This article overviews our Payroll Integration only for partners who wrote to EN's Demographic and Deduction APIs. All other partners (ADP, Paylocity and Paychex) have their own separate articles that detail any specific nuances with their unique integrations.

Newly added: Our new Payroll Integration video for HR! This video should help convey the value of this integration for curious clients looking to learn more about how EN and Payroll interact: Employee Navigator's new Payroll Integration video for HR!

Let's take a wholistic look at the integration in the following areas:

1. Welcome video
   1. This is the video that a broker & HR would ultimately be sent once they started the integration with our EN Payroll team - but there's no sense in hiding it from you until then! Take an insider's glance at what this integration will look like for you.
2. What is the lifecycle of a payroll integration?
3. What's in it for me?
   1. We've tracked data over the last 5 years to show where this integration is providing value you can feel
4. How do I get started?
5. What do you generally need to be aware of?
6. What does this integration exchange?
7. What does this integration not exchange?
8. One-pager overviews for brokers & HR

Welcome video

What is the lifecycle of a payroll integration?

1. Talk with HR

   • Have a conversation with HR to be sure this integration is the right fit.  Our integration one-pagers are commonly helpful, and EN is happy to join a call between you and your customer to discuss the integration together.
2. Request the integration
   • Follow the steps on our How do I get started section to kick off your request to the payroll partner to notify them of your interest to integrate.
3. Setup
   • Complete some minor setup in EN for payroll groups, calendars and deduction codes. Don't worry! Our EN Payroll team is here to help.
4. Audits
   • Complete both one-time reconciliations of your employee data: The Demographic Audit and the Deduction Audit. Don't worry! Our EN Payroll team is here to help.
5. Live
   • Go Live! Experience the benefits from our section, What's in it for me?

What's in it for me?

This payroll integration has three major values to both an agency and HR:

• • We're on pace to save agencies and customers using the payroll integration a total of 1,800,000 hours of work in 2024

    • You get accurate census data for quoting & no more dual entry into two systems

  • We've caught over $10,000,000 and counting in missing or incorrect deductions

    • No more remembering to key in deductions manually for new hires, Open Enrollment, or mid-year changes.

  • Allowing HR and agency employees to step away from data entry tasks and grow to let their truly valuable skills shine - the ones that cannot be automated like employee relations management, recruiting, and person-to-person support at the agency or company level.

How do I get started?

Before requesting an integration, do you have more than one Client Id in payroll for this company? If not, proceed with the steps below. If yes, navigate to our Subscriber Group help article to complete the necessary steps before submitting an integration request.

In order to request an integration with a payroll partner of ours and a single Client Id, you will do the following:

1. Go to the Payroll tab within your company in Employee Navigator.

2. Click on 'Add Integration +'

3. Click on 'Add Integration +', and choose your payroll provider from the dropdown --> Save and Continue.

Add the contacts you would like to be involved in the integration setup process --> Save and continue.

4. This will send a request to the payroll partner, and you will receive an email confirmation of this as well.

5. The partner controls the Approval step of your new request: Click here to find the proper email contact to inquire about the status of your new request

5. Once your integration request is approved, you and your client will receive a 'Getting Started' email from the payroll partner with the EN Payroll team copied in.

6. An analyst from our team will reach out within 3 business days to provide our Welcome Video and your link to schedule your review call where your analyst will outline your responsibilities within the integration setup process.

What do I generally need to be aware of?

• Paychex, Paycor, ADP, and PrimePay do not accept prior benefit effective dates from EN system
  • If the effective date of the benefit is prior to the date the transmission is being sent to payroll, then the Start Date of the deduction in Paychex/ Paycor/ ADP/ PrimePay = Date the transmission is sent.
    • Ex. If Medical enrollment, effective 10/1/2024, is sent to Payroll on 10/7/2024, then the Start Date of that deduction will be 10/7/2024.
  • If the effective date of the benefit is ‘today’s date’ or a future date, then the Start Date of that deduction in Paychex/ Paycor/ ADP/ PrimePay = the effective date of the benefit
    • Ex. If Medical enrollment, effective 10/1/2024, is sent on 9/15/2024, then the start date will equal the effective date of the enrollment, 10/1/2024.
• Deduction start dates
  • Employee Navigator solely has the benefit effective date stored on our side to pass to Payroll as the start date.
    • If the start, change, or stop date of your deduction does not fall into the pay period date range that you need it to based on the start or end date sent to Payroll, it must be manually adjusted in Payroll to fall into the proper pay period range.
      • Example: If the start date of your deduction = 11/1/2024, and the payroll being processed is for dates covering 10/15-10/30, you will need to adjust the start date of the deduction to fall into that range.
    • This date will need to be manually adjusted just once, and then will continue to be pulled as a recurring deduction moving forward or stop depending on the type of change that occurred.
    • If any costs need to be adjusted based on pro-rating, those would be done manually as EN cannot pro-rate deductions for employees. We will send the full amount based on the enrollment in our system along with the start date and deduction code to payroll.

What does this integration exchange?

