I am trying to make an inactive employee active again and I keep getting this error "Business Validation Error: The release date cannot come before the hire date."?

Hi there stephaniedehaan,

It's important that all your employee's information is correctly entered so their pay will be accurate. QuickBooks Online is a great tool able to help you calculate pay for your employees based on their hours worked. I can provide some information about having an employee come back after a termination.

The error message you're currently seeing is shown when the hire date you've chosen appears after the termination date. The termination date would need to be after the hire date. If that's already the case and you still receive the error, I recommend reaching out to the QuickBooks Online support team. They'll be able to assist you in making this employee active once more so you can pay them for their hours. You can reach them using these methods:

Schedule a Callback or start a Chat: click (?)Help in the upper right > type and enter "Contact support" into the QB Assistant > click Contact Us > explain your situation > click Let's Talk > choose Get a callback or Start a Chat.
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if you have any other questions, feel free to reach out here.