Payroll Onboarding
How do I complete the payroll onboarding process?
Purpose: We understand you may need more direction when completing Payroll Onboarding. This guide will walk you through each step within Payroll Onboarding and direct you to where you can find more information for each task. Work through your entire checklist completely to lock in your implementation start date and to ensure your readiness to work with your payroll project manager.
If you have questions at any point during this process, please reach out to [email protected].
Welcome to payroll in BambooHR! Before you get started on Payroll Onboarding, feel free to watch this quick introduction video.
- The date in the top right corner will signify your implementation start date which is based on how you set up your pay schedule and first pay date.
- If you have any questions, click on Email Us in the bottom left corner to get ahold of someone on Payroll Support.
You will receive email notifications throughout the process for tasks that are due and not yet complete or for tasks that are past due to help keep you on track. Click here for more information!
Adding your company and bank information quickly and accurately is a very important part of the pre-implementation payroll process. You must complete all of the Company & Bank Info steps in order to move on to the other steps. Once this step is completed entirely, you can then complete all of the other onboarding tasks in any order.
We will need to verify your company’s legal name with what is on record with the IRS. Click on Upload My Verification Docs to begin this process. You will then be prompted to upload your previous tax quarter 941 Form. If you are a new company or don't have Form 941, you can also upload an IRS return document like the CP 575/SS-4 or 147c Verification Letter by clicking Use a different tax form.
Please note that the company's legal name registered with the state does not sync alongside the federal registration with the IRS. If any changes have occurred to your company's legal name with the state and you did not file that change directly with the IRS, the federal legal name will not update.
If you uploaded Form 941, clicking the Next button will automatically extract your company's EIN, federal deposit frequency, address, and company legal name for you to verify. You will also be required to add the company phone number and business type before saving. If you uploaded any other type of document, you will need to manually enter this information and verify that it is also correct.
Your company will either be a monthly or a semi-weekly depositor. You can verify your federal tax deposit frequency schedule using your 941 or 944 filing documents. You can request a copy of your 941 or 944 from your previous payroll provider or the IRS.
If you are a new company, you will need to reach out to the IRS at 1 (800) 829-4933 or locate your deposit frequency using IRS Publication 15 (Section 11: Depositing Taxes) to determine your deposit schedule.
Please note that your deposit schedule is when you deposit your federal taxes and will not necessarily align with when you pay your employees.
We will also request the appropriate tax documents from your company for payroll processing. To ensure we collect the correct documents, you will be asked the following two questions:
- “Has (your company name associated with this EIN) paid employees before?”
- “Does your business use a PEO (Professional Employer Organization)?”
You will then be prompted to upload either your tax returns or additional state tax documents. To save and upload your files, click Upload Tax Documentation. All uploaded files can be found within the Payroll Implementation folder within the Files tab.
Next, you will need to select your payroll contact from the drop-down list. You will be able to choose from any Full Admin or Payroll Admin in BambooHR.
Bank account information is vital for your application to our bank, NPC (National Payment Corporation). Click Add Bank to open Plaid and find your bank. BambooHR uses Plaid to verify your bank account securely. Once filled out, the bank account information will automatically populate your ACH Authorization document.
If you are having difficulty entering your bank account when using Plaid, there is an option to enter your account information manually by clicking Can't Find Your Bank? Please ensure you enter your information correctly so we don’t run into any issues with NPC or the next steps. This help guide walks you through exactly how to add your account manually.
It is important to enter this information as soon as possible so that we may continue with your onboarding. If needed, the bank information can be changed later in the process.
There are four onboarding documents you are required to download, complete, and sign for our team to begin processing forms with the IRS and NPC:
- IRS Form 8821
- IRS Form 8655
- ACH Authorization
- Beneficial Owner(s) Addendum
If you need help, check out this help guide that walks you through each step and gives examples of what your documents should look like.
*Signature Requirements
Keep in mind that an authorized individual of your company (Owner, CEO, President, etc.; Please see the image below for accepted titles) must sign each of the IRS forms using a physical "Wet" signature.
Click to review the Payroll Terms of Service from our website. Then, return to the onboarding experience to check that you have read and agree with the terms of service before moving on to the next step.
This survey helps us understand your company's unique payroll situation, such as the number of states your employees live in, additional pay types, 2% shareholders, and other details. This will help your future payroll project manager tailor your implementation to the specifics of your company as it currently stands, so answer the survey as best you can.
