Payroll Integration User s Guide

Transcription

1 Payroll Integration User s Guide This guide includes general instructions for the use of Employee Navigator s Payroll Integration product both for the client and for our partners. It is intended for use in conjunction with the Payroll providerspecific Appendix to this document. Both documents should be carefully reviewed. 1

2 Table of Contents Client User Guide... 4 Chapter 1 Executive Overview... 4 Fields being exchanged from your Payroll system to Employee Navigator... 4 Fields being exchanged from Employee Navigator to your Payroll system... 4 Information Being Sent Both Ways... 4 Using Subscriber Groups to handle Multiple EINs... 5 Chapter 2 General Set-Up... 7 When can the two systems be connected?... 7 Getting Connected... 7 Implementation... 8 Setup Checklist Chapter 3 Managing information when the API is turned on Tools and notifications to monitor within Employee Navigator Payroll Dashboard Partner Apps Activity The Wall Demographic Change Report Incomplete Employees hired from the Payroll system Enrolled by Ineligible Employees Open Enrollment with Integrated Payroll Demographic Changes Initiated in Employee Navigator Initiated in Payroll System Employee Compensation Updates New Hires Initiated in Payroll System Initiated in Employee Navigator Rehires Initiated in Payroll System Initiated in Employee Navigator Terminations Initiated in Payroll

3 Initiated in Employee Navigator Deductions Deductions Updated in Employee Navigator Deductions that require manual updates in Payroll Payroll ID Blocking sync Special Employee Records Chapter 4: Troubleshooting Partner User Guide Chapter 1-Payroll Partner Roles and Responsibilities Overview Manage EN Marketplace Content Manage Connection Requests from EN Companies Support and Escalation Process

4 Client User Guide Chapter 1 Executive Overview Employee Navigator has developed a Payroll Integration that allows you to share employee demographics and recurring deductions with your Payroll system and will allow your Payroll system to share employee demographics with Employee Navigator. We are using an API (Application Programming Interface) to connect Employee Navigator with your Payroll system in near real-time. The API includes the ability for demographic data to flow bidirectionally between Employee Navigator and your Payroll system. A few key things to mention: Recurring benefit deductions will always flow from Employee Navigator to the Payroll system. Compensation updates must always be made in the Payroll system, which will then automatically update Employee Navigator. Payroll providers can customize how their payroll software interacts with Employee Navigator s API. For example, the payroll provider may determine which system HR should use to add a new employee or terminate an existing employee. Please refer to the Appendix for provider-specific details about the integration. This is a real-time integration meaning that data will be flowing between the two systems at a predefined interval (within 90 seconds or less.) When a change to an employee record occurs in one system, that system notifies the other system of the change, the data is sent securely to the other system and the receiving system applies the change. Some basic set-up will be required in both Employee Navigator and your Payroll system before you can begin using the interface. Fields being exchanged from your Payroll system to Employee Navigator Compensation: Hourly rate and/or the annual base salary will be sent from your Payroll system to Employee Navigator and then locked in Employee Navigator. Note: The annual benefit salary will not be transmitted by your Payroll system to Employee Navigator. It should be manually updated in both systems. Payroll ID: The payroll ID is unique to the employee and will be sent from your Payroll system and cannot be updated in Employee Navigator. Fields being exchanged from Employee Navigator to your Payroll system Recurring benefit deductions: Information will be pulled from Employee Navigator s system to obtain the proper deduction by plan. New, changed or ended deductions are automatically sent to the Payroll system when changes occur. For now, overrides and/or 1 time deductions must be manually updated in payroll. Information Being Sent Both Ways 4

5 Note: The fields listed below are the minimum fields exchanged between Employee Navigator and the Payroll system. Additional values may be exchanged, depending on your Payroll provider. Refer to the Appendix for more detail. SSN: SSN must be established in your Payroll system. If SSN in your Payroll system does not match the SSN in Employee Navigator, you will be prompted to correct the data appropriately. Date of Birth: Employee s date of birth First, last and middle names: Employee name updates Address lines 1 and 2: Address updates City, State, Zip: Address updates Home phone: Phone updates address updates (this is the Primary address in Employee Navigator) Hire and Termination Dates Hire and termination dates will be exchanged both ways unless the Payroll system requires that hires, rehires and terminations occur in the payroll system. See your payroll provider-specific appendix for more details. Hire date: Employee s most recent hire date (if the employee has been terminated in the past, this is the rehire date of the employee). In some payroll systems the most recent hire date is called rehire date if the employee is a rehire. In Employee Navigator, the most recent hire date is always the hire date. Termination date: Termination date of the Employee. Note: when the termination date is sent from your Payroll system the following termination reason is always used: Voluntary Termination (18 months). If that is not correct, you must manually update the reason in Employee Navigator. Using Subscriber Groups to handle Multiple EINs It is a common practice for multiple companies (tax ID s) with common ownership to operate under an umbrella company that shares employee benefits. Employee Navigator supports this structure; however, many umbrella companies are set-up as a single company in Employee Navigator. For this reason, we needed to find a solution that would accommodate all company structures in Employee Navigator. The Subscriber Group is a new concept that is another way for a vendor to define employees in Employee Navigator. It allows for multiple connections to be made under one EN company umbrella. For example, say you have group with multiple EINs built as a single company in Employee Navigator. Each EIN has a different payroll system configured for their specific group. Subscriber groups allow you to make multiple payroll connections within one Employee Navigator company umbrella. Creating a Subscriber Group You will need to create your Subscriber Groups prior to making your payroll product selection. If you are not using subscriber groups, you will select "All" when connecting to your payroll product. To create a subscriber group in a company go to Company>Settings>Subscriber Groups. Add the desired name for your subscriber group. After your subscriber groups have been added, then you will want to use our Bulk Assign tool to assign your employees to the group. 5

