GroundCloud Payroll - Company Onboarding

GroundCloud Payroll - Company Onboarding

This document outlines the enrollment -- or onboarding -- process for a company new to GroundCloud Payroll.
The onboarding process may take up to a week to complete and includes employees performing self-onboarding. Please refer to the Pre-Enrollment Checklist for helpful tips on how to prepare for enrollment and make the process as fast and efficient as possible.

Access

It is recommended that the account owner or a manager with signatory authorization and the Personnel role assigned to their GroundCloud profile complete the company onboarding as official documents will need to be signed. 

Getting Started

  1. Navigate to the Payroll Setup page in GroundCloud.io

  2. Click Enroll in GroundCloud Payroll, this will open the Embedded Payroll Service Agreement.

  3. Read through the agreement and click Accept Terms of Service. 
    Your employees will need to review and accept these same terms of service when they perform self-onboarding. 
  4. After accepting the Terms of Service, you will then be brought to the Payroll Setup page.


    GroundCloud Payroll is powered by Gusto. The onboarding experience will occur across multiple browser tabs depending on the actions being performed. If you cannot finish a particular step, your information will be saved as you go and you can return later to complete your entries.

Step 1: Initial Onboarding

  1. Navigate to the Payroll Setup page.
  2. Click the Initial Onboarding button, this will open a window to input company information.
The following options will be available in the sidebar navigation pane:

While the tab will open on the Company address page by default, there are no restrictions on the order in which you complete the initial onboarding entries. That being said, it is recommended to proceed in order from top to bottom.

Company Address

On the Company details page you will enter your mailing and filing addresses and all addresses where you have employees physically working in the United States.
Work address is particularly important because if you have employees working in different states, then the company must register its business in each state in which it has employees working. This allows Gusto to properly withhold state taxes from each employee in the state they’re working in and pay those taxes on behalf of the company to that particular state.
As you enter an address, indicate whether it is a Mailing address and/or Filing address
by checking the appropriate box.

Click Save & continue.

You will receive confirmation the address was created.


From here you can:

  1. Edit any address that has been created by clicking the Edit button.

  2. Repeat the process for as many addresses that need to be added by clicking the Add address button.

  3. Proceed to the next step by clicking the I've added all addresses button when you have completed adding all of your company addresses.

It’s important to make sure you have added any employee’s physical working address in the United States, including remote employees and employees who work from home. These will be used to specify employee work addresses as part of employee onboarding.
Since rules and regulations change over time and can vary by location, we recommend you consult a lawyer, accountant or HR expert for guidance on the proper work address to use for your employees.

It’s also important to note that both a mailing and filing address need to be added before you can continue. If one or both of the addresses is missing, you will not be able to click the I’ve added all addresses button.


Federal Tax Information

Enter your federal tax information on the Federal tax information page. If you don’t have or understand this information, refer to the helpful links included on the page.
When complete, click Save & continue.
  1. You will receive confirmation your federal tax details were saved successfully.
  2. To make any corrections, click Edit tax information. To continue to the next step, click Save & continue.

You may receive a message that Gusto was unable to verify your company's EIN. There can be a delay in verification. If this happens, and you are confident the EIN entered is correct, you can click Save & continue. Otherwise, click Edit tax information to return to the form.

Industry

The Industry page captures the industry that most closely relates to your business. It does not have to be an exact match.

Begin by typing a few letters into the field to see the options available and make a selection.
When you’ve found and selected your industry, click Save & continue.
In general, Couriers and Express Delivery Services is recommended for P&D customers, and one of the General Freight Trucking options are recommended for Linehaul customers.

Bank Account

The final step of initial onboarding is to enter your bank information on the Company bank account information page. 

This must be a checking account and can be verified in one of two ways:
  1. Using Plaid
  2. Entering bank account information manually

Using Plaid is the fastest way to complete the verification process as verification is instant. 


To use Plaid, select the Verify bank account with Plaid radio button and click the Verify account with Plaid button. You will be directed to a workflow hosted by Plaid that will have you select and authenticate with your institution.

Upon completion of verifying with Plaid, you will be redirected back to Gusto with confirmation your account has been verified.
Plaid does not work with all banks. If you cannot find your bank listed in the dropdown menu, then it's not compatible and you will have to manually verify your bank account with test deposits. 

Entering bank account information manually requires verification through two test deposits. It takes 1-2 business days to receive the test deposits, which then need to be added as part of Bank Verification in Step 3: Finalize Onboarding.

To enter bank information manually, select the Enter bank account information manually radio button, enter your Routing number and Account number, and click Save & continue.

You will then receive confirmation your bank account has been saved and a notification that test deposits will be sent in 1-2 business days.


When all bank information has been entered, click the Save & continue button. You will receive a Nice! We’ll take it from here message.

At this point, assuming you have successfully completed entering all four sets of information, you can close this tab and return to the GroundCloud Web Dashboard | Payroll Setup tab.


Refreshing the Payroll Setup will show you check marks next to the steps you have successfully completed. When all four parts of Initial Onboarding are complete, you will be able to proceed to Step 2: Add Employees.

