Managing Validation Errors On Integrated Payroll Contributions

Validation  Description

Validation Logic 

Systemic Action Taken

Sponsor Remediation Options

Missing SSN

Participant SSN is missing from a contribution submission

Contribution record(s) without SSN are automatically removed from the contribution submission 

Reason: "Missing a valid SSN” 

If there was no contribution associated with the record, you may:

• Ignore the error OR
• Correct the missing SSN on your payroll system so that it can get properly processed next time

If there was a contribution associated with the record, you may:

• Update this employee’s SSN and resubmit their contribution via an off-cycle submission tool found under the ‘Other Options’ menu on the Contributions landing page OR  
• Return the funds to the impacted employee if the contribution was deducted in error. No other action is necessary.

**In case of duplicate Social Security Number error, all the duplicate records are dropped and should be reviewed, consolidated, corrected, and resubmitted, if appropriate.

Bad SSN format 

Participant SSN is not properly formatted with 9 digits

Failing record(s) are automatically removed from the contribution submission 

Reason: “Improperly formatted SSN” 

Invalid SSN

Invalid SSN are identified as follows:

1) all same digits (ie. 111-11-1111)

2) Zeros (0) in positions 1-3 or 4-5 or 6-9  of the SSN.(ie. 00-352-1234)

3) 123-45-6789

4) 987-65-4321

Failing record(s) are automatically removed from the contribution submission 

Reason: “Invalid SSN”

Duplicate SSN

More than one (1) record on submission with the same SSN 

Contribution record(s) are automatically removed from the contribution submission 

Reason: “Duplicate SSNs”

Missing names

First name or last name is missing from submission (SSN and names are always required)

- Contribution record(s) are automatically removed from the contribution submission 

- Reason: “Missing name”

If there was no contribution associated with the record, you may:

• Ignore the error OR
• Correct the missing name on your payroll system so that it can get properly processed next time

If there was a contribution associated with the record, you may:

• Update this employee’s Name and resubmit their contribution via an off-cycle submission tool found under the ‘Other Options’ menu on the Contributions landing page OR  
• Return the funds to the impacted employee if the contribution was deducted in error. No other action is necessary.

Unrecognized Employee

When adding a new employee along with a contribution submission, all required data about that participant must be included. In this validation, any employee who does not match an existing employee in the plan and who has insufficient personal data to be setup are identified.

Contribution record(s) are automatically removed from the submission, if insufficient data is available to add the unrecognized participant. 

Data is insufficient to add a new participant if:

1) Not all required fields are present with valid data.  Required fields are:  SSN, First Name, Last Name, Date of Birth, Date of Hire, Address 1, City, State, Zip

2) Optional fields, if present, are properly formatted

If there was a contribution associated with the record, you may:

• • Manually resubmit the contribution for an enrolled employee via the off-cycle submission tool found under the ‘Other Options’ menu on the Contributions landing page OR  
  • Return the funds to the employee if the contribution was deducted in error. No other action is necessary OR
  • If this employee should be newly enrolled in the plan, add the person to the employee roster while manually resubmitting the contribution via the off-cycle submission tool under the 'Other Options' menu on the Contributions landing page

If there is no contribution for the unrecognized employee, no action is required.  However, if you expect to contribute for that employee in the future, then update the required information in your payroll system to avoid future validation errors.

Bad contribution format

A participant has a contribution for less than $0, contains a non-number value or the dollar amount has more than 2 decimal places. 

Badly formatted records from contribution submissions are automatically reduced to $0

Non-number values get normalized into Null. 

- Reason: “Invalid contribution amount”

Values with more than 2 decimal places get rounded to 2 decimal places.

• If the negative or non-numeric contribution was submitted in error, then:
  • Manually resubmit the corrected contribution via the off-cycle submission tool found under the ‘Other Options’ menu on the Contributions landing page, AND
  • Update your payroll system to avoid future problems.
• If the negative contribution was submitted as an offset to prior contributions, then
  • Please note, you cannot correct a previously submitted contribution by sending in a negative contribution as an offset.  Please contact your Vestwell representative to reverse incorrect contributions.

Validation  Description

Validation Logic 

Systemic Action Taken

Sponsor Remediation Options

Bad Date of Hire (DOH) format on an existing Employee - required field 

Date is not in a valid date format.  DOH must be <= today's date & > DOB.

The Contribution record(s) is not removed from the contribution submission. The latest date pulled from database.

Error is displayed in the Contribution Detail screen. 

The employer must update the date of hire in their payroll system to an acceptable date to avoid ongoing error notifications.

Bad Date of Rehire (DORH) format

Bad Date of Termination (DOT) format - Optional fields

Date is not in a valid date format

The Contribution record(s) is not removed from the contribution submission. The latest date pulled from the database.

Error is displayed in the Contribution Detail screen. 

The employer must update the date of rehire or date of termination in their payroll system to an acceptable date to avoid ongoing error notifications.

Bad Zip and Bad State

Zip or State fields are not properly formatted.

Zip must be either 5 or 9 digits, with a dash.

The Contribution record(s) is not removed from the contribution submission. The latest date pulled from database.  Even if only 1 field is bad, we pull the entire address from database.

Error is displayed in the Contribution Detail screen. 

The employer must update the zip code or state in their payroll system to an acceptable format to avoid ongoing error notifications.

Unrealistic Date of Birth (DOB)

DOB does not fall into 10 to 100 years old age range  

The Contribution record(s) is not removed from the contribution submission, but the Date of Birth on the contribution is updated to the last known valid date of birth stored in the database.

Error displayed in the Contribution detail screen.

The employer must update the date of birth record in their payroll system to an acceptable birthdate to avoid ongoing error notifications.

Bad Date of Birth  (DOB) format

DOB is not in a valid date format 

The Contribution record(s) is not removed from the contribution submission, but the Date of Birth on the contribution is updated to the last known valid date of birth stored in the database.

Error displayed in the Contribution Detail screen. 

The employer must update the date of birth record in their payroll system to an acceptable birthdate to avoid ongoing error notifications.