In this step of Payroll Onboarding, we will take you through the most important parts of your BambooHR account when it comes to running payroll so that you can double-check everything is set up completely and correctly. As you review each task in Account Settings, you will use the toggle in the checklist task to mark it as complete. When you navigate away from the onboarding checklist to set up a specific section of your account, we've added a banner with a Back to Payroll Registration button at the top to make it easier for you to return to the previous section.
Company locations are significant because they determine which state taxes you will need to set up tax registration and sync to your employee’s state tax withholding information. For this reason, all locations must have an associated physical address or be marked as Remote within your BambooHR Settings.
Verify that all physical addresses are typed correctly and have an address line 1, city, state, zip code, and country. We use the United States Postal Service database to verify addresses are correct.
If you have remote employees, set up a remote location and assign them to that location. BambooHR will then use the employee's home address set up in their Personal tab for tax withholding purposes. Please verify that those working in a remote location also have their correct home address.
You can set up locations by navigating to Settings > Employee Fields > Location. If you do not have any locations set up, click the +New Location button at the top of your screen. If you need to edit any of your current locations, click on the pencil icon to the right of the location name.
If you have remote employees and need to create a remote location, check the box next to This location is for remote employees.
If you have multiple remote locations, the first five characters of the location name must be unique. For example, if you have two remote locations–one in California and one in Washington–you can name them “CA - Remote” and “WA - Remote.”
If a location that should be remote is in a job opening within BambooHR Hiring, you will not be able to enter the remote status until the location gets removed from the current job opening.
If you cannot change the current job opening, you can create a new location with the correct information. Employees will need to have the new location assigned.
Would you like to review a step-by-step help guide on how to set up Pay Schedules in BambooHR?
Next, you must set up your pay schedules, assign your employees to the pay schedule, and ensure the pay schedule is syncing to Payroll. Pay schedules are the linking factor between BambooHR and Payroll and must have the correct pay period dates and pay dates.
You can manually assign the pay schedule to an employee in the Compensation table on their Job tab. This is a great opportunity to verify that other data, such as Overtime Status and Paid Per*, has been entered correctly on the employee’s profile.
*The only options that will sync to payroll in the Compensation table’s Paid Per field are paid per Hour or paid per Year.
Tips for setting up syncing pay schedules
- You can assign employees to a pay schedule after it has been synced. However, all required Personal and Job tab information must be added to the employee profile before assigning the pay schedule. We recommend creating the pay schedule without syncing it to Payroll, verifying the pay dates, assigning your employees, and then going back and editing the pay schedule to sync to Payroll.
- If you have employees with the same pay period start, end, and pay dates, but some get paid through Payroll while some do not, you will need to create two identical pay schedules with different names and mark one as syncing to Payroll while leaving the other as unsynced.
- You will not be able to edit the pay period and pay date after you add the syncing pay schedule, so please ensure that the pay schedule and pay dates are accurate. If the dates are wrong after it is saved, you will have to create a new pay schedule and reassign your employees.
- After creating your pay schedule, verify that the pay periods and pay dates look correct by hovering over the pay schedule and clicking on the calendar icon. This will bring up a window that shows the pay schedule start, end, and pay dates.
Would you like to watch a video about this topic?
Department and Division are required fields in order to run payroll, and they are necessary for filtering and reporting. Don’t have departments or divisions? Just put “N/A” or “None."
- Check out this guide to learn more about adding and updating departments and divisions in BambooHR.
- For more information on how to assign departments and divisions to your employees’ on their profiles, click here!
Would you like to enroll in the BambooHR Time Off learning course?
To ensure your employees are automatically paid for their paid time off (PTO), you will need to set up and sync your time off categories in BambooHR with Payroll.
Here are some guides to help set up your time off:
To edit existing time off categories, go to Time Off in Settings, click Overview, hover over the name of the time off category card, click on the three-dot button that appears, and select Edit Category.
There are three items to check to make sure a time off type syncs to Payroll:
- Time off policies in this Category are paid policies: If this time off category will include policies that should be paid, check this box. Note that any time off category with this box unchecked will not sync data to Payroll.
- Include this Category in payroll: Check this box to include this category in payroll. Once you check this box, it will require the type to be tracked in hours.
- Track Time in...: All time off categories will need to be tracked in hours to sync over to BambooHR Payroll. You will not have the option to select days from the list if the time off category is synced. If you need to switch from days to hours, you will need to enter the standard number of hours worked per day at your organization. Once you click Save, all policies, requests, and historical data associated with that time off category will convert to hours using the number of work hours you entered.
