The Employees page is the roster of the people you pay — your workforce as HR and payroll see it. It's the starting point for setting up someone's pay: from here their pay rates, bill rates, deductions, and pay group all hang together, and each employee opens into a full tabbed detail dialog where all of it is managed in one place.
Where to find Employees
From the left sidebar choose HR & Payroll, then Employees (the first item in the section).
What you see on this screen
Each row is an employee. The grid is wide — scroll right to see everything:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| ID | The employee's number in GO. |
| Name | The person's full name (from their People record). |
| External ID | Their ID in an outside system — for example your payroll provider's worker ID. |
| Mobile / Phone | Contact numbers from the linked person record. |
| Job Title / Department | What they do and where they sit. |
| Team | The team they belong to. |
| Type | Employment type — full time, part time, and so on. |
| Status | Active, Inactive, On Leave, Terminated — or Archived for archived rows. |
| Hire Date / Termination Date | When they started and, if applicable, when they left. |
| Pay Type / Pay Rate / Pay Frequency | Hourly or salary, the amount, and how often they're paid. |
| Base Rate | Their current active hourly rate from Pay Rates. |
| Pay Group | Their Pay Period Group — the cohort they're paid with. |
| Deductions | How many deductions are set up on them. |
| Hrs/Week / OT Eligible / Salesperson | Default weekly hours, overtime eligibility, and whether they earn commissions. |
| Notes / Created | Free-form notes and when the record was created. |
Use the filter at the top right to switch between Active, Inactive, Archived, and All employees.
Employees here are the payroll-facing view of your team. The broader directory of people — contacts, crew members, and so on — lives on the People page; Employees focuses on the ones you pay.
Adding and editing an employee
Right-click anywhere in the grid and choose Add Employee, or right-click a row and choose Edit. Both open the same Employee detail dialog — a large tabbed editor that holds everything about the person and their pay:
| Tab | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Identity | Name, contact details, date of birth, and address — this writes to the linked person record. |
| Position | Job title, department, team, who they report to, location, hire date, and employment type. |
| Compensation | Pay type, pay rate, pay frequency, default hours per week, overtime eligibility, and pay group. |
| Pay Rates | The employee's effective-dated pay rates, editable right in the dialog — the same data as the Pay Rates page, filtered to this person. |
| Bill Rates | What you charge clients for this person's time — see Bill Rates. |
| Deductions | Their withholdings and garnishments — see Deductions. |
| Indirect | A default project/task for indirect (non-job) time attribution. |
| Tax & Compliance | Home tax jurisdiction, union / prevailing-wage rate schedule, holiday calendar, and related compliance settings. |
| Separation | Termination date and reason, when someone leaves. |
When you're creating a brand-new employee, the Pay Rates, Bill Rates, and Deductions tabs stay locked until you save once — GO needs the employee record to exist before rates can hang off it. Save, and the tabs unlock.
Row actions
Right-click a row for its actions: Edit, Connect QB (map the employee to QuickBooks), Set Active / Set Inactive, and Archive. Archiving is recoverable — switch the filter to Archived and choose Unarchive to restore someone.
How Employees connect to the rest of HR & Payroll
An employee record is the anchor for everything pay-related:
- Pay Rates — what they earn.
- Bill Rates — what you bill clients for their time.
- Deductions — what comes out of their pay.
- Pay Period Groups — how and when they're paid.
- Payroll — where their time becomes a paycheck.
Permissions
Viewing requires HR view access; managing employee records requires the manage permission. Beyond that, the most sensitive fields are gated by their own permissions:
- Salary data (pay rates and amounts) is only visible or editable with the view salary / edit salary permissions.
- Personally identifiable information (such as Social Security numbers and bank details) requires the view PII / edit PII permissions.
A user without these permissions still sees the employee — just with those fields hidden or locked. See Roles & Permissions.
Tips & best practices
- Set the pay group early. An employee with no pay group won't be picked up when payroll runs for their cohort.
- Use Inactive, not Archive, for leaves. Set someone Inactive if they might come back to the roster soon; Archive is for records you want out of the way entirely.
- Fill in the External ID if you export payroll to a provider — the export needs each person's provider worker ID.
Common questions
Why can't I open the Pay Rates tab on a new employee? Save the employee first — the rate tabs unlock once the record exists.
Why can't I see pay amounts? Salary fields are gated by their own permission. Ask an administrator to check whether your role has salary view access.
What's the difference between an employee and a person? Every employee is linked to a People record (the identity); the employee record adds the employment and pay details on top.