---
title: "Employees & Onboarding"
description: "Invite a new hire to fill in their own personal, tax and bank details, then approve before any employee record or sign-in exists. Encrypted and audited."
url: "https://bareledger.app/guides/employees-onboarding"
category: "Team, roles & approvals"
updated: "2026-11-06"
publisher: "BareLedger (Syneria Technologies OPC)"
---

# Employees & Onboarding

> Invite an employee from People, let them fill in their own details, and approve before any record or sign-in exists.

**Who can use this page**: HR Officers, HR Managers and Accountants work here day to day; Reviewers and Approvers act on onboardings awaiting them; Viewers see the lists without pay details. Find it on the **People** page (sidebar **People → People**; in the app, **More › People**): the **Invite employee** and **Add manually** buttons in the header, and the **Onboardings** tab. See [People](https://bareledger.app/guides/team) for the rest of the page.

## How an employee joins

Every employee record is created the same way — through an onboarding that is reviewed and approved. There is no side door, which is the point: someone checks the details before a record (and a sign-in) exists.

1. **Invite.** On **People**, click **Invite employee**, enter their email and optionally name, position, start date and branch, then **Send onboarding link**. Employee records are unlimited on every plan, but each new sign-in counts as a user (see [Subscription & Billing](https://bareledger.app/guides/billing)).
2. **The person fills in the form.** They get an emailed link to a private form — no account needed. It asks for:
   - a **photo** of themselves (optional, unless you require it — see below);
   - **personal details**: name, date of birth, sex, civil status, nationality, residency status;
   - **contact & address** and an **emergency contact**;
   - their **salary account** — bank or e-wallet, account name and number — and, optionally, a picture of their **"receive money" QR code** (InstaPay/QR Ph, GCash, PayNow…) so you can pay them by scanning it;
   - **government IDs** for the work country (for the Philippines: TIN, SSS, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG numbers);
   - anything you've added under **Settings → Onboarding Form**;
   - **supporting documents** — ID scans, signed forms — tagged by type (PDF, image or Word, up to 10 MB each).

   They can save a draft and come back on the same link. Submitting locks the form and voids the link. The form checks every answer on the server — dates must be real dates, choices must be from the list — so bad data can't slip in.
3. **Set pay details.** In the onboarding's **Employment details** panel, HR sets the pay basis (monthly, daily or hourly), base rate, currency, pay group, work schedule and work country — and ticks which statutory contributions and taxes apply. You can do this when you invite, or any time before approval.
4. **Review.** An HR Manager or Reviewer opens the onboarding from **People → Onboardings**, checks the answers, photo and documents, and marks it reviewed — or **returns it for correction** with a comment, which emails the person a fresh link showing what to fix.
5. **Approve.** An Approver or the Accountant gives final approval. Approval is blocked until a pay basis and a rate above zero are set. Only then is the employee record created — with their photo, salary account, documents, and a **statutory registration** for each ticked scheme carrying the matching government ID number — along with their sign-in: a set-password email goes to the invited address. Approval is refused if a new sign-in would take you past your plan's user limit; upgrade or add seats first.

**Already a member?** If the email already signs in to this organization (say your bookkeeper is also on the payroll), approval adds the **Employee** role beside their existing roles. They keep the same sign-in, and it takes no extra seat.

The person who sent the invite can never review or approve that same onboarding — the usual two-person rule.

## The sign-in email

**The email you invite is the email they sign in with.** It's shown read-only on their form, becomes their login on approval, and the employee can never change it themselves. If it's wrong before approval, cancel the onboarding and invite the right address. After approval, only an HR role or the Accountant can change it, from the employee's record (**Change email**), and the action always asks for your authenticator code. Both the old and new addresses are notified, and the employee re-verifies by email code at their next sign-in.

## Resending and cancelling

While an onboarding is still with the person (invited or returned), you can **Resend link** — the old link stops working — or **Cancel onboarding**. Links expire after 7 days on their own. Cancelling also deletes the photo, QR code and documents uploaded so far.

Any onboarding — at any stage, including approved and cancelled ones — opens from the eye icon on its row. Approved ones have an **Open employee** button.

## Filling the form for someone

No email access, or hiring on paper? On **People**, click **Add manually**, enter their sign-in email (and optionally name, position, start date, branch), then **Continue to the form**. No link is emailed — you fill in the same form yourself, add their photo, QR code and documents, set the pay details, and **Submit for review**. It still goes through review and approval like every other onboarding; if a reviewer returns it, it comes back to HR (not to the person). You can also **Edit form** on any invited or returned onboarding, or use **Send link** on a manual entry to hand it to the person after all.

## Who sees what

Everything on the form — and the photo, QR code and documents — is **stored encrypted**. Plain viewers see only the lists. Reviewers and approvers see the answers, with account numbers and government IDs **masked to the last four characters** (••••7890); HR with **employees.manage** sees them in full. Every view of a salary QR code is recorded in the audit log.

## Requiring a photo

Under **Settings → Onboarding Form**, turn on **Require a photo** to stop forms being submitted without one.

## Terminating an employee

Open the employee (**Open employee record** on their People row) and click **Terminate** with the termination date. Their records stay readable for history and year-end reporting. Termination removes the **Employee** role. If Employee was their only role, their sign-in is suspended too; if they also hold working roles (say Accountant), they keep signing in with those.

**Reactivate** gives the Employee role back and restores a suspended sign-in. A restored sign-in takes a seat again, so reactivation is refused at your plan's user limit.

## Employees without a sign-in

Every employee has a sign-in. A few older records were created without one; they show **No sign-in** in the Directory. Use **Invite to sign in** on the row to send them a sign-in invitation. It takes a seat like any other sign-in.

## Common mix-ups

- **"Do employees count against our plan?"** Yes. Each active sign-in is a user on your plan, employees included. Employee records and payroll runs are unlimited; only sign-ins count. Someone who is both a member and an employee uses one seat.
- **"Why can't I tick the Employee role on someone?"** It comes only from an approved onboarding. Invite them as an employee instead; if they're already a member, approval adds the role to their existing sign-in.
- **"I sent the invite but can't approve it."** Correct — you prepared it. Someone else must review it, and a third person approve it (the reviewer can't also approve).
- **"The employee says their link doesn't work."** It was used, replaced, or expired — resend a fresh one.