Help Center

Page Layout

The left sidebar displays employee cards in a scrollable list. Each card shows the employee's name, email, phone number, user code, and account status. The right panel shows detailed information for the selected employee across multiple tabs.

Selecting an Employee

Click on any employee card in the sidebar to view their details in the right panel. The selected card will be highlighted to indicate it's active.

Active vs Archived Employees

By default, the page shows your current active employees. Use the toggle button at the top of the sidebar to switch between viewing current employees and archived employees. The employee count at the top shows how many employees match your current filters out of the total.

Search Bar

Type in the search box to quickly find employees by their name, email address, phone number, or user code. The employee list updates instantly as you type.

Position, Area, and Bot Tag Filters

Use the position filter dropdown to show only employees assigned to a specific position, the area filter for employees in specific areas, and the bot tag filter for employees holding a specific qualification tag (used by the auto-rostering bots).

Account Status Filter

Filter employees by setup status: "Active" shows employees who have registered their accounts, while "Setup Pending" shows employees who haven't completed registration yet.

Sort Options

Sort the list by First Name (A-Z or Z-A) or Last Name (A-Z or Z-A). Your sort preference is automatically saved.

Creating a Single Employee

Click the "Add Employee" card at the top of the employee list to open the employee creation modal. Enter the employee's first name, last name, email address, and phone number, then save.

Batch Add Employees (Import)

Next to "Add Employee" is a "Batch Add Employees" card, which opens an import wizard for adding your whole team at once. Upload a spreadsheet or paste a list — the AI reads names, emails, phone numbers, and even positions, areas, and qualifications from whatever format you have — then review the extracted list and click "Add Employees". A ready-made spreadsheet template (with First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone Number, Positions, Areas, and Qualifications columns) is available to download in the wizard.

Setup Email

When you create a new employee, the system automatically sends them a setup email so they can register their account and set a password. Until they complete this, their status shows as "Setup Pending". Use the "Resend Setup" button in their details if they need the email again.

Setup Pending vs Active

Employees with "Setup Pending" status have been added but haven't registered yet. Once they register through the setup email link, their status changes to "Active" and they can log in to the app and kiosks.

What Are User Codes?

User codes are 4-digit codes used as each employee's kiosk PIN for clocking in and out. A code is generated automatically when the employee is created, and appears as a badge on their employee card.

Editing a User Code

You can change an employee's user code at any time from the "User Code (Kiosk PIN)" field on their Basic Info tab. Codes must be exactly 4 digits and unique across your whole company — the system rejects a code already used by another employee. Changes take effect immediately at kiosks.

Visual Identification

Each user code badge is displayed with the employee's colour, helping with quick visual identification. You can also search for employees by user code.

Basic Info Tab

Contains core employee information: first name, last name, preferred name, email, phone number, address, and date of birth. You can also set the employee's colour here, which is used throughout the system.

Preferred Name

The optional Preferred Name field changes how the employee's name is displayed everywhere in RosterMates — rosters, timesheets, messages, and the app — while payroll, IRD, and bank files always keep the legal name. Great for staff who go by a different name day-to-day.

Payroll & Tax Tab

Manage payroll-related information including the employee's default hourly rate, IRD number, tax code, bank account, and KiwiSaver settings (including the employer contribution rate). This tab requires the "Can View Employee Pay Rates" permission.

Assignments Tab

Assign positions and areas to the employee, and set position-specific hourly rates that override the default rate for specific positions.

Work Days Tab

Set up recurring work patterns using the calendar interface — which days the employee typically works and for how many hours. Work patterns power leave calculations, the public-holiday Auto-Fill on Timesheets, and scheduling suggestions.

Bot Tags Tab

Assign qualification tags used by the Auto-Generate and Auto-Staff bots to decide who is eligible for which shifts.

Employment Tab

Record employment details such as start date, employment type (full-time, part-time, casual), and contracted hours per week. Contracted hours drive the under/over-contract colour indicators on the Rosters sidebar.

Saving Changes

After making changes in any tab, click the "Save Changes" button at the top right of the employee detail panel before switching to a different employee.

