An employee leaves: a resignation, a layoff, sick leave or maternity leave. In Quebec as everywhere in Canada, the employer must then issue a record of employment (ROE) for Service Canada, within a short deadline. This guide gives the Service Canada and CNESST rules, how to get ROE Web access, and what you can prepare in InnoBooks. InnoBooks does not file the record of employment: it helps you gather the hours and amounts before you fill it in.
What is a record of employment?
The ROE is the Service Canada form that gives the insurable hours and insurable earnings of an employee who stops being paid. Every employer must issue one each time an employee has an interruption of earnings, or when Service Canada asks for one.
- The 7-day rule: the employee has had, or will have, 7 consecutive calendar days with no work and no insurable earnings from you. That is the case for a resignation, a dismissal or a layoff.
- The 60% rule: their salary falls below 60% of their regular weekly earnings because of illness, injury, quarantine, maternity leave, parental leave, compassionate care or family caregiver leave.
- Wage loss insurance: an employee who starts receiving wage loss insurance payments also has an interruption of earnings.
For people living in Quebec, Service Canada shares ROE information with the Government of Quebec, which runs the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP).
The deadline: 5 calendar days
| How you issue the ROE | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Electronic (ROE Web), weekly, biweekly or semi-monthly pay | No later than 5 calendar days after the end of the pay period in which the interruption of earnings occurs |
| Electronic (ROE Web), monthly pay or 13 pay periods a year | Whichever is earlier: 5 calendar days after the end of that pay period, or 15 calendar days after the first day of the interruption of earnings |
| Paper | 5 calendar days after the first day of the interruption of earnings, or after the day you become aware of it |
The example in the Service Canada guide: a weekly-paid employee whose interruption of earnings starts on March 1, in a pay period that ends on March 4. Their ROE must be issued no later than March 9.
ROE Web or paper?
ROE Web (Record of Employment on the Web) is Service Canada’s electronic channel. You can submit your ROEs in three ways:
- enter them yourself online in ROE Web;
- upload them from compatible payroll software: the payroll extract file sends up to 1,200 ROEs at once (your software vendor can tell you whether it is compatible);
- have a payroll service provider submit them in bulk for you.
With an electronic ROE, you no longer have to give the employee a paper copy: they view and print their ROE in My Service Canada Account. Service Canada still recommends giving them a copy if they ask. The paper form still exists; you order it by phone from Service Canada’s Employer Contact Centre, and you then give Part 1, the original, to the employee.
How to get ROE Web access
This is the question behind most “ROE Web login” searches: where to sign in. Always go through the official page Access Record of employment on the Web for employers, on canada.ca, never through a link received by email. You sign in with a GCKey or through a Sign-In Partner (your financial institution).
The first registration follows these steps:
- Sign in with your GCKey or your Sign-In Partner.
- Create your professional profile: ROE Web gives you a user reference number.
- Create the organization profile with its Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) business number.
- Validate your identity: online, through your CRA account (allow 5 to 10 business days if you are not registered yet), or in person, with two acceptable pieces of identification.
- Enter the authorization code, mailed to the business owner or chief executive officer. Activate the account within 90 days of receiving it.
- Accept the agreement, then issue your electronic ROEs.
The person who registers the business becomes its Primary Officer: they manage the account and the organization’s details, and decide who else gets access. Representatives (your assistant, your accountant) create their own ROE Web profile, then give their user reference number to the Primary Officer, who invites them with “Invite a representative” and sets their rights. A payroll provider or a firm that issues ROEs for its clients has each client sign an ROE Web Client Employer Consent Form, then adds the client’s business number in its ROE Web account.
The blocks that need your numbers
- Block 5: the CRA payroll account number, 15 characters (9 numbers, 2 letters, 4 numbers).
- Block 15A: total insurable hours.
- Block 15B: total insurable earnings.
- Block 15C: insurable earnings by pay period, from the last one (pay period 1) back to the oldest. It is always required on an electronic ROE.
