Employees
Employee records vs. user logins, the Technician flag, and linking an employee to a login so techs show up where they should.
Do this for every person who works in the shop — especially technicians — after you've invited their login under Settings → Users. Employees and logins are two different records, and techs need both.
Employee record vs. user login — the one thing to understand
- A user login (Settings → Users) is how someone signs in, and their role controls what they can see and do.
- An employee record (Employees, in the sidebar) is the person as a worker: pay type, the Technician flag, time entries, productivity.
An advisor who only writes orders can get by with just a login. A technician needs both, linked together: the employee record with the Technician box checked puts them in the tech dropdown on orders, and the link to their login is what makes the time clock and the field portal know who they are.
Create an employee
Open Employees → New Employee. Employees is a top-level sidebar item, not under Settings.
Enter the Display Name. It's the only required field — this is the name that appears in tech dropdowns and on reports.
Check the right role boxes. Technician, Advisor, or Clerical / Admin — check every one that applies. The Technician box is the important one: without it, this person never appears in the tech dropdown when assigning work on an order.
Set the Pay Type. Hourly, Salary, Commission, or Flat Rate, plus the matching rate field. This feeds the payroll prep report — it never leaves your shop.
Save. You land on the employee's page, where you can clock time, review their entries, and — next section — link their login.
Link an employee to a login
Open the employee's page from the Employees list and find the Linked Login card.
Pick their login from the dropdown. The list shows active team members who aren't already linked to another employee. If it says "No unlinked org members. Invite one in Settings → Users," invite their login first — see Users and permissions.
Click Link login. The card now shows their name and email: this person can sign in and see this employee's field work. Click Unlink if you ever attached the wrong person.
Shortcut: when you invite a new technician from Settings → Users, Meridian can pre-link them to an existing unlinked employee record, so the connection is ready the moment they first sign in.
Edit or deactivate an employee
Click Edit on the employee's page to open the Edit Employee panel — same fields as the new-employee form, plus an active checkbox. Deactivating an employee takes them out of dropdowns but keeps all their time and work history. Deactivating an employee does not disable their login; do that separately under Settings → Users if they've left.
What happens behind the scenes
Time clock entries, tech productivity, payroll prep, and labor assignment all hang off the employee record — the login is just the key that connects a signed-in person to it. That's why the two are separate: you can track a tech's hours before they ever sign in themselves, and someone's work history survives even if their login changes.
Troubleshooting
The dropdown lists employee records with the Technician box checked — not logins. Open their record under Employees, click Edit, and check Technician. If they don't have an employee record at all, create one; the login by itself is invisible to the dropdown.
Their login isn't linked to their employee record. Open the employee's page, find the Linked Login card, and link their member entry. Signing in only proves who they are — the link is what connects them to their hours and assigned work.
The dropdown hides members who are already linked to another employee. Check the other employee records for a stale link and Unlink it there first. Also confirm their login is active under Settings → Users — deactivated members don't appear.