Employer Portal FAQ

A: The Employer Portal is a secure system that provides registered users the ability to manage one or many employer accounts, and communicate with the Idaho Department of Labor about Unemployment Insurance taxes and benefit claims.

A: Employer Portal was designed for Internet Explorer version 9 and newer releases. To open links in the system with Internet Explorer 8, you must right click on the links and choose “Open in New Tab” or “Open in New Window.” All features may not be fully functional with other browsers such as FireFox, Chrome, Safari, etc. If you have problems entering or viewing information using a different browser or Internet Explorer version, use Internet Explorer with the correct version. If the problem persists, contact us at (208) 332-3576 or toll-free at 1-800-448-2977.

A: User role definitions are available to all registered Employer Portal users in the user guide. From any screen in Employer Portal, select the User Guide menu option to access the user guide.

A: If you have questions about Employer Portal that were not answered in the FAQ or User Guide, contact the Idaho Department of Labor. From any Employer Portal screen, select the Contact Us menu option to view all available methods of contacting the Idaho Department of Labor. Please identify Employer Portal Support in emails and phone calls.

A: On the Employer Portal home screen, select the New User Registration link to register as a new user. A valid email address is required, which will be used going forward to connect you with your user profile. Enter the remaining user information and click Register. An email is immediately sent requiring verification of the new user’s email address. Follow the instructions in the email to complete the new user registration process.

A: A valid email address is required to become a registered Employer Portal user. An email account is easy to set up and available at no cost to you.

A: After responding to the Employer Portal verification email using the verify email link, an internet browser will open indicating the email was verified and your Employer Portal new user registration has been approved. You may now use Employer Portal at any time by logging in.

A: You must contact the Idaho Department of Labor to retrieve this information.
Option 1: Send a message using the Employer Portal Contact Us Form. From the main Employer Portal screen, select the Contact Us menu option, select Contact Us Form and submit the required information to the Employer Portal Support.

Option 2: Contact the Idaho Department of Labor by phone. From the main Employer Portal screen, select the Contact Us menu option and call the phone number listed.

A: Reset your password to login to the Employer Portal. From the main Employer Portal screen, select Forgot Password to receive instructions that will be sent to the email address you use to login to Employer Portal.

A: Employer Portal was designed with a high level of security to ensure user and employer information is protected.

A: Once someone has registered as an Employer Portal user, the user profile must be linked to one or more employer accounts for the purpose of managing employer information.

A: Yes. By using a valid email address for your user registration, you may associate your user profile with one or more employer accounts, when required and approved by the employer.

A: A registered Employer Portal user may be associated with as many employer accounts as is required, as approved by the employer’s administrator or by using the employer’s Personal Identification Number (PIN).

A: Option 1: Enter only the Employer Account Number (EAN), without a PIN, and add the employer. Select the required roles to request access from the administrators of that employer account.

Option 2: Enter the EAN and PIN for the employer account to become an administrator for the employer account.

A: A registered Employer Portal user may associate with an employer by adding or selecting an employer. Use the EAN of the required employer along with the PIN if you are an administrator for the employer account.

A: Manage My Roles: Any registered Employer Portal user may remove an association with an employer account by managing personal permissions. Select the employer account being removed and see the employer information in the badge.

Manage Authorized Users Roles: A registered Employer Portal user in the administrator role for an employer account can manage all users associated with that employer, including approving or removing users.

A: The message center is where a logged in user can contact the Idaho Department of Labor with secure messages directly through the Employer Portal system.

A: The message center can be used to easily communicate with the right department staff. Send a message to ask a question at any time of the day or week.

A: Yes. Messages created after logging in to Employer Portal are stored in Employer Portal. The only message sent outside of Employer Portal is an email alerting users to activity within Employer Portal. You must log in to view details of the activity.

A: As a user of Employer Portal, you may send information to the Idaho Department of Labor or ask questions related to your unemployment insurance employer account.

A: Yes. A message can be sent to a specific department such as Unemployment Insurance Tax, Unemployment Insurance Benefit Claims, Appeals, Wage & Hour and Business Specialists, and Employer Portal Support.

A: No. If the response you receive is sufficient, it is not necessary to reply. We consider your message closed at the time we respond. Unless your question was not answered sufficiently or you have a follow up question, the message remains closed. Replying with a Thank You message is unnecessary as it will reopen your message, causing staff to review it again.

A: Yes. When logged in to Employer Portal, attachments containing personal or sensitive information are allowed.

A: Whitelisting is intentionally allowing emails from a known source, such as Idaho Department of Labor, to be received in your email inbox. It keeps the emails you need to see from inadvertently being blocked or placed in your Trash/Junk/Spam folder.

