Paychex Flex

Since ProgramPay, powered by Vestwell, has an integration with your payroll provider, we can take a lot of work off your plate regarding the processing of your payroll files through automation. (yay!)  Even though we offer integration with your payroll provider, Plan Sponsors have ongoing responsibilities to make sure the content is correct.  Please read this whole article to understand the steps to set up integration and to learn about your initial and ongoing responsibilities.
 

How Does My Integration Work?

We have partnered Payroll Integrations to retrieve contribution data from your payroll system and communicate employee savings rate changes made by your employees in their participant portal, back to your payroll system. Please note that the Paychex Flex integration will only allow employees to elect deferrals in percentages; dollar-amount deferrals are not supported.

How Do I Initiate My Integration Setup? 

• Complete the linked form: Payroll Integration Request Form so our team can collect the necessary details to set up your payroll integration
• Once your request to integration has been reviewed, you will receive an email from Payroll Integrations (onboarding@payrollintegrations.com) with a URL link to begin the integration process. 
  • Email subject line is "Action Required: Connect Your Payroll for Integration (Your Plan Name & Vestwell Plan Number)"
  • Please follow these steps to set up your account at Payroll Integrations and activate the integration.
  • You will need your Paychex Flex ID to complete the setup.
  • You will need be a SuperAdmin in Paychex Flex to complete this setup.

• Copy and paste the text below into an email and send it to your Paychex Flex representative to set up the appropriate payroll codes:

  Please set up the following deduction and earning codes for my new 401(k) plan:
   1) 401(k) EE PreTax  (Component Type: 401(k) EE PreTax) 
  2) 401(k) EE Catch Up (Component Type: 401(k) EE Catch Up)
  3) Roth 401(k) EE (Component Type: Roth 401(k) EE)
  4) Roth 401(k) EE Catch Up (Component Type: Roth 401(k) EE Catch Up) 
  5) 401(k) ER (if applicable to your plan)
  6) 401(k) Loan Payment (if applicable to your plan) (Component Type: 401(k) Loan Payment) 

• Once we have confirmed your integration set up is completed, you will receive an email from ProgramPay letting you know.
• If your plan is a conversion after your last payroll before us, ensure saver deferrals and employer contributions are cleared from your payroll system.

Are there any reasons why my plan might not be eligible for an integration? 

There are some plan design features that currently prohibit the use of payroll integration, including:

• Plans which have multiple pay groups
• Plans which have multiple log ins into their payroll system
• Plans which do not have an established recurring pay schedule setup in both ProgramPay and the payroll system. Your plan must have a scheduled recurring pay schedule setup in both ProgramPay and your payroll system
• Plans which do not use the same payroll provider for all pay group(s)
• Plans which have limitations preventing each pay group from being integrated
• Plans with per pay period non-mandatory employer contributions
• Plans that allow after-tax contributions 
  • Note: After-Tax and Roth contributions are not the same

Important Special Considerations 

Special Considerations - Safe Harbor contributions and hourly workers:  Due to the way your payroll provider stores & calculates Safe Harbor (SH) contributions, Vestwell may not be able to accurately facilitate the SH contribution for employees that are paid on an hourly basis, have different compensation amounts from pay period to pay period AND requests a dollar-based amount for their deferral.  In this scenario, we recommend that the employee use a percentage based deferral rate.

Special Consideration - Dollar-based deferral rates: The ProgramPay team recommends that employees set percentage based deferral rates.  Dollar-based deferral rates may result in the need to update the employees safe harbor contribution formula.  This cannot be done systemically and the employer is responsible for setting and maintaining an appropriate Safe Harbor contribution rate when dollar-based deferrals are in use.

What are my ongoing responsibilities? 

Our ability to set up Payroll Integration and successfully process payroll and deferral change files on behalf of your plan depends on you! It is your responsibility to:

