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.

PLEASE NOTE:  New Setup Requests are not currently being accepted while we rollout an upgraded integration with Paychex Flex.   
 

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 will not be an option.

How Do I Initiate My Integration Setup? 

Coming Soon! This integration is not currently available to be added for new plans. 

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 EINs
• 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.
• Please be sure that the ProgramPay deferral codes and rates are present prior to processing your first integrated payroll.
• 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, please contact voyaaba@vestwell.com.
• 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. However, 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.
• Employee Loans
  • If applicable to your plan, set up and maintain retirement loans within your payroll system
• Discretionary and/or Profit-Sharing Contributions
  • 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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?

• 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 employer has set up the SH code and formula in their payroll system.
• 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.   
• 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.

To begin the integration setup process, you will need to create a Payroll Integrations account and provide fee remittance information.  Your ProgramPay representative will provide a personalized link to Payroll Integrations to begin.

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.