6 Assigning Subscriber Groups We have created a bulk assign tool to allow you to easily assign Subscriber Groups to your employees. To access the bulk assign tool after your Subscriber Groups have been established go to Company>Settings>Subscriber Groups and click into a subscriber group. To assign employees to the group, select Assign. You are then able to assign employees to the subscriber group using either the Basic or Advanced options. You are able to assign employees to multiple subscriber groups. NOTE: A Subscriber Group can also be assign on an employee's profile (Profile>Apps). Primary Subscriber Group When dealing with multiple subscriber groups, a primary subscriber group needs to be selected. Payroll deductions will be sent only to the primary subscriber group. The first subscriber group that is assigned to an employee will be marked as their primary. You are able to manually change the primary subscriber group for an employee from their Profile>Employment. As mentioned above, deduction records and deduction updates will only be sent to the Primary Subscriber groups. If an employee is assigned to multiple subscriber groups, demographic updates will be sent to all subscriber groups. Example: Employee Sammy Watkins is assigned to three subscriber groups: Subscriber Group A, Subscriber Group B, and Subscriber Group C. Subscriber Group B was selected as Sammy's primary Subscriber Group (this was done manually on his profile by going to Profile>Employment). When going through the discrepancy process, Sammy was included on the Subscriber Group B demographic and deduction import. Updated demographic information was sent out to Subscriber Group A, Subscriber Group B, and Subscriber Group C. When deduction information was reconciled during the discrepancy process, the deduction information was only sent to Subscriber Group B because it is selected as his Primary Subscriber Group. Sammy gets married in May and wants to add his wife to his medical benefit. He goes into EN and adds coverage for his wife as a Life Event. His cost of coverage increases from $56.01 to $ That updated deduction is sent only to Subscriber Group B and his paycheck is updated accordingly. In August, Sammy and his wife move. John updates his address in Employee Navigator. That updated address information is sent to Subscriber Group A, Subscriber Group B, and Subscriber Group C and his profile is updated in each system. Switching Primary Subscriber Groups When switching an employee's primary subscriber group you will be prompted the following message: "You are changing your primary subscriber group. This impacts an employee's eligibility window. Do you want to keep the current hire date of [date] for eligibility purposes?" If "Yes" is selected, and the current hire date is kept for eligibility, the employee s hire date will remain the same. On the ee s new primary, we will see the preserved hire date field checked and the exchanged hire date field. The preserved hire date check identifies that we are keeping the ee's old hire date for 6

7 eligibility purposes. The exchanged hire date field will be populated when the new hire date information flows from primary payroll to EN. If "No" is selected, and the current hire date is not kept for eligibility, then the employee s hire date record will be updated with the new primary subscriber groups hire date value when a transmission is sent for the first time. This will impact the ee s eligibility window. Preserved primary will not be checked, and no exchange hire date will show. Chapter 2 General Set-Up If you are not a client of your desired payroll system provider, you first need to become one! To do this please see your Payroll system s page on our Marketplace. From here, you are able to get quotes from various partners. When can the two systems be connected? It is strongly encouraged to connect the two systems after Employee Navigator s benefits module is up and running and after your 2 nd payroll run has been completed. Getting Connected After you have selected and contacted your payroll provider, navigate to your company s Payroll tab in Employee Navigator. Select Partner Selection >>> Add a Service>>> Select Product. In the drop down, select your desired payroll service, and select add. If you are using Subscriber Groups to handle multiple EINs you will need to first establish your subscriber groups before adding a service. Your provider will be notified and you ll be contacted by a representative from the payroll provider to assist you with the implementation. You will receive an from your Payroll provider which will contain instructions and paperwork to authorize the payroll sync. This will need to be signed and returned to your selected payroll vendor. Once the required paperwork is received by your Payroll provider, you will be notified that you are in the audit mode of the API activation. Before you can have an active API, you have some auditing to do! Audit Mode: Employee Navigator s API has 3 Modes: Off, Audit and On. These settings are controlled by the Payroll provider. During Audit mode, only those changes made using Employee Navigator s discrepancy audit tool will be synchronized between the two systems. Changes made on the employee profile by the employee or HR will not be sent to the Payroll system until the API is switched On. Once you have completed the audit and initial synchronization of your data, you will notify the Payroll provider that you are ready for the provider to switch the API to On. Note: Since the HR users own the Payroll data and the employee information, we believe that HR users will be managing the auditing, setup and ongoing operations of the payroll integration. The broker may need to assist with the initial setup. 7

