Upgrading Your BambooHR Package

Purpose: To help you understand how to upgrade your BambooHR package to Pro or Elite and what new features you will be able to use in each package. 

Table of Contents

Have you recently upgraded to Pro or Elite? Discover our tailored learning paths, complete with courses for each package.

Your package information

Account Info

To discover your package details, navigate to Settings > Account > Account Info. Clicking on your package under "My Subscription" will pull up a modal showing how long you have been using the package, how many active users you have (or how many out of your intended employee count if you have not met that number yet), and links to more package information.  

To learn more about other packages, click Learn More next to a specific package under the Available Upgrades section. Here, you can schedule a demo and view our plan comparison.

Additional features by package

Please note that we no longer sell our Essentials and Advantage packages. If you would like to see how our legacy packages compare to Core, Pro, and Elite, please click here.

When upgrading your account to Pro or Elite, you will gain access to additional features that will help you save time and set your team free to do great work. You will not lose access to features and data within your current package when you upgrade. Based on your package upgrade, some features may be enhanced, but they will all remain within your account.

Learn more about the great features that come with upgrading your BambooHR package by viewing help guides, webinars, and videos linked in the following sections, we recommend the Getting Started resources available in our Help Center. In addition to the following sections, you can refer to our BambooHR Package Options help guide for a breakdown of all features included in each package, including Core. 

Pro and Elite

Performance Management

BambooHR® Performance Management helps everyone at your company reach their potential. Give managers an easy way to collect clear feedback and set practical goals for each team member. Utilize the resources below to help you set up Performance Management effectively and efficiently.

  • Create a Review Cycle: You are just a couple of steps away from unlocking the power of Performance Management. Let’s begin by setting up your Review Cycles.
    • Navigate to Settings > Performance Management > Create Review Cycles and follow this guide to finish the setup. If you prefer to watch a video, click here.
  • Set Up Goals: Goals in BambooHR is part of the Performance Management toolkit that will help your employees be successful in their role through accountability, transparency, and engagement.
    • Navigate to Settings > Performance Management and then click on the Goals tab to enable the feature for either all or some of your employees. This guide will help walk you through this process in a bit more detail.
  • Introduce Performance Management to your team: You have completed the setup…now what? Let’s introduce performance management to your managers and employees.
    • Click here to open the Performance Management starter kit. 

Additional resources

Performance 1:1s

At BambooHR, we know that meaningful conversations are at the heart of employee growth and engagement. That’s why we’re big fans of Performance 1:1s—regular, one-on-one meetings between managers and their team members. These sessions are more than just check-ins; they’re opportunities to connect, provide feedback, and set goals in a supportive environment. Performance 1:1s help build trust, clarify expectations, and empower employees to take charge of their development. By fostering open communication and collaboration, these meetings ensure everyone is aligned and working towards shared success.

  • Turn on 1:1s for direct reports
    • To set up 1:1s, go to Settings > Performance > 1:1s. Toggle on "Use 1:1s in Performance" and click Save.
    • Then, go to your direct report's employee profile, select 1:1s under the Performance tab, and create your 1:1 schedule by setting the frequency, day, and agenda items.
  • Set up 1:1s for direct reports
    • Managers can access their direct reports’ 1:1s from their employee profile > under the Performance tab > 1:1s. Managers should add the frequency, day of the week, and recurring agenda items.
  • How to view 1:1s information
    • Once set up, 1:1s will show under the Performance tab on the employee profile, including dates, agenda items, notes, and upcoming 1:1s dates.

Additional resources

360º Feedback

At BambooHR, we believe in the power of well-rounded insights to fuel personal and professional growth. That’s where 360 Feedback comes ina dynamic tool that gathers feedback from all directions: peers, managers, and even self-assessments. This comprehensive approach gives employees a complete picture of their strengths and areas for improvement. By embracing 360 feedback, companies will have a culture where all employees feel supported and empowered to reach their full potential. It’s all about creating a feedback-rich environment that drives success and strengthens your team from every angle.

  • Understanding 360º Feedback
    • First, navigate to Settings > Performance and then select Create a Review Cycle. You will need to create a Review Cycle in order to turn on 360 feedback.
  • Setting up 360º Feedback
    • Under the Feedback section, select the date for the feedback requests to go to both managers and employees. Select how often they should repeat to determine the perfect feedback cadence for your team. 

