷52, biweekly = ÷26, semimonthly = ÷24, monthly = ÷12). You don't enter the per-period amount — payroll-run preview will show it.

Federal W-4

What it does: Captures the 2020-and-later IRS Form W-4 inputs that drive federal income tax withholding.

Where: Federal Tax Withholding (IRS W-4) card. W-2 only.

Steps:

1. Step 1 — Filing Status: Single, Married Filing Jointly, Married Filing Separately, or Head of Household.
2. Step 2 — Multiple Jobs: check Check if you have more than one job, or if married filing jointly and your spouse also works when applicable.
3. Step 3 — Claim Dependents: enter Total Dependent Credit Amount in dollars (2 children under 17 = $4,000; add $500 for each other dependent).
4. Step 4 — Other Adjustments: (a) Other Income (interest, dividends, retirement), (b) Deductions (above the standard), (c) Extra Withholding (flat dollars per check).

Who: Accountant or SMB admin entering on behalf of the employee.

Notes: Leave Steps 2-4 blank and Step 1 as Single if the employee didn't fill them out — the engine treats that as the default. The values map directly to the withholding tables in IRS Pub 15-T.

Work location & state W-4

What it does: Assigns the employee to a work location (which drives the work state for tax withholding) and surfaces the right state withholding form.

Where: Work Location and State Tax Withholding cards. W-2 only.

Steps:

1. In Assigned Work Location, pick a location. Leave blank for "Same as residence" if the employee works from home or at their address.
2. If the work state differs from the residence state, the app runs a reciprocity check and shows one of:
   • Same State — single-state withholding (green).
   • Tax Reciprocity Available — yellow card with the required exemption form (e.g. IN-WH-47, PA REV-419). Check Employee has filed the reciprocity exemption form once collected.
   • No Reciprocity Agreement — blue card; dual-state withholding will be set up.
3. Fill the state-specific W-4 form (varies by state — CA DE-4, IL-W-4, NY IT-2104, etc.).
4. Optionally enter Additional State Withholding, Additional Local Withholding, and pick Local Tax Residency (resident vs. non-resident — matters for OH/PA/MI split-rate cities).

Who: Accountant or SMB admin.

Notes: If no work locations are configured for the client, a link appears to Add work locations at /clients/{clientId}/work-locations. The work state determines SUI/SDI jurisdiction in addition to income-tax withholding.

Direct deposit (optional)

What it does: Optionally captures the employee's bank info now so direct deposit is ready for the first payroll.

Where: Direct Deposit (Optional) card. W-2 only.

Steps:

1. Check Add now to expand the form.
2. Fill Bank Name, Account Type (Checking or Savings), Routing Number (9 digits), Account Number (4-17 digits).
3. If unchecked, the employee adds their own bank later through the employee portal.

Who: Accountant or SMB admin entering on the employee's behalf.

Notes: Bank info is encrypted at rest and in transit. The new account is sent to Moov for verification as part of the next payroll run — until that succeeds, the employee's payment method defaults to paper check.

Save

What it does: Creates the employee record and (if a bank was entered) attaches the bank account.

Where: Create Employee button at the bottom.

Steps:

1. Click Create Employee.
2. On success, you're redirected back to the employee list at /clients/{clientId}/employees.
3. To send the new hire a portal invite, open their detail page and click Send Portal Invite (requires email on file).

Who: Accountant or SMB admin.

Notes: Validation errors render inline under each field. Common failures: invalid SSN format, invalid ZIP, missing required fields. If the routing number isn't 9 digits or the account number is outside 4-17 digits, the employee saves but the bank account does NOT — a toast tells you to add it from the employee page.

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Related: Employee roster · Edit and manage employees · New hire reporting.