FAQs About Setting up Zenefits Payroll

Once you've completed the Zenefits Payroll application, click Pending in the Payroll card to download, review, and upload any payroll authorization forms that require notarization. They'll be in the Pending Notarization list, with big Upload Notarized Form buttons next to each that remains.

For best results, scan the forms and upload them as .png or .PDF files.

Once you've received test deposits from Zenefits Payroll in the bank account you've provided, click Pending in the Payroll card, then validate your company's payroll bank account by entering the amounts that Zenefits Payroll deposited into the account.

For added security, banks will sometimes prevent third parties from initiating and completing transactions involving your bank account. To ensure that payroll runs smoothly:

1. Contact your bank to authorize transactions from Zenefits Payroll.
2. Provide your bank with the following Zenefits Payroll originator IDs and names:

If you don't see your partners or owners in the list of workers during Zenefits Payroll setup, you'll need to "hire them" in Zenefits first.

Add Unpaid Owner or Partner to Zenefits Payroll

If they're not going to be paid in Zenefits Payroll, here's how to add them in Zenefits so they'll show up in the list of owners.

Add Paid Owner or Partner to Zenefits Payroll

If they're going to be paid in Zenefits Payroll, just hire them as you would any other worker, and make sure the Add to Payroll option is checked.

Voided corporate checks can be uploaded from the Pending page, once the bank account entered during setup has been validated. Zenefits Payroll can't accept personal checking accounts for payroll.

• Companies who chose automatic validation can upload a voided check immediately upon completing the setup wizard.
• Companies who chose to validate using test deposits can upload a voided check once these deposits are entered.

Getting started with Zenefits Payroll as a worker is easy.

The combination of First Pay Period and First Check Date Pay for a pay schedule in Zenefits Payroll determines when workers are paid for each pay period.

To pay workers:

• on the last day of the period, simply choose the First Pay Period from the list that ends on the First Check Date.
• after the period ends, choose a First Pay Period that ends on a date before the First Check Date.

For example, let's say a company who has Zenefits Payroll and Time & Attendance sets a First Check Date of 7 / 1.

• Zenefits Payroll requires seven days between the end of each period and the pay date for that period.
• Seven days prior to 7/1 is 6 /24, so the company's administrator chooses a First Pay Period of 6 /11 -6/24.

If you're the administrator who set up the account, just click Pending in the Payroll card to take care of any remaining tasks. Here's a list. Once these steps are complete, look out for an email from Zenefits Payroll that confirms your account is complete. We'll reach out if there are any issues.

If you identified another person as the account's signatory, they'll need to log in to Zenefits using their personal email and click this link to sign forms.

If your company doesn't have paper corporate checks, you can upload a bank statement or letter from your bank to verify your payroll bank account. The statement or letter should clearly show:

• the company name as the account holder.
• the company address 
• the account type (must be corporate checking account).
• the account number.

Zenefits Payroll's processing period, which is the 2- or 4-day  period between your payroll due date and check date, gives Zenefits Payroll enough time to verify that the funds exist in your account, debit the account and transfer funds into our clearinghouse bank, and then transfer them to your employees' bank accounts.

ACH Transaction Timing and Zenefits Payroll Processing Period

Since ACH debits (e.g., from your corporate payroll account) are usually completed on the following business day, and ACH credits (e.g., to your employees' bank accounts) can take 1-2 days, this processing period takes a minimum of two days.

Processing Periods and Late Payroll

If you run payroll late, your approval period stays the same, which means your employees will be paid late. For example, if your approval period is four days and your payroll is due on January 25th, but you submit one day later on January 26th, your employees will be paid on January 30th instead of the 29th.

Don't cancel your previous payroll service until you've run your first payroll with Zenefits Payroll. When you have, use this handy template to formally notify your previous provider and request some important tax and payroll information.

Test deposits should show up in your payroll bank account with 1-3 business days.

External payroll administrators and other individuals who were notified by email that they were designated as a signatory for Zenefits Payoll should click this link and log in to Zenefits using their personal account credentials to sign the necessary forms.

When a sole proprietor or partner employs their child, spouse, or parent, these family employees may be exempt from paying FICA or FUTA taxes. Make sure to identify these employees so that Zenefits Payroll can withhold the right taxes for them.

The IRS taxes the owners of a business differently from the business' W-2 employees. Depending on the business' entity type, these owners may be partners (e.g., partnerships), shareholders (S Corporations), officers (Corporations) or simply sole proprietors. Payroll providers such as Zenefits Payroll need to know which of a business' employees are also owners of the company in order to determine:

• how to manage benefits costs for these owners and officers;
• how the business should be taxed based on its entity type, and what forms it should file; and
• whether any employees are also family members of owners or partners.

Zenefits Payroll wants to eliminate any potential for misused or incorrectly entered banking information, and relies on a two-step process to verify your payroll bank account. The voided check helps to confirm that you're the owner of the account you've provided. In order to comply with banking regulations, Know Your Business (KYB) and Know your Customer (KYC) requirements have to be validated. We do this to ensure fraudsters have not gained access to your information, as well as, to validate the bank account information we have on file.

Using the copy of a voided business check (or bank statement, if you would prefer not to use a voided check, or don't have paper corporate checks) that you provide for that account, Zenefits Payroll can:

• confirm that it's a business checking account (not a personal one), and that you're the owner on the account.
• verify that the routing and account numbers you provide are valid and for your account.
• ensure that the voided check/bank documentation address matches an address in Zenefits.

In Zenefits, your Legal Address must be an actual physical location and cannot be a PO Box or UPS Store. Under CIP rule (31 C.F.R. § 103. 121), which implements §326 of the USA PATRIOT Act, banks and other financial institutions (FIs) must collect certain information. Zenefits moves money for payroll and as such is considered to be a financial institution (FI). This requires us to obtain a Physical Legal Address, as PO Boxes/UPS Store Boxes are not verifiable. PO Boxes and UPS Store Boxes are considered mailing addresses.