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Create an employee

Personal details, contract, withholding tax tariff: everything needed to issue a compliant payslip.

Payroll14 min read
Table of contents+

The employee profile is the basis of payroll: personal info, employment contract, tax tariff and social affiliations. Plan for 5 minutes per employee.

If you have not done so yet, start with Set up payroll: the funds, LPP and the company's insurance are configured there.

1. Open the profile

  1. Open the Employees menu in the sidebar.
  2. Click New employee.
  3. Fill in the sections below, then save.

The form has six cards: Identity, Family and withholding tax, Contract, Salary, Social insurance and Payment and delivery. Rarely used settings are collapsed under More options: the block opens on its own when it contains a value or an error. The Save button stays visible at the bottom of the screen and becomes active as soon as you enter the first value.

2. Identity

  • First name, Last name and Date of birth: required. The date of birth also determines the contributions: a message appears for a young person who does not contribute to AVS yet, or for someone who has reached the reference age.
  • AVS number (format 756.XXXX.XXXX.XX): optional when saving, but carried onto the payslip and the salary certificate.
  • Sex: optional, except for anyone born before 1964, for whom it sets the AVS reference age.
  • Nationality and Permit type: both are prefilled with Switzerland. The available types are Swiss and permits B, L, C, G, F, N and S.
  • Search the address: type the address and pick it from the list, which also records the canton and the municipality. With I can't find my address, you enter the lines by hand, but neither the canton nor the municipality is filled in. For an address abroad, change the Country first.
  • Email: needed to send payslips and to give access to the employee portal, and required if Auto-send is turned on.

3. Family and withholding tax

You enter neither a tariff nor a tax amount: Bill Alps determines the tariff from the profile, automatically applies the tariffs of all 26 cantons and shows its conclusion live below the list of children, with the tariff and the reason. Check it before saving.

  • Marital status: for withholding tax, a registered partnership counts as a marriage and a PACS as being single. For a couple, tick Spouse works in Switzerland if that applies.
  • Family allowances: on by default. You do not enter any amount: it is calculated from the work canton, the age of the children and their education or training.
  • Add child: First name, Date of birth and Recognised education or training. With Yes, fill in the Education or training periods and, if you have it, add the Proof of education or training. The Details link holds the Last name, the Sex, the AVS number and the Counts for withholding tax (dependent child) checkbox, ticked by default.
  • Member of a church levying church tax: this checkbox only appears for an employee who is subject to withholding tax. It selects the tariff with church tax in the cantons that levy it at source.

Subject or not subject

  • Not subject: Swiss nationals and C permit holders living in Switzerland, as well as foreign nationals living in Switzerland who are married or in a registered partnership and live with a Swiss spouse or a spouse holding a C permit.
  • Subject: all other foreign nationals living in Switzerland, and people living abroad, apart from the exception for French cross-border workers below.

The tariff applied

The code combines a letter and the number of children counted, up to a maximum of 5 (B2, for example). On the payslip, it may end in N or Y depending on church tax.

  • A: single person with no child counted.
  • B: married person or person in a registered partnership whose spouse does not work in Switzerland.
  • C: same situation, with a spouse who works in Switzerland.
  • H: single person, or person separated from their spouse, with at least one child counted. With no child counted, tariff A applies.

More options

  • Withholding status: Automatic by default. Not subject (manual) and Subject (manual) cover cases the rules do not model (special regime, tax authority ruling) and require a Reason for the manual status, shown in the payslip detail.
  • Spouse's nationality, Spouse's permit and Lives with the spouse: for a married couple or a couple in a registered partnership. If any data is missing, the block opens, the conclusion asks you to complete the tax situation and tax is still withheld in the meantime. The exemption linked to the spouse applies from the month after the marriage: update the profile that month, because only drafts for the current month and the following months are recalculated.
  • IS calculation method: Impact on bonus month only by default, or Spread evenly over remaining months. This choice only matters in cantons with an annual model (FR, GE, TI, VD, VS).
  • Other activity (%): the occupation rate with another employer, used to determine the tax rate.
  • Lives in cohabitation: for information only, with no effect on the tariff.

The Cross-border situation block opens on its own for a G permit or an address abroad. It contains the French tax residence attestation (G permit or resident in France) and a Status. For a cross-border worker from France, this status brings up the Telework share (%), with a warning above 40%; for a cross-border worker from Italy, the Place of birth, the Country of birth and the Codice fiscale. The block does not change the calculation: only the address, the canton of the payslip and the attestation count.

