Adding Payees
How to add new payees to your company
Adding or importing payees requires Admin or Payroll. Approvers can view the payee list and export it, but do not have Add payee or Import CSV.
Adding a payee is the first step in getting someone into payroll. This guide covers adding employees, contractors, loan-outs, and vendors to your company in Greenroom.
Adding someone takes two steps. On New payee you describe what they're engaged on and who they are, and click Create payee once. Nothing is written until you do. Their record then opens at Representation, with Pay under it, for the rest: any representative, and what they're paid.
Opening the page
Go to Payees in the main navigation and click Add payee in the top right. You land on New payee, with breadcrumbs reading Payees / New payee and a note under the heading: Nothing is saved until you create the payee. Representation and pay come next.
That note is literal. Rendering the page writes nothing — no draft row, no placeholder. Everything you type is held in the browser until Create payee succeeds. If you navigate away with something typed, Greenroom warns you first.
The two blocks
The page holds the record's first two sections, in the record's own order, and one button.
1. Engagement & union
This is where the engagement is described, and — since it is a property of the engagement — where the tax classification lives. The card's subtitle: Sets pay rules and union reports for this engagement.
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Union | The union governing this engagement, or Non-union. Only the unions your company has set up in Company Setup are listed. An Admin must add any other union. The link under the field (Need another union? Onboard it first in company setup., or Need another union? Onboard it first in Settings → Unions. once your company is approved) takes you there. A union whose contracts fall outside your production type is labelled (outside production scope) but can still be used. |
| Agreement | Which agreement under that union. If your company has one contract for that union, it's shown (Set at the company level) rather than chosen, followed by the contract's production kind (a musical or a play) when your company set one. |
| Job title | From the agreement's own title list. A union payee needs a title here, or a custom one in Alt job title, before their setup can be submitted or approved. A title offered on one kind of production only is listed only there: AEA Production's 2nd ASM appears only when the engagement is a musical. |
| Sub-type | Only for job titles that have one — an Actor/Musician, for example. See Actor/Musicians. |
| Department | Only appears for a union that keeps its own department list, and is required there |
| Alt job title | Optional custom title, shown on pay stubs. Use it when no listed title fits. |
| Effective start | Required. When this engagement begins. It defaults to today's date, and the rates you add on the record take this date as their start. |
| Term deal: accrue weekly benefits | Union engagements only. Tick it and enter Benefits start and Benefits end for a deal where benefits accrue on regular payroll weeks inside those dates even when no wages are due. See Role & Pay. |
Tax classification
Inside the same block, under the heading Tax classification — "How this engagement is paid and reported at year end."
| Type | Select when | Tax treatment |
|---|---|---|
| Employee (W-2) | On payroll — taxes withheld | W-2 at year end |
| Loan-out | An employee paid through their corporation (e.g., an actor). Requires an EIN. | No withholding; 1099 at year end |
| Contractor (1099) | Fee-based work: directors, designers, choreographers. Paid gross. | 1099 at year end |
| Vendor | Invoices for goods and services (accounts payable) | 1099 at year end. A vendor marked W-9 not required has their payroll payments left out of Greenroom's 1099 filing preview from then on (details) |
If you're not sure which to pick, click Not sure? See examples at the top right of the block. It opens a reference panel sorting common roles (actors, directors, choreographers, rehearsal studios, and more) into the right type by how you're paying them, not their job title — the same role can be a different type depending on whether they're on payroll, paid through a company, or billing you. It also explains when a vendor can be marked W-9-exempt.
Classification can't be changed later
Once the payee is created, this block stops offering the choice and simply states it: "Chosen when this payee was added — it drives their tax forms and 1099 routing." There is no change-type control anywhere. If you pick wrong, archive the record and add a new one. Verify classification before you create.
A second record is also the answer for one person who needs paying two ways — a W-2 engagement and a separate 1099 one. The saved record says as much beneath its classification: "Every engagement on this payee is paid and reported this way. To pay this person under a different tax classification, use Add payee to create a separate record — Greenroom cannot yet hold one person as both a W-2 employee and a 1099 contractor." See Payee Types.
A loan-out needs one more answer: Federal tax ID — Has an EIN (a corporation or LLC with its own tax ID) or SSN only (a single-member LLC filing on a personal SSN). Picking SSN only shows the refusal inline, right beside the choice that caused it, and disables Create payee:
A single-member LLC paid on an SSN can't be a loan-out — it needs an EIN. Without one, add them as an employee if they're paid a wage (an actor), or as a contractor if they're paid a fee (a director or designer).
