Quick answer: Everything payroll goes right if it starts before the first paycheque: open the payroll program account, determine what to withhold, pay net, remit withholdings on your remitter schedule, and the T4 at year-end becomes a summary of things done rather than a reconstruction. Every payroll horror story starts with a paycheque that preceded the setup. The pieces: deduction calculator, remittance calendar, and the year’s figures, all sourced.
Working out an average day’s pay for a B.C. statutory holiday? The BC stat pay calculator does it, and settles the qualifying test first.
Related: B.C. stat holiday pay rules.
On this page
Before the first paycheque
- Payroll (RP) account on your business number. This is the container everything else reports into.
- TD1 forms from the employee, federal and BC — they set the credits behind the withholding math.
- The withholding itself: CPP, EI and income tax per pay — the calculator shows each piece and the employer’s cost on top (CPP matched, EI at the employer multiple).
The rhythm after
Withhold every pay, remit on your schedule — the calendar works yours out — and keep a running record so February’s T4 is an export, not an archaeology project. Late penalties scale, so the schedule matters most.
The first hire is rarely the last. Hiring and capacity planning covers how to tell when the next person pays for themselves, before the payroll is committed.
The mistakes that are cheap to prevent
- Contractor-until-proven-otherwise. Calling an employee a subcontractor does not make it so — the CRA’s tests decide, and misclassification unwinds expensively, backwards.
- Paying yourself a salary without the same setup. Your corporation is your employer too — owner salary runs through the identical machinery.
- Remitting “when there’s time”. The schedule is the obligation; the PIER report is how the CRA notices freestyle.
Fastest first step: email what you’re facing to info@everstonecpa.com — reply within one business day, and we take it from there by email.
General information, not tax advice. The document in your hand and its own dates govern.
Common questions about first employee
Can I run the first payroll and register after?+
What does an employee actually cost beyond the wage?+
Should my first hire be an employee or a contractor?+
Will you set all this up for us?+
Set up before the first paycheque
Email your hire date. We reply with the setup list in order, and a fixed quote to do it for you.
Email us — info@everstonecpa.comGet My Fixed Quote“…have been completing my bookkeeping, taxes and financials for the last 2 years and they have been amazing. Thank you!”