Hire and pay international employees in Canada with Gusto Global (powered by Remote)

An employer of record (EOR) is an employment services provider enabling you to employ people in other countries while complying with local tax and employment laws. An EOR handles everything required to hire, pay, and manage employees, including payroll, benefits, taxes, stock options, and local compliance.

Through an EOR, a company can hire employees in another country without having to set up a local entity, which can be expensive and take months. Having an EOR in place can help an SMB quickly, affordably, and compliantly hire international employees.

Check out some FAQs and answers about EORs here.

Compliance, tax forms, data security and more

As the legal Employer or Record, for all counties that you onboard an international employee in, our partner Remote is responsible for staying compliant with local employment and tax regulations. This means:

• You do not need to have an operation/entity registered in Canada—Remote is essentially hiring the employees on your behalf.
• Remote handles all country-specific tax requirements and tax withholding—including local and provincial tax regulations. 
• Remote handles all tax forms and tax documentation—for your international employees, and those that are submitted to local agencies (or authorities).
• Remote safeguards your customer information in accordance with cross-border data regulations.
  • You can visit Remote's Security Trust Portal to view:
    • SOC 2 Type I & Type II Report
    • PenTest report
    • CAIQ Lite Questionnaire
    • ISO27001 certification confirmation
    • Remote Security FAQ
    • Remote Privacy Policy

You can also always review Remote's terms of services, before, or after you hire your first international employee in Gusto.  

Here are a few things you should know:

• For now, we only support international employees in Canada.
  • We’ll be rolling out support for additional countries as soon as possible. You can hire employees in other countries through our partner Remote.
• You may not be able to add an international employee if:
  • You already have international employees through Remote—use Remote to hire your new international employees.
  • You already hired for a specific country through Remote—you’ll need to hire additional international employees for the same country in Remote.
• In Gusto, international employees can accept their employment agreement (or request a change).
  • All other details are managed in Remote—certain information will be shared with Gusto and appear as read-only in international employee accounts.
  • Admins will be able to:
    • See the international employees in the company’s org chart.
    • Accept or reject expense reimbursements. 
• In Gusto, international employees cannot:
  • Be assigned as managers or Gusto admins
  • Be sent custom docs
  • Have custom earnings
  • Use the performance review feature
  • Be provisioned apps
  • Use Gusto time tracking
  • Take trainings
• In Remote, international employees can:
  • Manage personal details and HR tasks
  • View benefits
  • Change their communication preferences
  • Add and submit expenses
  • Opt-in to benefits offered
  • And more…

For now, we only support international employees in Canada—here’s how to get started:

