Payroll Connect allows you to transfer employee, compensation, and benefit deduction information quickly and easily from HROffice into PrimePay PrimeLink Payroll.
When you hire a new employee or make changes to existing employees in HROffice, Payroll Connect will detect this new or changed information. Only information that is new or has been changed will be transferred from HROffice into PrimeLink. The Employee Transfer Wizard compares the Ascentis HR and PrimeLink databases, ensuring that they stay consistent.
In addition, Payroll Connect makes it easy to get up and running with Ascentis HR. If you currently have employee data in PrimeLink, Payroll Connect can automatically transfer this information into Ascentis HR, saving you hours of data-entry time.
As you run Payroll Connect, all of the transferred data is carefully logged for your review. This data is easily reversed if any mistakes have been made. Payroll Connect will also warn you of any errors that need to be corrected before proceeding with the data transfer.
Before You Start
System Requirements |
To begin using Payroll Connect, you must have Ascentis HR and PrimePay PrimeLink Payroll installed on the same system. In the case that either Ascentis HR or your PrimeLink is installed in a network environment, you will need to know the path to where PrimeLink is installed. (See your PrimePay PrimeLink Payroll guide for information on how to install PrimeLink or contact your PrimePay Payroll Specialist.) |
Ascentis HR Security Access |
You must have View / Change access rights for compensation and benefit information in Ascentis HR. For details on how to change your security access, see Setting Up Security. |
PrimePay PrimeLink Payroll Options |
You must have certain PrimePay Payroll options selected before you can use PrimePay PrimeLink Payroll with Payroll Connect. See the next section on verifying your PrimePay PrimeLink Payroll setup for how to do this. |
[ This section is only for use with PrimePay PrimeLink Payroll ]
This section describes the setup required for PrimePay PrimeLink Payroll. If you are already using this payroll product, and want to continue with your current setup, you need to match information retained in that payroll with that in Ascentis HR.
Employee Setup:
Review Employee Classification
In PrimeLink Payroll, only employees who are classified as "E" (Employee) will be transferred to Ascentis HR. Please make sure all employees in PrimeLink are set up with the correct Employee Classification (E - Employee, I - Independent Contractor, or P - Payee).
Review Employee Numbers
The Employee Number for employees who are classified as "E" (Employee) must be between 1 and 8999 in order for those employees to be transferred between Ascentis HR and PrimeLink. Employee Numbers from 9000 to 9999 should be reserved for Independent Contractors and Payees. Normally, these types of employees should not be set up in Ascentis HR. Verify the Employee Number for each of your employees and reassign a new Employee Number, if desired, according to the rules above. Please contact your Payroll Specialist for assistance with this process.
Similarly, any new employees added to Ascentis HR must have an Employee Number between 1 and 8999.
Note: If Independent Contractors and Payees already exist in PrimeLink with an Employee Number less than 9000, it is not necessary to reassign new Employee Numbers. However, when adding any new Independent Contractors or Payees to PrimeLink, you must assign a unique Employee Number >= 9000.
Important: If you already have employees populated in both Ascentis HR and PrimeLink, then you must ensure that their employee numbers match in both systems.
Employment Status and Effective Date Must be Set Up
Employees who are terminated or on leave of absence must be set up with the appropriate status and effective date in PrimeLink Payroll. Terminated Employees: In PrimeLink, the status should be set to "T" and the Term Date must be populated Leave of Absence Employees: In PrimeLink, the status should be set to "L" and the Term Date field must be populated with the LOA effective date. Active Employees: In PrimeLink, both the status and Term Date must be blank or null.
Review Employee Classification
In PrimeLink Payroll, only employees who are classified as "E" (Employee) will be transferred to Ascentis HR. Please make sure all employees in PrimeLink are set up with the correct Employee Classification (E - Employee, I - Independent Contractor, or P - Payee).
Review Employee Numbers
The Employee Number for employees who are classified as "E" (Employee) must be between 1 and 8999 in order for those employees to be transferred between Ascentis HR and PrimeLink. Employee Numbers from 9000 to 9999 should be reserved for Independent Contractors and Payees. Normally, these types of employees should not be set up in Ascentis HR. Verify the Employee Number for each of your employees and reassign a new Employee Number, if desired, according to the rules above. Please contact your Payroll Specialist for assistance with this process.
Similarly, any new employees added to Ascentis HR must have an Employee Number between 1 and 8999.
