A Record of Employment (ROE) is a form that Canadian employers are required to file with Service Canada whenever an employee experiences an interruption of earnings. That could be a resignation, a layoff, a leave of absence, or a termination. Service Canada uses the ROE to figure out whether that person qualifies for Employment Insurance (EI) benefits and how much they should receive.

As an employer, you’re responsible for making sure a ROE gets filed. If you’re filing electronically (which most employers do), it needs to be submitted within five calendar days of the end of the pay period where the interruption happened.

How ROEs work in Jane Payroll

Jane can generate a ROE file for you in the standard .BLK format that Service Canada’s ROE Web system accepts. Once the file is ready, we’ll upload it to your Payroll Account in the Documents Tab so you can download it and submit it to Service Canada through their ROE Web portal.

📣 Important note: at this time, Jane doesn’t submit ROEs to Service Canada on your behalf. You’ll need to manage the submission step yourself through Service Canada’s ROE Web portal.

How to request a ROE

If you need a ROE for a staff member, reach out to the Jane Payroll Support team with the following:

• The employee’s full name
• Their last day worked
• The reason for the interruption of earnings (here’s a list of Service Canada’s ROE reason codes if you’re not sure which one applies)
• Whether any income in their final pay was related to the end of employment (for example, a vacation payout or severance)

Once we have those details, our team will generate the .BLK file and upload it to your Documents tab. We’ll let you know when it’s ready to go.

Submitting the ROE to Service Canada

After you’ve downloaded the .BLK file from Jane, here’s what to do:

1. Log in to your ROE Web account on the Service Canada website.
2. Select the option to upload a Payroll Extract file.
3. Upload the .BLK file and follow the on-screen steps to review and submit.

That’s it. Once it’s accepted, Service Canada will assign a serial number and the ROE will be available to your former employee if they need to apply for EI.

Set up your ROE Web account before you need it

This is one of those things that’s worth doing ahead of time. If a staff member leaves unexpectedly, you don’t want to be registering for ROE Web for the first time while you’re up against a five-day deadline. The setup process goes through either a GCKey or a sign-in banking partner, and may take some time to complete.

We’d recommend getting your account set up now so it’s ready when you need it: Register for ROE Web.

Have questions?

If you’re not sure when a ROE is required or what details to include, Service Canada’s guide to completing a ROE covers it all. You can also reach their Employer Contact Centre at 1-800-367-5693.

And if you have questions about requesting a ROE through Jane, just reach out to our team. We’re happy to help.