1. Head to the People section and select Team members.
2. Click Add new team member.
3. Scroll to the "International team members" header, and next to "Employee in Canada", click Add.
4. Select a country from the dropdown—for now, you’ll only see Canada.
   • You can hire employees in other countries through our partner Remote.
5. Enter some personal information:
   • First name
   • Middle name (optional)
   • Last name
   • Personal email—use an existing address not associated with your company.
     • They’ll use this email to sign in to Gusto and Remote so they can receive and edit personal information.
6. Enter some employment information:
   • Job title
     • Choose from your existing set of jobs, or enter a new one.
   • Department
   • Manager
     • Based on your settings, managers may be able to manage expenses, approve time off, and view reports.
7. Select a start date at least 1–2 weeks from today—if your employee doesn’t finish onboarding two days before their first day, you’ll need to choose a new start date for them.
8. Let us know if they’re already employed with your company.
   • If yes: Enter the date they joined your company—some of your employees’ rights (including severance and minimum paid time off) depend on this date.
9. Review the acknowledgements and agreements, and select the checkboxes.
10. Click Continue.
    • Clicking Save and close will save the details that you can later access in the “Onboarding” tab of the Team members page.
    • You may not be able to add an international employee if:
      • You already have international employees through Remote—use Remote to hire your new international employees.
      • You already hired for a specific country through Remote—you’ll need to hire additional international employees for the same country in Remote.
11. Enter the employment details—employees will review and accept these details when they onboard with Gusto. Our partner Remote will use these details in their employment agreement with this employee.
12. Start by entering your company’s business description (e.g., information technology)
13. Select the employee’s province of residence.
14. Enter a probation period, if applicable—enter a value between 0 and 6 months (the legal maximum)
    • A probation period lets your company see if a new employee is right for the job (and vice versa). It’s typically easier to dismiss an employee during their probation period.
15. Let us know if you want to add a non-compete clause—this clause means your employee won’t be able to work with your competitors after they leave for a set period of time.
    • If yes, enter the number of months the non-compete clause should last once the employee leaves. Industry standards are 6 or 12 months.
16. Let us know if you want to add a non-solicitation clause—this clause means your employees won’t be able to solicit your customers after they leave.
    • If yes, enter the number of months the non-solicitation clause should last once the employee leaves. Industry standards are 6 or 12 months.
17. Select a manager from your existing team members (who have Gusto “employee” profiles).
18. Include a detailed job description—include the top three responsibilities.
    • To remain compliant, there’s a 100-character minimum.
19. Enter any training requirements.
20. Select the experience level of the job—this is the experience needed to do the job, not their overall experience level. Choose whichever option fits best—it doesn’t need to align with your company’s levels, but this is a requirement for Canadian employment contracts.
    • Level 2: Entry level
    • Level 3: Associate
    • Level 4: Mid to senior
    • Level 5: Director
    • Level 6: Executive
21. Enter the work hours per week—full-time employees in Canada must work between 30–40 hours per week.
22. Let us know if your employee works from home.
    • This helps Remote determine and comply with any applicable teleworking laws.
23. Tell us how much the employee makes per year (in the local currency)
    • You’ll be billed in USD based on the conversion to the local salary. Depending on the FX rate, your bill may fluctuate.
24. Let us know if the employee should get a signing bonus—this will automatically be included in their first or second paycheck.
    • If yes, enter the amount your employee should receive before taxes.
25. Tell us if they might receive other bonuses—these can be recurring reimbursements or performance-related bonuses.
    • If yes, enter the other bonus details. Include the bonus amount, when it should be paid, and how often (e.g., yearly)
26. Select whether the employee will get commission.
    • If yes, enter the commission details. Include the amount, when it should be paid, and how or when the employee is eligible for it (e.g., with every sale).
      • Select the checkbox to acknowledge that Remote will not be liable for any claims or losses associated with the commission or bonus plan.
27. Learn about offering benefits in Canada—all future Canada-based employees will also receive these benefits. You won’t be able to change them until Canada’s next open enrollment period.
    • Any health benefits you offer are in addition to the universal healthcare all Canadian citizens receive. If you choose not to offer benefits, you can still provide a recurring reimbursement later—this helps lessen the cost for employees who choose to get benefits outside your company.
    • All health benefits are offered through Remote Health and are provided by Canada Life and Lifeworks.
    • The health benefits cost is an estimate based on a $145,000 CAD salary, so the actual cost may be slightly higher or lower based on the employee’s actual salary.
28. Toggle to learn about, and select, individual or family health and life insurance options.
    • Most companies offer family benefit options, since they give employees more flexibility (allowing individual or family selections).
      • If you select a family plan, an employee can still select individual coverage and you will only be charged for the individual coverage. However, if you choose Individual coverage as your default, the employee will not have the option to select a family plan.
29. Choose the retirement option you’d like to offer.
30. Choose if you’d like to offer employee assistance
31. Enter the amount of paid time off days this employee should receive—we recommend at least 20 days.
    • Canada’s paid time off requirements depend on how long someone has worked at the company:
      • 0–5 years: 10 days per year
      • 5–9 years: 15 days per year
      • 10+ years: 20 days per year
      • Public, bank, and statutory holidays aren’t included.
32. Click Continue.
33. Review the details thoroughly—if you need to edit anything, go back to do so. If everything looks correct, proceed.
    • We’ll invite the international employee to Gusto so they can review and accept their employment details.
34. Click Send onboarding invitation.
    • The invited international employee will appear in the “Onboarding” tab of your Team members page.
    • If they don’t make progress in the next few days, we’ll send you and them a reminder. 

What happens next?

We’ll invite the international employee to review and accept the employment details in Gusto, and email you if they ask for any changes. Once they accept the employment details, Remote will invite them to create an account, where they’ll finish onboarding, including:

• Setting up their employee profile
• Uploading documentation
• Verifying their identity
• Choosing their benefits
• Adding their bank details

If all of the above is not completed before the start date you entered, you’ll need to push the start date back. 

If the employee requests changes

Review the changes with them directly—once you’ve come to an agreement, we recommend confirming them by email. Then;

• Update their employment details in Gusto.
• We’ll email them with the updated employment details to accept.  

If you need to update employment details before they've been accepted, or the international employee requests a change to the employment agreement, review the changes with them directly. Once you’ve come to an agreement, we recommend confirming them by email, and then updating the details using the instructions below. 

Update employment details before the employment agreement has been accepted

1. Head to the Team members section of your account.
2. Toggle to the Onboarding tab.
3. Next to your international employee’s name, under the “Actions” column, click the three-dot action menu. 
4. Click Update information. 
5. Edit the necessary details, and complete the flow. 
6. At the end, click Save updates.

We’ll send an email for them to review and accept the new employment details. 

All international payrolls are automatically run via Gusto Global, powered by Remote. When you hire an international employee, our partner Remote sets them up for automatic payrolls. Based on the country, they'll be paid monthly, or semi-monthly.

