Available for the following plans: All Payroll plans
Available for the following user access levels: Admin
The Contractor Payments feature enables Canadian businesses to manage and pay independent contractors alongside traditional employees within a single platform.
This solution unifies payroll workflows, automates hours-to-payroll syncing, and simplifies tax compliance—including direct CRA T4A generation and submission.
Important
To help prevent employee misclassification, the platform strictly separates contractor profiles, workflows, and terminology from standard employee records.
What Makes This a Game-Changer
- One Screen for Everyone: Run payroll for your full-time team and gig contractors side-by-side, without jumping between tabs.
- Stress-Free Compliance: We file T4As directly to the CRA for you, plus handy built-in warnings flag contractors under the $500 threshold so you never over-report.
- Goodbye, Manual Data Entry: Once contractor timesheets are approved, they automatically flow right into your active pay run. Easy-peasy.
- Everything in One Place: Keep your paper trail squeaky clean by attaching invoices directly to contractor profiles.
System Capabilities vs. Limitations
- Individual vs. Business Classification: Capture relevant tax identifiers (SIN, Business Number, or GST Number) based on contractor type for accurate CRA reporting.
- No Tax Withholdings: Pay independent contractors without tax, CPP, or EI deductions.
- Flexible Schedule Mapping: Assign contractors to any standard company pay schedule.
- Direct T4A Filing & Distribution: Generate, submit T4As directly to the CRA, and publish them to contractor portals for easy access during tax season.
- Unavailability Tracking: Allow contractors to set one-off or recurring unavailability windows.
- Reactivate Concluded Contracts: Reactivate past contractor profiles with historical data intact without re-entering details.
- No Sub-Contractor Support: Supports independent contractors only. Sub-contractors (e.g., T5018 tax slips for construction) are not supported.
- Single Pay Schedule Assignment: A contractor can only be assigned to one active pay schedule at a time.
- No Admin Timesheet Editing: Admins cannot edit submitted contractor timesheets. To preserve legal independence, the contractor must correct and resubmit the timesheet themselves.
- No Native Invoice Generation or Automatic OCR: The system does not auto-generate invoices, nor does uploading an invoice automatically extract dollar amounts into payroll. Admins must manually verify amounts.
- No Automated Payroll Submission: Hours sync automatically into draft pay runs, but an admin must manually review, approve, and execute the final pay run.
- Canadian Bank Accounts Only: Contractors must provide a valid Canadian bank account number. Non-Canadian bank accounts are not supported.
- No Cheque Generation/Printing: If paying via cheque, the admin must create and print cheques outside the platform.
- Quebec RL-1 Slips Unsupported: The platform does not currently generate RL-1 slips for Quebec-based contractors; these must be processed externally.
- Locked Tax Identifiers: Contractor classification and tax details (SIN/BN/GST) cannot be edited once the first payment has been processed.
What You’ll See in the App
Guided Setup Track: A unique onboarding workflow designed just for contract workers.
Smart B2B Terminology: Clear, professional phrasing throughout the app (think Contract Conclusion rather than Termination).
Clear Contractor Badges: A handy visual tag next to their name on every page, so your team always has full context.
What Contractors Can and Cannot Access
Contractors have restricted access across the platform to maintain proper legal boundaries between internal employees and third-party vendors.
| Feature Module | Contractor Access Level | Access Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Personal Information & Documents | Full Access | Can view and update their own banking, tax data, and documents. |
| Time Tracking | Full Access | Can submit timesheets and view approved hours. Note: Admins cannot edit entries. |
| Submit Unavailability | Full Access | Can submit one-off or recurring unavailability windows. |
| Company Directory & Org Chart | Limited Access | Read-only view (same as regular employees). |
| Asset Management | Limited Access | Admins can assign assets; contractors can view assigned assets on profile. |
| Company Feed | Limited Access | Read-only. Can view posts and announcements; cannot post or react. |
| Performance | Limited Access | Can access 1:1s, Feedback, and Goals only (can be further restricted by Admin). |
| Time Off Module | No Access | Cannot view or request standard employee leave. |
| Compliance Module | No Access | Restricted from company compliance settings and policies. |
| Benefits & Perks | No Access | Cannot view employee benefit schemes. |
| Company Values | No Access | Hidden from view. |
| Ask Hero AI | No Access | Restricted from the AI chatbot. |
Troubleshooting & FAQs
To protect you from legal trouble and avoid employee misclassification risks, contractors have to be the ones in control of their own hours. If something looks wrong, just reject the timesheet and have them fix it and send it back.
Once you’ve paid a contractor for the first time, their tax details and business setup are locked in. If they changed their business structure or tax info, you’ll need to end their current contract in the system and set up a fresh profile for them.