Additional resources

eNPS AI Topic Summaries

eNPS AI Topic Summaries is a smart way to gain deeper insights into employee sentiment. Analyzing employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) feedback, our AI-driven summaries identify key themes and trends, giving you a clear picture of what’s working and what needs attention. This innovative tool helps you understand the voice of your employees so you can make informed decisions that boost engagement and satisfaction.

  • Where to find eNPS AI Topic Summaries
    • Navigate to the Overview tab and scroll down to the bottom of the report. Our AI will further sort comments into topics, along with a bar chart showing the number of comments for each topic.
  • How to understand eNPS AI Topic Summaries
    • Click on a bar chart to expand the comment snippets related to that topic. You can then click on these snippets to show a modal with the full comment for more context.

Additional resources

Employee Community

Employee Community is crafted to bring your team together through various engaging features. With tools for organizing team-building activities, creating interest groups, and managing collaborative projects, our platform makes it easy for employees to connect and interact. Whether through virtual meetups, shared project spaces, or discussion forums, employees can share ideas, support one another, and celebrate successes. Employee Community also includes event calendars, seamless document embedding, and resource sharing to enhance collaboration and communication.

  • Get started with Employee Community
    • By default, the Employee Community is in an “off” state. To turn "on" the Employee Community, navigate to Settings and click Employee Community on the left menu.
    • From here, click Let’s Get Started and this will turn on the Employee Community and a new environment will automatically be created.
  • Preparing Employee Community
    • You will need to complete a couple of steps before your employees have access to the Employee Community. Click Let’s Get Started to begin the setup process.
      • Sync employees: Toggle on Sync Employees from Settings in BambooHR. This action will add all employees from your company to the Employee Community.
      • Add company branding: When you create a new Employee Community, it will be automatically populated with your company's logo, name, and colors (if one is selected in BambooHR). Use the general settings to edit any of the branding in Employee Community
      • Add content: Add groups, posts, and resources to fill Employee Community before you go live to your employees.
  • Go live
    • Once you have set up the Employee Community and successfully synchronized employees, it’s time to go live. Switch on the Go Live toggle at the bottom of the Employee Community page in Settings.
    • When toggled on, the Employee Community widget will appear on BambooHR Home of employee profiles, and the feature is fully functional.

Additional resources

Elite only

Want to learn more about the features in your Elite package? Join our Learning Labs to enhance your company's HR reporting capabilities and compensation strategy.

Custom Dashboards & Analytics

BambooHR® Custom Dashboards & Analytics is part of our reporting feature, allowing administrators to view key performance indicators and conduct analyses without SQL coding, through interactive dashboards and data visualizations that consolidate important information into a single view. This feature includes both pre-built dashboards for topics like compensation, diversity, turnover and also allows for custom dashboards.

HR Benchmarks

Available in several of our standard reports, the benchmarking feature enables administrators to make data-driven decisions by comparing their company's metrics with industry peers through AI-generated and custom benchmark groups. Insights are offered into areas like age, gender, and employee turnover while ensuring data privacy.

Compensation Management

Compensation management involves strategically planning and administering employee compensation to ensure fairness, competitiveness, and alignment with organizational goals. BambooHR's suite includes tools for compensation benchmarking, planning, and custom benchmarks.

Strategic benefits

  • Supports data-driven compensation decisions.
  • Enhances recruitment and retention by aligning pay with market standards.
  • Reduces manual effort and human error via automation.
  • Enables customization for unique organizational needs.

Compensation Benchmarking

Compensation benchmarking compares internal pay to market data to stay competitive and fair. It involves using data from sources like Mercer, adjusting pay based on market comparisons, and using visual tools (e.g., pay bands, comp ratios) to assess employee pay positioning.

Custom Compensation Benchmarks

Custom Compensation Benchmarks let organizations add personalized data beyond Mercer's U.S.-focused dataset by importing external sources, setting custom pay ranges, and assigning them to job titles. This offers flexible, tailored benchmarking for global or specialized roles.

Compensation Planning

Compensation Planning in BambooHR streamlines pay reviews, budgeting, and approvals by allowing HR teams to define cycle details, such as scope, budget, currency, and compensation types and manage everything through a centralized worksheet. The system includes automated calculations for comp ratios, pay changes, and budget impact, supports a hierarchical approval flow, and offers features like employee details, proposed increases, visual tools, auto-saving, and easy data export.

