HRIS Imports: Salary Import

This article will cover the process for updating employee salaries via an HRIS import.

OVERVIEW

An employee's salary history can be added to Namely HRIS from any payroll system as long as the original information was documented. If you need to add data that pertains to employee salary history in bulk, you can do so by completing a Salary History Import. This import is commonly used when you need to complete a mass update of employee wages during a yearly review or merit cycle. 

IMPORT TEMPLATE

  • Template:Salary Import Template

    • Required Fields available for import: Salary Rate (Type), Salary Frequency (monthly, annually, etc.), Salary Start Date, Salary Amount (Number – excluding commas), Payroll Company Name/ID (required for multi-EIN payroll/benefits).

    • Optional Fields available for import: Salary End Date, Currency, Annual Salary, Exempt/Non Exempt, Payroll Jobs.

    • You must also include one Unique Identifier on your template: EmployeeID (this refers to the ID number found within the URL on an employees profile page, not their payroll ID number), Social Security Number or Employee Email (recommended)

  • Reports: The Salary History report type  and Profile report type in HRIS contains the data needed to complete this import.

SAVE A COPY

It's always best practice to save a copy of your data prior to processing an import, in case anything goes awry.

PREPARING AND UPLOADING THE IMPORT TEMPLATE

Prepare the Import template

  1. Download the Salary History report to collect the employees’ data. 

  • In Namely HRIS, under Admin Tools click Reporting > Create New Report > selectProfile as the Report Type > select Profile Default as the Report Template > Create Report.

  • Refer toHRIS Reportsfor more information.

  1. Use the unique ID information provided from the report and insert it into the import template. You should only include data on employees that need salary history information added on your template. 

  2. If you are adjusting all employees' salaries by a certain percentage, and it is convenient to see all current salaries in a spreadsheet so you can calculate the new salaries, you can pull a report of current salaries.

  • In Namely HRIS, under Admin Tools click Reporting > Create New Report > select Salary History as the Report Type > select SalaryDefault as the Report Template > Create Report.

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  1. Once the employee information has been added to the corresponding fields, save the file as a .csv format.

  • For new employees, a Payroll Employee import must be completed before a Salary History Import or else an error will occur. 

  • Employee Email must be the same as the email in the employee's General tab.

  • If importing multiple salary records for an employee (i.e., if building a full salary history), they should be listed on separate lines.

  • Type is required (select either hourly or yearly).

  • Amount must be a number value without special characters (such as $).

  • Pay Frequency should be defined as:

    • Semimonthly

    • Biweekly

    • Monthly

    • Weekly

    • Annually

      • No Special characters such as ‘-‘ are allowed

  • If Salary Start Date is left blank, it will default to the date of the import (today’s date). Date format should be imported as mm/dd/yyyy.

    • If you are importing salary information, and there are already entries in the system that will overlap information in your import, you need to include an end date column and provide the end date for those prior records.

    • If you are importing salary information, and there is no existing history in the system, you do not need end dates for the salaries, but they must be in chronological order from oldest to newest for employees. To do this, sort your file by date, save, and import.

  • If the Currency isn’t defined, the system will default to USD.

  • Salary Amount depends on the Salary Type:

    • Hourly employees should have the hourly pay defined.

    • Salaried employees should have the frequency amount defined (amount per pay check)

  • If Annual Salary is not defined, it will be automatically calculated based on the salary and salary frequency. Override the amount by importing a value with two decimal points. If an hourly employee's salary includes an annual override, the annual amount will display in the employee's profile.

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  • If Exempt/Non Exempt is not defined, it will default to Exempt.

Import the template

 Tip:

Test the import first by importing a single row of data and confirming that the import is successful on an employee's profile prior to proceeding with the full import. If you need additional support with the import, refer to HRIS Imports.

  1. When the import file is complete, go to Company Settings in Namely HRIS.

  2. Click Settings > Import Data under the General tab.

  3. Scroll down to the Salary History Import section.

  4. Click Choose File > upload the completed import template > Upload CSV file.

  5. Under Assign Fields, select the unique employee identifier you used in your .CSV file.

  6. Use the dropdown selection to map the fields in your import file to their corresponding Namely Field. 

  7. Click Continue > Import Data.

Tip:

Make sure to remove any special characters such as dollar signs before uploading the file. Special characters will cause a failed upload.

TROUBLESHOOTING

If an error occurs during the import process, an error report will automatically be generated in a .CSV format. Download the file and refer to Common HRIS Import Error Messages to resolve the errors. Once the errors have been resolved, re-import only the rows of data that had issues.

If you're still encountering issues or unresolved errors, submit a case in the Help Community and include the import file and any screenshots of the errors as an attachment.

Product Name: HRIS Settings

Feature: Company Settings

Function: Imports 

TIPS

  • Importing a new salary record will automatically end-date an existing salary record; the existing record will show an end-date one day prior to the new salary's start date.

  • All fields marked as Required must be completed.

  • If you are a multi-EIN client or your company uses Job Codes, these columns are also required for the import to process correctly.

  • Your .csv file cannot exceed 5 MB.

  • The first row of each column should be treated as a header row.

  • Each employee must be listed on a separate row.

  • Each row must have Unique ID to match your records to Namely records. Employee email is used as the primary unique identifier within Namely.

  • Dates should be formatted: MM/DD/YYYY

  • Compensation should be only a number value with no special characters (such as $).

THINGS TO CONSIDER

While the salary import will update both the employee's HRIS and Namely Payroll profiles, there are important considerations to be aware of:

  • Salary-based volume benefit plans where the benefit amount is typically a multiple of the employee's salary- e.g., basic life, basic AD&D- will not automatically update.  In these situations, creating an Administrator Change 2 life event that is connected to only the affected coverage lines is recommended. You can proceed through the Enrollment Wizard for each employee, and their benefit amounts will re-calculate based on the new salary. 

    • For more information on setting up a new life event and connecting it to coverage lines, please see Creating Life Events 

    • Updating these benefit amounts can be done with an import, but preparing the import files involves calculating the new benefit amount for each employee; depending on your employee population, it may not be more efficient than using Administrator Change 2.  Please reach out to the Service Team via the Help Community if you would like to explore using this import.

  • If you have Group Term Life and display this as an imputed income on checks, you will need to recalculate GTL based on the new salary.  

  • If an employee is Non-exempt, overtime wages will need to be recalculated.  Other wages such as double-time (CA employers) or shift differential may also need to be recalculated.

  • Remember to discontinue any Fringe Benefit Reimbursements (e.g., cell phone, internet, etc.) that are being ended.

Please see How do I add and edit recurring wage? for more information on adjusting these non-standard earnings.