• For Canada, the pay dates are the 15th of the month, and the last working day of the month.

You’ll see the upcoming payrolls in Gusto when you go to the Payroll section and click Run payroll. 

Review your international payroll settings in Gusto

1. Head to the Payroll section and click Payroll settings. 
2. Toggle to the International tab. 

Viewing international payments in Gusto

1. Head to the Payroll section and select Payroll history.
2. Toggle to the International employees tab.  
3. To review some details, under the “Actions” column next to a payroll, click See details.
4. Review the summary, and scroll down and click Detailed breakdown for additional information—this will include invoice details.
   • As a reminder, in Canada, we only pay employees in the local currency (CAD).

Admins can create, view, accept, or reject international employee expenses.

Some functionality may differ from the expense-experience for domestic employees:

• Expenses you create for international employees are automatically approved.
• Receipts are required for submitting an expense.
• You will not be able to edit, unapprove, or delete an expense for an international employee in Gusto. 
• For any expenses that look incorrect, reject them and re-create them. 
• Expenses will be applied to upcoming payrolls based on when they are approved.
• Some expense categories will always be ‘on’ because the international employee will see those options in their Remote expense-dashboard.

To learn how to manage your expenses in Gusto, head to our article with expense reimbursement instructions. 

International employees must create time off requests in Remote

When your international employee creates a time off request in Remote, you'll receive an email from [email protected] to approve or reject it.

At this time, admins cannot create a time off request on behalf of the employee. In the near future, you'll be able to manage time off requests and policies right from your Gusto dashboard.

Signing bonuses

You can add a signing bonus when you add your international employee as a team member in Gusto—this amount will automatically be added to the first or second payroll, depending on payroll cut off dates.

All other bonuses, commissions, reimbursements, etc

Email [email protected] with any other additional pay requests for your international employee. Include the following:

• Employee name
• Type (choose one)
  • Bonus
  • Commission
  • Reimbursement
    • Cell phone
    • Health reimbursement arrangement
    • Other reimbursement
• Description
• Amount in CAD
• Pay type (choose one)
  • Gross (The amount the employee is expecting before taxes are taken out)
  • Net (The exact amount you want your employee to get in their bank account after taxes. With this option, you will pay an additional amount for the taxes normally deducted.)
• Is there an end date? (Yes/No)
  • (If Yes) Number of months/instances of this earning type

You'll soon be able to add one-time (monthly) bonuses, commissions, and other allowances right from Gusto. 

Admins can view their international employees' paystubs in Gusto, but your employees will only be able to view their 'payslips' in Remote.

View paystubs in Gusto (as an admin)

1. Go to the Team members section.
2. Select the international employee.
3. On the right-side of the page, in the “Paystubs” section, locate and view paystubs.

Paystubs for international employees are provided by Remote. 

After the international employee is onboarded, admins can update basic information in Gusto, including:

• Personal and work email address
• First and last name
• Pronouns
• Preferred first name
• Birthday
• Recovery email
• Country code
• Phone number

To update details:

1. Go to the Team members section.
2. Select the international employee.
3. Toggle between the Job & Pay tab, and the Personal tab to locate the information you need to change.
4. Click Edit. 
5. Make the changes, and click Save. 

If you need details updated that cannot be edited, email [email protected]. 

• Heads up: “Job & Pay” details relate to your employee’s contract with Remote, so it could take 2-7 business days to resolve.

Most international employees cannot be dismissed “at-will”, so you'll need to email [email protected] so we can work directly with Remote before offboarding the employee. 

The invoicing process for international employee payroll is different from US employees, since it’s powered by our partner Remote.

• Reminder: International employee invoicing will appear as a separate page in your standard Gusto invoice. 

The invoicing process

Remote’s 2-step invoicing process includes:

• A pre-funding invoice for a full month of payroll (no matter how many pay periods in that month for your international employee), and;
• We’ll automatically withdraw a fixed amount from your bank on the 1st of the month to pay your international employees for the month.
• A reconciliation invoice that credits or debits you based on costs you may have incurred during that month (e.g., expense reimbursements, bonuses, etc.). 
  • Reconciliation invoices may include expenses, time off, bonuses, etc. 
• After the team is paid, depending on whether your actual payroll was more or less than the estimate, you’ll receive a reconciliation debit or future invoice credit. 
• These usually hit your bank account around the 5th of the month

You’ll see both invoices itemized in your Payroll history breakdown, and can also download them.

Currency and FX rates for invoicing

While Remote pays Canadian employees in the local currency (CAD), you'll be billed by Gusto in (USD). The currency is exchanged at the time of billing, and we use the Wise spot rate, plus a 1.75% FX fee when converting the funds paid (CAD) to the billing currency (USD).

1. Dismiss the person as an international contractor.
2. Add them as an international employee.