All emails sent from Employer Portal originate from the email address DoNotReply@Labor.Idaho.gov. Whitelisting this email address will ensure that emails sent from Employer Portal will not be blocked or flagged as spam and moved into the recipient’s Trash/Junk/SPAM folder.

If you have an IT department, simply forward our email address DoNotReply@Labor.Idaho.gov to them with a request to whitelist it.

If you do not have an IT department, simply add our email address to your contact list, safe senders list, or address list. Step-by-step instructions on how to whitelist an email address can be found by searching using your favorite internet search engine.

A: Quarterly tax reports and payments can be processed much quicker using online tools than those received in the mail. In addition, each activity performed in Employer Portal is time stamped and saved as an audit trail.

A: When Idaho businesses report their new hires, people who collect unemployment insurance while they are gainfully employed can be stopped more quickly. What they are doing is not only illegal, they are costing Idaho businesses more in unemployment insurance taxes.

A: No. Federal guidelines allow states to impose penalties for noncompliance. However, right now Idaho does not impose this type of penalty. So please, send us your new hire reports even if you are past the 20-day requirement.

A: No. Start by reporting the employees you hired since you submitted your last quarterly wage report. Then start reporting all your new employees from that point forward.

A: An employee is an individual to whom an employer pays a salary, wage, remuneration or other compensation as part of the employment relationship and for whom the employer is required to complete an IRS Form W-2. In most instances, the employer is required to withhold income taxes from such salary, wage, remuneration or other compensation unless such compensation falls within the meaning of 26 USC § 3401.

A: The date of hire is the first day the employee worked for wages. Do not report a new hire if the employee has not yet started to work for you.

A: Your Idaho unemployment insurance account number is a number assigned by the Idaho Department of Labor for each business who files unemployment insurance quarterly wage reports. It is also known as a State Unemployment Tax Account number (SUTA). Your account number can be found on your quarterly tax form, by logging in to send a secure message to the Tax Department, or by calling Employer Accounts at (208) 332-3576 or (800) 448-2977.

A: If the new employee earned wages, you need to report the employee as a new employee, even if the individual left before you reported them.

A: No. You can notify the Idaho Department of Labor of separations through the Employer Portal system, but you are not required to do so for New Hire Reporting. However, this information is helpful when a previous employee files for unemployment benefits for which you could be liable.

A: Yes: If it has been 60 days or more between the date the employee left and came back, you do need to report the employee as a new hire. The day the employee came back to work is the new date of hire.

No: If you have rehired a former employee fewer than 60 days after the employee left, you do not need to report the employee as a new hire.

A: No. If the work performed is based on a contract instead of an employer/employee relationship, you do not have to submit a New Hire report for the contractor. In such cases, the contractor is responsible for reporting any new employees under their business.

A: No. In the case of newly hired alien visa employees, the 20-day timeframe to submit the new hire report commences when the employee has received a Social Security number from the Social Security Administration.

A: A new employee should be reported to the New Hire Reporting program in the state where the employee works regardless of the state of residence. Exceptions include multi-state employers registered with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services who electronically report all new hires to a single state. Call us at (800) 627-3880 if you are interested in multi-state reporting.

A: Yes. Simply login to your Employer Portal user profile and access the benefit charges screen.

A: Yes. SIDES E-Response offers the ability to sign up for email notification when new unemployment insurance benefits claims are filed against a registered Idaho business. Log in to your Employer Portal user profile and access the SIDES E-Response screen for details and to sign up.

A: Any time the Idaho Department of Labor identifies a claimant who possibly reported inaccurate earnings, a request for additional information is sent in the form of a weekly earnings report to the employer. This information is helpful in determining whether the claimant is entitled to receive unemployment benefits.

A: Yes. Employers who are proactive in reporting employee separations provide the Idaho Department of Labor with valuable information which can be referenced if and when a former employee files a benefits claim. Too often claimants provide inaccurate details about employer separations, resulting in benefit payments on ineligible claims. Having accurate data from an employer as soon as a separation occurs helps the initial eligibility determination and prevents benefit payments on ineligible claims.

A: Yes. Authorized individuals within your company can update important information such as contact information - names, addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses.

A: An administrator may be the owner, executive, high-level manager, or an individual such as an employee or a payroll provider company who is designated to act on the employer’s behalf. The administrator is responsible for managing the specified employer account in Employer Portal.

A: There must be at least one administrator for an employer account in Employer Portal. Each employer determines the number of administrators associated to the employer account.