Employee Statuses
When using Patriot HR you will have the ability to set statuses and effective dates for your employees. If you have a Vestwell integrated 401(k) plan, you can also use this feature.
- Active – Employee is currently employed and being paid.
- Inactive – Employee may or may not still be considered “employed” but is not currently being paid. The employee with an inactive status will not appear on the payroll screen. This status may be useful for a seasonal employee who returns each year, or a future employee with a pending active status.
- Terminated – Employee is not currently employed (either through their own resignation or firing by employer). The employee is not being paid and will not appear on the payroll screen.
- Leave of Absence – Employee is still employed, but not currently being paid. This will remove the employee who is on a leave of absence from the payroll screen so they are not inadvertantly paid.
To update the historical statuses of employees, please see our help article, Using Employee Status History in Patriot HR.
The Employee List will show all employee statuses.
Using Pending Statuses for Employees
You can use a pending status to indicate an employee status change with an effective date for the future. The ability to add future effective dates for status changes comes in handy when the employer is adding new employees, or a future change is needed for an employee such as an upcoming termination date.
This feature prevents the need to make a manual reminder to change the status later after the final payroll is run note that pre-hires are set to “inactive” until their effective date and will not show on the employee list unless you toggle “Show Inactives.” To change a pending status from the employee list, click the “Edit” link to change the date or status of the employee.
Adding Future Status Effective Dates
When changing an existing employee’s status from the Employee List, employers can add a future status to mark them as inactive, leave of absence, or terminated with a future date. There is an optional field to indicate the employee’s final pay date. Reason and Comments are optional. This can also be edited or added on the “Employee Info” tab. Payroll> Employee List > {Employee Name} > Employee Info. Scroll to the “Work Info” section and click “Add Pending Status.”
Automatic Status Changes
If no final paydate has been entered, the system will keep the employee in their current status and automatically change to the new status shortly after midnight in your time zone on the new effective date.
If you have entered a final pay date, the system will change to the new status shortly after midnight on the day after the final pay date. This will ensure the employee stays active in the payroll so the employee can be paid.
Example 1:
- Their current status is active
- Their pending status is terminated, effective 1/14/22
- There is no final pay date.
- The system will keep them active until 1/13/22 and then automatically change the employee status to terminated on 1/14/22
Example 2:
- Their current status is active.
- Their pending status is terminated, effective 1/14/22
- Their final pay date is the same day, 1/14/22
- The system will keep them active until 1/15/22 and then automatically change the employee status to terminated.
Example 3:
- Their current status is active.
- Their pending status is terminated, effective 1/14/22
- Their final pay date is 1/21/22
- The system will keep them active until 1/22/22 (the day after) and then automatically change the employee status to terminated.
Adding New Employees
When adding new employees either in Wizard or Suite, if the hire date is in the future, the employee’s current status will be “inactive” with a pending status of “active” until that hire date has arrived.
Please read our help article, “Pending Statuses Report” for information on employees with a pending status.
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