How to upgrade your package

Before you finish the upgrade process, BambooHR will provide you with your new estimated monthly package pricing. When you upgrade via self-serve on the Account Info page within BambooHR, you will also see an estimate of your upgrade costs here as well. If you want to learn how these upgrades can help your business save money and gain efficiency, contact our support team ([email protected]) for a free price quote and demo.

If you are interested in upgrading your package, you may be able to do this on your own in BambooHR, but the capability to use the self-service upgrade option depends on specific criteria and your access level:

You can use the self-service upgrade option if you are an Account Owner upgrading from:

  1. Core to Pro
  2. Pro to Elite

You will not be able to use the self-serve upgrade option if:

  1. you are upgrading from Core to Elite.
  2. you are in a grace period (have a past due invoice), until that is paid.
  3. you are using wire transfer or check as your primary payment method.
  4. you have the Payroll, Ben Admin, or Time Tracking add-ons on your account.
  5. you are currently in the implementation process.

If you meet the criteria and have access, navigate to the self-serve upgrade option on the Account Info tab. Simply click Manage Subscription.

From the Manage Subscription page, click Upgrade to [Package Name].

Clicking Start Upgrade will pull up your new estimated total for your next invoice. This total will include a prorated amount* for the new package for the number of days you have left in the current billing period. Click View Estimate and View Details to get more details on the price (see below).

*If you prepay annually, you will see a slightly different view as the amount will be coming out of your prepaid total. If you have insufficient funds, you will not be able to proceed with the upgrade. If this is the case, you can reach out to our Billing team to add the needed funds.

The View Estimate option will pull up a page with your new estimated monthly pricing for the new package. You can print or save this estimate if needed.

The View Details option will pull up a page where you can see the breakdown of the prorated amounts for the old package and your new package.

Clicking Upgrade Now* will automatically activate the upgrade, and you will see a celebratory message with a link to your setup guides. 

*Please note you will need to click the box accepting our Terms of Service before you can proceed with the upgrade.

If you still need either Payroll or Ben Admin to qualify for the bundle discount, you will see an option to request information about the add-ons, and our Expansion team will reach out shortly.

Once you have upgraded your package, you and your Account Payable Contacts will receive a confirmation email.

If you do not meet the criteria to use the self-service upgrade option, you can request a personalized demo with our team at BambooHR. To do this, navigate to the Account Info tab in Settings, select Manage Subscription, and then the upgrade option.

A short video will appear and provide you with an overview of the selected package.

  1. Talk to Our Team About Upgrading: If you are a non-Account Owner user (such as a Full Addmin or billing contact) and qualify for self-service, you can select this button to automatically send a request to our team for the next steps on upgrading your package.
  2. Start Upgrade: If you are an Account Owner who qualifies for self-service, you can click the Start Upgrade button to begin the process of upgrading your package.

Post-upgrade resources

For feature-specific information, please refer to the listed resources above.

Once you upgrade your package, you will receive a confirmation email. To help you get started and make the most of your upgraded package, we have included the following resources. 

  • FAQs: If you have questions about upgrading your BambooHR package, please visit our BambooHR Packages FAQ guide for more information.
  • Decision Maker Toolkit: Even though you may love all the exciting new things BambooHR offers, we understand that there are decision-makers at your company who may have the final word. To better prepare you for those conversations, we have created a Decision Maker Toolkit for both Core and Pro with the materials necessary to navigate those conversations.
  • BambooHR Learning courses: Access our BambooHR Learning Portal to discover courses that help you effectively utilize the features available in your upgraded BambooHR package.
  • Interactive guides: Do you prefer hands-on learning? Our interactive guides will guide you through different features in your BambooHR account.
  • Webinar and Learning Labs: Join an upcoming webinar or Learning Lab to gain expertise in a specific BambooHR feature, or explore our library of previous recordings to learn at your pace.
  • Support: If you need further assistance or have specific questions, please contact our Support team from within your BambooHR account or through our Help Center.
  • HR Efficiency and Cost Analysis PDFs: Share these PDFs with your stakeholders as an easy way to explain your return on investment for both the Core and Pro plans.

Have questions? Visit our BambooHR Packages FAQ guide!