Note: If Independent Contractors and Payees already exist in PrimeLink with an Employee Number less than 9000, it is not necessary to reassign new Employee Numbers. However, when adding any new Independent Contractors or Payees to PrimeLink, you must assign a unique Employee Number >= 9000.
Additional employee setup required if populating Ascentis HR with employee payroll data
At the end of the Payroll Connect setup wizard, you have the option to populate Ascentis HR with employee data from PrimePay. If you choose this option, then you must have the following data populated in PrimePay.
Hire Dates Must be Entered for Each Employee
Hire date is a required field in Ascentis HR, thus to enter employees in Employee Manager, you must enter a hire date for them. If you plan to transfer data from PrimeLink Payroll to
Ascentis HR, you need to go into PrimeLink and enter hire dates for all of your employees before you transfer this employee data into
Ascentis HR. If an employee has a Rehire Date in PrimeLink Payroll, then this date will transfer to the Hire Date in
Ascentis HR.
Last Raise Date Should be Set Up
The Last Raise Date should be set up in PrimeLink Payroll if an employee has received a salary or pay rate change since his Hire Date or Rehire Date. The Last Raise Date corresponds to the Salary Effective Date in Ascentis HR. If there is no Last Raise Date in PrimeLink, then Payroll Connect will use either the Hire Date or Rehire Date as the Salary Effective Date.
Employment Status and Effective Date Must be Set Up
Employees who are terminated or on leave of absence must be set up with the appropriate status and effective date in PrimeLink Payroll.
Terminated Employees: In PrimeLink, the status should be set to "T" and the Term Date must be populated.
Leave of Absence Employees: In PrimeLink, the status should be set to "L" and the Term Date field must be populated with the LOA effective date.
Active Employees: In PrimeLink, both the status and Term Date must be blank or null.
Client Setup:
The following client options must also be setup in order for Payroll Connect to transfer data correctly to PrimePay. You should setup these client options in PrimeLink just before you are ready to setup and use the Payroll Connect in Ascentis HR.
Defaults Must Be Set for New Hires
Because Ascentis HR has no equivalent for these tax-related fields, you must set these values in PrimeLink. Verify that the default State, State Unemployment Insurance/State Disability Insurance (labeled SUTA), and Workers Comp (WComp) tax values are populated in the Employee Tax Defaults tab of the Client Setup dialog.
If you do not set these default values, new Ascentis HR employees who are transferred from PrimeLink will be assigned the client's address state for these fields.
To set these default values:
Start PrimePay PrimeLink Payroll and select Client File Info from the Maintain menu.
Select Employee Tax Defaults.
Make sure that the default value selections have been made for State, SUTA, and WComp fields.
Note: If these default values are not appropriate for all of your employees, you will need to remember to change the state tax, SUI/SDI and WComp fields for each new employee.
The state used in the employee’s home address is not affected.
Review Validation Tables
Before using Payroll Connect with PrimeLink Payroll, you should consider setting up those validation tables in PrimeLink that relate to information you would like to exchange with Ascentis HR. The following list identifies the validation tables in PrimeLink which correspond to tables/selections in Ascentis HR:
PrimeLink Validation Table: |
Links to Ascentis HR: |
Departments |
Departments defined on Departments tab of the Company window in Setup Manager. |
Workers Comp Rates |
Workers Comp codes defined in the Workers Comp window in Setup Manager. |
Accrual |
Leave types as defined in the Attendance Setup Wizard in Setup Manager |
Deduction |
Benefit plans with employee deductions as defined in the Benefit Setup Wizard in Setup Manager. |
Accruals (Attendance)
Accruals can be tracked using either Ascentis HR or PrimeLink. Following are the setup requirements depending on the method you select.
Accruals managed in PrimeLink:
Set up the accrual code table in PrimeLink based on your leave policy. Set the Accrual Handling option to "P" (see Other Client Options below).
Note: No attendance setup is required in Ascentis HR; you will not be mapping leave types in Payroll Connect.
Attendance managed in Ascentis HR:
You have the option of transferring the amount of leave available from Ascentis HR to PrimePay for display on payroll reports and checks. If you desire this option, then you will need to set up the accrual code table in PrimeLink with the minimum required information in order to map Ascentis HR leave types via Payroll Connect. Set the Accrual Handling option to "H" (see Other Client Options below).
Note: Since leave balances will transfer to PrimePay, you should not enter any employee leave taken each pay period in PrimePay. All data entry of attendance/leave should be done in Ascentis HR.