8 Implementation The goal of this set-up process is to make sure that both systems have matching values, including payroll deduction dates and deduction codes. Once this is completed, Employee Navigator will help you identify employees who have different values between the two systems and correct them. The implementation steps are: 1. Configure Payroll Settings 2. Configure Company Settings 3. Resolve Discrepancies 4. Activate Payroll Sync 1) Configure Payroll Settings In order to exchange information between the two systems, you must first confirm that specific values such as payroll groups, payroll calendars and deductions codes match exactly between Employee Navigator and the Payroll system. If you have not yet setup payroll groups in Employee Navigator, follow these instructions to set up payroll groups, pay calendars and deduction codes: Payroll Setup. If you already have your payroll groups established, be sure to check that everything is setup correctly. The following items need to be completed in Step 1: 1. Set-up payroll groups: If you have already setup payroll groups within Employee Navigator, confirm that the pay frequencies tied to your payroll groups match the pay frequencies assigned in your payroll system. If you have not yet setup payroll groups, set them up in Employee Navigator now using the same frequencies as your Payroll system. Configuring Payroll groups allows you to set the pay frequency and build a payroll calendar which will be used throughout the system to determine per pay costs, PTO accruals on a per pay frequency, YTD contributions to cafeteria and consumer directed health plans, etc. For more information on when Payroll groups are required, see the article on Payroll Setup. Payroll groups are required when using our Payroll API. 2. Select your payroll dates: Confirm that the pay calendar attached to each payroll group within Employee Navigator exactly matches the pay dates in your Payroll system, or adjust the as necessary. 3. Match deduction codes: Deduction codes used in Employee Navigator and your Payroll system also must match exactly in order for the proper deduction amount to be recognized in your Payroll system. For example, if the code in Employee Navigator is DEN and the code in your Payroll system is DENTAL, we will not be able to recognize that the codes are the same. Improper changing of codes could have negative consequences. In most instances it will be easier to change the deduction codes in Employee Navigator. To confirm deduction codes are setup properly: 1. Run your Deduction Report in your payroll system (see appendix for the specific report used by your Payroll system) 2. Take the generated report and identify all deductions currently being used. 8

9 3. Map your deduction codes in Employee Navigator by inputting the appropriate deduction code for each benefit on each payroll group in the Pre-Tax Code column on the Deduction Codes page. 2) Configure Company Settings Next, you must confirm that certain company settings are in place. The following items need to be completed in Step 2: 1. Configure the setting for New Hire enrollments: Set Pending New Hire enrollments to pending until all completed or pending for HR approval (Benefits >> Settings >> Enrollment). 2. Mark payroll group as required in HRIS: Go to Settings >> HRIS Field Tracking. 3. Assign Payroll Groups to employees: Use the import tool to assign Payroll Groups to all employees, if they are not already assigned. 4. Confirm benefit classes are setup appropriately: Review your benefit classes (Settings >> Class Structure >> Classes and Dynamic Classes) to confirm that non-eligible employees will be excluded from benefits. Since ALL employees are being exchanged between Employee Navigator and Payroll, non-eligible employees will be included in Employee Navigator going forward and you must ensure that they are not benefit eligible. You should review this with your Broker. 3) Resolve discrepancies You are now ready to confirm that the employee demographics and deductions match between the two systems. Employee Navigator has developed a tool that allows you to compare specific values between the two systems and, if there is a discrepancy, choose which value is correct and automatically update the incorrect system accordingly. 9

10 The audit and synchronization process occurs in two steps: the Employee Discrepancy Audit (demographics) and the Deduction Discrepancy Audit (deductions). Subscriber Groups and the Discrepancy Process If you are using subscriber groups, your discrepancy process will look a little bit different. Because you are working with different subscriber groups you will need import a demographic and a deduction file per subscriber group. Before going through the discrepancy process you must assign your employees to subscriber groups. If group is using multiple subscriber groups, then during the discrepancy process we will only show Missing from EN, Needs Validation, In Sync, and we will show missing from payroll as an option IF the ee is assigned to the selected subscriber group but they are not included on the file. Because we are only looking at the compensation values, hire, and term date for an ee's primary subscriber group, you will only see those discrepancies presented when auditing demographics within the ee's primary subscriber group. If there is a discrepancy with an employee's hire date, and they are assigned to multiple subscriber groups, we will give the user the option to keep the ee's current EN hire date the same for eligibility purposes. Example: An employee, Ben Boulware, is assigned to three subscriber groups. Subscriber group A is marked as Ben's primary. A demographic discrepancy file is imported into EN and Ben appears in the "Needs Validation" section. He has a hire date discrepancy. Hire Date Value in EN = 06/01/2013 Hire Date Value in payroll = 08/30/2016 If the EN hire date of 06/01/2013 is chosen as the true hire date then that hire date will be sent to payroll and populated in the employee's record. 10

