Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Your payroll experience must be obtained within 5 years before or 5 years after the start of the Payroll Compliance Legislation course if you are taking courses online or through continuing education. For students taking the PCP courses through a full-time program at a recognized college, university or private career college, the PCP Work Experience requirement timeline begins when you complete the Payroll Fundamentals 2 course.

The weighting of the payroll work experience requirement is determined by the number of hours per week spent completing payroll-oriented tasks. Using the standard 35-hour work week, the number of months spent completing qualifying work experience can be calculated. For example, if you spend 50% of your time (17.5 hours per week) on payroll-oriented tasks and have held the position for 24 months, you would be granted a total of 12 months (17.5 / 35 * 24 = 12). Only a full completed month of experience will be counted (no fractions, decimals or rounding).

If payroll is only one of your functions, you may require more than 2 years in the position to meet the requirement.

This problem most often originates in the settings of your web browser or your Internet connection. Try adjusting the Internet Options of your MS Internet Explorer web browser. (This problem does not typically affect Netscape/Firefox users). There are two separate adjustments that can be made, the first of which should correct the problem. If not, attempt the second and try again.

1. Open your browser's Advanced options. (Click the Tools menu and select Internet Options. Click the Advanced tab.)

Find the heading marked HTTP 1.1 Settings, and ensure that HTTP 1.1 protocol is ENABLED (checked) for use with Proxy Servers. (Both items under this heading should be checked.)

While on the Advanced page, make sure the Friendly HTTP Errors and Friendly URL's settings are DISABLED (unchecked). These can unhide additional information helpful in diagnosis and troubleshooting.

Make these adjustments and try to connect again. If this fails to correct the problem, try the second adjustment below.

2. If it is permitted by your administrator, you can bypass proxy servers entirely. This is controlled from the Connections section of the Internet Options screen. (Look under Connections, LAN Settings.) You may wish to contact your Internet service provider or network administrator first to find out if your connection will still work properly with proxies bypassed.

If neither of these steps rectify the situation, you will need to speak with your Internet service provider or network administrator about other network factors outside of our control.

If you need detailed assistance with locating the options noted above or making the adjustments described, contact us. You will need to know your web browser type and version number so we can provide specific instructions for your system.

To change the format of the candidate application email from Text/HTML to Web Link, log in to your employer account and click on Edit Username and Password. There you will find Select desired format for matched candidates. Make your selection and click the Update button. This will update your account and return you to your account toolbox.

Although a bonus payment may fall within one of the employee’s pay periods, the regular income tax tables should not be used to determine the amount of income tax owing on the bonus, as this will increase the amount of tax being deducted even more. The pay period tables apply a rate of taxation based on the assumption the employee will be making X amount of dollars for the year, spread over Y number of pay periods. A bonus payment increases the employee’s overall earnings for the year, which increases the rate at which the employee should have been paying income tax since the beginning of the taxation year.

For example, an employee receiving an annual salary of $50,000 per year in addition to a bonus payment of $10,000 will be taxed based on $60,000 per year when they file their personal income tax return at the end of the year. The employee’s income tax deductions each pay period, however, are only calculated based on an annual salary of $50,000. With a bonus payment, the payroll system is required to recalculate the employee’s taxes based on $60,000 and then calculate the difference between the income taxes the employee pays on a regular basis and the employee’s newly revised salary which has been increase by $10,000 for the entire year.

The payment of the bonus often results in the employee being bumped up to a higher income bracket. Both the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and Revenu Québec (RQ) require the employer to collect the difference between the pro-rated income tax that the employee regularly pays on an annual pay of $50,000 and the income taxes that would have been paid based on an annual salary of $60,000. This difference is then deducted from the bonus payment.

If an employer pays an employee additional bonuses throughout the year, the income taxes will be recalculated once again to take into consideration the previous bonuses paid to the employee.

The bonus tax method can be used for any payments that do not represent regular pay period earnings, for example, stock option taxable benefits, a taxable gift or award, or outstanding vacation paid upon termination.

Employers may provide a non-accountable allowance to employees who are moving. When the employer provides a cash allowance with no documented receipts, amounts may be treated as non-taxable in the following circumstances:

• RQ – the equivalent of two weeks’ salary
• CRA - $650.00 (employee must provide a written statement declaring this amount was used to pay for moving expenses)

Any amount in excess of the prescribed exemptions must be included as income subject to Q/CPP contributions, EI and QPIP premiums, and federal and provincial income tax, reported in box A and L of the RL-1 slip and box 14 and code 40 of the T4 slip.

If you have enrolled in any courses with a start date of January 1, 2019 you will be prompted to enter your SIN when you click on the T2202A. If we already have your SIN on file, you will not receive a prompt.

Click here to manage your subscriptions with the CPA (member login required).

We publish an online database of course equivalents offered at more than 180 post-secondary institutions. Click here to search the database.

