Creating a Record of Employment in QuickBooks Online Payroll

Canadian employers on QuickBooks Online keep circling the same form: the Record of Employment. The questions repeat across community threads. Where does the form hide? Is a printed copy legal? Which federal office receives it? We walked through the accepted answer, and one part of it corrects a mistake that still circulates elsewhere.

The sticking points

The symptom is familiar. The termination is done, the final pay has run, and no ROE appears anywhere on the employee’s profile. In QuickBooks Online the form sits under Payroll taxes, inside the Filings area, the last place many users look. The same screen lists every ROE already generated, for staff who are working, on leave, or already terminated.

Confusion about the destination runs deeper than the hiding place. Some help pages in circulation still tell employers to order paper forms from the Canada Revenue Agency and to mail completed copies there. That is incorrect. The ROE program belongs to Service Canada, which relies on the form to process Employment Insurance claims. Electronic filing runs through ROE Web, its online service, and paper forms are ordered from Service Canada as well.

Terminate the employee first

The accepted workflow begins with status, not the form. Open Payroll from the apps menu and choose Employees. Select the person, open the Action menu, and choose Change Status. Switch from Active to Terminated, pick a reason for the change, and enter the last day of work. When you save, QuickBooks offers to start the ROE at once. That prompt is the intended entry point, so take it if it appears.

Generate and download the file

If you dismissed the prompt, the form remains within reach. Go to Payroll taxes, open Filings, and select Record of employment. Choose the employee, select Generate ROE, and step through to the download screen. Two buttons matter there. Download BLK produces the electronic block file, and that is the file ROE Web accepts for upload. Go to ROE Web opens Service Canada’s site, where you sign in and submit the file you just saved.

Does the printed ROE count as the legal form?

No. The copy printed from QuickBooks is a worksheet, not the legal Record of Employment. Employers who treat the printout as final run into trouble at filing time. If you file on paper, order the legal forms from Service Canada first, then use the QuickBooks printout as a reference while you complete them. Fill in the legal form three times: one copy goes to the employee, one is submitted to Service Canada, and one stays in your own files.

Which pay types count as insurable?

A reference table inside the accepted answer maps each pay type to insurable earnings, insurable hours, and the reporting period that governs it. Salary and hourly pay count toward both earnings and hours, and both are reported against the pay period ending date. Vacation time taken behaves the same way, with full earnings, full hours, and the period end date.

Overtime and double overtime also build earnings and hours, but they follow the cheque date instead. They are reported in the pay period in which the payment was actually issued. Vacation pay added to every paycheque builds insurable earnings under the period end date, yet it contributes no hours. A vacation cash-out at termination counts as insurable earnings alone: no hours, and reporting by cheque date.

The distinction matters more than it looks. Insurable hours drive an employee’s Employment Insurance claim, and the reporting period decides which pay period each dollar lands in.

The short version

Terminate the employee in the profile, then generate the ROE under Payroll taxes and Filings. Download the block file and submit it through ROE Web. Keep printouts for reference only. When paper is unavoidable, the legal form comes from Service Canada, and the completed copy goes back to Service Canada. The tax agency has no role in this form, whatever a stray help page may say.