Payroll Imports: Demographic Imports

This article provides instructions for working with the Namely Service Team on importing employee demographic information. This article is for clients who have not applied our Org Units product enhancement.

OVERVIEW

Employee Demographics are used to categorize groups of employees in your organization by Class, Department, or Division. These employee categorizations are managed in either HRIS or Namely Payroll, depending on if your company has applied our Org Units enhancement or not. If you've applied our enhancement, read HRIS Imports: Org Unit and Class Imports to learn how you can perform a mass update of your org units.

If you have not applied our Org Units migration, then this data is managed on employee Demographic pages in Namely Payroll. If you'd like to make mass updates to demographic data in Namely Payroll, the Service Team can help by completing a Demographic Import.  

TIP:

We recommend importing if you have more than ten lines of data that need updating. If it's fewer than ten lines, it is faster to make the updates manually.

This import will be completed in two business days from the receipt of your completed import template. Import time can vary if we need to follow up to confirm, correct or collect any data provided. Following the steps in this article will ensure the Service Team has all the necessary information to successfully process your import efficiently.  

IMPORT TEMPLATES AND HELPFUL REPORTS

• Template: Employee Demographics

  • Fields available for import: Employee Name, Start Date, Branch, Department, Class, Division, End Date

  • You must also include one Unique Identifier on your template: EmployeeID (recommended), Social Security Number (without dashes, and with a leading zero - if applicable) or Employee Email.

• Reports: We recommend using the Demographic Template in our Report Writer tool to compile the data needed as source material for a Demographic import. Be sure to add the above noted fields to your Report template. For more information, read: Report Writer (Building Custom Reports).

 

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 FOR YOUR IMPORT

Two different types of Demographic Imports can be completed by the Namely Service Team.

• Modify Employee Demographic

• Add Employee Demographic

 

Modify Employee Demographic

Modify Employee Demographic imports are rarely done on their own because they simply modify the existing demographic record, and no new line of data is created. It is important to keep a historical record of employee demographic data for reporting purposes.

The only instance where a modify import would be conducted on its own would be if a data entry error was made, and no historical record of the demographic information is needed.

The same steps detailed below can be followed to prepare a Modify Employee Demographic template - though you will only need to prepare one template as you will not be adding more records. This import should include a unique identifier (EmployeeID is preferred), Employee Name, Start Date, and then whichever field(s) need to be modified. 

Add Employee Demographic

In most instances, you'll want to add employee demographics, which involves the preparation of two import files. 

End-dating the old Demographics

The first import is actually a modify import - it will modify existing employee demographic records to add an End Date. 

To prepare the Modify import template:

1. Download the Demographic Template report from Report Writer to collect the employees’ data you'd like to modify. 

• In Namely Payroll, click Reports > Report Writer and select Demographic Template to build the report. For more information, read Report Writer (Building Custom Reports).
  
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2. Manipulate the report by removing unnecessary columns. This import should only contain a unique identifier (EmployeeID is preferred), Employee Name, Start Date, and End Date.

• The End Date should be one day before the start date for the new demographic record you'll add in the next import, to prevent any gaps in demographic record.

3. Once the employee information has been added to the corresponding fields, save the file as a .csv or .xlxs format. You should clearly note that this is the modify template in the file name. 

   

Adding New Demographics

The second template will be used to add the new demographic records. You can follow the same steps detailed above, but you'll want to include the new demographic start date, and the new demographic information (Department, Division, Class, Branch) on your excel sheet. You won't want to include an End date on this file. 

 

CASE SUBMISSION DETAILS

Once your import files are complete, submit a case in the Help Community and include your files as attachments.

Product Name: Payroll

Feature: Employee Payroll Profiles & Data

Function: Employee Data Update

 TIPS​​​​​​

• Only one row is needed for each organizational unit in a demographic record. For example, if John Doe needs to be in the Part Time Class, in the Operations Department and in the Service Division, only one line of data is needed.

• To avoid any data discrepancies, it’s recommended that you use the EmployeeID (in column A) as the identifier for the import template.

  • Using EmployeeID instead of a field like Social Security Number also limits the transfer of Personally Identifiable Information (PII.) Any files containing PII cannot be provided to Service though the Help Community - they must be uploaded via Support Files in HRIS.

• Before you submit, verify the data mentioned below to ensure the data is ready for an import to eliminate any errors that may result in a longer import turnaround time:

  • Your import 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.

  • Dates should be formatted: MM/DD/YYYY

  • Remove any filters and ensure the cells are formatted accordingly.