Editing Basic Information

Click into any field in the Basic Info tab to edit. First name, last name, email, and phone number are required. The address field suggests matching addresses as you type — click a suggestion to fill in the complete address.

Employee Colour

Choose a colour for the employee using the colour picker or the preset palette. This colour identifies the employee in rosters, schedules, and calendars, so pick colours that are distinct between employees.

Permission Requirements

Viewing and editing payroll information requires the "Can View Employee Pay Rates" permission. Without it, the Payroll & Tax tab is hidden or limited.

Default Hourly Rate

Set the employee's standard hourly pay rate. This is used for pay calculations unless a position-specific override is set in the Assignments tab.

IRD Number, Tax Code, and Bank Account

Enter the employee's IRD number and select their tax code (M, ME, SB, and so on) — both are required for payroll processing, IRD payday filing, and employee-details sync with Inland Revenue. The bank account number is needed for bank batch payment files.

KiwiSaver Settings

Record whether the employee is enrolled in KiwiSaver, their contribution rate (3%, 4%, 6%, 8%, or 10%), the employer contribution rate, and their ESCT rate.

Important Note

Always verify payroll information with the employee. Incorrect tax codes or IRD numbers can cause tax complications for both the employee and your business. The easiest way to collect accurate details is the Request Details form (below) — the employee enters their own information.

The Request Details Form

For active employees, click the "Request Details" button on their card to send them the Employee Details form. The employee fills it out in the app, covering Personal Information, Emergency Contact, Tax & IRD Information, KiwiSaver, Banking, and Work Information. The button changes to "Form Sent" once sent, and "Details Completed" when they've submitted.

Where Submissions Go

Submitted details land as a form submission on the Forms page against the Employee Details template, so you can review what was entered and update the employee's profile. This is the easiest way to collect IRD numbers, tax codes, bank accounts, KiwiSaver choices, and emergency contacts without chasing paper.

Assigning Positions

In the Assignments tab, click on position boxes to assign or unassign positions. Employees can have multiple positions. These assignments control who can be placed into which roster rows, who sees which open shifts, and who the bots consider eligible.

Position-Specific Hourly Rates

With the pay-rates permission, click an assigned position to reveal an hourly rate input that overrides the employee's default rate when they work that position.

Assigning Areas

Areas represent departments or work zones. Assign them the same way as positions. Position and area assignments are used for filtering and eligibility throughout the system.

Quick Edit from Rosters and Events

You don't have to come back to Management for every tweak — right-clicking an employee's card in the Rosters or Events sidebars opens a quick-edit menu for their Areas, Positions, and Qualifications.

Adding New Positions and Areas

Navigate to the positions or areas management section, type the name, and save. When adding several at once, type a name and press Enter to save it and immediately start typing the next one.

Editing and Deleting

Edit names by clicking on them. Use the delete button to remove an entry — positions and areas that are currently in use by employees or schedules can't be deleted.

Understanding Work Patterns

The Work Days tab contains a calendar where you set the employee's typical recurring pattern — which days they work and how many hours. Enter the hours in the input box, then click calendar days to apply them; click again to toggle off.

Why Patterns Matter

Work patterns are used to calculate how many working days a leave request covers, to power the public-holiday Auto-Fill on the Timesheets page, and for scheduling suggestions. Keeping them accurate makes leave and holiday pay automation much more reliable.

Saving Your Pattern

Click "Save Changes" to apply the pattern. Use the clear/reset button to start over.

Permission Requirements

Changing employee roles requires the "Edit Roles" permission. Without it, the "Manage Role" button is not visible.

Changing an Employee's Role

Click the "Manage Role" button in the employee's detail panel. A modal lists all available roles with descriptions of their permissions. Select the appropriate role and save. The employee's current role shows as a badge next to their name.

Default and Custom Roles

The default role is the basic employee role with minimal permissions, suitable for staff who only need to see their own shifts and clock in and out. Custom roles (created in Settings → Roles) carry whatever permission combinations you've defined — see the Roles documentation.