11 If the payroll date of 08/30/2016 is selected to be the hire date, then when the user clicks sync on the employee's record a modal will be presented that asks ""You are changing the hire date for this employee's primary subscriber group. This impacts an employee's eligibility window. Do you want to keep the current hire date of [date] for eligibility purposes?" If "Yes" is selected and the current hire date is kept, the payroll hire date value will appear on Ben's record as "Exchanged Hire Date." The hire date of 06/01/2013 will remain in the Ben's hire date field on his profile and will be used for benefit eligibility. If "No" is selected and the current hire date is not kept for eligibility purposes, then payroll's hire date value of 08/30/2016 will be populated as Ben's hire date on his profile. Employee Discrepancy Audit (demographics) Before you turn on the API, you want to be sure that the demographic information is the same in both systems because you do not want to overwrite good information in one system with bad information from another system once the API is turned on. You will run a report in your Payroll system to get the demographic information and then import it into Employee Navigator for comparison purposes. *Do not include 1099 employees when you are running this report.* To do this: 1. Generate a demographic report in your payroll system. (See the Appendix for the specific name of the report used by your Payroll provider) 2. Import the report into Employee Navigator. To import the file, click into Payroll>Integrated Payroll > Employee Discrepancy Audit. 3. Click + Start New Import and then follow the steps in the import wizard to upload your file. 4. When you get to the mapping step, note that the fields have been pre-mapped based on the fields provided by your Payroll provider. Do not change the mappings that have been provided. Once the file is imported, you will receive an from the system. Click on View Report in the import list to view the discrepancies identified between the two systems: Hire and Term Date Discrepancies: (Red warning banner): These are employees who have more than one date discrepancy between the two systems. Identify which system has the incorrect dates and manually adjust the dates in that system before proceeding. If you make any date updates in your Payroll system, you will need to load a new demographic report from Payroll into the discrepancy tool before proceeding. Missing from EN: These are employee records that are in your Payroll system, but not in Employee Navigator. We give you the ability to push these missing employees into Employee Navigator during the demographic data synchronization process. Fuzzy match: If the SSN does not match for an employee, but their DOB, first initial of their first name, and the first initial of their last name match, we will surface this information. We do not want duplicate records created! If the SSN information is incorrect, please correct the employee s SSN in Employee Navigator, and then reimport the file. If you make a change to the employee s SSN, be sure that your carriers are notified of the change. 11

12 Missing from File: EE records that are in Employee Navigator and not in your Payroll system. If your Payroll system accepts new employee records from Employee Navigator, we will give you the option to push these missing employees into the Payroll system during the demographic synchronization process. Otherwise, you will need to add these missing employees into the payroll system manually. Fuzzy match: If the SSN does not match for an employee, but their DOB, first initial of their first name, and the first initial of their last name match, we will surface this information. We do not want duplicate records created! If the SSN information is incorrect, please correct the employee s SSN in payroll, and then reimport the file. If you make a change to the employee s SSN, be sure that payroll is properly notified. Needs Validation: Employees with matching SSN in both Employee Navigator and your Payroll system, but there are discrepancies in the data. From this page, you are able to identify which fields are correct. You are also able to skip the record and return to it later if it requires further research. When the validations are saved, the information will be updated in both EN and your payroll system. In Sync: Employees that are in sync in Employee Navigator and your Payroll system. Once you have resolved all of the demographic data discrepancies and all of your employees are counted as In Sync you can move on to the Deduction Discrepancy Audit. NOTE: The demographic and deduction audits can be performed at any time, thus allowing you to audit the data discrepancies between the systems at any time, for example, the annual benefit open enrollment. Blocking Sync: During the discrepancy process, you may identify records in Employee Navigator which you do not want to sync with the Payroll system, such as former spouses and dependents as PQB s. Choose block sync during the discrepancy audit process and that employee will not be exchanged with the Payroll system at any point, unless they are unblocked. FAQs for Employee Discrepancy Audit Q: What will happen if the Payroll ID is currently populated before I begin the deduction demographic audit? A: Any existing Payroll IDs will be deleted and replaced with the payroll provider Payroll ID when you complete the import portion of the discrepancy audit. Q: Are all employee records synced, including terminated employees? A: Yes, if a change is made to an employee who was terminated two years ago, it will be updated between the two systems. Some payroll systems may have limitations on which terminated employees are exchanged. Q: Why are some fields, like compensation, locked during the demographic discrepancy process? A: Fields that are locked during the discrepancy process are owned by payroll. For example, because payroll owns the compensation values in this integration, we will only allow you to select payroll s values for compensation when going through the discrepancy process. If you notice that Employee 12

