Payroll: Transferring an employee between companies
Updated
Payroll: Transferring an employee between companies — Employee Navigator Help Center
Moving an employee from one company to another? The steps below keep them
Active with their benefits intact the entire way. The exact
path depends on your payroll partner — most partners follow the
Subscriber Groups flow, while ADP and UKG Ready each have their
own multi-entity handling. Pick your path below.
This is the standard flow for all partners except ADP and UKG Ready.
If you have a current employee moving to a new company ID in payroll as their Primary
company, then you must follow these steps in order — changing their
Primary subscriber group in Employee Navigator first, before the transfer is
made in payroll.
STEP 1
Assign group in EN Apps
→
STEP 2
Set Primary in Employment
→
STEP 3
Preserve hire date?
→
STEP 4
Transfer in payroll
Interactive Demo
Walk through the full transfer — step by step
Follow the highlighted instructions inside each step. This mirrors the real Employee
Navigator interface — transferring George Bailey from
Company A → Company B.
George Bailey✎ Add a note
Employee last name, first name, or full SSN 🔍
Employee Management
Profile
Benefits Summary
Documents
Timeline
Integrations
1
Apps — Assign Group
2
Employment — Set Primary
3
Preserve Hire Date
4
Payroll Transfer
✓
Complete
👆Step 1 of 4 — On the employee's Profile → Apps page, click Assign next to Company B in the Subscriber Groups table to add it as an integration.
👆Step 2 of 4 — On Profile → Employment, select Company B as the Primary, then click Save.
Employee Record ▼
Profile
Employment
Leave Status
Addresses
Contact
Compensation
ACA
Personal
Employment
Scheduled Hours ⓘ
Employee ID
Payroll Integrations
Your Payroll Partner
Group: Company A ID: 00J5VPBJLW0UW1OQ159I
✔
Your Payroll Partner
Group: Company B ID: Identifier Pending
✔
📅Step 3 of 4 — Choose whether to keep George Bailey's current hire date or accept the incoming date from Company B's first payroll sync.
Preserve Hire Date? ×
You are changing your primary subscriber group. This impacts an employee's
eligibility window. Do you want to keep the current hire date of
05/10/2023 for eligibility purposes?
🔄Step 4 of 4 — Now go to your payroll system and process the transfer. Click Process Transfer below to simulate sending the record to Employee Navigator.
Your Payroll System
Dashboard
Employees
Payroll Runs
Reports
Transfer Employee — George Bailey
Process the transfer from Company A → Company B. Because Company B
is already the Primary in Employee Navigator, EN recognizes this as a continuation
— not a termination.
🔄 Employee Transfer
Terminating from
Company A
Current Primary
Transfer event
Hiring into
Company B
Primary in EN ✓
⏳
Click "Process Transfer" to send this record to Employee Navigator. Since Company B is the Primary in EN, George will remain Active with all benefit enrollments intact.
✅
Record sent to Employee Navigator. Since Company B is the Primary in EN, the termination of Company A's record is ignored — George Bailey remains Active with his benefit enrollments and deductions intact. Company B's new identifier will populate shortly.
✓
Transfer Complete
George Bailey has been successfully transferred to Company B.
EmployeeGeorge Bailey
From companyCompany A
To companyCompany B
Hire date05/10/2023 (preserved)
Deductions synced✓ Automatic
Status in EN✓ Active — no termination sent
FAQs & troubleshooting
QWhat if I did this out of order and my employee was inadvertently terminated in Employee Navigator?
This is fixable. Follow these three steps:
Go to the employee's Profile in EN → find the Termination Actions box on the right-hand side → click Undo Termination. This reinstates the employee.
Click the employee's Employment link → check off the Payroll Integrations box for their new company → click Save.
Go to your Payroll tab → Integration Health dashboard → find the employee's Inbound Demographics category → Actions icon → Pull from payroll.
QWill the employee's deductions automatically send to payroll after changing Subscriber Groups?
Yes — as long as the change is correctly made in Employee Navigator first by following the transfer steps above.
For all ADP customers with multiple company codes
In ADP you don't terminate and rehire — you add another position to the
employee's existing profile and choose which company code is their Primary. Click through
the walkthrough below.
1
Take action
2
Add position
3
Set Primary
✓
Done
👆Step 1 — On the employee's Employment Profile, click Take action.
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View position details
Add another position
Change position
Rehire
Terminate
DA
Daniel Scott Aaron
Active
Position ID
208000875
Hire Date
06/06/2016
Department
102000 — Engineering
Company Code
208
Worked-In Country
United States
Personal
Employment
Retirement
👆Step 3 — The new company code is selected. Click Set as Primary position, then Add position.
Add another position — Daniel Scott Aaron
Company code
311 — East Region ▾
Position start date
01/15/2026 📅
Set as Primary position
EN reads the Primary for hire date, term date & compensation
✓
Position added
Daniel Scott Aaron now has company code 311 as their Primary position.
EmployeeDaniel Scott Aaron
New company code311 — East Region
Primary position✓ Company code 311
Hire / term / comp sourcePrimary record (311)
Status in EN✓ Active — no termination sent
✓
Why the Primary matters: the Primary record is the single source Employee Navigator looks at to determine hire date, termination date, and compensation. With the new company code set as Primary, the employee continues seamlessly and no termination is sent to EN.
For all UKG Ready customers with multiple entities
In UKG Ready, transferring an employee between EINs is a three-step sequence. Order matters:
the new EIN must be Primary before you terminate the old one. Click through the
walkthrough below.
1
Hire into new EIN
2
Switch Primary EIN
3
Terminate original
✓
Done
👆Step 1 — Hire the employee into the new EIN first. Click Hire into this EIN.
🏢 New EIN — 311 East Region
TA
Tank Address
Employee ID 8347
The employee will then exist in both the original EIN and the new EIN.
👆Step 2 — On the employee's profile, click Switch Primary EIN and set the new EIN as Primary.
👆Step 3 — Now terminate the employee in their original EIN (208).
Original EIN — 208 · Terminating
→
New EIN — 311 · ★ Primary
✅
Termination processed in EIN 208. Because 208 is no longer the employee's Primary in UKG, this termination is not sent to Employee Navigator.
✓
Transfer complete
Tank Address has been moved from EIN 208 to EIN 311.
EmployeeTank Address
From EIN208
To EIN311 (Primary ★)
Original EIN terminationNot sent to EN
Status in EN✓ Active — benefits intact
✓
Because the original EIN is no longer the employee's Primary in UKG, the termination is not sent to Employee Navigator — exactly as intended. The employee stays Active with their benefit enrollments and deductions intact.
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