When creating an employee, the Employee Code and Payroll Code of the employee must be unique in the system.
If a ‘Duplicate Employee Code’ error message appears when trying to create an employee, there are several possible solutions.
Choose a different and unique employee code
If the employee code is already in use in the system, choose a different and unique employee code to assign to the new employee.
Check existing active and inactive employees
If it is not possible to assign a different and unique employee code, or you want to verify which other employee is using the employee code, you can run a report to identify which employee is currently using the duplicate code:
- Navigate to the Reports section
- In the Flexible Data Exports section, select the Employee report
- Ensure in the Employee Selector filter window, the Active Employees Only checkbox is unchecked (this will display both active and inactive employees)
- Ensure that all employees are selected in the Employee Selector
- Choose the required fields to be displayed in the report:
- First Name
- Last Name
- Employee Code
- Payroll Code
- Active?
- Any other necessary fields
- Export the report
Once the report has been exported to Excel, review the report or search for the employee code in question to identify the active or inactive employee to which the employee code is currently assigned.
If an existing employee’s code needs to be changed, this can be done in the Employee Profile screen for that employee. Be sure to uncheck the Active Employees Only checkbox if an inactive employee needs to be modified. Be sure to also modify the Payroll Code in the Work Information section, as this code needs to be unique as well.
Check deleted employees
If the employee code cannot be found in the report showing active and inactive employees, it’s possible that it was assigned to an employee who was deleted.
In the Employee Profile screen, navigate to the Actions menu at the top right of the screen, and select Undelete Employees. This will display a list of all deleted employees in the system, along with their employee codes and payroll codes. Check this list for an employee who has been assigned the duplicate employee code.
If the employee with the duplicate employee code was found in this list, the employee will need to be undeleted, and the code(s) will need to be modified before deleting the employee once again.
- In the Undelete Employees sidebar, select the checkbox next to the employee in question
- Once the employee is selected, click the Apply and Continue button at the bottom of the sidebar. The employee will be undeleted.
Once the employee is undeleted, their employee code can be changed in the Personal Information section. Don’t forget to also modify the Payroll Code in the Work Information section, as this code needs to be unique as well.
Once the codes have been modified, the employee can be deleted using the Actions menu at the top right of the screen by selecting Delete Employee.
Create a new employee
Now that the duplicate employee code has been found and adjusted, a new employee can be created with the now unique employee code.