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To execute payroll, Nmbr requires properly configured bank accounts for both employers and employees. This guide outlines how to create bank accounts, manage pre-authorized debit (PAD) agreements, designate primary payment accounts, and handle special cases like manual payment or pay splits.

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Business Banking Configuration

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Create a business bank account

Each business entity needs a bank account so Nmbr can withdraw funds and disburse payroll. You can add multiple bank accounts to a business entity, but one must be marked as primary. Only the primary account is used for payroll debits. Bank accounts use Canadian banking details. Send these fields when you create one:
  • account_number: the account number. 1 to 12 digits.
  • transit_number: the branch (transit) number. Exactly 5 digits.
  • institution_number: the bank’s institution number. Exactly 3 digits.
  • is_primary (optional): mark this account as the primary one. See Primary Bank Accounts.
Send each number as a string of digits only, with no spaces or dashes. Keep any leading zeros. Institution numbers like 001 are common. Request
See Creating a bank account for the full field list.

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Pre-Authorized Debit (PAD) agreements

Before Nmbr can debit a business entity’s account, that account needs a signed Pre-Authorized Debit (PAD) agreement. PAD status lives on the bank account, not the business entity. Each business bank account has an is_pad_signed field that is either true or false. is_pad_signed becomes true once the account has all four of these set:
  • pad_signed_at: the date the agreement was signed.
  • pad_signer_name: the signer’s full name.
  • pad_signer_email: the signer’s email.
  • pad_signer_title: the signer’s job title.
Set these fields when you create or update the business bank account, via the Nmbr API or in the Nmbr Portal. Nmbr blocks payroll approval until at least one of the business entity’s bank accounts has is_pad_signed set to true. There is no separate business-entity-level PAD status. Read is_pad_signed on each account to know where things stand.

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Employee and Contractor Bank Accounts

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Create employee or contractor bank accounts

Nmbr supports direct deposit to employees and contractors through linked bank accounts. Each employee or contractor can have multiple bank accounts configured, but only one can be marked as primary. Use the same account_number, transit_number, and institution_number fields as a business account, plus the optional is_primary. Send employee_id or contractor_id instead of business_entity_id. PAD fields apply only to business bank accounts. See Creating a bank account.

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Missing bank accounts block payroll

If an employee or contractor does not have at least one valid bank account, their payroll will be blocked and must be resolved before proceeding. In such cases, you may either:
  • Add a bank account, or
  • Update their pay stub’s payment_method to manual.
See Updating a pay stub.

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Primary Bank Accounts

Only one bank account per business entity, employee, or contractor can be designated as primary. This primary account is the one Nmbr will use for financial transactions. To mark an account as primary, include "is_primary": true in the request payload when creating or updating a bank account.

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Pay Splits

Nmbr allows employees to split their pay across up to 7 bank accounts using either:
  • Percentage-based splits (e.g. 50% to Account A, 50% to Account B), or
  • Fixed amount splits (e.g. $500 to Account A, remainder to Account B)
💡 Note
A minimum of two accounts is required to use pay splits.
See Creating a pay split.

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Percentage splits

All split percentages must add up to exactly 100%. Every account used in a percentage split must be explicitly assigned a percentage.

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Fixed amount splits

Each account is assigned a fixed dollar amount, except the final account which receives the remainder of the pay.
  • Do not specify an amount for the last account. It will receive what’s left after other accounts are paid.
  • If the specified amount for an account exceeds the available net pay, Nmbr will skip that account and proceed with the remaining allocations.

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Using Pay Splits

Pay splits must be assigned to work assignments. All payments for that work assignment will then follow the defined split. See Updating a pay split. If instead a pay split should be used for all of an employee’s work assignments, the pay split can be set as default. The pay split will then be used for all payments unless a specific assignment has its own split defined. See Creating a pay split.