How to create an employee record

What is it for?

The employee record holds what payroll, returns and absences draw on: the name, the tax number (NIF), the Social Security number (NISS), the hiring date, the workplace, the account the salary is transferred to and the data the person declared for Personal Income Tax (IRS) withholding. Without it there is no contract, no payslip and no holiday request.

Creating the record does not generate journal entries or communicate anything to Social Security or the Tax and Customs Authority (AT). The contract is recorded next, on the same record.

When to use it?

• You are going to hire someone and want to process their first salary.
• You are moving into fiscaldoo the employees you already had in another program.
• An employee is going to start requesting holidays or seeing payslips in My space: they need the record first.

Do not create a new record for an existing employee who has changed job, schedule or salary: that change is recorded on their contract.

Where to find it?

People › Workers › Workers › New

The same record opens in Payroll › Prepare › Worker files.

Before you start

• Your profile is Payroll Administrator, or you are the administrator. Today a new record cannot be saved with the HR manager or Salary processor profiles (see “Common problems”).
• The active company (top right corner) is the employee's: the record and the workplace belong to that company.
• The company has at least one workplace. In the demo, “Empresa Demonstração, Lda” had none and one had to be created: with the administrator profile, open People › Configure › Work Locations, click New, type the name in Work Location (for example Sede) and save.

• Have to hand the employee's NIF and NISS, the IBAN and the declaration they gave you for IRS withholding (family situation and dependants).

How to use it

1. Open People › Workers › Workers and click New.
2. Type the full name in the field at the top, for example Inês Rodrigues Costa.
3. In Tax number (NIF), type the 9 digits, without PT. The NIF is checked by its check digit when you save.
4. In Social Security number (NISS), type the 11 digits.
5. In Professional category, choose one of the eight: Senior staff (level 1), Middle staff (level 2), Foremen, master craftsmen and team leaders (level 3), Highly qualified professionals (level 4), Qualified professionals (level 5), Semi-qualified professionals (level 6), Unqualified professionals (level 7) or Trainees and apprentices (level 8).
6. In Date of admission, type the first working day, for example 02/11/2026.
7. In the Work tab, in Usual Work Location, choose the workplace (in the example, Sede). It is the only mandatory field besides the name. Also fill in Department, Post and Manager, if you use them.
8. Click the save icon (the cloud next to New).
9. In the Personal tab, in Bank accounts, type the full IBAN (it starts with PT50 for a Portuguese account) and choose Create and edit.... In the Criar Contas bancárias (create bank account) window, check the number and click Save. The IBAN is checked by the NIB check digits. The account appears as a tag, with the “Untrusted” switch next to it (Odoo text not yet translated), which this procedure does not use.
10. In the Payroll tab, in the IRS DECLARATION group, record what the employee declared: Tax residence (Continental Portugal, Azores, Madeira region or Non-resident), Marital status (IRS) (Not married, Married, two holders or Married, single holder), Dependents, De facto union, Declaration “married, single holder” and Date of the worker's declaration.
11. Save again.

The other fields of the Work tab (groups PORTUGUESE CONTRACT, SOCIAL SECURITY, WORK TIME, INSURANCE OF WORK ACCIDENTS) and the contract summary in Payroll belong to the contract, which is recorded next.

Expected result

• The record is saved and appears in the Workers list.
• The Life line tab shows the professional category and the line “02/11/2026 Admission”. It also shows the training hours the law requires in the year; for a mid-year hire they are proportional (in the example, “0 of 6.58 hours”).
• In the Payroll tab, the contract summary already shows a New contract with the admission date and Wage at €0.00: the contract still has to be recorded before the first payslip.

Important notes

• The IRS data decides the withholding. Marital status, dependants and tax residence choose the payslip's withholding tax table. Record what the employee declared in writing and the date of that declaration; without a declaration, talk to the certified accountant before the first payslip. Pending validation by a certified accountant: table applied without the employee's declaration.
• Hiring is communicated to Social Security before work starts. fiscaldoo does not do it when you save the record. Pending validation by a certified accountant: deadline for the hiring communication (Contributory Code (Código Contributivo)).
• Today fiscaldoo does not warn if the NIF is already on another record. In the demo, a new record was saved with another employee's NIF. Before creating, search for the NIF in the Workers list.
• The NISS is not checked on saving. In the demo, a NISS with the wrong last digit was accepted. Check it against the Social Security document.

Common problems

The record does not save and the HR manager sees a message about the accounting class

• Symptom: when saving a new record: “Only the Payroll Administrator can change the accounting class of a worker. What happened: the accounts of the payroll depend on the class. How to fix it: ask the Payroll Administrator to register it.”
• Cause: the new record comes with the accounting class filled in and the HR manager profile cannot save it, even without touching the field. It is a defect reported to the product team.
• What to do: ask someone with the Payroll Administrator profile, or the administrator, to create the record. The Salary processor is also refused, with a message starting “The Salary processor only reads the contract…”.

The Usual Work Location says “No records”

• Symptom: when you type in the field, the list shows “No records” and there is no option to create.
• Cause: the active company has no workplaces. Those of another company do not appear.
• What to do: ask the administrator to create the workplace in People › Configure › Work Locations (see “Before you start”). Without a workplace, the record does not save: “Some required fields are empty. Fill in the fields marked in red to be able to save.”

The NIF is refused

• Symptom: when saving, the Validation Error window: “The NIF “246813570” is not valid. Why: the last digit (check digit) does not match the other eight. How to fix it: Check the number on the citizen card or the tax identification document and type it again.” The record is not saved.
• Cause: a digit is swapped.
• What to do: check the number on the citizen card or another of the employee's documents and type it again.

The IBAN is refused

• Symptom: in the bank account window: “The IBAN "PT50000000000000000000000" is invalid (Portuguese bank account check digits, NIB). Check the number on your bank statement.”
• Cause: the last two digits (NIB check) do not match the rest of the number.
• What to do: ask the employee for the IBAN proof issued by the bank and copy it from there.