Would you like to enroll in one of our BambooHR Benefit learning courses?
In order for your benefits to be deducted from employees’ paychecks, they first need to be added to BambooHR under settings. Year-to-date information is also important to us, so any benefit plans that have been paid in the current calendar year must be added to the Benefits section of BambooHR.
Here are some helpful guides on how to set up benefits with BambooHR Payroll enabled:
Please note that we will not deduct and payout any benefits from BambooHR settings. We will only withhold the benefit amounts from employee paychecks.
Benefit Deduction Date Settings:
Benefit eligibility and the corresponding deductions rarely begin on the same day. For this reason, we have the option to select which pay period the benefit deductions will get withheld from when an employee first enrolls in the benefit.
For employees to view their pay stubs, they will need access to BambooHR. Employees will need View access to the Pay Info tab to see their own direct deposit and tax withholding information, and pay stubs.
Enable employee access to the Pay Info tab from Settings. Click Access Levels, and then choose the appropriate employee access level. From here, click Access Level Settings. Find the Pay Info tab in the "See About Themselves" section and choose View or Edit access.
Here are some helpful guides on employee access:
- Create an Employee Access Level
- Enable Employee Access
- Pay Info Tab Overview (This is where employees can view their paystubs, direct deposit, and tax withholding information.)
We understand Payroll isn't always a one-person show and requires multiple users or admins. You can also set up access levels for these specific users. Click here to learn more!
Data Data Data! After all of your account settings are taken care of, you will now need to add and verify that all of your employees have the necessary data added to their record to run payroll successfully. Each task within this step in the payroll onboarding checklist is outlined below.
Click Review Federal Withholdings to begin reviewing your employee data. In this step, you will enter and review your employee's federal withholding data.
Click the Federal Withholding template hyperlink to download the Bulk_Import_Employee_Taxes template. Fill out this template with your employee data and then upload it to your Payroll Implementation folder within the Files tab of your BambooHR account. Your payroll project manager will import the data for you.
After your payroll project manager imports the data, click Edit Federal Withholdings to open up the Federal Withholdings page and review your employee's data.
Once you review your federal withholding information and are satisfied that it is correct, you can indicate that you have completed the step by toggling I have completed this task on the Payroll Onboarding checklist.
Federal Withholdings page
The Federal Withholdings page displays all employees with withholding information in BambooHR--even information that you may have previously added before filling out the import template.
If an employee's profile contains information based on an older version of the W-4 form, an information box indicates this, and their row view is grayed out. Changes to these employees must be made on the employee profile on their Pay Info tab.
Employees who have the Ignore filing status/other adjustments box checked on their profile show an exempt filing status in the grid view. Their filing status can only be changed from the Pay Info tab on the employee profile. Other information besides the filing status can be updated in the grid view.
For all other employees, the federal withholding details can be added or edited directly in this grid view.
Once a change has been made, the Save Changes button at the bottom of the screen activates. Changes are only saved when that button is clicked. If the user clicks Cancel or the Back option in the upper left corner without saving, any changes that were made are reverted, and the user is returned to the Payroll Onboarding checklist.
Click the Review Missing Payroll Data button to begin adding your employee's missing payroll data. BambooHR has created an amazing tool to help ensure every active employee’s data is complete and ready for payroll. This step will not be marked complete until all missing info is resolved.
To show up in the list of active employees, the employee must be missing at least one of the required payroll fields (see below) AND have a home or work location that meets at least one of the following criteria:
- Have a US home address and US work location.
- Have a US home address and no work location.
- Have no home address and a US work location.
- Have no home address or work location filled out.
If you haven't completed this in the previous steps, you can manually enter your employee's information for federal and state taxes. You also have the option to fill out the tax template. Click the blue data import templates hyperlink within the Employee Data > Review Missing Payroll Data section to download the template. You can find the downloadable template in the Payroll Implementation folder within the main Files tab. For quick access, you can also download the template below.
The Employee Tax template houses both federal and state tax withholding data for your employees. Filling out this template ensures your employees' correct withholdings and exemptions are included in BambooHR. Once the Employee Tax template is complete, please upload it to your Payroll Implementation folder in the Files tab in BambooHR.
A couple of helpful tips:
- There is a required column hidden under the Employee W-4 State & UI tab on the tax template. Don’t forget to fill out column AC–Unemployment Insurance Location.