13 Navigator s value is correct and the field is locked for payroll, you will need to manually adjust that value in payroll and reimport the file. Q: I noticed that the Benefit Salary field is now populated for some of my employees, and it was not populated before this integration. Why is that? A: We noticed as we were walking through the discrepancy process with brokers that the compensation fields were being used differently than they were originally designed. For example, in an employee s annual base salary field, the employee s salary + bonus would be added, not just their base salary. The salary + bonus is what is being used to determine the salary base benefits. To avoid this calculation from being changed, during the demographic discrepancy process for an employee, if the entered system salary is greater than the incoming salary from payroll, we will automatically move the system salary to the benefit salary field for the employee. The current salary effective date will equal the benefit salary effective date. NOTE: If a benefit salary already exists for the employee we will not replace that value. Q: I tried to import my file, but I am unable to get past the mapping. Why is this occurring? A: If SSNs are missing from the file, you will be unable to proceed with the demographic import. If file being imported does not contain all of the exchanged fields between EN and payroll, you will not be able to proceed through the import. If you are having issues with you file, please contact your payroll provider. Deduction Discrepancy Audit Do not begin the deduction data synchronization until the demographic discrepancy is complete. Once the employee data has been synchronized, the next step is to synchronize the deductions between the two systems. Note: If the deduction amount is incorrect in Employee Navigator, please contact your system administrator. 1. Generate and download the Deduction Code report in your Payroll system for your employees. Do not include terminated employees in this report. (See Appendix for the specific name of this report for your Payroll provider) 2. Upload the file into Employee Navigator by navigating to Payroll> Integrated Payroll > Deduction Discrepancy Audit. Any deduction amount that is correct in Employee Navigator but missing or incorrect in your Payroll system can be pushed into your Payroll system using the synchronization tool. Deductions that are missing or incorrect in Employee Navigator will need to be manually corrected. The following are the statuses and corresponding actions for resolving deduction discrepancies: 1. In Sync: Deduction code and deduction amount both match in EN and payroll. No action required. 2. Duplicate Deduction: Deduction code already found in import. You are able to ignore the duplicate deduction or import a new file with the duplicate removed. 3. Sync to Payroll: Deduction code matches, but deduction amount doesn't. When this button is selected, the Employee Navigator deduction amount will be sent to the payroll provider. 13

14 4. Transmission Sent: This status will appear after a successful Sync to Payroll. The deduction amount now matches because the user took action on the record to send the deduction for transmission to the payroll provider. No further action required. 5. Not In Sync (because Employee is missing from Employee Navigator): If an employee is missing from Employee Navigator, the action item is to add that employee. Once the edits have been made, click back into the deduction discrepancy file and click Refresh Statuses. 6. Not In Sync (because deduction code does not match): If the deduction codes themselves do not match (ie, the Payroll system has a code of DEN but Employee Navigator has a code of DENTAL, make edits to the Employee Navigator deduction codes on the Payroll Group(s). Once the edits have been made, click back into the deduction discrepancy file and click Refresh Statuses. 7. Employee Not Synced: If the employee is not currently connected to payroll, and has deductions imported, this status will appear. To connect the employee, import a demographic file with the employee information from payroll. 8. Employee Blocked: If a deduction was imported for an employee that has been blocked, this notification will appear. FAQs for Deduction Discrepancy Audit Q: What do I do about grandfathered deduction amounts? A: If you have a grandfathered deduction amount which does not match in Employee Navigator, the over-ride must be initiated in the payroll system. Q: What if the deduction amount is correct in payroll, but not in EN? A: If the deduction about in payroll is correct a manual adjustment will need to be made in Employee Navigator. Employee Navigator is the system of record when it comes to deduction records, meaning that we will not take a deduction value from payroll. Please contact your broker if you run into this issue. 4) Activate Payroll Sync Once you have resolved all demographic and deduction discrepancies, it is strongly recommended that you load final versions of the demographic report and the deduction report into the discrepancy tool to make sure there are no remaining discrepancies. Additionally, if you have added any new employees into Employee Navigator by clicking Create Employee in the demographic discrepancy audit tool, you will need to complete any missing required fields for those employees. From Employee Navigator s home page, go to: Home>Incomplete Employees. You will be able to add the missing demographic values in the employee record by clicking on Re-start Hire. Once the record is complete, you will have the option to notify the new employee so they can complete their required onboarding tasks and enroll in benefits. After resolving any remaining discrepancies, the final step is to notify your Payroll system account representative that your Discrepancy Audit is complete. Your Payroll provider will then activate the API. 14

15 Setup Checklist The checklist below summarizes items that need to be completed before the API can be turned ON. Set-up payroll groups in EN Set-up payroll calendar in EN Add payroll deduction codes in EN Obtain demographic and deduction files from payroll Set Pending New Hire enrollments to pending until all completed or pending for HR approval (Benefits >> Settings >> Enrollment) Mark payroll group as required in HRIS (Settings >> HRIS Field Tracking) Confirm all employees are assigned to a payroll group Confirm benefit classes are setup appropriately to exclude non-eligible employees HR resolves discrepancies using Employee Navigator s Discrepancy Audit tools HR provides missing required fields for any incomplete employees HR notifies Payroll Provider that all discrepancies are resolved Payroll Provider changes API status from audit to on Chapter 3 Managing information when the API is turned on Once your Payroll provider has moved your API out of Audit mode and turned it On, changes to the fields exchanged between the systems will be tracked and the other system will be notified of all changes immediately. The sections below provide important information about the ongoing synchronization of data. Tools and notifications to monitor within Employee Navigator Employee Navigator has developed several features to provide visibility into the data being exchanged between Employee Navigator and the Payroll system. Users are strongly advised to develop a regular process for reviewing these tools and notifications so that you can be aware of changes sent to Employee Navigator that could impact an employee s benefits. You can also monitor these tools to identify and correct any errors in the communication between the Payroll system and Employee Navigator. 15