This is a classification decision, not a number capture — the actual EIN or SSN is collected later.
2. Personal info (or Business info)
Name and contact only. For a loan-out or a vendor the card is titled Business info and asks for a business name, with the person's name becoming the contact's name.
| Field | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Business name | Yes, for loan-outs and vendors | Replaces first/last name for business-type payees |
| First name / Last name | Yes, for employees and contractors | Optional on a loan-out or vendor, where they identify the contact |
| Always | Send it to the person who'll actually complete the form — not a shared inbox like info@. This becomes their onboarding contact address. | |
| Phone | No |
Date of birth, tax ID, and mailing address are not collected here. The card says so: Add their name and contact details. Collect their address and tax ID during setup. Those are sensitive fields, and they're gathered during setup, either by you or by the payee themselves. See Payee Onboarding.
Creating
Click Create payee. It's the only write on the page.
If something required is missing or invalid, a summary appears at the top, headed Finish these to create the payee, listing every problem rather than only the first. Click a problem to jump to its field.
A few checks only run when you click Create payee, and come back as a message rather than the banner: a duplicate email (below), a missing department on a union that keeps a department list ("Pick a department for this union."), or a union agreement that is no longer set up for your production.
On success, a message confirms Payee added, and the new payee's record opens scrolled to Representation, with Pay under it. What you entered on New payee is above them, and you can change it there, as on any record.
Representation and pay
Both are cards on the payee's record, so you can come back to them at any time.
Representation
Optional. If the payee has an agent, manager, business manager, or attorney, attach them here. Until you do, the card reads Not represented. Attach a representative to withhold a commission or record full payment. The representative is kept when you save the record, and their approval and completion links wait until then: The approval and completion links are emailed to the payee and to the agent, so they can only be created once this representative exists. Finish their details above and save; they appear here, on this page. See Representatives & Payment Direction.
Pay
The card's Rates module is labelled with the engagement you described. Choose 802 and a Music Director title and the heading says so; with no union it says Non-union.
Click Add rate to add a row: a rate name (for AEA, a Performance or Rehearsal classification instead), an amount and basis, an optional GL code, and an effective window. You can add several, and payroll uses whichever one is in effect for the pay period. On a Development production the module holds one rate instead: "One rate — payroll uses it as this payee's default. Leave the amount blank to save without a rate." On a union title with a weekly minimum, a new row starts at that minimum; type over it for an overscale rate.
Each new row starts on the engagement's Effective start date. Two confirmations keep those dates honest:
- Picking a row date earlier than the payee's start asks "Use a date before the payee starts?" Choose Use earlier date if it's intentional; a row with an unconfirmed earlier date blocks the save.
- Changing Effective start after you've added rows asks "Update row dates with the start date?" Move default dates moves the rows still on the old start date; Keep row dates leaves every row as it is.
If a union rate falls below the governing minimum, Greenroom shows a below-scale notice. It's a warning, never a block.
The same card holds a union payee's premiums and, for a non-union contractor or loan-out, the choice of Contract / invoice-based payment, for a stipend, a flat fee or an invoice, in place of standing rates. The deductions and employer contributions a union agreement carries are worked out on each payroll; the record lists them further down, under Automatic union deductions. See Role & Pay for the whole card.
No automatic invitation
Creating a payee does not send them anything. There's no invite-at-creation option. On the new payee's own page you assign a start-work packet and then either complete it yourself or send it to the payee, once you're ready. A first send to the payee needs a pay rate on file, unless they're a vendor or on contract / invoice-based payment. See Payee Onboarding.
Bulk import
To add many payees at once, use Import CSV next to Add payee on the payee list. It opens an Import payees from CSV dialog, where you can drag a CSV onto the drop area or click to choose one.
Import process
- Click Download template for a ready-to-fill CSV with one example row per payee type.
- Fill in your payees, following the template's columns.
- Drop the file onto the dialog (or click to browse for it). One file can be up to 1 MB and 1,000 rows; a larger one is refused with what to do instead (see Importing the file).
- Review the preview — it shows how many rows are ready to import and lists any errors by row number, as your spreadsheet numbers the rows, using the same validation as the single-payee form.
- Click Import N payees. Rows with errors are skipped and reported; valid rows import even if others fail.
