Managing Pre-Payroll Errors
How do I fix my payroll errors before running payroll?
Purpose: To help you understand and resolve errors that may come up under the Payroll tab in BambooHR. These errors will need to be fixed before running your payroll to ensure a seamless payroll experience.
Contact Payroll Support if you are having problems trying to fix any of the following errors. If you already started running payroll and are running into errors, click here for more information on errors while running payroll.
Pre-payroll errors
Company-level errors will display as a banner on the Payroll tab if they are found for the current payroll run. Clicking on the Fix Now button will take you exactly where you need to go to fix the error that has populated in the account.
If employee-level errors are found in the current payroll run, the People Being Paid tile will display a warning sign and a ratio of employees ready to be paid versus the total number of employees included in payroll. Clicking the tile will take you to the People Being Paid page where you can fix the errors for your employees.
Errors may also appear when you go to start your payroll and initiate the data sync through the Start Payroll button. If it is a company-level error, you will be rerouted to the Payroll tab and the red error banner will notify you of what needs to be fixed. If it is an employee-level error, a modal will appear with the employee name(s) and the errors found. You can either click Fix Now to fix the errors on the People Being Paid page, disable payroll for the employee by clicking the "X" when you hover over their name, or you can click Cancel to exit.
We have outlined how to manually fix all potential errors in BambooHR below.
Company-level address errors
To begin resolving a company address error, click on Fix Now in the banner to open a modal that will allow you to edit the info. The error(s) in the original address will highlight in orange and suggested changes to the address will highlight in green to the right of the original address. You will have a few options to update the address:
- Edit Address: This button will appear under the original address. Clicking this button will allow you to edit the address directly.
- Use Suggested Address: Clicking this button will update the original address to the suggested address changes automatically.
- Use Original Address: If you receive an address error that our system allows as an exception, and you are certain that the address indicated is correct, this link will populate under the original address. Clicking this link will pop up a help modal with instructions on how to reach out to Support to get this updated (see below). Please note that the error will persist on the Payroll tab until our Support team validates the address. To close out you can click Cancel or the X icon in the top right.
- Save: Clicking Save will re-validate the address changes made in this modal.
If there is no suggested address, an error message will appear in orange text above the address. You can either edit the address or click Use Original Address.
Employee-level address errors
If an employee has an address issue, "Unable to Validate Address" will appear under the status column for that employee on the People Being Paid page. Hover over the name and click on Fix Now to update the address information. The process for updating address information for employees will be similar to updating address information at the company level, as mentioned above.
There are a few things to note about updating individual employee information and addresses:
- If you are certain an address is correct for an employee that is showing as an error, remember that you will need to reach out to Support to validate the address.
- Saving non-address information: If there is other payroll information missing or invalid in addition to their address, you'll have the ability to update and save the modal without updating the address. This will allow you to reach out to Support and continue updating other employees' information.
- Updating address state: If you update an employee's address and it changes their state, you will be prompted to check the employee's state tax elections to ensure they remain accurate.
When BambooHR validates your payroll data, it will look at your active employee and company addresses to ensure the correct tax accounts are set up in BambooHR. If you are required to add new tax accounts or have info missing from a previous tax account, an error banner will appear at the top of the page on the Payroll tab. Click Setup Now to navigate to settings and update your tax accounts.
If a compensation change to an employee record results in a pay schedule change where the paycheck of the month is no longer a valid option for a recurring extra pay type, an extra pay type is deactivated, or an extra pay type does not match the employee's tax type (W-2s with a non payable taxable benefit 2%), an error banner will appear on the Payroll tab, on the employee profile, and when you Start/Continue payroll. You can click Update Extra Pay and the following modal will appear for you to resolve these errors.
Within the Update Extra Pay modal, you can update the Extra Pay Type and/or New Pay Frequency columns depending on the recurring extra pay error detected for the employee. The options available to update the New Pay Frequency are based on the pay schedule frequency settings. If there is an error to a One-Time Only pay type, you will be able to update the Extra Pay Type field only. Click the dropdown menu and make a selection to update the error. These errors must be fixed before continuing to run payroll.
You can also enable/disable the extra pay by clicking the "+" or "-" icon upon hover.
You can only make edits to the fields that have a detected error. If you wish to update the other settings for an extra pay type, you can do so on the employee's Pay Info tab.
The following errors can be fixed by navigating to Settings > Employee Fields > Location or by clicking the Fix Now button. Then verify all of your locations aren't missing any information:
- Address is missing.
- City is missing.
- Job location 'City, STATE' is missing an address. Please enter an address for the assigned job location or reassign the Location on the Job tab.
- Job location 'City, STATE' is missing a zip. Please enter a zip for the assigned job location or reassign the Location on the Job tab.
- Job location 'Name' is missing a state. Please enter a state for the assigned job location or reassign the Location on the Job tab.
- Branch Name is missing.
Navigate to the Job tab in the employee profile, and make sure a job location is assigned under the Job Information Table. If they are remote, make sure their home address is filled out and valid:
- Missing Location for this pay period.
