Employer Readiness

Before an employer can pay workers, two independent gates must clear: the employer must have provided everything Salsa needs to calculate payroll, and they must have passed Salsa's compliance and risk screening.

graph LR
  E((Employer)) --> PWR["Employer and Pay<br/>Worker Readiness"]
  E --> AS["Employer Account<br/>Standing"]
  PWR --> RUN(("Can run<br/>payroll"))
  AS --> RUN

  style E fill:#6a1b9a,color:#ffffff
  style PWR fill:#8bc34a,color:#000000
  style AS fill:#2196f3,color:#ffffff
  style RUN fill:#fbc02d,color:#000000

  linkStyle 0 stroke:#9e9e9e,stroke-width:2px
  linkStyle 1 stroke:#9e9e9e,stroke-width:2px
  linkStyle 2 stroke:#9e9e9e,stroke-width:2px
  linkStyle 3 stroke:#9e9e9e,stroke-width:2px

Gate	Question it answers
Employer and Pay Worker Readiness	Does Salsa have everything it needs to calculate payroll for this employer?
Employer Account Standing	Is the employer legally compliant and screened to operate on Salsa?

The gates are independent. An employer with READY readiness but RESTRICTED standing still cannot run payroll, and vice versa.

This page covers Pay Worker Readiness. For the compliance and risk gate, see Employer Account Standing.

How to track readiness

Employer and Pay Worker Readiness data can be accessed from:

The Salsa Dashboard under the employer profile
The Employer Capabilities API
The webhook event Employer.PayWorkersReadiness.statusChanged

Statuses

Use the following states to track an employer's readiness to pay workers:

Status	Description
`ONBOARDING`	When an employer is created, they initially enter the `ONBOARDING` state. During this phase, you can use either the hosted or embedded onboarding flow to collect essential employer information and invite workers. Upon completion of this stage, the system assesses whether the implementation step is necessary.
`IMPLEMENTATION`	After completing the onboarding and declaring prior payroll totals, employers enter the `IMPLEMENTATION` state. In this stage, Salsa actively engages with the employer to assist in importing these totals. Note:* In a Sandbox environment, employers automatically bypass this step and advance directly to the `READY` state.
`READY`	When all requirements are met, an employer reaches the `READY` state, where they can run payroll for their workers.
`PARTIALLY_READY`	An employer transitions from READY to the PARTIALLY_READY status when no longer meets all readiness requirements due to a change in their configuration. This typically occurs when the employer changes their workforce type from contractor-only to include both employees and contractors, requiring a pay group with a recurring schedule, or when their tax setup becomes incomplete. While in this state, the employer can continue limited payroll operations but must resolve the outstanding requirements. Upon completing the missing requirements, the account returns to the READY status.

The following is the typical flow to onboard and pay workers:

graph LR

  %% Nodes
  Employer_Created((Employer Created))
  ONBOARDING["ONBOARDING"]
  IMPLEMENTATION["IMPLEMENTATION"]
  READY["READY"]
  PARTIALLY_READY["PARTIALLY_READY"]

  %% Flow
  Employer_Created --> ONBOARDING
  ONBOARDING --> IMPLEMENTATION
  IMPLEMENTATION --> READY
  READY --> PARTIALLY_READY

  %% Loop back
  PARTIALLY_READY --> READY


  %% Node styles (matching the image)
  style Employer_Created fill:#6a1b9a,color:#ffffff
  style ONBOARDING fill:#ffeb3b,color:#000000
  style IMPLEMENTATION fill:#2196f3,color:#000000
  style READY fill:#8bc34a,color:#000000
  style PARTIALLY_READY fill:#f28c28,color:#000000


  %% Theme-safe link styles (grey arrows like the image)
  linkStyle 0 stroke:#9e9e9e,stroke-width:3px
  linkStyle 1 stroke:#9e9e9e,stroke-width:3px
  linkStyle 2 stroke:#9e9e9e,stroke-width:3px
  linkStyle 3 stroke:#9e9e9e,stroke-width:3px
  linkStyle 4 stroke:#9e9e9e,stroke-width:3px

Employer Account Standing — the compliance and risk gate that runs in parallel with readiness.

How to track readiness

Statuses

Related