Your first payroll contribution submission is an integral part of successfully getting your plan up and running. Below is an outline of the first payroll contribution submission process.
- Provide us with complete and accurate census information for your plan.
- Submit your first payroll.
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Review responsibilities (i.e. informing us of employee status changes) that you, as the employer, are responsible for.
Census Information
Providing a complete and accurate census is very important and will help make payroll submissions and reporting easier. A census is a list of every employee currently employed or employed at any time during the current plan year. Learn more about what is needed and why we need a census file.
Confirm Payroll Specifications
Confirm the following is set up in your employer portal and through your payroll provider:
- Deduction Codes: Depending on the type of plan you have, our payroll specialists will provide the necessary deduction codes that will need to get setup through your payroll provider.
- Payroll Groups: Make sure any pay groups in your payroll system are also set up with us and vice versa. Setting up payroll groups will allow you to set a payment schedule, set a payment frequency, and select the bank account contributions will be pulled from.
- Safe Harbor: Set up safe harbor plans if applicable.
Submit Payroll
Manually submit your payroll from your employer portal through the "Contributions" tab.
So your first payroll has been submitted, now what?
Now that your first payroll has been submitted your responsibilities are the following:
- Employee Deferrals: Maintain employee deferral rates in your payroll system.
- Employee Status Changes: Make updates in your payroll system when employees are hired, terminated, rehired, etc.
- Employee Personal Information: Maintain complete, accurate, and up-to-date personal information within your payroll system. This includes the date of birth, social security number, and email address.
- Pay Frequency/Schedule Changes: Report any pay frequency or pay schedule changes to us.
- Review Payroll Data: We rely on you to provide us with correct, updated, and complete data about your employees regardless of whether we receive that data directly from you or from your payroll provider. Regular audits and spot checks of the data provided to us will help you quickly identify and rectify any discrepancies.
Your 'First Payroll' Walkthrough Call
At a designated time before your first payroll date, a representative will contact you to set up a walkthrough, where we will go over the steps for submitting your first payroll contribution. This is a good opportunity to ask any questions you may have on the contribution submission process.