If you have a self-service plan, Guideline will not have access to your payroll provider. Therefore, as an administrator, you will need to report contributions and employee compensation by uploading reports to the Payroll tab within your Guideline administrator dashboard.
How to upload your payroll reports
Review your Guideline roster to ensure it is up to date. Be mindful of the following:
New hires have been added on or before their hire date.
Important information, including email addresses, hire dates, and dates of birth, are included for all new employees. Failure to provide this data may result in delays to participant enrollment.
Employment status is updated for terminated or dismissed individuals.
All employee personal information, including first names, last names, and salary details, are accurate.
Download our payroll report template. To successfully upload a payroll report, you must use our “Payroll report template," which can be found in the Forms & Templates section within your administrator dashboard. If you cannot locate the form, please contact us at clients@guideline.com. Because you’ll need this template for all payroll reports, we recommend saving the file to your computer for easy access in the future.
Insert payroll data into the downloaded report template. Complete the downloaded payroll report template by transferring information found on processed payrolls/paychecks directly to the report. Be sure to include all employees paid on the date you are processing, even if there are no contributions for specific individuals.
Upload your report to the Payroll tab
Navigate to the Payroll tab in your Guideline administrator dashboard. Then, click on “Submit a payroll report.”
On the following screen, choose whether you are reporting a regular cycle payroll or an off-cycle payroll. If you are reporting a regular cycle payroll and an off-cycle payroll that occurred on the same date, include all pay provided on one report and choose the option for “Regular payroll.”
On the next screen, select your file by dragging it from your computer to the section that reads “Click or drop a file,” or click that button to browse your computer’s hard drive. Then, choose your file, and click “Upload payroll report.”
If your upload is successful, you’ll receive a confirmation message on the next screen as well as an email notification.
Please note that the collection process will not commence until one business day after the pay date and will allocate to participants’ accounts 5-7 business days thereafter (or 5-7 business days from your upload if it occurred after the pay date). You can find more information on the collection timeline here.
How to troubleshoot upload issues
If you receive an error after attempting to upload your report, it is likely due to a formatting or data issue within the payroll template. Learn how to fix common errors in payroll reports here. You’ll need to edit your file or roster accordingly and retry the upload.