4. Contract

  • Contract type: CDI or CDD.
  • Start date: required. End date: required for a CDD, and to be filled in as well when an employee on a CDI leaves.
  • Work rate (%): from 1 to 100.
  • Vacation weeks: 4, 5, 6 or Other. The legal minimum is displayed under the field (5 weeks for those under 20).
  • Under More options: Category (Employee, Apprentice, Intern or Auxiliary), Minor salary not subject to AVS (up to CHF 2'500 per year: neither AVS nor AC), Work canton (the company's seat by default, which determines family allowances, public holidays and the cantonal minimum wage), OFS number of the work commune, Weekly hours at 100% (monthly salary), Entry reason (withholding tax) and, if an end date exists, Withdrawal reason (withholding tax).

If the contract appears to depart from employment law (vacation below the legal minimum, salary below the cantonal minimum), a banner of points to check appears at the top of the form. It does not prevent you from saving.

5. Salary

Remuneration mode: Monthly salary or Hourly salary.

  • Gross monthly salary (CHF): the salary at 100%, adjusted automatically according to the work rate.
  • Gross hourly rate (CHF/h), excluding indemnities, and Weekly schedule: together they give the Derived reference monthly salary (100%). The hours worked are then entered on each payslip.
  • Public holidays (hourly salary): Percentage on the hours (irregular schedule) by default, with an Automatic or Custom rate; Cantonal calendar holidays (regular schedule), paid in the month in which they fall; or Not paid.
  • Vacation indemnity (hourly salary): calculated from the vacation weeks, that is 8.33% for 4 weeks, 10.64% for 5 and 13.04% for 6. More options allows a Custom rate and the choice of calculation bases. Bill Alps reminds you that paying vacation as a percentage is only accepted for irregular or very part-time work. Show a calculation example shows the result on fictitious hours.
  • 13th salary: with a monthly salary, it is paid in full in the Payout month (December by default), according to the work rate. Only unpaid leave reduces it: there is no automatic proration for someone joining or leaving during the year, so adjust it with a variable item on the payslip. With an hourly salary, it is added to every payslip (8.333%), with no payout month.
  • Add a fixed line: flat-rate expenses, private share of the vehicle, meal allowance. Each line has a Label, an Amount (CHF), a Type (Supplement, Other or Deduction) and two checkboxes, Subject to social charges and Subject to withholding tax. It is copied onto every new payslip, where it stays editable; changing it does not touch existing payslips.

6. Social insurance

  • LPP mode: Rate (%) or Amount (CHF), depending on what your pension fund tells you. The LPP rate (%) is required, applies to the coordinated salary and cannot be lower than the minimum for the employee's age (3.5% from age 25, 5% from 35, 7.5% from 45, 9% from 55, no minimum after the reference age). The LPP amount is taken as it is, Per month or Per year. The LPP affiliation switch next to it plays no part in the calculation.
  • AANP rate (%): the premium for non-occupational accidents borne by the employee, according to your policy. If empty, nothing is deducted. Nothing is deducted either if the employee's LAA group puts this premium on the employer.
  • IJM rate (%): the employee's share of the daily sickness allowance premium. If empty, nothing is deducted.
  • Under More options: Employer LPP rate (%) (if empty, the same rate as the employee, never less), Sickness allowance rate (%) and Allowance waiting days for the absence calculation, Accident insurer, and the LAA contract group, LAAC category and IJM category choices when the company has defined codes.

7. Payment and delivery

  • IBAN: optional, printed on the payslip.
  • Auto-send and Send day (the 25th by default): on that day, Bill Alps emails the payslip for the current month. If it does not exist yet, Bill Alps creates it with the canton of the company's seat and without fixed lines or variable items, except for an employee paid by the hour, for whom it waits until the hours are entered. A day that does not exist in the month, the 31st in February for example, triggers nothing that month.

8. After saving

The record shows three more sections: Annual salary certificate (see Prepare the salary certificate), Absences and payslips, which leads to the employee's absences and payslips (see Record an absence), and Employee portal, to send them their access link (see Manage the employee portal).

A later change recalculates the employee's Draft payslips for the current month and the following months. Validated payslips do not change.

9. Export or delete

  • Export, in the employee list, offers Export CSV and Export JSON. The file contains the employees displayed, so it reflects the search filter. It includes AVS numbers, IBANs and salaries: keep it in a safe place.
  • Delete, at the top of the record, erases the employee together with all their payslips, absences and access to the employee portal. This cannot be undone.

Once your employees are created, move on to Generate a payslip or a monthly batch.