Form Validation and Error Handling
How Greenroom checks what you enter, and what to do when it flags something
Greenroom checks what you enter as you go, so problems get caught before they turn into a payroll or tax issue rather than after. Most of this is quiet: several fields format themselves as you type, and you'll only see a message when something genuinely needs fixing.
Required fields
Required fields are marked with a red asterisk (*) next to the label. You can't save without filling them in.
Fields that format themselves
Phone numbers, Social Security numbers, and EINs format themselves as you type — just type the digits and Greenroom adds the punctuation:
| Field | Type this | Greenroom shows |
|---|---|---|
| Phone | 2125550100 | (212) 555-0100 |
| SSN | 123456789 | 123-45-6789 |
| EIN | 123456789 | 12-3456789 |
You don't need to add dashes or parentheses yourself.
Phone numbers
A payee's phone has to be a real one: a US number needs ten digits, however you punctuate it — 2125550100, (212) 555-0100 and +1 212 555 0100 are all accepted, and the country code isn't counted as a digit. An international number (anything starting + other than +1) is stored exactly as you type it, needing at least seven digits and no more than forty characters. Leaving it blank is fine; phone is optional on a payee.
Your company's phone is stricter — it must be ten US digits — because Check refuses to approve a payroll for a company without one.
SSNs and EINs are masked after saving
Once a tax ID is on file, Greenroom only ever displays the last four digits (for example, •••-••-6789). Viewing the full number requires an explicit action and is logged.
Dates
Dates are picked from a calendar, not typed — so there's no date format to get wrong. Click a date field to open the calendar, or use the year box next to the month dropdown to jump straight to a specific year (handy for a date of birth decades back).
Date of birth
A date of birth is checked in three ways that block a save, with the same wording wherever it's collected — the manager's form and the payee's own setup flow:
| Problem | Message |
|---|---|
| Not a real date | Enter a valid date. |
| Before 1900 | Check the year — dates before 1900 aren't valid. |
| In the future | Date of birth can't be in the future. |
There's a fourth check that warns without blocking: a date implying an implausibly young age gets a hint rather than a rejection. Child performers are real, they carry Coogan trusts, and they have to get paid — so this can never be a block. It exists because a date a few weeks in the past passes every rule above and the payroll provider stores it without complaint, which means nothing else in the system would ever mention it.
Email addresses
Email fields check that what you typed looks like a real email address. If it doesn't, you'll see "Enter a valid email" until it's fixed.
Dollar amounts
Amounts are entered as dollars and cents. If you type extra decimal places, Greenroom rounds to the nearest cent automatically rather than showing an error. Most amount fields won't accept a negative number — the exception is payroll correction entries, which use a negative amount on purpose to claw back an earlier overpayment.
Bank details
Routing and account numbers get the strictest checking in the product. When you enter bank details for direct deposit:
- The routing number is checked against the standard ABA bank checksum. One that doesn't check out is rejected with an explanation, not silently accepted.
- Both the routing number and account number must be typed a second time to confirm, and pasting into the confirmation field is blocked on purpose — retyping is what catches a transposed digit.
See Payment Details for the full setup process.
Where error messages appear
Most field-level errors show up as plain-language text directly under the field, in red — for example, "Enter all 9 digits" for an incomplete SSN. On forms with several fields at once, like the New payee page, a problem instead shows as one message near the top of the form when you try to save — with a Go to [section] button that scrolls you to the block it belongs to. Either way, the message names the specific thing to fix, and typically appears once you leave the field or try to save — not on every keystroke.
If something won't save
- Check for a red asterisk (*) on any empty required field.
- Read the message near the field or at the top of the form — it names the specific problem.
- For bank details, make sure the original and "confirm" fields match exactly (retype rather than paste).
- Still stuck? See Troubleshooting.
Next steps
See Document Validation for identity-document and I-9 requirements, Address Validation for how address entry works, or Troubleshooting for more help.