Central – Vestwell Help Center

Since our platform has an integration with your payroll provider, we can take a lot of work off your plate regarding the processing of your payroll files through automation.

Central offers a 360° level of integration.

This guide will help you understand your specific responsibilities for the proper administration and submission of payroll files.

1. How Does My Integration Work?
2. Are There Any Reasons Why My Plan Might Not Be Eligible for an Integration?
3. What Are My Responsibilities if My Plan Has an Active Payroll Integration?
4. What Do You Handle For Me if My Plan Has an Active Payroll Integration?
5. How Catch-Up Contributions Are Tracked Through the Integration
6. Will You or Central Charge Me Fees to Set Up and/or Maintain This Payroll Integration?

Note: This payroll provider is only available for certain employers.

How Does My Integration Work?

Your integration is a 360° automated integration. This is a two-way integration in which we will automatically receive certain information about your plan and participants from your payroll system, process saver and employer contributions to the plan, and automatically send your savers’ selected deferral elections from their saver portal to your payroll system.

Please note that the Central integration will only allow employees to elect deferrals in percentages; dollar amount deferrals will not be an option.

Are There Any Reasons Why My Plan Might Not Be Eligible for an Integration?

There are some plan design features that currently prohibit the use of payroll integration, including:

• Plans that do not have an established recurring pay schedule set up in both the portal and the payroll system.
• Plans that do not use the same Central for all pay group(s).
• Plans that have limitations preventing each pay group from being integrated.
• Eligibility rules that exclude certain classes of employees, types of compensation, or certain types of hours worked.
• Plans that allow after-tax contributions (only be available if your plan uses a Third Party Administrator). Note: After-tax and Roth contributions are not the same.

What Are My Responsibilities?

Our ability to successfully process your payroll files and administer your plan depends on you! It is your responsibility to manage:

Discretionary and/or Profit-Sharing Contributions

• Set up and maintain non-mandatory employer contributions in your payroll system.
• Submit non-mandatory employer contributions through your employer portal using an off-cycle upload.

Mandatory Employer Contributions

• Maintain & submit mandatory employer contributions that are on a frequency other than on a per-pay period basis using an off-cycle upload.

Pay Groups

• Make sure any pay groups in your payroll system are also set up with us and vice versa.
• If you are removing a pay group from your payroll system, please contact us directly.
• The number of pay groups or companies in your payroll system may affect your plan’s eligibility to integrate.

Saver Status Changes - Payroll System

• Make updates in your payroll system when savers are hired, terminated, or re-hired. Include a specific date when making these status changes in your payroll system.

Saver Personal Information

• Maintain complete, accurate, and up-to-date personal information within your payroll system - including date of birth, social security number, and email address.

Pay Frequency/Schedule Changes

• Report any pay frequency or pay schedule changes to your retirement plan representative to ensure there is no delay in processing your payroll files upon making this change in your payroll system.

Negative Contributions/Corrections

• Negative contributions or corrections are not able to be processed through the integration. For assistance with negative contributions or corrections, please contact us directly.

Review Payroll Data

• We rely on you to provide us with correct, updated, and complete data about your employees regardless of whether we receive that data directly from you or from your payroll system. Regular audits and spot checks of the data provided to us will help you quickly identify and rectify any discrepancies.
• We recommend ensuring accuracy of the Plan Contact Info on your employer portal as an email will be sent to notify you of any discrepancies.

What Do You Handle For Me if My Plan Has an Active Payroll Integration?

Payroll Codes

• Set up and maintain certain deduction/earnings codes within your payroll system.
  • Vestwell Pretax 401k
  • Vestwell Roth 401k
  • Vestwell Loan Repayment

Where to Find Retirement Deduction Codes:

Your retirement deduction codes will appear 4 business days before your first payroll with us. You can locate the codes in Central by following the instructions below:

1. Log in to Central.
2. Navigate to "Employee."
3. Navigate to the specific employee.
4. Select Benefits.

If you have existing Pretax or Roth codes in Central, they will be deactivated. Any existing IRA codes must be deactivated by you, the employer.

Saver Deferrals - First Payroll

• Four business days prior to your first pay date with us, we will use the saver deferral rates in the portal to set saver elections in your payroll system. To guarantee saver deferral rates have been updated in your payroll system, do not run payroll prior to 4 business days before your scheduled pay date.

Saver Deferral Updates

• Ongoing deferral changes made in the portal by eligible savers will be communicated to your payroll system. It may take a few pay periods for this to be reflected in saver paychecks.
• If your plan has an auto-enrollment feature, the same guidelines above apply.

Saver Status Changes in the Portal

• When you add, rehire, or terminate employees in your payroll system, the changes will be reflected in the portal.

Processing Contributions

• Process employee deferrals and employer contributions, which are maintained by the integration shortly after you run payroll in your payroll system.
• If you process your payroll early, we will never process the contributions file before the pay date.
• Off-cycle contributions processed in your payroll system will come through the integration & reflect in your employer portal after the pay date.

Managing retirement loan repayments

• Set up loan deduction for new loans
• Modify loan deduction when loan is reamortized
• Turn off loan deduction for completed loans

Will You or Central Charge Me Fees to Set Up and/or Maintain This Payroll Integration?

Please note that integration fees may apply. For further information, please reach out to your representative.

What if I Amend My Plan or Change the Frequency of My Employer Contributions?

If your plan has been amended or if you are considering an amendment to your original plan documents, please inform your retirement plan representative to understand what actions on your part will be required to submit and process your payroll files correctly.

If you have changed the frequency of funding your employer contribution, our team will work with your payroll system to make any necessary updates.

If you change your payroll provider, it is your responsibility to inform us so that we can work with you to assess whether integration with a different payroll provider is available. Please reach out to your representative, and we will assist you.