- For federal withholdings, only employees using the post-2020 W-4 may have their tax information manually entered directly into BambooHR.
Why worry about terminated employees? All terminated employees who were paid by your company within the current year will also need their end-of-year tax docs (W2, 1099, etc); therefore, we will also need their information. We've made it really easy for you to identify who your terminated employees are and what data they are missing. Click the Review Missing Data or Actually, we did have terminations in 20XX to begin. This step will also not be marked as complete until all the missing info is resolved.
All terminated employees paid by your company within the current year will need to be added as employees in BambooHR. If you have not added all of your current terminated employees, please make sure to do that.
Click the Review Payroll Deductions button to go to the Payroll Deductions Summary report. This report will help you verify your benefit and non-benefit deductions for all employees.
If employees are missing deductions, please take the time to enroll them in the appropriate benefit plans, or you can also enter this information manually right from an employee’s BambooHR profile. You may want to work with your current benefits administrator to collect the current benefit enrollment information for all employees.
Non-Benefit Deductions
You will also want to add any applicable non-benefit deductions to their Pay Info tab. These include things like tax levies, child support, loan repayments, garnishments, etc.
If you want BambooHR to pay any garnishments on your behalf, you will want to make sure you have this set up in your BambooHR Settings under the Garnishment Payments section of the Payroll tab. When you check the applicable garnishments, the system will know to ask you for any payee information when you add a garnishment to your employees’ profiles.
Note: BambooHR Payroll charges a $4 fee per garnishment per pay period that we collect and pay.
Click the Review Direct Deposit button to verify that all employees have their accurate direct deposit data on the Payroll Direct Deposit report. If an employee is missing their direct deposit information, you can manually add it within their pay info tab, or you can download a template by clicking on Bulk Import Direct Deposit Info to fill out and have the data imported into your employee's records. You can find the downloaded template within the Payroll Implementation tab under the main Files tab.
The Direct Deposit template holds all employee bank information. This template will help you ensure your employees are getting their paychecks deposited into the right bank accounts. Once the template is complete, please upload it to the Payroll Onboarding checklist step of ‘Set Up Payroll Information’ by selecting I would like to upload the Employee Direct Deposit Template to be imported in the dropdown option.
You can locate and download the template to your Payroll Implementation folder within the Employee Data > Review Employee Direct Deposit Info section of Payroll Onboarding, or you can click the link below.
For Column J, if an employee has multiple direct deposit accounts, the last account must be set to “BAL” or “100 PCT” because our system reads the last account as 100% of the remaining balance.
Now that you have all of your settings and employee data complete, it's time to provide some pretty important payroll data from your previous payroll provider. We will need to obtain a Year To Date (YTD) file with all wages, taxes, and deduction information from all active and terminated employees within the current year so that we can create your end-of-year tax documents. Watch this short video to understand which YTD files are the most helpful.
You will then need to select the name of your previous payroll provider and use this help guide to help you identify which report we need from you.
Uploading the correct YTD reports.
- This is not applicable to New Companies or New Year first pay date.
- We will need a Year-to-date report (YTD for short) of all the payroll runs made by your previous payroll provider from the beginning of the year (including any off-cycle checks). If you are unsure of which dates we will need for your reports, refer to the date range we provided below the Previous Provider Name field. This date range is based on your first pay date, so make sure it's accurate. It’s super important that your report reflects the accurate dates so that we can ensure every wage, tax, and deduction is accounted for when creating your employees’ W-2s at the end of the year. Your report(s) should show the totals of all wage, deduction, and tax information for every employee paid during the year. Once the correct YTD information has been identified and the reports have been run, you can then upload this report within this step by clicking Choose Files.
Once you have successfully completed the Company & Bank Information step above, our team will begin to process your application with the IRS and NPC. This process can take up to 10-15 business days from the time you submit your documents. Our team will notify you by email once the application process is complete and the penny test has been sent.
Once you see the email from our team, within two business days you can expect to see a small deposit and withdrawal in the bank account that you set up in the Company & Bank Info step. Enter that deposit amount in this step and click Verify Bank Account to complete your penny verification. Here is a helpful guide on the penny verification process.
The Payroll Essentials step will become available on your Target Implementation Start Date at the top of the screen and when you have completed all previous task items. Notice a few changes on this page:
- Once you get to this step in the onboarding checklist, you will begin working directly with your assigned payroll project manager as shown in the gray box. If you have questions after this point in onboarding, click the blue email me anytime hyperlink to email them directly.
