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Adding an employee in Bolto has two parts: you add their role and compensation details, and the employee completes their own onboarding — personal information, tax withholding, bank details, and employment eligibility (Form I-9).
Before adding your first employee, make sure you have an active default payroll group — employees are always added into a payroll group, which determines their pay schedule and funding account. See Running Payroll.

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Adding an employee (admin)

Go to Payroll → Employees → Add new. You can add a brand-new employee or convert an existing contractor to an employee.
1

Personal details

The employee’s name and email address. Bolto uses the email to send their onboarding invitation.
2

Work details

Job title, start date, department, employee ID, whether they work remotely, and their work location(s). The employee’s work location determines which state’s taxes apply — if it’s a new state for your company, state tax setup for that state begins automatically.
3

Compensation

Pay type — Hourly, Annually (salaried), or Piece — the amount, exemption status, and the payroll group they belong to. For hourly (non-exempt) employees, overtime and double-overtime rates are created automatically from the base rate.
4

Review and finish

Confirm the details. The employee receives an invitation to complete their own onboarding.

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Employee self-onboarding

The employee signs in and completes a short guided flow:
  1. Personal information — legal name, date of birth, Social Security number, and home address
  2. Employment eligibility (Form I-9, Section 1) — shown when an I-9 is required; the employee will need details from their identity and work-authorization documents
  3. Tax withholding — federal Form W-4 and any state withholding forms, completed in-app
  4. Bank details — direct deposit, linked instantly through Plaid or entered manually
  5. Review and submit
An unfinished I-9 never blocks the rest of onboarding. Employees can complete Section 1 later from their Documents page.

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Form I-9 verification

Bolto manages Form I-9 employment-eligibility verification end to end — see the full I-9 Verification guide for deadlines, statuses, and reminders. In short:
  1. The employee completes Section 1 during onboarding (or later from their Documents page).
  2. You review their documents and complete and sign Section 2 from the employee’s profile under Documents → I-9 verification.
I-9 statuses you’ll see: Not started · Pending employee · Pending Section 2 · Accepted · Rejected · Not required.
  • Bolto sends automatic reminder emails to employees with incomplete I-9s.
  • If an employee doesn’t need an I-9, you can mark it Not required.
  • If you already have a completed I-9 on file, you can upload it instead.

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Before an employee can be paid

An employee will block payroll approval until they have:
  • Completed their payroll onboarding
  • At least one earning rate (set in Compensation)
  • A bank account for direct deposit
Bolto flags blocking employees on the payroll draft so you can resolve issues before the approval deadline.

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Managing employees

From Payroll → Employees, open any employee to manage:
  • Rates — pay rates, including overtime rates for hourly employees
  • Workplaces — assigned work locations
  • Documents — tax documents, I-9 verification, and filed forms
  • Paystubs — every paystub from past payrolls
  • Deductions — post-tax deductions and garnishments
  • Benefits — benefit plan assignments
  • PTO — time-off policy assignment and balances
Employees manage their own information from their portal: paystubs, tax documents, withholding updates, time off, and timesheets.