Payroll

The Employee Lifecycle & Portal in Payroll

Managing people in Fintra Payroll: portal invites, self-service paystubs and W-4s, deductions and garnishments, PTO, contractors and 1099s, and clean offboarding.

Updated July 7, 202610 min read1 labOwner / FounderAccountantHR AdminEmployee

Payroll is a people system wearing an accounting costume. This page covers the human half: getting employees into the system and into their own portal, handling the mid-life events - deduction changes, garnishment orders, PTO, a switch from contractor to employee - and offboarding without loose ends.

The employee portal

Employees get portal access - a role that sees exactly their own data and nothing else. No company reports, no other people’s paychecks, no settings.

Paystubs: every stub with the full earnings/deductions/taxes breakdown, available immediately when a run processes.
Year-to-date: running totals for gross, each tax, and each deduction - the answer to most "can you check my pay" emails.
W-4: employees view and update their federal elections; changes flow to the next run’s withholding calculation.
Bank details: employees manage their own direct-deposit account. Note the fraud angle: a bank change within 7 days of payday is one of the anomaly flags the auto-payroll agent raises.
W-2 status: employees can see their W-2 data status for year-end.

Mid-life events: deductions, garnishments, PTO

Most payroll effort after go-live is events: benefits enrollments, court orders, time off. Each has a right way in.

Event	How to handle it	Tax treatment
401(k) enrollment or % change	Add/update the retirement deduction on the employee	Pre-tax for federal income tax and state; still subject to Social Security/Medicare
Section 125 benefits (health premiums)	Pre-tax flat deduction	Reduces federal, FICA, and state - the fully pre-tax kind
Post-tax deduction (e.g., charitable, repayment)	Post-tax flat deduction	No tax effect; reduces net only
Garnishment order arrives	Enter it with type (support, creditor, levy), amount, and priority	Post-tax, priority-ordered, capped against disposable earnings (support up to 60% default, creditor 25%, levy uncapped)
PTO request / payout	PTO accrues per the org policy on approved runs; payouts are a PTO_PAYOUT earning line	Payout is taxable wages like regular pay
Employer 401(k) match	Configure the match (% of deferral, capped as % of gross)	Employer cost, not employee income; appears in W-2 reporting data appropriately

Event handling cheat sheet

Contractors and 1099s

Contractors are paid without withholding - no W-4, no FICA - and their payments accumulate toward 1099-NEC reporting.
The contractor-payments and 1099-NEC summary reports give you the year-end filing data per contractor.
When a contractor converts to employee, create a proper employee record (SSN, W-4, schedule) - do not repurpose the contractor record. Their contractor payments stay on the 1099 side for the year; wages start fresh on the W-2 side.

Offboarding cleanly

The last-paycheck sequence

1
Final pay
Include remaining regular hours/salary, any PTO payout your policy or state requires (as a PTO_PAYOUT line), and outstanding commissions/bonuses. Some states set hard deadlines for final pay - check yours; deadline hints in the system may be marked unverified.
2
Stop the machinery
End-date deductions and garnishments (notify the garnishment agency per the order), stop PTO accrual, mark the employee terminated with the date.
3
Keep the record
Do not delete anything. YTD totals, paystubs, and W-2 data must survive the year - terminated employees still get a W-2, and their portal access to their own documents typically remains.

Hands-on labs

Practice against a realistic scenario. Each lab lists the steps, what you should see, and the checkpoints that confirm you got the same result.

Lab 1

Onboard, garnish, and offboard at Acme

Scenario

Three events land at Acme in one week: new hire Ben Carter starts (salary $52,000, wants 6% into the 401(k)); a $350-per-check child-support order arrives for Sam Reyes; and technician Lena Fox resigns with 24 hours of accrued PTO that Acme pays out.

Steps

1
Create Ben’s employee record (SSN, W-4, biweekly schedule, bank details) and add a 6% retirement deduction. Send his portal invite.
Expected: Ben appears run-eligible; his portal shows W-4 and bank details for self-verification.
2
Enter Sam’s support garnishment: $350 per paycheck, type support, priority 1.
Expected: The garnishment lists on Sam’s record, flagged post-tax with CCPA capping.
3
On the next draft run, open Ben’s paycheck trace.
Expected: Gross $2,000; the 6% ($120) 401(k) reduces federal withholding wages but not Social Security/Medicare wages.
4
Open Sam’s paycheck in the same draft.
Expected: $350 deducts after taxes; net drops accordingly, and the trace shows disposable-earnings capping context.
5
Add Lena’s final pay: her remaining salary plus a PTO_PAYOUT line of 24 × her hourly-equivalent rate. Mark her terminated after the run processes.
Expected: Her final stub shows the payout as taxable wages; she stops appearing in future drafts.
6
End-date Lena’s deductions and confirm her YTD data and paystubs remain accessible.
Expected: Her record is terminated but fully intact for W-2 season.

Checkpoints - you got it right if…

Ben’s 401(k) reduced federal taxable wages but not FICA wages (visible in the trace)
Sam’s garnishment deducted post-tax with priority and cap recorded
Lena’s PTO payout was taxed as wages and she is excluded from new drafts
No record was deleted - all three employees have complete histories

Frequently asked questions

What exactly can employees see in the portal?

Only their own data: paystubs, year-to-date totals, W-4 elections, bank details, and W-2 status. Portal users have no access to other employees, company reports, or settings - it is a separate role, not a trimmed admin.

An employee updated their W-4 mid-quarter - when does it apply?

On the next run calculated after the change. Withholding is computed per paycheck from current elections; there is no retroactive recalculation of past checks.

How are multiple garnishments prioritized?

By type and priority order: support orders first (capped at up to 60% of disposable earnings by default, configurable), then creditor garnishments (25% cap), with tax levies uncapped. Disposable earnings means gross minus taxes; the engine applies the caps automatically.

Do contractors get portal access?

Contractors are paid and reported (1099-NEC) but the paystub/W-4 portal surface is employee-oriented. Give contractors their payment records via the contractor-payments report; their year-end document is the 1099, not a W-2.

Can I pay someone by check instead of direct deposit?

Yes - employees without bank details are paid by manual check: the check prints at processing and you mark it cleared when it clears the bank. Reconciliation ties the cleared check to the bank statement like any other payment.

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