Staff setup overview

Learn how the Staff screen organizes employee details, permissions, rates, contacts, and other firm-specific setup information.
Use the Staff screen to track firm employee information such as identification, rates, security permissions, and contact information. The firm administrator typically sets up each staff member's information, including application security permissions.
To open the Staff screen, choose
Setup
Staff
. You can also open the Staff screen by right-clicking any staff information dropdown list.
note
  • The Staff screen is a user-defined terminology screen. Your firm may refer to it by a different name. To view default names for user-defined items, choose
    Help
    Enable Default Terminology
    or press
    CTRL+Shift+H
    .
  • Only staff with security permission can view professional data such as billing rates or cost in the application.
  • If you don’t have security permission from your firm administrator for this screen, it will be unavailable.

Staff selection list

Use the Staff selection list to choose the staff member whose information you want to view or update.
To select a staff member, select the person's name in the Staff selection list.
note
To move the Staff selection list to another part of the screen, choose
View
List Pane
, then select
Left
,
Right
,
Top
, or
Bottom
.
To find specific staff members or narrow the list, use the
Search
and
Filter
fields at the top of the screen.
  • Select the
    Down
    arrow in the
    Search
    field to define search criteria, restrict the search to specific fields, and choose a search method.
  • Select a filter from the
    Filter
    field, or select the
    More
    ellipse button to create a filter using criteria you specify.

Main tab

Use the
Main
tab to enter staff identification information, track educational requirements, assign staff members to groups, define user preferences, and include a staff photo.
If you are licensed for NetFirm CS, you can also turn on Mobile CS access for the selected staff member. Mobile CS is a mobile app that provides access to Practice CS firm, staff, and client data on Apple iOS devices. Visit the
Products & Services
section of our website at Tax.ThomsonReuters.com.

Contact Info tab

The
Contact Info
tab stores staff personal contact details such as address and phone number. You can also use it to set up additional contacts, such as a spouse or emergency contact.

Benefits tab

Use the
Benefits
tab to turn on staff benefits and enter effective dates for those benefits.
note
  • Before you can turn on staff benefits on this tab, you must first set up comp time on the Firm setup screen or set up accruable benefits on the
    Activities
    screen.
  • If your firm uses the security feature in Practice CS, staff access to this tab can be restricted or limited to view-only.

Skill Set tab

note
This tab is available only if your firm is licensed for the Staff Management module.
Use the
Skill Set
tab to describe a staff member's proficiency in various types of work performed by your firm. Defined skill sets help you assign work to staff members based on their skill areas and skill ratings.

Rates tab

Use the
Rates
tab to set up billing and cost rates for staff. The Rate Table displays the selected staff member's current cost and billing rates as of the date shown in the
Effective date
field.
note
Staff members are not required to have rates set up. However, they must have a rate defined to enter time in the application.

Targets tab

note
This tab is available only if your firm is licensed for the Staff Management module and you have sufficient security permissions to edit or view target hours.
Use the
Targets
tab to enter staff target work hours.
You can use this tab to:
  • Set different targets for different times of year
  • Specify the percentage of hours that should be billable
  • Establish a total billable amount target for the staff member

Security tab

The
Member of groups
list contains all security groups. When you select a security group, the staff member receives all permissions assigned to that group. A staff member can belong to any number of groups. If no security groups are selected, the staff member can't sign in to the application. The
Privileges
tree displays the permissions assigned to the selected groups.
Select
Reset Password
to reset a staff member's password. The next time the staff member opens Practice CS, the application prompts for a new password.
note
The
Security
tab lets you add, edit, or delete security groups directly. Right-click in the groups list and choose the command from the shortcut menu.

Custom Fields tab

Information on this tab comes from custom fields set up in the Staff Custom Fields screen. To add or edit custom fields, choose
Setup
Custom Fields
Staff
.
Practice CS enables you to create custom fields and field names for offices, staff, activities, clients, engagements, projects, tasks, and time & expense entry. Custom fields help you track additional information in the application. You can create checkboxes, date fields, numeric fields, text fields up to 4000 characters, lists, and staff lists. To create custom fields, choose
Setup
Custom Fields
, and then select the area where you want the fields to appear.

Notes tab

The
Notes
field lets you enter any additional information you want to track for the selected staff member.