16 Payroll Dashboard The Payroll Dashboard provides insight into the status of the connected employees and the ongoing transmissions between systems. Key Statistics In the upper right of the Payroll Dashboard (main navigation > Payroll), there are several statistics regarding connected employees: 1. Missing Payroll ID: Employees who are not connected to the Payroll system via a common are Payroll id. These employees exist in Employee Navigator but not in the Payroll system. 2. Missing Payroll Group: Employees with no Payroll Group assigned. Payroll group is a required field for companies using the Payroll integration product. Add a Payroll Group to any employee who is missing it. 3. Connected Employees: Lists the employees who are connected to the Payroll system via a common Payroll id. 4. Blocked Sync: Employees who have been blocked from synchronization between the two systems. These could be dependents as Primary Qualified Beneficiary (PQB), company owners, or 1099s. These employee records will not be updated when a change is made in the other system. To unblock an employee record and start exchanging data, select the employee(s) who are currently blocked and then click unblock selected. 5. Integrated Fields: Lists the fields that are being exchanged between Employee Navigator and the Payroll system. Any field marked as Yes for Is Locked for Editing must be updated in the Payroll system and is locked for editing in Employee Navigator. Payroll Transmissions In the bottom half of the Payroll Dashboard, users can monitor the transmissions between the Payroll system and Employee Navigator. You should monitor this area regularly, specifically looking for any failed transmissions that need to be corrected. Fields listed in the transmission dashboard include: 1. Events: All events that have occurred for this employee. Use this information to help identify the types of changes that have occurred and the data elements that changed. 2. Change History: Displays specific data elements that have changed for the employee. For a deduction change, the change history will show only those changes to the particular deduction code displayed. 3. Date: Shows the date/time of a particular change that prompted a transmission of data from/to the Payroll system. 4. Type: Indicates whether the change is a demographic change FROM Payroll TO Employee Navigator (Demo In); a demographic change FROM Employee Navigator TO Payroll (Demo Out); a Deduction Change (Ded Out). 5. Status: Indicates the success or failure of a transmission. 16

17 a. Transmission Not Sent this can be seen if an employee is blocked from synchronization, if the company is in Audit mode, or if a deduction cannot be sent to payroll because payroll does not have a deduction code established. b. Transmission was successful from/to the Payroll system. You can review the specific data elements that were transmitted. c. Transmission failed - Employee Navigator and Payroll systems are out of sync until you resolve the issue. Review the error message and take the necessary steps to correct it. For example, you added a new company benefit for Vision and enrolled an employee in the vision plan, but forgot to setup the new VIS deduction code in the Payroll system. The transmission will fail until you setup the new deduction code in Payroll. d. Action: If there was a transmission failure, a retry button will appear, allowing you to send the transmission again after correcting the error. Partner Apps Activity Once the integration is activated, changes to employee records made in the Payroll system will be automatically sent to Employee Navigator without any Employee Navigator users being aware of the changes. To raise awareness of changes triggered by third party applications, Employee Navigator has developed a Partner Apps Activity report that identifies all changes initiated by outside applications. On the Employees page (main navigation>employees) in the Partner Apps Activity area, click Inbound Changes to review changes that originated in another application, such as Payroll. Scroll to the bottom of the list and click See full report to view all transactions within a specified date range. Transmission errors are also available from the Partner Apps Activity area and should be reviewed regularly. An example of a notification is API Terminated with Benefits. This notification means that the employee s termination information was sent through the API and that terminated employee has terminated benefits. The Wall Use of the Wall and its notification features are strongly recommended when using the Payroll integration product. This will allow users to quickly identify changes made by a third party system (Payroll) that may require follow up action by an Employee Navigator user (e.g., an employee was terminated and the insurance company needs to be notified) or to identify changes completed in Employee Navigator that require follow up action in the Payroll system (e.g., employee moved to a new local tax jurisdiction and tax setup needs to be adjusted in Payroll). We recommend that users of the Payroll system also be setup as HR users within Employee Navigator and that they utilize the Wall to be notified of address changes, new hires, or terminations that occur within Employee Navigator. More details regarding the use of the Wall and how to setup Wall feeds is included in this support article: The Wall- Company Level. Demographic Change Report TIP: Develop a process for regularly reviewing inbound transactions in the Partner Apps Activity area on the Employees page. 17

