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. 

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. 

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: 

1. “Has (your company name associated with this EIN) paid employees before?” 
2. “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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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!

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: 

• Create a Time Off Category
• Create a Time Off Policy
• Assign a Time Off Policy

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:

• Benefits Tracking in BambooHR
• Changes to Benefits with Payroll

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!

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. 

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.

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. 

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.

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.  

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.