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There are multiple ways to enter and submit Emergency Savings Account (ESA) contribution information on your Vestwell portal. This information must be submitted after each payroll cycle has run in your payroll system.
ESA contribution data includes:
- Employee payroll deductions to be withheld from each participating employee’s paycheck AND
- Any contributions your company may make as a match or bonus towards your employees’ ESA accounts. This will be automatically calculated and populated by Vestwell, as explained in more detail below.
As a reminder, you are responsible for setting up payroll deductions for your employees in your payroll system, and you are responsible for uploading payroll contributions data to your Vestwell ESA portal within 7 business days of each pay date. Once your payroll contribution information is submitted, an ACH payment will be requested from your financial institution, and funds will show up in your employees’ ESA accounts within 2-3 business days.
Contributions Dashboard Overview
The “Contributions” dashboard is where you will perform all activities related to your payroll contribution submission each pay cycle. These activities include:
- Submitting payroll contributions for the next scheduled pay date by clicking Start Contribution
- Submitting off-cycle contributions by clicking Other Actions and then Off-Cycle Contribution
- Viewing changes in employee savings dollar amounts or savings rates
- Viewing a list of submitted contributions and their status, which can be filtered by date, transaction type (regular versus off-cycle), and pay group (if you have more than one pay group)
- Resuming, restarting, or canceling a contribution submission by clicking the three dots underneath “Action” and selecting your preferred action for the contribution submission
- Accessing the “Payroll Setup” screen to view or make changes to your pay groups or payroll setup. You can access this screen by clicking on the gear icon on the “Contributions” dashboard.
Contribution Submission Methods
There are three options for entering ESA payroll contribution information. Click on one of the below options to view a step-by-step walkthrough for your selected method:
- Upload a file.
- Enter information directly into your ESA portal.
- Copy and reuse data from a previous ESA contribution submission.
Note: At this time, an integration with your payroll provider will not be available, and you will submit all payroll contributions data manually. Even if you have a payroll integration set up with your payroll provider for your Vestwell retirement plan, payroll integrations are not yet available for the Vestwell ESA program.
Additional FAQ
How will I know if my payroll contribution file has been processed correctly?
You will receive email notifications when we begin processing your ESA contributions, as well as when your deposit is confirmed via ACH. The contribution submission process is completed when the applicable funds are deposited into an employee’s ESA account. When your contribution data is finished processing, its status will change to “Complete” in your portal for this pay cycle.