First payroll checklist for Canadian small businesses

What to know before you start

Before approving the first run, confirm the employee list, pay period, supporting hours and rates, reviewer and payment process. Keep approval separate from evidence that employees and the CRA received money. PayHr Manual is free, but its manual workflow still requires your business to arrange and verify those steps.

1. Confirm the business and employee setup

The CRA’s payroll guidance covers payroll accounts, employment status, employee information, deductions, remittances and information returns. Check whether you need a payroll account. Collect employee SINs securely, determine the province of employment and obtain completed TD1 forms before paying employees. CPP, EI and income tax treatment depends on the circumstances.

Keep a separate list of questions for your payroll adviser, especially where employment status or province of employment is unclear. Do not resolve an uncertain classification simply by choosing the easiest option in software.

2. Agree on the pay-period workflow

Record the period start and end dates, the payday, and your internal deadline for timesheets. Decide who gathers hours, who checks them and who approves the final run. Give the reviewer enough time to resolve missing information before the payment deadline.

For a small team, a simple handoff can work: the manager confirms hours, the payroll preparer reviews employee information, and the owner checks the totals. Name a backup for each step so one person’s absence does not leave the run unfinished.

3. Review employee details and opening balances

Check spelling, start dates, pay rates, earnings types and the records supporting each change. When switching systems during a year, reconcile year-to-date opening balances with the previous payroll records before preparing a new run. Keep a note of which report supplied each balance.

In PayHr, add employee profiles and review pay and tax details in your workspace. Confirm support for your situation first: the employee workflow is Ontario-first, and Quebec payroll is not supported. Our payroll setup guide explains the product steps.

4. Review the run before approval

Compare the people included with your expected employee list. Review hours, earnings, deductions and the resulting net pay. Check unexpected changes against the supporting records instead of assuming that a total is correct because software calculated it.

• Is the pay period correct?
• Are all expected employees included once?
• Have changes to rates and hours been checked?
• Do the totals match the supporting records?
• Has the designated reviewer approved the figures?

If a detail is missing, resolve it before approving. For an already approved PayHr run, check payroll history and contact support about the correction workflow.

5. Complete payments and keep evidence

Treat approval, employee payment and remittance as separate completion checks. Save the payroll record and the confirmations for the payment steps you actually complete. An approved record alone is not evidence that money reached an employee or the CRA.

Create a simple follow-up list showing the owner and status of each step. Store it with the run so the next person can see what remains outstanding. Read our CRA remittance workflow checklist for a practical way to track the tax-payment handoff.

A missing timesheet needs a decision, not a guess

Imagine the preparer reaches the review stage and finds one employee’s hours missing. The useful next step is to identify who can confirm the hours and record the correction before approval. A clean-looking total is not evidence that the input was complete.

If the missing information puts a payment deadline at risk, escalate it to the responsible payroll person rather than silently excluding the worker or inventing hours. Keep a note of the resolution with the run so the reviewer can see what changed and why.

Illustrative scenario, not a customer case study. Confirm the process and requirements for your own business.

Frequently asked questions

Does approving a PayHr run pay employees?

No. Approval records the run; it does not by itself transfer wages or remit taxes. Complete the chosen payment workflow and check its outcome separately.

What changes if this is a midyear switch?

Opening balances must be reconciled with the previous payroll records before the new run is prepared. Keep the source reports and a record of who checked the balances.

Put your next payday in order

Explore PayHr’s payroll software and free manual payroll plan, or follow the workspace setup guide.