The following errors can be fixed by navigating to Settings > Benefits and then clicking on the plan name to edit:
- Cannot update Client Deduction. End Date must be one day prior to or greater than the start date.
- Some benefit plans do not have a plan type. The client is not able to sync deductions just yet.
- Start Date of HSA is blank.
- Unable to run payroll because Safe Harbor deductions do not match deduction pay type exclusions. Please go to company deduction page to correct and re-run payroll. You will not need to reset payroll.
- Cannot update Client Deduction due to overlapping records.
The following errors can be corrected under the Payroll tab in BambooHR settings:
- Unable to run payroll because Company Bank information is missing.
- Unable to run payroll because Pay Schedule is missing bank record. Please contact Customer Service for assistance.
- Unable to run payroll because Pay Group is missing bank record. Please contact Customer Service for assistance. You will not need to reset payroll.
- Unable to approve payroll because another of your company's payroll was approved after this payroll calculated. Please return to the Payroll Center to re-run payroll.
- PayCycle is not active
- Pay Date should be at least 2 business days after Due Date.
- No data received. Please check BambooHR for any structure changes.
- Error updating Payee table with ExternalPayee.
- Error updating ExternalDeparmentID on None department
- Error updating ExternalDivisionID on None division
- Company demographic data is missing. In BambooHR settings, please provide a company employment status, a company location, and ensure that you have at least one employee in a syncing pay schedule.
The following errors can be corrected under the Time Off section in BambooHR settings:
- Only 7 Time Off types are allowed. Please deactivate an existing Time Off type before adding a new one or updating an existing one.
The following errors can be fixed by navigating to the Pay Info tab on the individual employee profile and clicking on the Taxes tab:
- State Work In and Work Address State does not match.
- You're missing Federal Tax Withholding elections for this employee. Please update their Federal Filing Status on the Pay Info tab.
- You're missing State Tax Withholding elections for this employee. Please update their State Filing Location on the Pay Info tab.
- Employee has invalid state filing status.
- We're missing some information on the location tied to this employee's tax withholdings. Please make sure a location is set for State Tax Withholding and Unemployment Insurance.
- Invalid State Work In and/or State Work In UI (ZZ).
- Invalid number set for their State Withholding Exemptions. Please update the value to be between 0 and 99.
To fix the following errors, make sure the employee is assigned to a valid job location within the Job Information Table on the employee's Job tab. If they are remote, make sure they are set to a remote location and their home address is filled out and valid.
- Address is missing.
- City is missing.
- Street is missing.
- Zip is missing.
- Missing Employee Address - State.
- Employee has invalid work address type.
The following errors can be fixed by updating the employee's Personal tab fields:
- Birth Date (--) is outside date-time range.
- Birth Date is missing.
- SSN () is invalid.
- Gender is missing.
- Marital Status is missing.
- Employee Birth Date is Invalid.
- Missing Employee Name.
The following errors can be fixed by updating the employee's Job tab fields:
- Hire Date is missing
- The Workers' Comp Classification is missing. Please add a class code assignment on the Job tab.
- Hire Date ({date}) is outside date time range
- Original Hire Date ({date}) is outside date time range
*Note: If the Workers' Comp Classification field is not showing up on the employee's Job tab, make sure the Workers' Comp Codes are added in TRAXPayroll. If you have Washington employees, navigate to Settings > Payroll > Taxes to make sure the Workers' Comp rate is set up there.
The following errors can be fixed by updating the fields within the Job Information table found on the employee's Job tab:
- Missing active job information.
- Missing Location for this pay period.
- Employee is assigned to company level archived Location
- Employee is assigned to company level archived Department
- Employee is assigned to company level archived Division
The following errors can be fixed by updating the fields within the Compensation table found on the employee's Job tab:
- Pay Type Or Overtime status is missing.
- This employee is missing an overtime pay rate. Add an overtime pay rate for this employee to include them in payroll.
- Missing active compensation information.
- Cannot update Employee Wage. End Date must be one day prior to or greater than start date.
- Cannot update Employee Wage due to overlapping records.
- Below list of employees do not have a compensation rate for their corresponding hours. Please enter the rate if permitted below, or go to Job tab and enter the rate.
- Employees have multiple active compensation records.
- Overlapping Compensation Record (found on the People Being Paid page)
- Missing Compensation Data (found on the People Being Paid page)
The following errors can be fixed by updating the fields within the Employment Status table found on the employee's Job tab:
- Employees Have Multiple Active Jobs.
- Termination Date {date} is invalid
- Termination Date {date} is outside date time range
- Employee is assigned to company level archived Employment Status
The following errors can be fixed by navigating to the Pay Info > Direct Deposit section on the employee's profile and verifying those fields:
- Employee does not have an active 'Balance' type direct deposit record.
- BankID - - More than one Balance account is not allowed.
- Unable to run payroll because below list of employees do not have an active 'Balance' type direct deposit record. Please correct on the direct deposit tab and reset payroll. Employee Name:
- Unable to run payroll because the employee does not have an active 'Balance' type bank record.