- Your Target Implementation Start Date will now adjust to show the First Payroll Run Date.
- Click Go to Payroll Center to open the regular Payroll tab experience in a new tab. Once you run your first payroll, the onboarding checklist will disappear, and you will go straight to the Payroll Center by clicking on the Payroll tab in BambooHR.
- This box will display the time and date of your first call with your payroll project manager (PPM). If you are unable to make that date or time, please email your PPM to reschedule. If a call has not been scheduled, don't fret! Your PPM will contact you to schedule one.
There are four substeps within the Payroll Essentials step that you must complete:
- Add Any Non-Benefit Deductions
- Introduce Payroll to Your Employees
- Upload Quarter-to-Date Data
- Confirm Tax Info
Upload Quarter-to-Date Data
If you are starting with BambooHR Payroll mid-quarter, you must upload a QTD (Quarter-to-date) report in addition to the YTD report you previously uploaded within the Previous Provider Data step. Click the + Add Provider dropdown to select your previous payroll provider. If you are unsure which dates we will need for this report, refer to the date range we provide. You can also reach out to your PPM for confirmation. It’s super important that your reports reflect the accurate dates so that we can ensure every wage, tax, and deduction is accounted for when creating your employees’ W-2s at the end of the year. Your report(s) should show the totals of all wage, deduction, and tax information for every employee paid during the quarter. Once the correct QTD information has been identified and the reports have been run, you can upload this report by clicking Choose Files. This step will automatically be marked complete upon uploading your file.
After you have completed the first 7 steps of Payroll Onboarding, you will begin working on entering/verifying your company tax information with your payroll project manager. Keep in mind the following:
Before we can begin to process and sync taxes in BambooHR Payroll, you will need to verify all of your tax information with your previous payroll provider by requesting a tax packet. The tax packet should include all tax IDs, rates, and frequencies (where applicable) for the states you are registered in. Once you have received the tax packet, you will need to upload the file to the Payroll Implementation folder in the Files tab in BambooHR. If you have not yet run payroll with any payroll provider, please request this information from your tax advisor.
This information is vital in order to proceed with BambooHR Payroll. If you do not provide tax information (including State Tax IDs) in a timely manner, it may result in the termination of services with BambooHR Payroll. This help guide may also assist you in finding your company tax information.
Setting up Company Tax Information in BambooHR
Click See Tax Info to navigate to the Taxes section of Payroll Settings and complete the following:
- Confirm all demographic and payroll data is complete in BambooHR. All previous steps in the Payroll Onboarding checklist must be completed in order to proceed with syncing taxes in BambooHR Payroll. The best way to confirm that all employee data is complete is by using a few of our Missing Data reports in BambooHR.
- The Pay Info Tab Missing Data Report will show you any holes in your tax withholding and direct deposit information. This visual report shows red circles for missing data and green circles for completed data. If your report is empty, all employees have complete information for tax withholding and direct deposit!
- The Payroll Info Checkup Report will show you any payroll-required fields that are missing for your employees. Simply select the syncing pay schedule to get started. This report will allow you to make updates directly from the report. If your report is empty, all employees have complete payroll-related information!
- Verify data with your payroll project manager.
- Please allow 2-3 business days after you begin working directly with your payroll project manager to review your account and sync the remaining taxes.
- Once you have received confirmation from your payroll project manager that taxes have been synced, you can verify that all the taxes are correct in BambooHR by using the tax packet provided by your previous payroll provider.
For more information on how to manually add and set up your company tax information, click here.
The Training step is where you will learn the ins and outs of navigating payroll in your BambooHR account and running your payroll. There are two substeps where you will complete two BambooHR Learning courses:
- Payroll 101 - Preparing Your Account for Payroll
- Running a Payroll in BambooHR® - A Step-by-Step Guide
Toggle the I have completed this task to mark the substeps as complete.
When you reach this step, your payroll project manager (PPM) will schedule your final call. Within this step, you must complete pre and post-call subtasks:
Pre-call tasks:
Post-call tasks:
- Approve Your First Payroll!
- Notify Your Previous Provider
- Complete the Feedback Survey
You did it! You made it through your entire onboarding checklist! Thank you for taking the time to clean your BambooHR account and running your first payroll! No one appreciates it more than your own employees, as it ensures they will be paid correctly and on time. If you have questions about what data is required for payroll, click here!