GuidesOpen and maintain an employee file
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Guide

Open and maintain an employee file

Find a person's employee file, read what is on it, keep their details, job history and documents up to date, and know who else can see each part.

For: HRPlan: All plans for the file itself; documents, pay history, time off and goals on the file need Team or Advanced

Before you start

  • A role that lets you view employee files, to open “People”. Changing anything needs a role that lets you edit employee files. In the built-in set, the “Human Resources” group can view files and the “HR Managers” group can view, edit and see pay.
  • Every person with an account already has a file. You do not create one: it appears in “People” as soon as the account exists.
  • If your people data comes from a connected HR system, some fields belong to that system. They show a small lock with its name and cannot be changed here.

Find and open the file

  1. Step 1: Open the People list

    Go to HR & TalentPeople. Each row shows “Person”, “Title”, “Department”, “Manager”, “Started”, “Status” and “Coming up”. Type in the box that reads “Search name, email, title or ID” to narrow the list, then click the person’s row.

  2. Step 2: Read the top of the file

    The page is titled “Employee file”. The top card shows the person’s name and status, their job title, department and location, and small labels such as their employee ID, who they report to and the day they started. The “People” button at the top of the page takes you back to the list where you left it.

    Below are the tabs: “Overview”, “Job history” (it reads “Job & pay” if you may see pay), “Documents”, “Time off”, “Goals” and “Leaving”.

  3. Step 3: Read the Overview tab

    “Employment” holds the start date, employment type, work location, level, legal entity, cost centre, probation and contract end dates, notice period and right-to-work status. “Personal” is marked “HR only” and holds the preferred and legal name, date of birth, nationality, home address, personal email and phone. “Emergency contacts” and “Coming up” (probation, contract and right-to-work dates that are getting close) complete the tab.

    The date of birth and home address show as dots. Click “View (logged)” to read one. Each view is written to the audit log with your name.

Keep it up to date

  1. Step 4: Edit employment and personal details

    Click “Edit details”. Under “Employment” you can set “Start date”, “Probation ends”, “Contract ends”, “Notice period”, “Legal entity” and “Cost centre”. Under “Right to work” you set a “Status”, “Verified on” and “Expires on”; this is a status only, and no copy of a document or its number is stored. Under “Personal” you set the names, nationality, date of birth and home address.

    The date of birth and home address are never filled in for you. Leave them empty to keep what is on file, type a new value to replace it, or tick “Remove the date of birth on file” or “Remove the home address on file” to take it off. Click “Save”.

  2. Step 5: Record a job change

    Job title, department, manager, level, employment type and location are not in “Edit details” on purpose: they change through “Change job”, so the history is never skipped. Click it, pick the “Type of change” (“Promotion”, “Transfer”, “Manager change”, “Title change” or “Other”) and the “Effective date”, change the fields that are different, and add a “Reason (optional)”.

    Click “Record change”. If the date is in the future the button reads “Schedule change” instead, and the file changes on that date. Until then the entry on the “Job history” tab has a “Cancel this change” button.

  3. Step 6: Add or change emergency contacts

    On the “Overview” tab, click “Add” (or “Edit”) on the “Emergency contacts” card. Enter a “Name”, “Relationship” and “Phone” for each person, up to five, and click “Save”.

Documents and pay (Team and Advanced)

  1. Step 7: Add a document

    Open the “Documents” tab and click “Add”. The size limit (10 MB) is shown next to “Choose file” until you pick a file. Click “Choose file” and pick a PDF, PNG, JPEG, Word (.docx) or Excel (.xlsx) file. Give it a “Name”, choose a “Category” such as “Contract”, “Offer” or “Signed policy”, and set “Expires (optional)” if it has an end date.

    Then choose “Who can see it”: “HR only” (the default), “HR and the employee”, or “HR, the employee and their manager”. Click “Upload”. The window asks you not to upload passports, ID cards, bank details or medical notes.

  2. Step 8: Change, download or delete a document

    Each document has three buttons on its row. The pencil (“Edit details”) changes its name, category, expiry date and who can see it; the file itself is never replaced, so upload a new document for a new version. The arrow (“Download (recorded)”) saves a copy, and every download is written to the audit log. The bin (“Delete”) removes the document permanently after you confirm.

  3. Step 9: Record pay

    If your role may see pay, the second tab reads “Job & pay” and has a “Compensation history” card marked “Restricted”. Amounts are hidden until you click “View (logged)”. With the right to manage pay, click “Add”, enter “Base pay”, “Pay period”, “Effective date” and, if you wish, “Target bonus %” and “Reason”, then click “Add record”.

    It is a record only: nothing is calculated or paid from it. A record cannot be edited. To correct a mistake, click “Void” on it and add a new one. A record that came from a signed offer has no “Void” button; add a new record with the right figures instead. See Hand off to payroll for how these records reach your payroll.

Who can see what. People with the right to view employee files see the whole file, including personal details and emergency contacts; pay needs its own right on top. The employee sees their own details, job, emergency contacts, equipment and job history under “My Profile”, can edit their preferred name, phone, personal email, home address and emergency contacts there, and sees only the documents you shared with them. A manager sees job facts, job history, equipment and documents shared with managers under My WorkMy Team, and never personal details, emergency contacts or pay.

What you should see

After saving details, a green message reads “Employee details saved.”

After a job change, the file opens on the job tab with “Job change recorded.” or “Job change scheduled. It applies on its effective date.”, and the change is listed with what it was and what it became.

A new document appears on the “Documents” tab with its category, who can see it, its size and the day it was added.

If something goes wrong

There is no "Edit details" or "Change job" button
Your role lets you view employee files but not edit them. If only "Change job" is missing, every job field is owned by your connected HR system: change the job there and it arrives on the next sync.
A field shows a lock with a system name and cannot be changed
That field is owned by the connected HR system. Change it there. Which fields it owns is set under HR & Talent, HR Settings.
The Documents, Time off and Goals tabs are missing
Your plan does not include the HR module that holds them (it is part of Team and Advanced). The rest of the file still works.
An upload is refused
Only PDF, PNG, JPEG, Word (.docx) and Excel (.xlsx) files are stored, so an older .doc or .xls file is refused; save it as .docx or .xlsx first. The type is read from the file itself, not from its name. A file over the size limit shows "This file is larger than" followed by the limit.
You want to record that someone is leaving
The Leaving tab records the last day and HR’s exit checklist, but it does not remove access. Offboard the person from Administration, Users to revoke their access. The steps for the tab are in Record that someone is leaving.

Still stuck? See When something goes wrong, or Contact Zonitix support.

Where next

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Record that someone is leaving