Bi-directional Demographics (**will vary by partner)

With our payroll partners, we are able to exchange bi-directional demographics in real-time on a change-only basis. This means that address, phone number, and other demographic updates can be made in either system and as soon as the update is made the change is reflected in the alternate system within 45-60 seconds.

• Most of our partners require new hires and terminations to be entered into Payroll only.  Note: Refer to your Payroll partner's user guide to verify.
• Employee Navigator will flag all new hires on your Homepage --> 'Complete Employees Missing HR Required Fields' status --> 'Complete Hire' link.

Base Compensation: 1-Way (Payroll to EN only)

Compensation is “owned” by payroll. This means that compensation will always come from Payroll to Employee Navigator and is required within our integration in order for EN to successfully update employee records.

An employee's record in Payroll must have:

• Compensation basis: Hourly or Salary
• Pay effective date
• Hourly rate or Salary value; or both

Payroll Deductions: 1-Way (EN to Payroll only)

Payroll deductions are “owned” by Employee Navigator. This means that payroll deductions will always be sent from Employee Navigator to Payroll.  

We will send:

• The deduction code mapped into the employee's Payroll Group & corresponding plan
• The employee's recurring per pay cost.
  • We do not send catch-up contributions to payroll for missed pay periods. Any adjustments need to be manually added to Payroll.
• The effective date of the deduction
• End-date of the benefit (if applicable when an employee drops coverage or is terminated).

We only send employee recurring deductions to payroll one time when an enrollment occurs to insert them initially.  We will not send another deduction transmission to payroll for the same benefit unless the employee's cost changes due to:

1. The employee going through an Open Enrollment
2. Plan rates are recalculated due to a Class or Payroll Group change
3. Employee experiences a qualifying Life Event
4. Employee is terminated and their coverage is dropped
5. Enrollment editor is used to adjust a enrollment cost or start date
6. Deduction code(s) are updated for a Live group

What does this integration not exchange?

Demographic fields not currently exchanged

• Class structures: Class, Department, Division, Office Location, Business Units
• Termination Reason
  • All terminated employees will be given the Termination reason: Voluntary Termination.
    • This automatically triggers a COBRA event and communicates with providers if they have a COBRA integration.
    • To change this if need be, please use the Termination Editor.

Note: Refer to your Payroll partner's user guide for additional details.

Deduction types not currently exchanged

The following are current product limitations and must be managed manually in the payroll system.

• Earnings or Employer Contributions (ER amounts)

  • Employee Navigator has made some improvements to our API to be able to support the exchange of employer contributions on our payroll integration, but we will need help from our payroll partners on implementing this new feature for each of them as it will require a coordinated effort between us both to implement our updated Deduction API and new Earnings API that are now available.  If you can reach out to your payroll partner and let them know you are interested in having employer contributions exchanged with Employee Navigator, then they can reach out to us for more information to review the technical specifications of these.

  • Note: certain payroll providers do allow EN to send employer contribution amounts to them - please see your partner-specific guide for more information.
• Imputed Income related to company-paid plans
• Deductions for employees with a Domestic Partner
  • Employee Navigator cannot currently send a portion of an employee's deduction pre-tax and another, separate portion as post-tax. Exchanging deduction data for those with Domestic Partners will result in incorrect deductions in payroll.
  • Action to take: Employees in this scenario must have their deductions blocked from their Profile --> Apps --> Manage link --> Block Deductions.
• Commuter Benefits - (Parking & Transit)
  • Employee Navigator cannot currently send a portion of an employee's deduction pre-tax and another, separate portion as post-tax.
  • Action to take: None. Our system auto-sets these plan types to 'Never Send'
• 401K
• Universal plans
• Vendor-specific for Health Savings Account deductions 
  • Paycor:
    • For HSA deductions that are set up as Direct Deposit's in the Paycor system, or if the HSA deduction code includes a 'D' or 'DD' value that is present in the code. Paycor does not accept these deductions via their own API, and an error will be returned.

Note: Refer to your Payroll partner's user guide for additional details.

Earning types not currently exchanged

In addition to the deductions listed above (that are not currently exchanged), the following employer contributions are also unable to be exchanged with applicable payroll partners:

• Group Life
• Group AD&D
• HSA

Note: Employer contributions can only be exchanged with certain payroll partners. See under Earnings or Employer Contributions (ER amounts) above. Refer to your Payroll partner's user guide for additional details.

Items to confirm before requesting an integration

• Does your group have an Active open enrollment currently in session?
  • If a company in our system has an Active OE, we will grey out the ability to add an integration. You must wait until after the OE has been closed and deductions have been manually updated in payroll before you can request the integration process.

• • Your group cannot be within 30 days of their new plan year.  If they are, you must wait until after the OE has been closed and deductions have been manually updated in payroll before you can request the integration process.

    • If you are seeking to discuss this limitation, please email Payroll@employeenavigator.com

  • If your group is new to the payroll provider, they must have run at least one payroll before they can begin the integration process.

  • Is your group a multi-EIN group with multiple companies built-in Payroll?

    • If so, you will need to create Subscriber groups to account for each company on the payroll side.  This will allow you to make multiple integration requests to connect each unique company from Payroll.