Creating a Crew Member

Creating a crew member in NexusRMS uses a five-step wizard that guides you through personal details, contact information, employment configuration, skills and certifications, and a final review. The stepper is non-linear — you can click any step in any order and navigate back and forth freely. The form auto-saves a draft to localStorage every 30 seconds, and drafts are retained for 24 hours so you can safely close the browser and return later.

Step 1 — Basic Information

The Basic Information step captures the crew member's personal identity and employment classification.

• Avatar — Upload a profile photo using drag-and-drop or the file browser. Supported formats: JPEG, PNG, WebP. If no photo is uploaded, the system generates an initials avatar from the crew member's name.
• First Name (required) — The crew member's given name
• Last Name (required) — The crew member's surname
• Email (required) — Primary email address, used for system notifications and login credentials
• Phone — Primary phone number with international format support
• Employee Number — Auto-generated in the format EMP-XXXX (e.g., EMP-0042). Toggle the auto-generate switch off to enter a custom employee number.
• Date of Birth — Used for age verification and HR records
• Hire Date — The date the crew member started or is expected to start. Defaults to today's date.
• Employment Type (required) — Select one: Full Time, Part Time, Freelance, or Contractor
• Employment Status — Defaults to Active. Other options: Inactive, On Leave, Terminated

Step 2 — Contact & Emergency

The Contact & Emergency step captures the crew member's address and emergency contact details.

Address

• Street Address — Street name and number
• City — Town or city
• State / County — State, county, or region
• Postal Code — Postcode or ZIP code
• Country — Country selector with search

Primary emergency contact

• Contact Name (required) — Full name of the emergency contact
• Relationship (required) — Relationship to the crew member (e.g., Spouse, Parent, Partner, Sibling)
• Phone Number (required) — Emergency contact phone number

Secondary emergency contact

Click the Add Secondary Contact button to expand an optional second emergency contact section with the same fields as the primary contact. This section can be collapsed again if not needed.

Step 3 — Employment Details

The Employment Details step configures the crew member's role, department, and pay information.

• Job Title / Role — The crew member's position or function (e.g., Sound Engineer, Stage Manager, Rigger)
• Department — Select from predefined departments: Audio, Lighting, Video, Rigging, Stage, Production, Warehouse, Transport, Administration
• Default Hourly Rate — The standard hourly pay rate for this crew member, displayed in your tenant's default currency
• Overtime Rate — Auto-calculated at 1.5× the default hourly rate. You can override this with a custom value if your overtime policy differs.
• Payment Method — Select one: Hourly, Daily, Project-Based, or Salary
• Tax ID — The crew member's tax identification number. This field is masked for security and only the last four characters are displayed after entry.
• Tax Exemptions — Any applicable tax exemption codes or notes
• Internal Notes — Free-text field for private notes about this crew member. These notes are only visible to Core Admin and Core Manager users and are never shown to the crew member.

Step 4 — Skills & Certifications

The Skills & Certifications step lets you record what this crew member can do and what qualifications they hold.

Skills

Use the autocomplete multi-select field to assign skills from the predefined list of 80+ skills. Each assigned skill can be configured with:

• Proficiency Level — Select one: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, or Expert
• Years of Experience — Numeric field indicating how long the crew member has held this skill

Skills are grouped by category (Audio/Sound, Lighting, Video/Broadcast, Rigging/Staging, and more). Assigned skills appear as cards below the selection field, each showing the skill name, proficiency chip, and years of experience.

Certifications

Click the Add Certification button to open the certification dialog. Each certification includes:

• Certification Type (required) — Select from 15 predefined types (e.g., Forklift Operator, IPAF, First Aid at Work, CSCS Card) or enter a custom type
• Certification Number — The unique certificate or licence number
• Issuing Authority — The organisation that issued the certification
• Issue Date (required) — The date the certification was granted
• Expiry Date — The date the certification expires. Leave blank and tick the No Expiry checkbox for lifetime certifications.
• Document Upload — Upload a scanned copy of the certificate. Supported formats: PDF, JPEG, PNG

Added certifications appear as cards with colour-coded expiry indicators: green for valid, amber for expiring within 30 days, and red for expired.

Step 5 — Review & Submit

The Review step presents a summary of all information entered across the previous four steps, organised into clearly labelled sections:

• Personal Information — Avatar preview, name, email, phone, employee number, date of birth, hire date
• Contact & Emergency — Address summary, primary and secondary emergency contacts
• Employment Details — Role, department, pay rates, payment method
• Skills & Certifications — Skills count with proficiency breakdown, certifications count with expiry status

Each section includes an Edit button that jumps directly back to the corresponding step for corrections. Once you are satisfied with the details, click Create Crew Member to save the record. The system assigns the employee number, creates the crew profile, and redirects you to the new crew member's detail page.

Form validation

Each step displays a red badge with the number of validation errors if any required fields are missing or invalid. Real-time validation checks fields as you fill them in, highlighting errors immediately. The Create Crew Member button on the Review step is disabled until all required fields are completed.

Tips

• Upload an avatar during creation — Profile photos make it much easier to identify crew members in grid view, on the scheduler, and on project crew lists.
• Set pay rates accurately from the start — Correct hourly and overtime rates ensure that timesheets and project costings are reliable from day one.
• Add certifications with expiry dates — The system will automatically send renewal reminders at 90, 30, and 7 days before expiry, so you never miss a compliance deadline.
• Use the draft recovery feature — If you are interrupted mid-creation, your progress is saved for 24 hours. Simply return to the creation wizard and your draft will be restored.
• Complete emergency contacts — Having at least one emergency contact on file is essential for crew working on site. Make this a mandatory part of your onboarding process.

Next steps

Continue to the next article to learn about the Crew Member Detail page, including the profile header, performance metrics, and the six detail tabs for overview, availability, certifications, timesheet, projects, and documents.