If a course does not appear in the database, it simply means that we have not yet reviewed it. A detailed course outline must be submitted to the Certification Department for assessment and inclusion in the database should it be recognized.

Each non-payroll course submitted to the Certification Department for credit transfer must:

• Be equivalent to a Canadian post-secondary level course; high school courses or job experience are not eligible. If the course was completed outside of Canada, you must get an educational credential assessment from an accredited assessment agency.
• Be a minimum of 30 credit hours in length.
• Have a final method of evaluation worth at least 20% of the overall course mark.
• Have been completed with a minimum grade of 65%. (Note: Transfer credit courses ending prior to January 1, 2013, must have a minimum grade of 60%.)
• Have been completed within the last 10 years.

The CPA provides the CPE Activity Tracking Tool to help you keep track of your completed CPE activities, but it is not mandatory. Using the tool or not, all certification holders must keep a record of their CPE activities, along with documentation to prove completion (where applicable) for at least three years, in the event they are chosen for a CPE compliance audit.

Most activities that you complete through the CPA will be automatically entered into your CPE file as long as you register directly with the Association.

Note: If you participated in a CPA webinar but were not the individual who purchased the session, you will need to log this individually should you wish to track your CPE using the log. When adding in this activity, enter the Provider/Source as “Webinar – CPA.”

No. As payroll requirements vary significantly from country to country, to obtain the PCP certification, you must have at least one year of weighted Canadian work experience in payroll.

You are eligible to send the Payroll Experience Prerequisite Application (PEPA) for assessment once you have obtained your Payroll Compliance Practitioner (PCP) certification. You must submit your completed application with all supporting documentation at least 4 weeks before you intend to start the Introduction to Payroll Management course. You will be advised of the status of your application within 20 business days of the date it is received by the CPA.

Immediately after you post your job on JobConnect, candidates will be able to view it through the Search Open Positions feature. Candidates will be able to send their resume to you directly if you have opted to display your email address or other contact information.

If you have opted to hide your contact information, candidates will be able to submit their Profile to you using the Apply Online option. This will send a copy of the candidate’s profile or a web link to both the email address you have included in the contact information section of your posting and your inbox on JobConnect. You can review the applications by email or login to your account and review them online.

When candidates apply to your posting, you will able to review their Profile, which contains a simple text version of their resume, job match preferences, cover letter (if submitted) and skills information.

When a profile arrives, JobConnect will match it against the criteria you entered when you posted your job. Candidates that match over 75% of your criteria will be designated as an A-list candidate; all others will be designated as B-list candidates.

It is the employer’s responsibility to issue an amended ROE when additional money is paid. Once received by Service Canada, the employee’s Employment Insurance (EI) claim will be recalculated to determine if it affects their benefit rate or duration. It is the employee’s responsibility to report any money to Service Canada to determine if their entitlement for a particular week of benefits is affected.

A bonus earned prior to the period of the leave of absence should not impact the employee’s EI benefits; however, the employer will often be asked by Service Canada to confirm within which periods of time the bonus was actually earned.

You can refer to your income tax return or you can request a confirmation of SIN.

Only Canadian Payroll Association employees that require your SIN to perform their job duties will have access. The Social Insurance Number (SIN) is required to be on the T2002 form as per subsection 237(1) of the Income Tax Act. The Canadian Payroll Association protects and safeguards all personal and private information, including the SIN. The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) sets out ground rules about how private sector organizations may collect, use or disclose personal information. To find out more information please click here.

The Payroll Representative of your organization must add you to your organization’s roster. They can add you by logging into the CPA’s website and clicking on My Profile → Organization Information.

If you have previously been a member of the CPA or have ever had a CPA number, the Payroll Representative will not be able to add you through the website. Instead, they must send an email to membership@payroll.ca with your information to add you.

Be sure to ask the Payroll Representative to include your previous CPA number and email address in the request. If you cannot remember your previous CPA number, let us know that you had a file with us in the past so we do not create two records for you.

We do not evaluate non-academic credentials. Increasingly more post-secondary institutions provide this type of evaluation service, sometimes called Prior-Learning Assessment or Recognition, through their Continuing Education divisions.

Contact your local college or university to find out what service they offer. If the post-secondary institution's review exempts you from one of its course offerings, we may also honour the credit.

The CPA conducts random audits of CPE hours to ensure certified members are adhering to the CPE requirement of certification. In the event of an audit, you will be contacted by the Association and asked to provide evidence of CPE fulfilment.

Certification holders are asked to keep a personal record of their CPE activities, along with documentation to prove completion (where applicable) for at least three years, in the event they are chosen for an audit.

If the organization does not have an official job description for the position you would like to submit for the Work Experience Requirement Application (WERA) assessment, you must prepare a detailed job description yourself and submit it to your verifier for approval.