Company guide
1Register your company
Go to wageharbor.com, click Register your company under the sign-in box and fill in:
- Company name and the state your company is based in.
- Your work email and a password of at least 8 characters. This becomes the company's first Admin login.
Each company's data is completely separate. Nobody at another company can see your employees or payroll.
2Finish company setup
Right after registering you land on Welcome to WageHarbor. You can come back any time under Administration › Company.
- Company profile: legal name (as registered with the IRS), federal EIN, phone, address and time zone (used for the time clock and for "today").
- Payroll & taxes: default pay frequency (weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly or monthly), how many days after the period ends you pay, overtime threshold and your state unemployment (SUTA) rate and wage base.
- Direct deposit bank: the account payroll is paid from and your bank's ACH company ID. Needed only if you pay by direct deposit.
- Click Save changes.
3Add your logo optional
On the same page, use Company logo › Upload logo. Your logo then appears next to your company name at the top of every page and on every printed pay stub.
- PNG, JPG or WebP, up to 512 KB.
- A transparent PNG around 400 × 160 px (wide) or 256 × 256 px (square) looks best.
- Use Replace or Remove to change it later.
4Add employees
Open Employees and click Add employee. Work through the tabs; only the starred fields are required to save:
- Personal: name, address, date of birth, SSN (stored encrypted) and emergency contact.
- Job & pay: title, department, manager, hire date, hourly or salary, pay rate and pay frequency.
- Tax withholding: the employee's federal W-4 and state withholding.
- Direct deposit: one or more bank accounts, or pay by check.
- Benefits & deductions: 401(k), health insurance, HSA, garnishments and more.
- Time off, Pay history and Documents fill in as you go.
5Give employees their own login
Employees can see their pay stubs, clock in and out and request time off on their own. To invite someone:
- Open the employee and choose the Self-service tab.
- Check the Login email.
- Tick any additional roles (for example Manager for a team lead). Everyone gets the Employee role automatically.
- Click Create login. A temporary password appears once. Share it privately (in person or by phone, not in a group chat) and ask them to change it after signing in.
Send them the Employee guide link too. It shows them everything step by step.
6Roles and users
Roles decide what each person can see. They only apply inside your company.
| Role | Can do |
|---|---|
| Admin | Everything, including users, roles and the audit log. |
| Payroll | Run, approve and pay payroll; employees; reports. |
| HR | Employees, time off, documents, reports and settings. Can preview but not approve payroll. |
| Manager | Approves time and time off for their direct reports. |
| Employee | Self-service only: own pay stubs, W-4, time clock and time off. |
Admins manage everyone under Administration › Users & roles: change roles, reset a password (a new temporary password is shown) or disable sign-in when someone leaves.
7Approve time and time off
Hourly employees clock in and out (or enter hours) under My time. Only approved hours are paid, so approve them before each payroll:
- Team › Timesheets: tick entries and click Approve selected, or add hours for someone with Add time.
- Team › Time-off requests: approving deducts the balance and adds the paid time-off hours to the employee's timesheet.
The dashboard's Action items card shows how many are waiting.
8Run payroll
Go to Payroll and click Run regular payroll (or Off-cycle / bonus for a one-off payment). Then follow the three steps across the top of the payroll:
- Calculate & review. Check the pay period and pay date, then Calculate payroll. Review every paycheck: hours, gross, taxes, deductions and net. Need a bonus or a correction? Add it and the draft recalculates automatically.
- Approve. Click Approve and confirm the totals. Approved payrolls are locked; use Reopen if you spot a mistake before paying.
- Fund & pay. Download the ACH file and upload it to your bank at least 2 business days before the pay date, set aside the tax deposit shown, then click Mark as paid.
9Pay stubs and reports
Every paycheck has a printable pay stub with your logo. Open it from the payroll, from the employee's Pay history tab, or, for employees, from My pay.
Reports are built from paid payrolls. Pick a date range and click Run report, then Print or Export CSV for your accountant:
- Payroll register: every paycheck in the range.
- Tax liability: what you owe and to whom.
- Form 941: the quarterly federal worksheet.
- W-2 summary and 1099 contractors for year end.
- Headcount: staff by department and status.
10Other settings
- Earnings & deductions: bonus, commission, reimbursement and other pay types; benefits and deductions; departments.
- Time off & holidays: vacation and sick leave accrual rules, and your holiday calendar (the US set button adds the common federal holidays).
- Words of wisdom: the sayings shown on the dashboard. Add your own, turn some off, or edit them.
- Tax tables: federal and state withholding rates. These are shared by all companies and kept up to date by WageHarbor, so you can review them but not change them.
- Audit log (Admins): who changed what, and when.
11Good habits
- Turn on two-step sign-in for everyone with Admin or Payroll: click your email at the top right › Two-factor authentication.
- Keep the number of Admins small; give people the least role they need.
- When someone leaves, set their status to Terminated and disable sign-in under Users & roles. Their pay history is kept.
- Check that tax rates and your SUTA rate are right before your first payroll each January.