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Novaz AuthenticatorGET

Payworks 2FA: how to set up an authenticator app

By the Novaz team · Updated October 29, 2026
Novaz steps checked against version 1.0.5

On this page
  1. Which login do you have?
  2. Is 2FA required?
  3. Set up an authenticator app
  4. Switched to email login? Set it up again
  5. If Payworks rejects your code
  6. New phone or lost phone
  7. Who can help
  8. Official Payworks help

Payworks is a Canadian payroll and HR platform. If your employer pays you through it, you use Payworks Self Service to see pay statements and tax forms. If you run payroll, or you're an accountant handling client payrolls, you sign in to the admin side. Payworks says multi-factor authentication through an authenticator app is available to every user of its application (Payworks). Text messages are the other option on the newer email login (Payworks).

The one thing to sort out first is which login you have, because Payworks runs two, and 2FA works differently on each. This guide uses Authenticator App - Novaz on iPhone. Any authenticator app works the same way.

How we checked this guide: the Payworks steps come from Payworks' own help pages and official blog, linked below, which we read on October 21, 2026. Payworks' public pages describe the setup only briefly and point to a video for the rest, so we couldn't confirm every screen. We haven't tested them on a Payworks account, so a label may differ slightly. The Novaz steps are checked against the app, version 1.0.5.

Which login do you have?

  • Email login. You sign in at login.payworks.ca/login with your email address and a password. Payworks calls this the recommended experience, and the Payworks Self Service mobile app only works with it (Payworks).
  • Customer ID and Username. The older method, at payroll.payworks.ca. Your Customer ID is one letter followed by five digits (Payworks).

Your employer decides whether email login is turned on for your Self Service account.

Is 2FA required?

On email login, Payworks turned on two-factor authentication for all email logins, with a choice of authenticator app or text message (Payworks). Accounts with admin access must use it, and admins can set up the app, text messages, or both (Payworks). On the older login, it's up to your employer (Payworks).

Some companies sign in to Payworks through their own identity provider with single sign-on instead (Payworks). If yours does, your company's sign-in handles the second step, not Payworks.

Set up an authenticator app

With email login

Payworks' Self Service FAQ doesn't list the setup screens in writing. It refers you to a short video on the same page (Payworks). In outline:

  1. Sign in at login.payworks.ca/login with your email address and password.
  2. When Payworks asks you to set up two-factor authentication, choose the authenticator app option.
  3. In Novaz, tap +, then Scan QR code, and point the camera at the QR code on screen. If the QR code is on the same iPhone, take a screenshot, tap +, then Choose a photo. See scanning a QR code on the same iPhone.
  4. If you can only copy a text key, tap +, then Enter key manually, and type it as the Setup key. Payworks' pages don't say whether a text key is shown. See What is a 2FA setup key?
  5. Type the code from Novaz into Payworks to finish.

The Login Security screen, under Accounts Management, is where Payworks says you change your login email and password. Its help doesn't say whether 2FA can be managed there too.

With Customer ID and Username

If your employer requires it, Payworks says to open Profile from the navigation menu, choose Two–Factor Authentication, and follow the instructions on screen (Payworks). Add the account to Novaz with Scan QR code as above.

Switched to email login? Set it up again

A Payworks account in Novaz that you added for your Customer ID login won't work after you move to email login. Payworks says that 2FA doesn't carry over to the new login, so codes from it are rejected (Payworks). Set up the authenticator again for your email login, then remove the old entry in Novaz: open it and tap Remove account.

If Payworks rejects your code

Check first that the code comes from the entry you set up for your email login, as above. If it does, check your iPhone's clock: Settings > General > Date & Time > Set Automatically. Novaz warns you when the clock is 15 seconds or more off. More causes are in Authenticator code not working?

New phone or lost phone

Payworks' help doesn't mention backup or recovery codes. What it does describe, for email login, is an emailed one-time code: sign in with your email and password and click REQUEST ONE-TIME AUTHENTICATION CODE, and Payworks sends a six-digit code to your email (Payworks). The FAQ offers this when you have a new device and need to reset your 2FA. It doesn't describe the screens that follow. So keep access to the email address you sign in with.

On the older Customer ID login, Payworks' FAQ sends you to your employer for a new device instead.

With Novaz's iCloud backup or a backup file, you can restore your accounts on a new iPhone; without one, a new phone means adding Payworks again. See How to transfer your authenticator app to a new iPhone and Lost the phone with your authenticator app?

Who can help

  • Employees: your employer's payroll or HR administrator. For privacy reasons, Payworks' Client Service Representatives don't take individual employee Self Service questions (Payworks).
  • Payroll admins, accountants and bookkeepers: Payworks points clients to their dedicated Client Service Representative for help with email login (Payworks). Its public pages don't say what proof it asks for before resetting 2FA, or how long that takes.

Payworks' public pages don't say how to turn 2FA off. For admin accounts on email login it's mandatory, so plan on keeping it.

Official Payworks help

More guides: Payments, accounting and insurance