• Continue to process payrolls via your payroll provider platform on your scheduled pay frequency
• Payroll Deduction/Contribution Codes
  • Set up and maintain certain payroll deduction & contribution codes within your payroll system. The required codes are defined in the Setup Section. 
  • ProgramPay requires that these specific payroll codes be set up before integration can be enabled. It is important that these payroll codes do not change once the integration setup is completed.
• Pay Groups  
  • Your pay group name in ProgramPay will be updated to a naming convention of EINFrequency. This naming convention is necessary to support the integration.  You will not be able to change it. Learn more about the importance of pay groups here.
    • Note: Once the payroll integration is connected, you will no longer be able to edit pay groups in the ProgramPay portal as this can disrupt the processing of contributions. For further assistance with edits to your pay groups, please contact voyaaba@vestwell.com.
  • The number of pay groups or companies in your payroll system may affect your plan’s integration eligibility.
• Employee Deferral Rate Management
  • ProgramPay does use the rates set by your employees via  the online enrollment and the participant website when initiating a new payroll integration.  Employers should review rates and encourage employees to review and update their rates in the participant website while payroll integration is being implemented.
  • For the best experience, on an ongoing basis, be sure your employees are setting and maintaining their deferral rates via Voya participant website. Rates sent via online enrollment and the participant website will flow automatically into ProgramPay.
  • Any employee deferral rates shared directly with you, not using the Voya’s participant website by eligible employees must be set by you directly in the payroll system. 
    • If you choose to set up employee deferral rates directly within the payroll system, you must set any applicable Safe Harbor employer contribution via the payroll system also. For the best outcomes, please redirect employees to set their rates in the participant website
  • Deferral rates set by employees in the participant website by 4PM ET on any given business day will be available in ProgramPay the following business day by approximately 8AM.
  • Please be sure that the ProgramPay deferral codes and rates are present prior to processing your first integrated payroll.
• Employee Loans
  • If applicable to your plan, set up and maintain retirement loans within your payroll system.
• Mandatory Employer Contributions
  • Set up and maintain mandatory employer contributions that are on a frequency other than on a per pay period basis and upload these contributions through your ProgramPay portal as an off-cycle contribution.
  • Safe Harbor Non-Elective (SHNE) contributions cannot be set through the integration. Be sure to set your SHNE formula directly in your payroll system.
    • Each time an employee becomes eligible the SHNE contribution must be added to the employee profile by you in your payroll system. Additionally, SHNE needs to be maintained in the payroll system when employee deferral rate changes are made. 
• Discretionary and/or Profit-Sharing Contributions
  • Set up and maintain per pay period company contributions within your payroll system and upload these contributions through your ProgramPay portal as an off-cycle contribution.
    • These contributions may be pulled through the integration as long as the payroll system code is provided to your ProgramPay Rep when setting up the integration. 
      • Please note: If your plan also has a mandatory per pay period contribution (i.e SH), you will need to process the discretionary employer contribution as an off-cycle into the ProgramPay portal. 
  • Set up and maintain annual and/or quarterly non-mandatory company contributions within your payroll system and upload these contributions through your ProgramPay portal as an off-cycle contribution
• Employee Status Changes
  • Make updates in your payroll system when employees are hired, terminated, or re-hired, etc.
• Employee Personal Information
  • Maintain complete, accurate, and up-to-date personal information within your payroll system - including date of birth, social security number, and email address.
• Pay Frequency/Schedule Changes
  • Report any pay frequency or pay schedule changes to ProgramPay.
• Off-cycle Payroll Submissions
  • Report any off-cycle payroll run through your payroll system to your representative. These will not be uploaded automatically through the integration.
• 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.
• Negative Contributions/Corrections
  • Negative contributions or corrections are not able to be processed through the integration. For assistance with negative contributions or corrections, please contact your Voya ABA Retirement Plans representative.
• Validation Errors on Payrolls
  • From time to time, we may receive data from your payroll company that triggers a validation error in ProgramPay and we are unable to process one or more contributions or loan payments.  When that happens, you will be alerted by email about the issue with instructions on next steps to resolve the issue.  These alerts will be sent from "ProgramPay@notices.vestwell.com". Please adjust spam or other filters in your email system to allow you to receive these important communications.  You can learn more about the contribution validations and the types of errors that can occur here.
• Miscellaneous Service & Support
  • Monitor for emails from the ProgramPay Employer Services team at VoyaABA@vestwell.com and respond to questions and outreach in a timely manner.

What payroll activities does ProgramPay handle for me?

• Employee Deferral Management
  • ProgramPay will set employee deferral rates in your payroll system if they were set by the employee via Voya’s online enrollment and deferral management tools in the participant website prior to your first integrated pay date.
    • Please do not process your first integrated payroll before this step is completed.
  • Deferral rates set by employees directly in Voya’s participant website will be updated automatically within 2 business days.
  • NOTE: Any deferral changes shared by eligible employees directly with you, not using the Voya participant website, must be set by you directly in the payroll system.  For the best outcomes, please direct employees to maintain their deferral rates within the participant website.   
• Processing Contributions & Loan Payments
  • Process supported employee/employer contributions and applicable loan payments into your retirement plan based on what was processed in the payroll system.  Even if you process your payroll early, ProgramPay will never process the contributions file before the actual pay date.
    • Per pay period SH contributions will only be processed if the SH code and formula in their payroll system.  
      • ProgramPay integration will set the formula for Safe Harbor plans, as long as we know the formula and the employee deferral rates have been set via the integration.
      • For Safe Harbor Non-Elective plans or if you’ve set up your employer contribution directly in the payroll system, the integration can facilitate processing contributions into the plan as long as you have shared your employer contribution code from your payroll system with us so that we can map it into our integration settings. 
  • Processing Safe Harbor Employer Contributions paid on a per pay period basis
    • For employees who set and maintain their deferral rates via Voya’s participant website, ProgramPay will set up applicable Safe Harbor employer contributions via the integration when we set and update the employee deferral rate. Be sure that Vestwell has your SH formula on file.
      • The integration cannot set or maintain SH formulas on employee deferrals set directly by you in the payroll system.
      • Please note: Safe Harbor Non-Elective Contribution formulas cannot be set up in payroll system via the integration for any employees
        • Once set up, SHNE contributions can be pulled into the plan via the integration as long as the payroll system code is provided to the ProgramPay team when the integration is set up.
  • Processing Discretionary Employer Contributions
    • If the employer shares their payroll code that they us in the payroll system for discretionary employer contributions that paid on a per pay period basis with us, and there isn't also a SH/SHNE contribution, the integration can process those contributions via the integration once VW maps to the integration
    • The integration only supports one employer contribution source per contribution submission, giving priority to mandatory employer contributions.
• Employee Status Changes
  • When you add, rehire or terminate employees in your payroll system, the changes will be reflected in the ProgramPay portal one business day after the next pay date.

Will my payroll provider charge me any fees to set up and/or maintain my payroll integration? 

Yes. Enabling 360 integration requires a monthly processing fee charged by Payroll Integrations, a third-party provider that facilitates this integration.

During the integration setup process, you will need to create a Payroll Integrations account and provide fee remittance information.  Payroll Integrations will bill you on a monthly basis based upon the number of unique employee SSNs (see tiers below) with contribution delivered via the integration ProgramPay for the calendar month. Billing occurs in arrears and begins approximately 1 month after the integration’s activation.

ProgramPay will not charge you to facilitate this integration.

How do I disconnect my Payroll Integration? 

If you change payroll providers, terminate or deconvert your plan, it is your responsibility to inform us so that we can terminate the integration and assess whether integration with a different payroll provider is available. Please see this article and reach out to your Voya Representative for further assistance.