Onboarding is everything between "you're hired" and a person you can pay: their tax, super and bank details, your paperwork, and a record in your payroll. Roster gets the new person to do it on their phone, and shows you who is stuck.
For the clicks, follow Add a new employee. This page explains how it works.
Who goes through it
- New staff you invite. New employee is ticked on the invite by default.
- Not existing staff. Untick New employee for someone who already works for you and has done the paperwork. Anyone you bring in by import (a screenshot, a spreadsheet, Xero or QuickBooks Payroll) counts as existing staff too. They owe nothing, get no reminders, and go straight to Complete on the board.
- Not managers. Managers and owners aren't asked for payroll details, so they stay off the board. If a manager is paid through your payroll, Include managers on the board shows them.
- Not trial shift workers, while they're on trial: a trial is paid separately. Hire them after the trial and they're onboarded like any new employee.
What the new person does
Their invite link signs them straight in, with no password and no app to download. They land on Get started, which lists:
- Their payroll details, all on one form:
- Personal details: legal name, date of birth, home address and start date.
- Tax file number declaration: their TFN, or an exemption such as "applied for", plus their residency for tax.
- Super: their own fund, your default fund if you've set one, or "I don't have one". With no fund, Roster flags that you need to ask the ATO for their stapled fund.
- Bank account.
- Your onboarding pack: documents to read or sign, questions, uploads.
- Their first shift: confirming it and clocking in. These tick themselves when they happen.
They can save the form in parts and come back. Their residency and the declaration tick are the only things needed to save. They can change their details later from their profile.
The onboarding board
Team, Onboarding shows everyone part-way through, left to right:
| Column | Who is in it |
|---|---|
| Invited | Invite sent, not accepted yet. Expired invites show here too, so you can resend them. |
| Setup incomplete | Joined, payroll details not finished. |
| Complete | Payroll details done, or already in Xero, or nothing to collect. |
| Active team | Activated in the last 7 days. |
Cards move on by themselves as people join and fill things in. The only move you make is Activate, by clicking it or dragging the card to Active team. Activating takes them off the board and stops their reminders. You can Activate early before their details are finished; they can still complete them from their profile.
A card turns red when someone has been on the board for about a week without finishing.
Reminders
- Automatic. Once a day, after 9am your time, Roster texts and emails anyone who hasn't finished their payroll details. It starts a day after they join, and only once they've signed in for the first time. It stops when their details are complete or you activate them. Documents in the pack never trigger a reminder.
- On demand. Send reminder on their card sends one text, or an email if there's no mobile, listing what's missing with a link straight to it. Once a day at most.
- Opting out. Staff can turn the emails off from their reminder, or in their profile's notification settings. If they've turned reminders off entirely, Send reminder tells you to ask them directly.
Your onboarding pack
Set it up once in Settings, Onboarding pack. Each item is one of:
- Read and acknowledge or Read and sign - a document they open and confirm, or sign by typing their name.
- Question - a short answer, yes or no, or a pick list.
- Document to upload - for example a food handler certificate.
- Availability - when they can work, or "I can work any time".
Each item goes to everyone or to casuals only, and can be required or optional.
It starts with the Fair Work Information Statement and the Casual Employment Information Statement, which the law says you must give new staff. The casual statement goes to casuals, and to anyone whose employment type isn't set. Roster asks for it again on the Fair Work schedule: after 12 months if you have fewer than 15 staff, otherwise at 6 and 12 months and then every year. It also has three starters: food allergies, coffee order and availability. Edit or remove any of them.
Every acknowledgement, signature and answer is recorded in the Activity Log with the time, their device and the version of the document they saw. Replace a document and everyone is asked to read the new version. You see each person's answers and uploads under Onboarding documents on their profile.
Staff who joined before 3 October 2026, when the pack arrived, aren't asked for it.
Adding them to payroll
With Xero connected, Add to Xero + activate creates the employee in Xero Payroll with their personal details, tax declaration, super fund and bank account. They're put on your pay calendar for new employees and the ordinary pay item you choose. If only their TFN or super fund is missing, you can still add them, and Xero holds those as pending. Later changes don't sync on their own: use Re-sync to Xero on their profile. Setup is in Set up Xero.
With QuickBooks Payroll, Employment Hero or MYOB, add the person in your payroll yourself, then pair them in Settings, Integrations so their timesheets export. Activate them on the board as usual.
Privacy
Their tax file number and bank account number are encrypted, and nobody at your venue can read them back. You see that they're on file, and which details are still missing.
Two settings that are easy to mix up
- No payroll needed is for someone who isn't paid through this venue's payroll at all, such as your accountant, or staff paid by a sister venue. It skips the payroll details, the reminders, Xero and the timesheet export.
- Export approved timesheets to payroll only decides whether their hours go to payroll. New full-timers start with it off, because an approved timesheet would override a salary in Xero. Everything else about their onboarding is the same. More in Complete a pay run with Xero.
Does onboarding cost anything?
No. It's part of every plan. Someone counts towards your team size from the day they join, whatever stage they're at. A pending invite doesn't count.
Related
- Add a new employee - the steps, with screenshots
- Get set up as a new employee - what your new person sees
- Set up Xero
- Permissions and pay visibility