Hire employees

1. Define the working arrangement

Identify the employing entity, work location, role and relationship. Employee, contractor and agency-supplied worker arrangements need separate assessment.

Create a hiring record for each role: who signs the agreement, who supervises the work, where the person normally works, the proposed start date and who approves pay. Record remote work and client-site assignments explicitly. A central payroll office is not a substitute for knowing the actual workplace.

If the arrangement is described as consulting but involves ongoing supervision and an employee-like role, resolve that classification before choosing the document and payment process. Use the employee-versus-contractor guide to prepare the facts for that assessment.

2. Document the offer and policies

Agree pay components, duties and working terms. Prepare onboarding records and relevant workplace policies with the appropriate professional input.

• Separate fixed pay, variable pay, reimbursements and employer contributions in the proposed compensation schedule.
• Make the offer, accepted terms and payroll setup agree on the start date and approved pay.
• Give the employee a clear contact for attendance corrections, leave, expenses and workplace concerns.
• Assign responsibility for collecting acknowledgements and recording later changes; an unsigned draft should not be mistaken for an accepted agreement.

Review the wage-component guidance and workplace prevention checklist alongside the terms. Their applicability depends on the facts, rather than the name used for a payment component.

3. Set up payroll evidence

Collect verified employee information through a suitable private channel. Map deductions, benefits and applicable registrations using the actual workforce facts.

Set a payroll input cut-off and nominate separate people to prepare, check and approve the run where the team permits. Maintain an input sheet for joiners, exits, attendance, approved leave, pay changes, variable pay and recoveries. Each change should point to its approval or supporting record.

Keep bank and identity information in a restricted onboarding channel, rather than sending it through the public enquiry form. Confirm who can change payment details and how that change is verified before the bank file is prepared.

4. Review the first payroll

Reconcile attendance, salary changes, deductions and payment approvals. Retain payslips and records and assign an owner for exits and later changes.

1. Compare the employee list with approved joiners and exits; resolve missing and duplicate records.
2. Check partial-month calculations against the agreed policy and actual joining dates.
3. Reconcile gross pay, deductions and net pay to the payroll register; investigate unexpected changes before approval.
4. Compare the approved net-pay total with the payment file, then record failed payments separately from amounts successfully paid.
5. Reconcile payroll totals with the accounting entry and track statutory remittances through their applicable processes. Payment of salary alone does not close those workstreams.

Bring these facts to the first discussion

• Employer and location details
• Headcount, roles and pay structure
• Offer terms and attendance process

Watch the dependency

Hiring in a new state can change local employment administration even when the payroll is processed centrally. Include the work location in onboarding.

Example: a business with one office hires a remote employee elsewhere halfway through the month. Before the first run, record the employee’s work location, assess the relevant local requirements, confirm the partial-month calculation and obtain approval for any joining payment. Reusing another employee’s payroll setup may overlook both the location and the start-date difference.

The remote-workforce guide explains the location questions to investigate. Keep an unresolved-items list with an owner and next action, so the second payroll does not inherit undocumented assumptions from the first.

How responsibilities are agreed

You confirm business facts and approve decisions. Kosha’s engagement identifies the documents, coordination and filings included, together with any specialist adviser or authority dependency. The service links below explain the relevant workstreams and their limits.