18 Use of the demographic change report is recommended when using the Payroll integration product. We recommend running this report on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. This report can be located under Reports>Change History Reports>Demographic Changes. When this report is generated with the exchanged payroll fields, it will show the demographic change to an employee s record and where that change came from. For example, is there was an update to an employee s address from payroll, the report would show Payroll API as the change written by. Incomplete Employees hired from the Payroll system Users should regularly monitor the Incomplete Employees statistic on the company home page. An employee added as a new hire into the Payroll system will most likely be missing a few fields which can be easily added by restarting Employee Navigator s new hire wizard. 1. A New Hire added in your Payroll system will trigger a notification to Employee Navigator and the change will be picked up and added into Employee Navigator. 2. From Employee Navigator s home page, go to: Home>Incomplete Employees. You will be able to add the missing demographic values in the employee record by clicking on Re-start Hire. 3. Once the record is complete, you will have the option to notify the new employee so they can complete their required onboarding tasks and enroll in benefits. Enrolled by Ineligible Employees Certain actions may occur in the Payroll system that could make an enrolled employee no longer eligible for benefits. For example, if eligibility for a benefit is based on employee s state of residence and the employee moves to another state, the employee may no longer be eligible. Users are advised to regularly review the list of Enrolled but ineligible employees identified in the Benefit Stats on the Employees page. Open Enrollment with Integrated Payroll Open Enrollment will continue to be handled the same way for a company with Integrated Payroll, but you will see a few more fields that need to be filled out during the set-up process. Sending over ended, updated, or new elections to payroll will take place during OE closeout. You will not have to manually add these values into payroll like you have done in the past. To set-up OE, go to the Benefits Tab> Select Open Enrollment>Add an Open Enrollment> Select Active check box> Input the following dates: Effective Date (Should be the first day of the plan year) Enrollment Start Date and time Enrollment End Date and time Once this is completed you will Select the plans to be included in the Open Enrollment by placing a check mark in the box next to the plan. Before selecting save, you will select "View Deduction Codes". Click into each established payroll group and confirm that that deduction codes that have been enter are up to date. This is very important 18

19 because we will be sending the deduction codes and their values over to payroll after OE is closed out to update the employee records. If the codes are not populated prior to the employee's election, we will not be able to send over the values to payroll. Once the payroll deduction codes have been populated and you have selected Save on the page, you are able to select "Back to Open Enrollment Setup" to take you back to the OE Edit page. Select Save. Now let's skip ahead to the Close Tab to talk about sending OE elections over to payroll. You will want to set-up the required information under the Notifications, Ending Plans, and Enroll tabs prior to navigating to the Close tab. The Close tab allows you to schedule the close out process and is where you will select your "Send Deductions to Payroll" date. A close out date must be selected in order to select a "Send Deductions to Payroll" date. When selecting a "Send deductions to Payroll" date, you must select a date after the last processed pay cycle for your old plan year. Once the date to send the deduction information to payroll is selected, you cannot change the selected date. If you do not select a Send Deductions to Payroll date then we will send the deductions on the OE closeout date. It could negatively impact processing your payroll if you do not input a Send Deductions to Payroll date. Demographic Changes Initiated in Employee Navigator When employee data is changed in Employee Navigator by an HR user, employee, insurance broker or system administrator and the record is saved, the system will identify if any of the fields being exchanged with the payroll system has changed. If changes are detected, the updated employee record will be passed to your payroll provider and applied to the employee s record. Changes accepted by your payroll provider are clearly defined in the Appendix. At a minimum, the exchanged fields include first, last and middle names, address lines 1 and 2 changes, changes to the city, state or zip, changes to an employee s home phone number, address, or job title. Initiated in Payroll System When you change demographic information in your Payroll system and press save, the update will be sent to Employee Navigator. The fields that are exchanged with the Payroll system are clearly defined in the Appendix. At a minimum, the exchanged fields include first, last and middle names, address lines 1 and 2 changes, changes to the city, state or zip, changes to an employee s home phone number, work , or job title. It is possible that demographic changes made in the Payroll system, such as an address change, could impact an employee s benefit eligibility. Users are advised to regularly review the list of Enrolled but ineligible employees identified in the Benefit Stats on the Employees page. Changes flow between the two systems at a pre-defined interval (within 90 seconds or less.) 19

