Running a Payroll with a Vestwell 401(k) Plan
Ready to run payroll after you set up your 401(k) plan? Read on to learn more about the process, including the info we send to Vestwell, when we send it, and more.
What we send
As a Vestwell 401(k) plan sponsor, Patriot will send information to Vestwell on your behalf each time you run a payroll.
This information includes:
- Employee information, including name, date of birth, and date of hire. This includes employees who are not participating in the plan. Any new hires you have added to Patriot will be included so that Vestwell has a record of them and can track their eligibility.
- Employee contribution amounts, both pretax and after tax (Roth)
- Employer contribution amounts
- Loan repayments
- Gross payroll and hours
When we send it
Patriot will securely send a file to Vestwell for each pay date. The file is normally sent one day before the pay date.
In the less-likely event that a payroll is run for the next day or the same day, we’ll send the file the following day.
Money movement
Once Vestwell receives the payroll information from Patriot, they’ll initiate an ACH withdrawal from your bank account for the total amount of employee deductions, company contributions, and any loan repayments.
Once the funds have cleared your bank account, Vestwell will make deposits to the employee 401(k) accounts accordingly.
Employee election changes
If an employee wants to start, change, or stop their 401(k) deduction, they will need to make this change directly in their Vestwell employee portal.
Any changes that are made by employees are reported by Vestwell to Patriot daily on weekdays. Patriot automatically updates the employee’s deduction accordingly. This normally happens within one business day. Employees see a message in their Vestwell portal that (depending on the timing of their election change) it could take up to a pay period or two to go into effect.
The timing of the employee’s change depends on:
- When the employee changes their election in their Vestwell portal
- How soon Vestwell sends that update to Patriot
- The next time payroll is run in Patriot
Voiding a paycheck
If you need to void a check, you may need to take additional action, depending on when the check was voided. For details, see Voiding a Paycheck with a Vestwell 401(k) Plan.