If you are adding more than 5-10 employees to Knit all at once, you can save time by using our Mass Employee Import template. The template will let you upload all necessary employee information into Knit in one go. Using the spreadsheet can also help identify any employee information that is missing, and you can save the spreadsheet and continue to work on it as information is collected.
Note: Make sure you have your company location(s), paygroup(s) and department(s) set up in Knit before you download the template, as this information is generated based on what exists in your unique Knit account. Please refer to the following HelpDocs for instructions on how to set these up in Knit:
To Access the template:
- Click on the People tab on the left side, then click on the Employees tab along the top. From the right-hand side, select Mass Employee Import
- Click on Mass Employee Import and select Download Import Template from the drop-down menu
You will get a spreadsheet generated based on the company information you have entered into Knit.
Filling Out The Template
You will see that some fields only require simple text (e.g.: First Name, Middle Name, Last Name), while other fields have drop-down menus (e.g.: paygroups and locations). If the field is a drop-down menu, an arrow and an alert message will appear to the right of the selected cell.
The Team column refers to the company Departments. Use the drop-down menu to assign the employee to a department.
The Salary/Hourly column will let you choose whether the employee will be salary or hourly, and you will want to then enter their wage in the Wage column.
Finally, you'll choose the Wage Timeframe. This refers to what frequency the Wage is distributed. I.e.: an hourly employee will usually have an hourly wage timeframe, whereas a salaried employee may be paid a certain amount per year, per month or per week.
Note: If you give an Hourly employee a Yearly Wage Timeframe, they will still be hourly, but their rate per hour will be automatically calculated by Knit based on their "yearly" salary.
Vacation Pay: Use the drop-down menu in this column to select how vacation will be paid out or accrued. In the Vacation Rate column, select a percentage from the drop-down menu; 4% is 2 weeks (minimum entitlement for hourly workers in Ontario), 5% is 2.5 weeks, 6% is 3 weeks, 7% is 3.5 weeks, 8% is 4 weeks, 9% is 4.5 weeks, 10% is 5 weeks. If your employee is Salaried, and you are planning to track Paid Time Off entirely through our PTO policy feature, you can leave the Vacation Pay Rate at 0%.
Employee Information (Green Columns)
If you have the remaining employee information already available, you can continue entering all the remaining information, like their SIN Number and Bank Account.
Note: if you are missing any of the employee information, you can simply leave those columns blank. Unlike the YELLOW and ORANGE columns, the GREEN column is not mandatory to fill out for a successful import. If you leave any green fields blank, Knit will automatically prompt your employees to fill out the missing information.
The Transit number and Bank account number are set up with warnings, notifying you that the entry must be a certain number of characters
Once you have fully completed and reviewed the spreadsheet, it is now time to import it.
- Click on People on the left side, then click on Employees along the top. On the far right-hand side click on "Mass Employee Import" and select "Import Employees". Choose the file for the spreadsheet from your computer and import it.
- If you are met with any error message, correct the information and re-import the spreadsheet again. During the second import, you may be told that certain information is already in the system (e.g.: email is already entered or a duplicate). However, any changes you make in the new import sheet will overwrite the old information, so it's a handy way to correct errors without having to delete all the employees and re-start.
- The system will let you know if there are errors or if the import was successful. Click "Back to Employee List"