The maximum number of consecutive pay periods to report depends on your pay frequency:
| Pay frequency | Block 15A | Block 15B | Block 15C (ROE Web) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly | 53 | 27 | 53 |
| Biweekly | 27 | 14 | 27 |
| Semi-monthly | 25 | 13 | 25 |
| Monthly | 13 | 7 | 13 |
| 13 pay periods a year | 14 | 7 | 14 |
Block 16, the reason for issuing: a code, and the name and phone number of someone in the business who can explain it. The codes in the Service Canada guide:
- A: Shortage of work (layoff)
- B: Strike or lockout
- D: Illness or injury
- E: Quit
- F: Maternity
- G: Retirement
- H: Work-Sharing
- J: Apprentice training
- K: Other (only in exceptional circumstances)
- M: Dismissal or suspension
- N: Leave of absence
- P: Parental
- Z: Compassionate care/family caregiver
Code C (return to school) is being phased out. Knowingly entering a false reason is a serious offence: fines or prosecution.
Block 17: payments other than regular pay made because of the separation, whenever you pay them — vacation pay (17A), statutory holidays that fall after the last day paid (17B) and other monies, such as a bonus or severance pay (17C).
The Quebec side of a departure
The ROE is federal. Quebec’s Act respecting labour standards adds its own obligations, which the CNESST spells out.
The notice of termination of employment. If you terminate, dismiss or lay off an employee for more than 6 months, you must tell them in writing, in advance:
| Uninterrupted service | Notice |
|---|---|
| 3 months to 1 year | 1 week |
| 1 to 5 years | 2 weeks |
| 5 to 10 years | 4 weeks |
| 10 years or more | 8 weeks |
No notice is required, among other cases, for less than 3 months of uninterrupted service, for serious misconduct, at the end of a fixed-term contract or in a case of force majeure. Without notice on time, you pay an indemnity equal to the regular wages for the missing period, at the end of employment or on the following pay.
The sums owed. Whatever the reason for leaving, the employee gets everything they are owed: wages, overtime and the 4% or 6% vacation indemnity — the vacation pay calculator works it out from gross wages. If the departure falls in the middle of a pay period, wages are paid on the regular pay day; the other payments can follow on the next pay, within 2 weeks at most.
The certificate of employment. The employee can require a certificate giving their duties, the length of their employment, and the employer’s name and address. It is not a letter of reference.
At year end. The departed employee’s earnings go on the year’s T4 and Relevé 1, as for your other employees: our guide Quebec payroll and source deductions explains these slips.
What InnoBooks does, and what it does not
InnoBooks does not file the record of employment and sends nothing to Service Canada; it does not run payroll either. The ROE is filled in ROE Web or in your payroll software.
What InnoBooks gives you to prepare it:
- the employee’s timesheet for the period you pick — a pay period, for example —, with the total hours entered, to export as a PDF: a starting point to check the Block 15A hours against your payroll records;
- the vacation pay calculator, for the vacation amount owed on departure;
- the expenses and travel assigned to the employee, in the same timesheet, to settle what is still to be reimbursed.
Hiring again? The guide Hiring your first employee in Quebec goes over registrations and deductions.
The departure checklist
- Note the first day of the interruption of earnings and the end of the pay period it falls in.
- If the CNESST requires it, give the written notice of termination within the period in the table.
- Work out the final pay, the overtime and the vacation indemnity.
- Gather the insurable hours and earnings by pay period (Blocks 15A to 15C).
- Issue the ROE in ROE Web within the deadline in the table: 5 calendar days after the end of the pay period, or 15 calendar days after the first day of the interruption with monthly pay if that comes earlier.
- Give the certificate of employment if the employee asks for it, and keep your payroll records for 6 years.
Sources
Read on November 11, 2026:
- Service Canada, Employers: How to complete the record of employment (ROE) form
- Service Canada, Access Record of employment on the Web for employers
- Service Canada, Steps to register for Record of Employment on the Web (ROE Web)
- CNESST, Notice of termination of employment and indemnity
- CNESST, Termination, layoff, dismissal and resignation
This guide summarizes the rules; for a particular case, the Service Canada guide and the CNESST are the authority.