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Payroll: Cost Center Mapping – Use payroll employment types and locations to drive benefit eligibility

  • Updated
Cost Center Mappings

Let payroll keep eligibility fields up to date

Pair the classifications your payroll partner already tracks — employment type, department, location — with the Employee Navigator fields that drive benefit eligibility. Once mapped, changes flow in on their own: applied automatically for new hires, and queued for your review for existing employees.

One-way · Payroll → ENOff by default for live customersMap only the fields that drive eligibility
How it works

Three moves, then it runs itself

1
PULL

Pull in your codes

Turn the feature on and refresh vendor codes. We fetch every cost center value your payroll partner has.

2
MAP

Map, skip or block

For each value, choose the EN field it feeds — or skip it, or block those employees from the integration entirely.

3
REVIEW

Review what changes

Partners don't send effective dates, so changes for existing employees wait on your homepage until you confirm the date.

The concept

What are cost centers?

Payroll's way of classifying employees. HR uses them for pay and reporting, but the same classifications usually decide who's eligible for benefits in Employee Navigator.

This isn't about "benefit class." It's about aligning the eligibility classifications two systems already keep — so a change in payroll becomes a change in EN without anyone retyping it.Example: payroll marks someone "Regular Full Time" → EN treats them as benefit-eligible Full-Time.
Payroll fieldEN field
Employment Type→Employment Type
Department→Department / Class
Location→Office
Worker Category→Class / Job Classification
By partner

Fields each partner sends Payroll → EN

Any field below can map to Business Unit, Class, Department, Division, Employment Type, Job Classification or Office in EN. Employment Type is the one that most often drives eligibility — map it first. If your partner isn't listed, it doesn't support this yet.

Set it up

Enable, pull, map

Four short steps. Each one below is a live walkthrough — click through it the way you would in production.

1

Open Cost Center Mappings

Payroll tab → your subscription

From the Payroll dashboard, click your subscription card, then Cost Center Mappings.

Click your integration's subscription card below to expand it and select the "Cost Center Mappings" link on the next page.
Payroll
Integration Health i
In Sync
100
Needs Action
0
We're On It
0
Subscriptions
Demographics, Deductions and Earnings Live
Your Company: Your Payroll Partner
Client ID XXXXXVendor Your Payroll Partner
Status as of 4/20/2026

›

Demographics, Deductions and Earnings Live
Your Company: Your Payroll Partner
Setup Steps
Demographic Audit
Deduction Audit
Manage Subscription
Transmissions
✓ Now you're inside Cost Center Mappings. Continue to Step 2 below to enable the feature.
2

Turn the feature on

Off by default

Flip the toggle from Disabled to Enabled, then click Vendor Codes.

Click the toggle to enable Cost Center Mappings.
Cost Center Mappings
Disabled

i

The Cost Center Mappings feature is disabled.
Enabling this feature will allow your payroll integration to automatically update employee class structure fields within Employee Navigator.
✓ Cost Center Mappings is now enabled. Click "Vendor Codes" above to continue to Step 3 where you can pull in your Cost Centers from payroll..
3

Pull in your payroll codes

Vendor Codes → Refresh Codes

Refresh Codes asks your payroll partner for every cost center value it has and makes them available to map. Run it again any time a client adds a new value in payroll.

Click "Refresh Codes" to fetch values from your payroll partner.
Available Vendor Payroll Codes✕

Click the "Refresh Codes" button to get an up-to-date list from your Payroll platform.

⟳

No codes loaded yet.

Click Refresh Codes above.

✓6 vendor codes loaded from your payroll partner. They're now ready to map — see Section 4 below.
4

Map each value

Edit → Enable → Map / Skip / Block → Save

Open a payroll field with Edit, enable it, then decide each value: pick the EN value it maps to, skip it, or block it.

