Payroll and HR teams use Payreq Delivery to deliver pay statements and tax documents to employees digitally, without printing, posting or emailing them as attachments. It sits alongside your existing payroll or HR system and handles delivery only.
The mechanics are the same as any other Payreq Delivery document type. This article covers what is specific to payroll.
How it works
- You upload or integrate your payroll files.
- Each employee creates a Payreq account and a verified connection to your organisation.
- Payreq delivers each employee's document to the Inbox in their Payreq Mailbox.
- The employee is notified when a new document arrives.
- You track and report on every delivery.
The employee only completes step 2 once. After that, each pay cycle is a file upload on your side.
Setting up
Setup follows the standard Payreq Delivery onboarding, described in Getting started: Payreq Delivery for billers and mailers. Most organisations go live within two to four weeks.
What Payreq configures for you:
- your Payreq Delivery account;
- your branding;
- the authentication rule employees use to verify their connection to you, for example an employee number together with a postal code; and
- test document delivery, before anything reaches an employee.
What you provide:
- your organisation details;
- your logo;
- a sample of each document type you plan to send, such as a pay statement or a tax document;
- the authentication rule you want employees to satisfy; and
- the contact and support details employees should use if they have a problem.
The authentication rule deserves thought. The exact fields are configured for each employer. Employee ID and postal code are one example; other TEST accounts used Employee ID and SIN digits, or Property ID and postal code. Choose fields that the employee can supply and that identify them under your agreed payroll configuration.
Sending each pay cycle
Payroll documents are sent as a payroll file load. If you integrate over SFTP or the API, the payroll file has its own format and interface version, distinct from the bill file. See Payreq Interface Specification and Uploading Mail via SFTP.
Check the file structure first. Each payroll data row must contain 11 columns, including commas for any empty trailing fields.
Payroll-specific validation errors include:
- A missing document number or Contact ID. Both are required on every payroll record.
- A date in the wrong format. Dates use
YYYY-MM-DD. - A PDF named in the file but missing from the package. Filenames must match exactly.
If your agreed fallback process includes printing and posting, make sure the payroll data contains the mailing fields required for that arrangement. Do not assume Payreq forwards undelivered payroll documents automatically.
For what happens when a whole file fails, see Understanding Job Statuses and Errors.
Reaching every employee
Payroll differs from billing in one important way: a proportion of your workforce may have no company email address, and some will not act on a request to register until they need a document.
Two things help:
- Tell employees before the first send, so the notification arrives as something expected rather than something suspicious. Explain what Payreq is, what they will be asked for, and where to get help.
- Plan for the employees who do not register. Decide in advance what happens to their documents, and agree it with Payreq during onboarding.
How long documents stay available
Payreq keeps delivered payroll documents for a minimum of seven years, aligned with CRA recommendations for pay stubs and T4s.
That is Payreq's retention, not a substitute for your own. Keep your payroll records under your own obligations as well.
Security
If employees or your own governance team ask about security, the approved wording is:
Payreq is committed to the highest standards of data security and privacy. Our platform maintains ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and SOC 2 Type 1 certifications, ensuring that your documents and data are managed within a globally recognised, secure, and auditable framework.
Use it as written. In particular, the certification is SOC 2 Type 1, and writing "SOC 2 certified" without the type overstates it.
What employees see
An employee receives their documents in the Inbox in their Payreq Mailbox, and is notified when a new one arrives. They can view, download and keep past documents there.
Who controls the employee's Mailbox?
An employee's Payreq account and personal Payreq Mailbox are controlled by the employee, not by their employer. Your organisation can see delivery outcomes for what you send, and can always retrieve the documents you sent from your own Mail tab, but you cannot open the employee's Mailbox or see its contents directly. If you need specific delivery details beyond your own record, request them from Payreq Support; this is handled case by case rather than through a self-service view.
The employee generally manages their own Mailbox and Subscription. Your organisation retains standard subscription tools, including Create Subscription, for registering an employee on your side, but day-to-day management is best left to the employee.
The employee keeps their Payreq Mailbox and its documents when they change employer, and the Subscription connection stays active until either the employee or the former employer cancels it. This matters at the end of the financial year: an employee who left six months ago, and no longer has a work email address, can still receive their tax documents through the same connection that carried their pay statements.
This is also why employee control matters for privacy. If an employee moves to a new employer that also uses Payreq Delivery, the new employer can never see the documents a previous employer delivered through that same Mailbox.
These are the standard tools and behaviour; your organisation's exact configuration may vary, so confirm the details for your account with Payreq if you rely on them.
Employee-facing help lives in the Payreq Mailbox knowledge base rather than this one. Point employees there rather than to these guides, which are written for the organisation sending the documents.
Current employee guides are:
- How do I create a Payreq account?
- How to subscribe to your employer to start receiving pay stubs
- How to find past pay statements in Payreq
- How do I contact Payreq Support?
Checking a cycle went out
Use the same checks as any other run: confirm the Job processed, then review the outcomes rather than assuming. See Recommended processes for Payreq Delivery.
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