20 Q: What happens when a company is using the setting in Employee Navigator to pend demographic changes made by employees for HR review, such as a change of address? A: Changes that are pended for approval are not updated in the Payroll system until after they have been approved in Employee Navigator. Employee Compensation Updates Compensation data is managed by the Payroll system and shared with Employee Navigator. The compensation fields will be locked in Employee Navigator and can only be changed in the Payroll system. Benefit Salary: In some instances the salary received from Payroll is not the proper salary to be used when calculating salary-based benefits such as disability benefits which are a percentage of salary or life insurance benefits which are a multiple of an employee s annual salary. If the definition of compensation for salary-based benefits is salary + commission or last year s salary, etc, the salary received from Payroll may not be the correct value to use for salary-based benefits. For this reason, Employee Navigator has a field called Annual Benefit Salary. This field is used by Employee Navigator when calculating life or disability benefits instead of the salary field. The Benefit Salary field is not synced or shared with payroll systems and should be manually updated in Employee Navigator. Q: Can I make compensation updates in Employee Navigator and have them sent to the Payroll system? A: No, compensation changes can only be made in your Payroll system. Q: How does Employee Navigator generate the annual salary amount when supplied an hourly rate for an hourly employee? A: Employee Navigator uses the hourly rate multiplied by the average annual hours per week to generate the annual salary. If your provider does not provide the average hours, we will not calculate the annual salary and HR users will need to input the annual benefit salary in order for salary-based benefits such as life insurance multiple of salaries and disability benefits, which are a percentage of salaries. Please consult the Appendix to determine your payroll partner s settings. Q: If fields are locked for editing in Employee Navigator, can I still update them via the import tool? A: If fields are locked in the UI for payroll integration, they are locked in the import for any employee that has a Payroll ID. The import tool will ignore values for locked fields. Q: Can I send the annual benefits salary housed in the Payroll system to Employee Navigator? A: Annual benefits salary will not be sent from the Payroll system to Employee Navigator. The Employee Navigator Annual Benefits Salary will be used to calculate salary-based benefits, if the Annual Benefits Salary field is populated. Q: What will happen with the future salary dates that I added into the system before the payroll integration? A: When your company is made active (meaning that you are no longer in audit mode) then all future salary dates will be cleared for employees. Prior to the API being turned on the Pending Salary Changes report (Payroll>Reports) will show the future salaries and future salary effective dates for 20

21 employees. Once the API is turned on this report will only show current salary and current salary effective dates. New Hires In most cases, new hires may be initiated in either the Payroll system or in Employee Navigator. See the Appendix to determine if your Payroll provider has provided guidelines for where new hires may be initiated. Initiated in Payroll System New hires entered into the payroll system are sent to Employee Navigator. NOTE: An employee added into the Payroll system will most likely be missing a few fields which can be easily added by restarting Employee Navigator s new hire wizard. 1. A New Hire added in your Payroll system will trigger a notification to Employee Navigator and the change will be picked up and added into Employee Navigator. 2. From Employee Navigator s home page, go to: Home>Incomplete Employees. You will be able to add the missing demographic values in the employee record by clicking on Re-start Hire. 3. Once the record is complete, you will have the option to notify the new employee so they can complete their required onboarding tasks and enroll in benefits. Initiated in Employee Navigator New hires entered into Employee Navigator will be sent to your Payroll system. See the Appendix for Payroll provider-specific details about how to complete a new hire record in the payroll system when it was initiated in Employee Navigator. Rehires Initiated in Payroll System Rehires entered into the Payroll system will be sent to Employee Navigator. This rehire will need to have their benefits reinstated manually if applicable. Initiated in Employee Navigator Rehires entered into Employee Navigator will be sent to your Payroll system. See the Appendix for Payroll provider-specific details about any limitations on whether or not a rehire can be initiated in Employee Navigator. Terminations Initiated in Payroll 21

22 Terminations entered into the Payroll system are sent to Employee Navigator and all benefits will be ended according to plan rules and a COBRA qualifying event will be automatically triggered in Employee Navigator. If the termination reason is for the death of an employee, please contact your COBRA administrator to be sure the surviving dependents are offered COBRA for 36 months. Note: When a termination occurs in payroll and is sent to Employee Navigator, we will automatically assign the termination reason Voluntary Termination. If this is not the correct reason, a manual adjustment needs to be made in Employee Navigator. To edit a termination reason, go to an employee s profile>terminate Editor. Edit the reason and select Save. Initiated in Employee Navigator Some Payroll providers require terminations to be entered into the Payroll system. *See the Appendix for Payroll provider-specific details regarding terminations. Terminations that happen in Employee Navigator will go through the normal termination process. All benefits will be ended according to plan rules and a COBRA qualifying event will be automatically triggered in Employee Navigator. The termination date will be sent over to payroll. Be sure that all the termination processes are handled in payroll as expected. Deductions Employee Navigator is the system of record for all recurring payroll deductions. These deduction amounts can be programmatically set to vary by an employee s class, department, division, etc. Any overrides to the system-generated deduction amounts must be completed in your payroll system. Examples of deduction overrides include retroactive debits or credits for a benefit change made after an effective date, leave of absence, FMLA, etc. See the Appendix for any Payroll provider-specific rules regarding deductions. TIP: During each Open Enrollment period, confirm that any new deduction codes are setup correctly on the Payroll Group in Employee Navigator and in the Payroll system. Q: When are deductions sent by Employee Navigator? A: Deductions are sent only when employees fully complete the benefit enrolment process and select Agree. Deductions Updated in Employee Navigator 1. Any new enrollment or change to an existing enrollment that changes a deduction amount results in a deduction record being sent to the payroll system via the API 2. After the change is made in Employee Navigator you are able to see the reflected change in your payroll system 3. Customers may use the standard set of deduction codes included in the API, or you may specify unique deduction codes using the existing advanced payroll deduction setup 4. NOTE: When using the standard deduction codes provided by Employee Navigator the employer and employee deduction codes will be the same 22