One place to hand over everything, once.
When your account is ready for data, this is where it comes across. Payroll history and every year-to-date register, the employee census and pay rates, health benefit plan information, 401(k) detail down to the deferral elections, and every supplemental policy employees pay for out of their own pay. You get a private link, upload things as they arrive from your prior provider, and nothing has to travel by email.
- sections
- 9sections
- document types
- 41document types
- plan types covered
- 31plan types covered
- Each section saves on its own, so several people can work through it over a few days
- Anything that does not apply to you can be marked as such rather than left open
- Plan detail is recorded next to the file, so a deduction is never inferred from a column heading
- Your reported year-to-date totals are reconciled against the returns you upload before any balance is loaded
Get your migration link
Already onboarding with us? Your specialist can send this link too — either way it is the same private space.
Everything a conversion needs, and why each piece matters.
Most of a migration is waiting on reports. Requesting these on day one is what shortens it — and prior-provider portal access usually closes shortly after your final payroll with them.
Form 941 for every quarter filed this year, the matching state unemployment and withholding returns, last year's W-2s or W-3, the most recent Form 940, and your tax deposit history. These are what the year-to-date balances are reconciled against, and they are the reason a mid-year switch still produces one correct W-2 at year end.
Every register from January 1 to your last check date with the prior provider: gross by earning code, each employee and employer tax, each deduction and net pay. A CSV or Excel export loads faster than a PDF, and the earning and deduction code list is what stops a pre-tax deduction being rebuilt as post-tax.
The census — name, address, Social Security number, hire date, work state, pay rate and filing status — plus direct deposit records, W-4s, contractors with amounts paid, and anyone terminated this year who still gets a W-2.
Medical, dental, vision, HSA, FSA and HRA plans with carrier, plan name, policy number, effective and renewal dates, and the employee and employer share of each premium. Plus the current deduction report, the carrier invoices it should tie to, and your Section 125 document if premiums come out pre-tax.
Recordkeeper and TPA, the match or safe harbor formula, eligibility and entry dates, automatic enrollment and its default rate, every current deferral election with year-to-date contributions, and the amortization schedule for any participant loan. Deferrals and loan repayments have to restart without a missed contribution.
Accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity, voluntary life and disability, legal, identity and pet plans: carrier, what each employee pays, the deduction code it runs under, and the most recent list bill. These are usually post-tax and usually billed per employee, so they have to match the invoice exactly.
Child support and garnishment orders with balances and remittance details, union dues and any collective bargaining agreement, employee loans and advances, and anything else that reduces a paycheck.
Current paid time off balances per employee, the accrual and carryover rules behind them, a sample export from your time system, and the written policies employees will hold you to.
A checklist, not an email thread.
One link for your business, open until your first payroll has run and been checked. It is not a shared drive and not an email thread: it is a checklist with a place to put every file.
Each section saves on its own and shows exactly what is still outstanding, so several people can work through it over a few days. Anything that does not apply to you — no 401(k), no voluntary products — can be marked as such rather than left hanging.
A carrier invoice says what is billed. Only you can say what each deduction is for, who pays it, and whether it comes out before or after tax. Those answers are recorded next to the file so nothing is inferred from a spreadsheet column heading.
Your reported year-to-date totals are checked against the quarterly returns you uploaded. Anything that does not tie comes back as a specific question. Then employees, rates and deductions are built and a preview payroll is produced for you to check line by line.
What the link asks for, in order.
You can work through them in any order, and skip anything that does not apply to your business.
- 1
Payroll history and prior filings
Who ran payroll before us, what has already been filed this year, and where the changeover lands.
- 2
Year-to-date payroll registers
Every payroll register from January 1 to your last check date with the prior provider.
- 3
Employees and pay rates
The people, their pay, and the paperwork that has to travel with them.
- 4
Health and welfare benefits
Medical, dental, vision, HSA and FSA plans, and the deductions that come with them.
- 5
401(k) and retirement plans
Plan details, the recordkeeper, the match formula and every current deferral election.
- 6
Supplemental and voluntary insurance
Accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity, voluntary life and disability, and anything else employees pay for themselves.
- 7
Garnishments and other deductions
Court orders, union dues, loan repayments and anything else that comes out of a paycheck.
- 8
Time off, time tracking and policies
Accrual rules, current balances, how hours reach payroll, and the written policies behind them.
- 9
Go-live and handoff
Who we work with on the data, when the first payroll lands, and how we verify it before it pays.
This is a census, a bank list and a set of policy numbers.
It is the most sensitive file set a business hands over, which is why it gets a private link rather than an inbox.
- The link is private to your business and can be revoked at any time
- Files are stored outside the web root under generated filenames, with a size and file-type limit
- Policy, group and recordkeeper account numbers are encrypted before storage and shown back only as the last four characters
- Revealing a full policy or account number internally is a recorded action, not a page view
- Every upload, download, change and submission is written to an audit trail
- Nothing has to travel by email, which is the point of the link
What clients ask first.
When should we use this rather than the onboarding link?
Onboarding collects authorizations and signatures — Form 8655, state registrations, banking — and ends when the packet is submitted. The migration center opens after that, once your account is ready for data, and stays open through the first live payroll. If you have not started onboarding yet, begin there and the migration space follows.
We are starting January 1. Do we still need all of this?
Much less of it. With no wages paid in the new year there are no year-to-date balances to carry, so the registers and quarterly returns become confirmation rather than a conversion. The census, benefit deductions, retirement deferrals and paid time off balances are still needed, because those describe the payroll going forward.
Our prior provider is slow to send reports. What then?
Request them before your final payroll with them, not after: portal access usually closes shortly afterwards, and re-pulling a report from a former provider is far harder than downloading it while you are still a customer. Upload what you have and your specialist will tell you which gaps actually block the first payroll and which can follow.
Can more than one person work on it?
Yes. Anyone with the link can upload, so a controller can handle payroll history while a benefits administrator handles plans. Treat the link like a password, and ask us to revoke and reissue it if it reaches someone it should not have.
Do you need Social Security numbers in a spreadsheet?
Yes, in the census — payroll cannot file a return without them. That is precisely why the upload exists: the file goes straight into encrypted-at-rest storage behind a private link rather than sitting in a mailbox. Do not email it.
What if we find a mistake after submitting?
Nothing closes the link. Upload the corrected file and tell your specialist which one it replaces. Balances are not final until you have approved the preview payroll.
Green Payroll loads the data you provide and reconciles it against the filings you upload. Balances, deductions and plan setups are confirmed by you on a preview payroll before anything pays. Green Payroll is not your plan administrator, third-party administrator or legal adviser, and this page is not tax or legal advice.
Ready for data? Take the link.
If you have not started onboarding yet, begin there — authorizations first, data second — and the migration space follows automatically.