What They Are

Some allowances are paid for every day an employee works rather than for a particular shift — a clothing or uniform allowance per day worked, a qualification allowance, a first-aid allowance. These are set once per employee in the Standing Allowances section of the Assignments tab on their record. The section is only shown to users with the "Can View Employee Pay Rates" permission, since allowance rates are confidential in the same way pay rates are.

Creating Allowances

Allowances work like positions and qualifications: they are created once for the location and then ticked on each employee. In the Standing Allowances section click "New Allowance" to open the form. Pick a template (clothing, laundry, split shift, night shift, weekend, on-call, sleepover, first aid, mileage and so on) or fill it in yourself: name, whether it is paid per hour, per day, per shift, as a fixed amount or per km, the rate, the tax treatment, whether it counts toward holiday pay (New Zealand) or its STP Phase 2 category (Australia), the payroll name it must match in Crystal, optionally the positions it applies to, and when it applies (see below). Click "Edit" in the section header, then click an allowance, to change or delete it; an allowance that has already been used on a timesheet is deactivated rather than deleted so history stays intact. Every allowance you create here is also available in the Timesheets page picker.

Assigning One

Tick an allowance's box on the employee to make it a standing allowance for them. A rate field appears where you can enter a rate for this person if it differs from the default; leave it blank to use the default. Untick to remove it. Everything saves straight away. Per-km and per-unit allowances show as "Timesheet only" because they need a quantity entered each time.

When an Allowance Applies

Most standing allowances have criteria, and the "When does it apply?" block on the allowance form is where you set them. Days: tick the days of the week it is paid on, or leave them all unticked for every day. Hours: "All hours", or "Between" a start and an end time — an end time at or before the start runs into the next day, so a night window of 22:45 to 07:15 covers the whole night shift. A weekend window that runs from Saturday morning to Monday morning is Saturday and Sunday ticked with a window of 06:45 to 06:45. "Only when they work at least 2 separate shifts that day" is the split-shift rule. "Not for hours already paid as" stops two hourly allowances stacking: tick Weekend on the Night allowance and the Saturday-morning part of a Friday night shift is paid at the weekend rate only. The templates for night, weekend and split shift come with these criteria filled in; adjust the times to match your agreement. A summary of the criteria shows under each allowance in the section, and the form previews it as you edit. Leave everything unset for allowances paid on every day worked, such as clothing.

How Lines Are Generated

Standing allowance lines appear on the Timesheets page as soon as a day is opened — previewed from each employee's rostered shift — and are recalculated from the approved hours when the day is approved, using each allowance's criteria. Only lines on approved employee-days are paid or exported. Per-hour allowances pay the approved hours that fall inside the allowance's days and time window (an overnight shift counts on the day it started, and unpaid breaks come off proportionally); per-day allowances pay once when any of the day's work falls inside the window; per-shift allowances count the shifts that touch it. An allowance restricted to certain positions only generates for shifts in those positions. The times come from the shift or clock times behind the hours you approved on the web timesheet; days approved from the mobile app use the rostered shift times. The lines appear as dashed chips on the timesheet and are exported to payroll with everything else. Unapproving a day removes them and re-approving regenerates them. Changing an allowance's criteria or positions also recalculates the standing lines on approved days from the past five weeks, so an existing pay period picks up the fix; lines you changed or skipped on the timesheet are left alone.

Archive Employee

The "Archive" button moves active employees to the archived list. Use this when an employee leaves. Archived employees are hidden from the main list, can't log in or clock in, and don't appear in scheduling — but all their historical data is retained for reporting and compliance.

Delete Employee

The "Delete" button permanently removes an employee, and is only available for employees who have not yet registered (Setup Pending). Once someone has registered, archive them instead — this protects the integrity of their timesheet and payroll history.

Unarchiving

Select an archived employee and click "Unarchive" to restore them to the active list with full access — handy for returning seasonal staff.

Viewing and Editing Archived Employees

Toggle to "Show Archived Employees" at the top of the sidebar. You can still view and edit archived employee information, which is useful for correcting historical data or preparing for a return.

Best Practices

Archive rather than delete anyone who actually worked for you. Only delete employees who were added in error and never started.