Click "Edit" on the Employment Type row to start mapping.
Cost Center Mappings
Enabled

Payroll Field → EN Field
Disabled

Employment Type
Disabled
Skip Mapping
✓ Mapping saved! You can repeat this process for any other payroll fields. 
✓
Many-to-one is fineBoth FT Salary and FT Hourly can roll up to a single Full-Time class in EN.
!
One EN field, one payroll sourceDon't feed the same EN class from two payroll fields. If Department maps to "Full-Time," don't also map Office or Business Unit there.
Decisions

Skip vs. Block

Mapping is the default. These are the two ways to say "not this one."

Skip mapping

Ignore the value, keep the employee

EN keeps processing everything else for these employees — demographics, deductions, new hires — and just ignores this one field value when it arrives.

Use it when a payroll value has no equivalent in EN and you don't need it.
Block employees

Keep the employee out entirely

Anyone assigned this value in payroll is rejected by the integration: no changes processed, no new hires created, nothing received.

Use it when a whole segment will never be benefit-eligible and shouldn't exist in EN at all.
After go-live

Reviewing ongoing changes

Changes to mapped fields keep flowing in. New hires and empty fields are filled automatically. When an existing value differs from what payroll sent, it waits on the company homepage under Approve pending profile changes until someone confirms the effective date.

i
Why the review step?Partners don't send effective dates for these fields, and a wrong date on an eligibility-driving field is hard to undo. So the right person confirms it before it takes effect.
1 Things to Do
›
2 Pending List
›
3 Review
›
4 Date
Click "Approve pending profile changes" to open the queue.
Company Homepage
Things to do
Completed
Complete employees missing HR required fields2
Pending Profile Change Requests
‹ Back to Home
EmployeeRequested OnChanges
Johnson, SarahToday1Review ›
Abrams, Alex12/23/20252Review ›
Ace, Carl03/11/20261Review ›
Employee Change Requests — Sarah Johnson
‹ Back to List
Only Pending ChangesAll Changes
Employee Demographic Changes
No employee demographic changes requested
Dependent Demographic Changes
No dependent demographic changes requested
Partner Change Requests
The requested values are selected below. To decline a request, click the Current Value box to revert it. Then click Process when you are ready to proceed.

NOTE: If the requested change will affect benefit eligibility, you'll be automatically prompted to walk through the necessary benefit changes for the employee.
FieldCurrent ValueRequested ValueNote
Employment TypeFull-Time

Employee Change Requests — Sarah Johnson
Processing changes…
Change Date Tracking✕

The following fields have changed and may affect eligibility or enrollment:

  • Employment Type
must be between 05/23/2024 and 09/03/2026
✓ All set! Sarah Johnson's Employment Type is now Full-Time, effective . Her benefit eligibility will recalculate automatically. 
Audit trail

Everything is logged

Who enabled or mapped a field, and whenCompany Homepage→Company Timeline
What changed for one employeeEmployee profile→Timeline

Both the request and the approval appear, with old and new values — e.g. Employee Structure Changed (Business Unit changed from [] to Headquarters, effective 4/1/2025).

FAQ

Common questions

Is this feature required?
No. Leave it disabled and enable it later if you change your mind.
Do I have to map every payroll field?
No. Map only the fields that drive eligibility — for most customers that's Employment Type or one cost center.
Can I still edit a mapped field manually in EN?
No. Like compensation, a mapped field is locked in EN so payroll stays the single source of truth.
How do I undo a mapping?
Click Edit next to the field and change or remove the mapping.
A client added a new value in payroll. How do I get it into EN?
Cost Center Mappings → Vendor Codes → Refresh Codes.
Will welcome emails go out automatically once new hires arrive from payroll?
No. We recommend enabling Single Sign-On with your payroll partner so employees never need a separate login.
Do incoming changes trigger HR Tasks notifications?
Yes, if you have HR Tasks notifications configured.
Will payroll still bill for employees I block?
Partners bill connected, active employees. If employee types, locations, etc. are blocked from the integration entirely, then no. They would remain solely in your payroll system and never arrive in EN to be connected & factored into billing.
If I disable the feature later, do pending changes disappear?
No. Items already in the queue stay until processed or declined; only new updates stop.

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