It is very important to complete your payroll contribution submissions in a timely and accurate manner. When submitting your employee payroll contributions, you have three options for entering that information.
- Enter the contribution data manually
- For help with manual contributions, please see our article, "How to Submit Contributions Manually."
- Upload a payroll file
- Copy from a previously completed payroll contribution submission of the same type
- For example, copy a previous regular or off-cycle contribution you have submitted. Be sure that any employee savings rate changes are updated from previous submissions and remove any employees who have opted out of saving.
If you have just a few employees, you may find the manual entry feature to be the most straightforward approach. If you have many employees or are downloading a contribution file from your payroll system, uploading a file may be the best approach. Below we will share some tips and directions on formatting a contribution file.
Submit Your Contributions via File Upload
To begin, log in to your employer portal. On your home page, you can see the list of your employees and their status, e.g., eligible, ineligible, active, pending, or opted-out.
Note: Only eligible employees will show on your “Contribution" page. If you do not see an employee listed here, you may need to add the employee by clicking on the Add Employee button.
From the home page of your portal, click the “Contributions” tab to open the “Contributions” page. Then, select Start Contribution.
Formatting Your Contributions File
For the best experience uploading a contributions file, please follow the guidelines below:
- Your file must be in Excel or CSV format.
- Your file is required to have columns that contain:
- Social Security Number (SSN) - Formatted with or without dashes
- Name - First and last name, and must be in two separate columns
- Savings $ Amount - You must calculate the contribution amount being deducted from each employee’s paycheck.
- If you have other columns on your payroll file, that’s okay; those will be ignored in the upload process. Just be sure to include the required columns noted above.
- Be sure the information on your file matches the information on the employees page of your portal. Missing information or other errors will restrict you from continuing until all are corrected.
Uploading Your Contributions File
Once your file is formatted correctly, you are ready to begin the upload process:
- From the “Contributions” page, select Start Contribution.
- Click on the Upload File button.
- Choose the applicable file from your computer and select Open.
- Once completed, click on the Send & Validate button.
- Note: If the button is still gray, information may be missing or incorrect, or you may need to tab out of the last field you typed in.
During the upload process, your upload file is evaluated and validated in stages.
First, your file will be evaluated to determine if all of the four required columns are present. Commonly used column headers will be mapped to our required headers. In that process, if the required columns are not detected, you will be given a chance to map your column names to the required columns.
For example, while we are looking for a column header of “SSN,” your file may have that data in a column named “SocSec#.” Click on the drop-down to see a list of column headers from your file. In this example, you’ll choose the column name “SocSec#," and then move on to the next mapping. Do this until all required fields have a correct mapping to your file, then press Continue. This step will be bypassed if all required column headers are systemically detected.
Send & Validate Your Contributions
Take your time, and be careful to enter accurate information. If you are missing a required field it will be highlighted in red.
You will not be able to proceed to the next step until all errors are resolved. The number of errors is summarized at the top right of the screen and as you correct errors, the count will go down. You may sort any column on the contribution grid by clicking the column header and selecting the arrow.
When all errors have been resolved and all of the contribution information is correct, select Send & Validate.
After clicking Send & Validate, if there were unallowable contributions, you will be redirected to the "Unallowed Contributions" page.
If this occurs, you will need to click Send & Validate again for your final submission review.
Review Your Contributions
On the "Review Submission" screen, the following submission details are presented to you for your final review:
- Contribution Adjustments - Recaps any contribution reductions that were made due to unallowable contributions.
- Contribution Details - Recaps each employee and their contribution amount.
- Total Contribution - This is the total amount of the submission that should be remitted to the bank. Your remittance method is shown underneath the total dollar amount.
Once you've reviewed the submission, you have three options:
- Complete the Submission
- Edit the Submission
- Cancel the Submission
If you have multiple pay groups, you must submit a payroll contribution submission for each pay group separately.
Once you have completed your submission, you will see a confirmation window that says “All Done!” and allows you to click Back to Transactions.
You will be directed back to the "Contributions" page, where you will see your next expected payroll submission date and the status of your pending submission.
At the bottom of your screen, in the "History" area, you will see your payroll contribution submission(s). Click the blue hyperlinked date of the submission if you wish to review it.
If your submission status is “Processing,” you still have the opportunity to cancel it. Once the status is “Delivered,” you will no longer be able to make any changes.
Note: The processing step may take an hour (during regular business hours). We know last-minute changes may be needed. This window of time should provide you with the cushion if you need to make those corrections.
Email Confirmation
After each contribution is delivered, you will receive an email confirmation for your records.