Adding Payees
How to add new payees to your company
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 — and it's deliberately quick: creating a payee only asks for a type, a name, and an email. Everything else (union, pay rate, address, tax ID, payment method) is filled in afterward on that payee's own page.
Accessing Add Payee
Navigate to Payees in the main navigation, then click + Add payee in the top right corner. This opens a panel on the right side of the screen — you never leave the payee list page to create someone.
Selecting Payee Type
Choose the payee type that matches how you're paying this person or business — the four options appear as cards at the top of the panel.
| Type | Select When | Tax Treatment |
|---|---|---|
| Employee (W-2) | On payroll — you control their work and schedule | All taxes withheld, W-2 at year end |
| Loan-out | Paid through their own corporation or LLC | No withholding; requires an EIN |
| Contractor (1099) | Independent creative or professional, paid gross | No withholding, 1099-NEC at year end |
| Vendor | Goods or business services, billed by invoice | Accounts payable — not automatically 1099 |
If you're not sure which to pick, click Not sure? See examples next to the Type heading. It opens a reference panel that sorts 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 (goods-only, incorporated, government/tax-exempt, or under $600 for the year).
Important: Payee type can't be changed once the payee is created — there's no "change type" control anywhere on their page later. If you pick wrong, you'll need to archive the record and add a new one with the correct type. Verify classification before creating the payee.
A loan-out specifically needs one more answer here: whether the corporation has an EIN or is a single-member LLC filing on an SSN. A single-member LLC on an SSN can't be set up as a loan-out — Greenroom blocks the submission and tells you to add them as a contractor instead.
Required Information
Add Payee collects identity only — contact information for whoever will complete the rest of the setup.
| 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 | For a loan-out or vendor, these become the contact's name instead, and are optional |
| 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 | |
| EIN confirmation | Yes, for loan-outs only | "Has an EIN" or "SSN only" — a classification choice, not a number. The actual EIN/SSN is entered later on the payee's own page. |
Nothing else is collected here. Job title, department, union, start date, mailing address, pay rate, tax ID, and payment method all move to the payee's own page — you (or the payee, if you send them the setup link) fill those in as part of onboarding. See Payee Onboarding.
Creating a Payee
- Pick a type, using the helper if you're unsure.
- Enter identity information — business name or first/last name, plus email (and phone, if you have it).
- Click Add payee. Validation errors, if any, appear in a banner at the top of the panel.
That's it — there's no separate review step. On success, Greenroom takes you straight to the new payee's own page to continue setup (union, pay rate, address, and the rest).
No Automatic Invitation
Creating a payee does not send them anything. Unlike some earlier versions of this flow, there's no invite-at-creation option — the account-aware setup link is sent separately, from the new payee's own page, once you're ready (immediately, or after you've filled in some of their setup yourself). See "Send it to the payee" in Payee Onboarding.
Bulk Import
To add many payees at once, use Import CSV next to + Add payee on the payee list. It opens a panel where you can drag a CSV file 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 panel (or click to browse for it).
- Review the preview — it shows how many rows are ready to import and lists any errors by line number, using the exact same validation as the single Add-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, city, state, zip | Optional |
department | Optional |
startDate | Required (YYYY-MM-DD) |
paymentMethod | direct_deposit, check, or setup_later — defaults to setup_later if blank. direct_deposit needs routing and account numbers added per-payee after import. |
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 manual form. |
Only type, email, and startDate are strictly required columns for the file to be usable at all — a missing one of those three fails the whole file with a message telling you which column to add.
Imported payees always start with payment set to "set up later" and are not invited — review them and send setup links afterward, the same way you would for a payee added one at a time.
Validation
- Must be a valid email address.
- 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. This is a safety net against creating the same person twice.
- 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 panel won't submit until business name (or first/last name) and email are filled in, and — for a loan-out — until you've confirmed they have an EIN. Validation errors appear in a banner at the top of the panel, not next to individual fields.
After Creating a Payee
The new payee appears in your list with onboarding status Not started and a payroll-readiness indicator showing what's still missing (at minimum, a pay rate). Nothing is emailed to them yet. From their page, you can either fill in the rest of their setup yourself or send them a link to do it — see Payee Onboarding for both paths.
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, extra spaces, or a missing @domain.com.
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. Add the payee as a contractor instead, or confirm they do have an EIN.
Missing Required Fields
The Add payee button stays enabled, but submitting shows what's missing in the banner at the top — usually a name/business name or email that's still blank.
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 payee type before creating — it can't be changed later.
- For loan-outs, confirm the EIN question with the payee before creating them, so you're not blocked mid-form.
- Use Import CSV for a full cast/crew list; use + Add payee for one-offs and mid-run additions.
- Finish or send setup promptly after creating a payee — an empty record with no pay rate won't be payroll-ready.
Next Steps
After creating payees, continue with Payee Onboarding to understand the onboarding process, or see Managing Payee Information to learn about updating payee records.