If you are managing attendance in Ascentis HR, but do not want balances to transfer, then set the Accrual Handling option to "P". This will enable you to set up attendance in Ascentis HR, but no data will transfer to PrimeLink.
Deductions
Any benefit deductions you want withheld from payroll checks should be set up in PrimeLink Payroll and Ascentis HR. In PrimeLink, set the Ascentis HR flag to "Y" (Yes) for each deduction you want linked to Ascentis HR. In Ascentis HR, you set up your benefit plans and define the employee deductions for this plan. You can then link this benefit plan to a PrimeLink deduction when you run the Payroll Setup Wizard. You can link one or more Ascentis HR benefit plans into one PrimeLink deduction. For example, you might link multiple medical, dental, and vision plan choices available to your employees to a single “HEALTHCARE” deduction for some types of plans as either a percentage of pay or a fixed amount. Also, be aware that Ascentis HR gives you the choice of expressing the deduction for some types of plans as either a percentage of pay or a fixed amount. Certain PrimeLink deductions may be set up to use a rate or percentage while others may be set up to use an amount, but mixing amounts and percentages for different employees is never allowed. Thus, in Ascentis HR, you must be careful to consistently express deductions as an amount or percentage, depending on the PrimeLink deduction code a benefit is linked with.
To set these default values:
1. Start PrimePay PrimeLink Payroll and select Client File Info from the Maintain menu.
2. Select Client Deductions.
3. Select the deduction you want to edit and press <Enter>.
4. Set the option “Deduction works in conjunction with Ascentis HR” to Y (Yes).
5. Press <Page Down> twice to save your changes.
Once these tables are set up, they will be linked to the Payroll Connect tables during the Payroll Setup process.
Important: If employees already have deductions set up in PrimeLink and you plan on linking these deductions to benefits in Ascentis HR, then before setting the Ascentis HR flag to Yes in PrimeLink, you must first complete the following setup in Ascentis HR:
Set up benefit plans in Ascentis HR
Enroll employees in benefits
Failure to do so will result in the deletion of employee deductions in PrimeLink Payroll when the employee transfer from Ascentis HR to PrimeLink is run.
Note: Anytime you make changes to these validation tables in PrimeLink Payroll, you will need to run the Payroll Setup wizard again to link the change to its equivalent in Ascentis HR.
If you have any questions about setting up your validation tables, please refer to your PrimeLink documentation or contact your PrimePay Payroll Specialist.
Other Client Options
Once you have completed the setup tasks above, you must configure the following options in PrimeLink for each client number. To set these options:
Start PrimePay PrimeLink Payroll and select Client File Info from the Maintain menu.
Select Miscellaneous Data.
Options on first page:
Automatically Assign Employee Numbers - Set this option to "N" (No). Because Ascentis HR will be the point of entry for new employees, Ascentis HR is where the employee number will be assigned.
Default Pay Frequency - Set this value to the most frequently used pay frequency for this client number (W, B, S, M).
Options on second page:
Client is Using Ascentis HR: Set to "Y" (Yes). Set this option only after you have completed the Employee Setup above. This option disables many employee data fields in PrimeLink since this data will now be updated through PayrollLink.
Accrual Handling: Select "H" if you are using Ascentis HR to manage Leave Accruals. Using this option will enable you to map Ascentis HR leave types to PrimeLink accrual codes. When PayrollLink is run with each pay period, the amount of leave available will transfer from Ascentis HR to PrimeLink. Select "P" if you are using PrimeLink to manage accruals. Using this option allows no accrual mapping between Ascentis HR and PrimeLink and does not transfer any accrual amounts between the two systems.
Import Default Hours: Set this option to "Y" (Yes) if you want the Hours Per Week in Ascentis HR to be transferred to PrimeLink each time PayrollLink is run. The hours are recalculated for PrimeLink based on the employee's pay frequency and are stored in the Default Hours field in PrimeLink. (Note: If Default Hours are set up for an hourly employee in PrimeLink, then the employee's pay will be forecasted.)
Department Split Major: If you would like to map both Divisions and Departments from Ascentis HR to PrimeLink, then you must set up this field. PrimeLink allows you to split the department number into major and minor departments. The value entered here indicates how many of the left-most digits of the department number make up the major portion. For example, department 105100 with a department split major of 2 would result in the following: Major Department = 10; Minor Department = 5100. This allows each major department to be mapped to a Division in Ascentis HR and each minor department to be mapped to a Department in Ascentis HR.