If you used Plaid when adding your bank account information, Verify Your Bank Account in Step 3: Finalize Onboarding will also be checked.

Step 2: Add Employees

  1. Navigate to the Payroll Setup page in GroundCloud.io.
  2.  Click Add Employees.
    The Payroll Employees page will list all active drivers and fleet managers. Visit the Drivers and Fleet Managers pages, respectively to make any adjustments. Also, compensation does not need to be defined to enroll an employee in payroll, but it will be required to run payroll.
  3. Click Enroll Employee for each employee you wish to enroll in GroundCloud Payroll.
    This will open the Enroll Employee Modal.
  4. Select the employee’s Work Address and enter the employee’s Hire Date.
    The File New Hire Report checkbox will be checked by default. Only uncheck the box if you have already filed a new hire report for the employee. If in doubt, leaving the box checked will not be an issue, even if you did file a new hire report. 
  5. When complete, click Enroll Employee.

     This will result in the employee being invited to complete self-onboarding by logging into the GroundCloud Dashboard. 

You will see this reflected in the employee’s Status on the Payroll Employees page. Their status will be set to Self Onboarding Invited.

For information on the employee self-onboarding process, refer to the Employee Onboarding KB.
When an employee completes self-onboarding, their status will be updated to Self Onboarding Awaiting Admin Confirmation and there will be a Confirm Employee button in the Actions column of the Payroll Employees page.



Clicking Confirm Employee will open an Employee Confirmation modal informing you the employee has completed their self-onboarding and asking you to finalize the onboarding process by clicking Confirm Employee.

When this is done, you will receive a notification that the employee has been confirmed and is eligible for payroll, and you will see their status on the Payroll Employees page has been updated to Enrolled.

Company onboarding cannot proceed to Step 3: Finalize Onboarding until at least one employee has been fully onboarded and enrolled in payroll.

Step 3: Finalize Onboarding 

Once at least one employee has been enrolled and fully onboarded in payroll, you will be able to proceed to the final step. 
  1. Navigate to the Payroll Setup page
  2. Click on Finalize Onboarding
    A new browser tab will open and the following options will be available in the sidebar navigation pane:

Enter State Tax Information

On the Tax requirements page you will enter your state tax information.

Click the Continue setup link and you’ll be directed to input the tax requirements for your state.

Your experience entering state tax information may differ from what is shown above. The tax requirements for your state will determine the process flow.
If you don’t have or understand this information, refer to the helpful links included on the page.
When complete, click Save & continue.

Sign Documents

On the Sign documents page you will be asked to sign documents required for Gusto to file on behalf of your company. If the documents are not signed, Gusto cannot pull/deposit funds from/into your bank account.


Before documents can be signed a signatory must be identified. A signatory is someone who is authorized to sign official company documents. This is usually the owner of the company.


If you are the company signatory, select Yes and click Save & continue.


If you are not the company signatory, please contact GroundCloud Support for help completing onboarding.

Enter your personal details and when complete, click Submit.

 Gusto’s assurance team will check the signatory’s information to verify that they are a US citizen and that all information is correct. This information should be exactly what is on the signatory’s ID.

To sign a document, click on the document link. A Document details page will open allowing you to review and download the document if desired.


When you are ready to sign the document, click Sign document. This will result in a Signature text field being displayed. Type in your name, check the I am the signatory and I agree to sign electronically checkbox and click Sign.
When all required documents have been signed, click Save & continue.

Verify Bank Account

Verify bank account is the final step in the onboarding process.

This step is different from Step 6: Bank Account. In Step 6, you set up your bank account information. In this step, you verify that this bank account actually belongs to your company. This step is only needed for those companies who did not use IBV (Instant Bank Verification) via Plaid.  
On the Verify bank account page, enter the amount of the test deposits that were placed in your bank account and click Verify deposits.

If the amounts are correct, you'll receive a notice your bank account is verified and you can click Save & continue.

If the amounts are incorrect, you will receive an error message indicating your bank account cannot be verified. If this happens, please double check the test deposit amounts, make any necessary corrections, and click Verify deposits once again.

After your bank account has been verified, Gusto will pull back the funds that were put into your company bank account.


Submit for Review

When all onboarding steps have been completed, return to the Payroll Setup page and click Submit for Review to start the internal review process.

As part of the internal review process, Gusto reviews your company information to verify company signatory and ensure proper tax documents can be created.

We may reach out to request additional documentation as Gusto must remain compliant with banking and financial institution regulations. The additional information helps verify your identity and make sure your account is secure.

Failing to respond to the information requests will prevent you from completing the onboarding of your company. You will not be able to process payroll until a response is received. 

FAQ:

For frequently asked questions regarding GroundCloud Payroll - Company Onboarding, refer to this KB article.



Disclaimer:

This article is not to be taken as tax, legal, benefits, financial, or HR advice. Since rules and regulations change over time and can vary by location, consult a lawyer, accountant or HR expert for specific guidance.



For additional questions, please contact GroundCloud Support at 218-864-7900 opt 2 or support@groundcloud.com.

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