Import Benefits Enrollment Data

How can I import my employees' benefits enrollment data?

Purpose: To help you import enrollment data for multiple employees at one time.

Table of Contents

We can import benefits data as a paid service after implementation is complete. If this is something you prefer instead of importing benefits data yourself, please reach out to Support.

Benefits Tracking: Benefits Tracking customers can use the benefits importer to add their employees' benefit enrollments to BambooHR (i.e., assigning existing benefit plans in BambooHR to employees). 

Benefits Administration: If you are enabling Benefits Administration to automate enrollment processes in BambooHR, you can use the benefits importer to create a baseline of enrollment data outside of an active enrollment window. The rest of the Benefits Administration experience will allow you to manage your employees' benefit enrollments directly within BambooHR.

Import training video

We have a video tutorial that shows you the basics of importing data into BambooHR. Click here to learn more.

Verify all of your benefit plans

Before importing benefits data, please review and verify the setup of each benefit plan you have created in BambooHR.

If you have a large amount of benefit enrollments you need to enter in BambooHR, you can do so via an import. Please keep in mind that you need to have all benefit plans, along with eligibility groups, set up correctly in Settings > Benefits > Plans before importing your employees' enrollment information.

Benefits

Verify your employees' data

Ensure your employees' data is accurate in BambooHR. The following fields are required for the import. You can use the Missing Data report to save time in this process.

Tab/Location in BambooHR Field Name
Personal  
  Employee #
  First Name
  Last Name
Job  
  Employment Status
  Hire Date
  Pay Schedule
*Benefits > Dependents table (Benefits Admin only)  
  First Name
  Last Name
  SSN
  Relationship (to employee)

Benefits Administration: Additional fields are required if you are enabling carrier connections in your account.

Whenever using the benefits importer, we recommend running a test import of a single line to catch any formatting errors in the prepared data. Once the single line is imported, double check it to make sure the data was entered as expected and then proceed to import the remaining data.

Import Employee Benefit Data

To access the benefits importer, add the following text to your BambooHR URL: /manage/import/benefits/

For example, is your BambooHR company domain is "YourCompany," the URL will be as follows yourcompany.bamboohr.com/manage/import/benefits/. This will bring your directly to the Import Employee Benefit Data page.

If you do not see the Import Employee Benefit Data page, make sure you are logged in to your BambooHR account. Please reach out to our Support team if you have any issues accessing the importer.

The template file link provides you with a sample template you can use to format your benefits data according to the guidelines listed in the template.  

Fill in the template

**Benefits Administration ONLY

Now it's time to prepare your template! You will need to fill in the following fields regardless of the plan type:

  • Employee #: The exact Employee # listed in BambooHR.
    • An easy way to get the Employee Name and Employee # into the template is to copy and paste the information from a custom report in BambooHR.
  • **Dependent SSN: The dependent must already be listed in the Dependents table, along with their SSN and relationship to the employee prior to the import. This is what our system will use to determine the enrollment selections for dependents. Please enter the data in the following format: ###-##-####
  • Plan Name: The exact plan name as listed under the Plans tab in Settings > Benefits. 
  • Status: Enrollment statuses include Enrolled, Waived, Withdrew, Terminated, and Ineligible or Not Eligible.
    • You would only import the Ineligible status if you need to manually update the eligibility status for an employee who meets the eligibility criteria as configured in the plan setup.
  •  Effective Date: The date the coverage should begin for the individual. Please enter the data in the following format: MM/DD/YYYY
    • Please keep in mind that the effective date cannot be outside of the start and end dates specified in the benefit plan setup.
  • Comment: Single line of text and will be imported into the Benefit History table

Please note that the following fields are only required if the plan has standard rates (see exception below).

  • Coverage: Options are based on the options you have determined in the plan setup. To view those options, navigate to the Coverage Options step within a benefit plan in Settings > Benefits > Plans. 
    • Exception: If using Benefits Administration, Coverage is required for variable rate plans.

Please note that the following fields are only required if the plan has variable rates.

  • Employee Pays: Currency amount or percent amount without symbols (137.50 or 6)
  • Employee Pays ($ or %): Either % or $ (will default to % if left blank)
  • Company Pays: Currency amount or percent amount without symbols (137.50 or 6)
  • Company Pays ($ or %): Either % or $ (will default to % if left blank)
  • Cost Frequency (Per deduction or Monthly): This is a pre-determined field based on what you have determined in the plan setup. To review your selection, navigate to Settings > Benefits > Plans and select the specific benefit plan. Then, click on the Payroll Deduction step. 
  • Currency Code: If the currency code differs from the default currency code determined in Settings > General Settings, please enter the code here. If you are using Benefits Administration, only USD is available.
  • **Employee Coverage Amount: The number amount the plan will cover for an employee (basic life insurance plans only)
  • **Spouse Coverage Amount: The number amount the plan will cover for an employee's spouse (basic life insurance plans only)
  • **Child Coverage Amount: The number amount the plan will cover for an employee's child (basic life insurance plans only)
Other important notes
  • If you try to enroll an employee into a benefit plan that they are not eligible for via an import, the system will return an error.
  • The effective date (of any enrollment status) is required in order for the import to work. Also, the effective date cannot be outside of the start and end dates specified in the benefit plan setup.
  • (Benefits Admin ONLY) Age-banded rate plans will act like variable rate plans when you are importing these plans.

Upload the completed template

Import Employee Benefit Data

Once you have the template ready, be sure to save it as a CSV file. Then, navigate to the benefits importer link and click Choose File. Select the CSV file and click Upload.

Validate your employees' benefit data

Verify Employee Benefit Data

Once you upload your file, you will map the data in the template to the corresponding fields within BambooHR. If you have used the template we provided for you, all required fields should automatically match up. If they do not, simply click on the dropdown arrow and select the matching BambooHR field.

View import results

Import Complete

Once an import is complete, a confirmation message will appear. A green confirmation message will show if you have imported all lines successfully. An red alert will show if any rows had errors.* Click Show Import Details to display row-by-row specific information. Additionally, you can click Download Error File to see this information in an Excel spreadsheet.

*You can correct and re-import any rows that were not imported due to errors. Or, you can manually enter information as well. 

Common errors
  • Employee is not in any of the eligibility groups in the benefit plan setup
  • Coverage option is not selected in the benefit plan setup
  • Employee does not have an active pay schedule assigned (this would show if you try to import the effective date of the plan as a date before the pay schedule effective date)
  • Missing costs in a variable rate plan setup 
  • Costs added to a standard rate plan

Error example (Benefits Admin only): The import may throw an error that tries to identify a better coverage option. Let's say an HR admin enrolls an employee in a benefit plan with Employee + Spouse coverage, but they only include the employee's children as dependents, excluding the spouse. This throws an error because the HR admin did not include the employee's spouse in Employee + Spouse coverage for that employee.

Spot check benefits information

Employee profile

Charlotte Abbott - Benefits

To ensure your data imported correctly, you can easily check an employee's Benefits Overview table by going to their employee profile and selecting their Benefits tab. From there, scroll down and verify each plan's enrollment details against your records.

Benefit Summary report

Benefit Summary

To verify your import on a plan-by-plan basis, navigate to the Reports tab > Standard Reports > Benefit Summary Report. You can then filter the report by a specific benefit plan and verify the data imported against your records.

Benefits Administration: You can run a custom report or use the Update Missing Info button on the Plan Years tab (if applicable) to verify your employees' and dependents' personal information.