CSV columns
| Column | Notes |
|---|---|
type | employee, loanout, contractor, or vendor — required |
firstName, lastName | Required for employees/contractors |
businessName | Required for loan-outs/vendors |
email | Required |
phone | Optional |
addressLine1, addressLine2, city, state, zip | Optional. addressLine2 is the apartment or unit. |
department | Optional |
startDate | Required. YYYY-MM-DD, or M/D/YYYY or M/D/YY as a spreadsheet saves a date, read month first. A two-digit year is read as Excel reads it: 00 to 29 is 2000 to 2029, and 30 to 99 is 1930 to 1999. The preview lists the start dates it read, so you can check them before you import. |
paymentMethod | check or setup_later, which is the default when blank. The dialog also lists direct_deposit, but a direct_deposit row is refused, in the words of the note under Accepted values: "A direct_deposit row can't be imported: the file has no columns for routing and account numbers. Import the payee as setup_later; their bank details are collected during finish setup." |
hasEin | Loan-out rows only — yes/true/1 confirms the corporation has an EIN. A loan-out row without this is rejected, same as the single-payee form. |
isForeign | Optional — yes/true/1 marks a foreign payee, whose address isn't checked as a US one. An employee row can't be foreign, and payments to a foreign payee can't be processed in Greenroom yet. |
Only type, email, and startDate are strictly required for the file to be usable at all — a missing one of those three fails the whole file with a message naming the column to add.
Imported payees are not invited. Each one takes its payment method from the paymentMethod cell, as the dialog says: "Imported payees start with payment set to paper check when their paymentMethod is check, and to “set up later” when it is setup_later or blank." Review them and send their start-work packets afterwards, the same way you would for a payee added one at a time. The CSV carries no union, job title, or rate columns, so imported payees come in as non-union and need their engagement and pay filled in on their own pages.
Validation
- Must be a valid email address. Greenroom trims spaces at the beginning and end before checking it; spaces inside the address still need correcting.
- Duplicate emails are blocked among active payees at your company — Greenroom names the existing payee and its code, and suggests opening that record or using a different address.
- An archived payee with the same email doesn't block a new one — if you're actually re-adding someone, restore their old record instead.
Required fields
The page won't create until name (or business name) and email are filled in, and — for a loan-out — until the EIN question is answered with Has an EIN. It also needs an agreement when a union is chosen, a sub-type for an Actor/Musician, an effective start date, and the benefits dates if you ticked the term-deal box. Each of these is marked with a red asterisk. What's missing appears in the summary at the top, each item linking to its field.
After creating a payee
The new payee appears in your list with onboarding status Not started, a start-work packet reading Unassigned (in the Packet column, where the list is wide enough to show it), and a payroll-readiness indicator showing what's still missing. Nothing is emailed to them yet. From their page, you assign a start-work packet and either complete it yourself or send it to them; see Payee Onboarding for both paths.
A union payee saved without a listed job title or a custom one gets a notice at the top of their page, "Job title still needed. Pick a title from the [union] list or type a custom title, then submit again.", with a link back to Engagement & union. Their setup can't be submitted or approved until it's answered.
Common issues
"Already uses this email"
An active payee at your company already has this email address. Open that payee instead of creating a duplicate, or double-check you have the right address for a genuinely different person.
Invalid email format
Check for typos, spaces inside the address, or a missing @domain.com. Spaces before or after the address are trimmed automatically.
Loan-out blocked — "can't be a loan-out"
A single-member LLC paid on an SSN isn't eligible to be a loan-out in Greenroom. Create payee stays disabled until you change either the classification or the tax-ID answer.
I navigated away and lost what I typed
Greenroom warns before you leave with unsaved work, but if you confirm the warning, nothing is kept. There is no draft for an uncreated payee — deliberately, since an unsaved record must never be written anywhere.
Best practices
- Send the invite to the actual person completing onboarding, not a department alias — the email you enter here becomes their setup contact.
- Double-check tax classification before creating — it can't be changed later.
- For loan-outs, confirm the EIN question with the payee before you start, so you're not blocked mid-form.
- Pick a union payee's job title on New payee, or type one in Alt job title: their setup can't be approved without one.
- When the record opens, add at least one rate under Pay, or choose Contract / invoice-based payment there for a non-union contractor or loan-out. A rate is needed before you can send the packet to the payee and before they're payroll-ready, vendors and payees on contract / invoice-based payment excepted.
- Use Import CSV for a full cast/crew list; use Add payee for one-offs and mid-run additions.
Next steps
After creating payees, continue with Payee Onboarding to understand the onboarding process, or see Managing Payee Information for updating payee records.