Remitting contributions under the Bicentric model

Overview

Under the Bicentric model, Wealthsimple captures your employees' contribution elections, but you process payroll and feed contribution amounts yourself. You'll download an election file from your Wealthsimple dashboard, use it to process payroll in your own system, then upload a final contribution file back to Wealthsimple. This process isn't automated, so you'll need to follow these steps for every payroll cycle.

Process a scheduled payrun

1. Log in to Wealthsimple on a computer.
2. Select the Profile menu in the bottom left corner.
3. Select your company name to go to your employer dashboard.
4. Select the Payroll tab.
5. Select the payroll period you want to finalize.
6. In Step 1, download the election file.
7. Use the information in the election file to process payroll. Use the "last_updated_at" column to find plan members who have newly enrolled in the plan or changed their contribution elections since the last payroll cycle.
8. In Step 2, download the contribution remittance file template.
9. Open the downloaded file, complete with contribution amounts calculated from payroll and save the file. Only cells containing a $0 value in the template can accept contributions, whereas empty cells indicate no contribution amount can be processed for that specific employee and account type. An employee needs a fully opened account before they can receive contributions.
10. Return to the Payroll tab, and drag and drop or upload your saved final file.
11. Select Review payroll to review the summary of the uploaded data.
12. Select Finalize payroll to allow for processing on the scheduled date.

Process a one-off payroll

Use a one-off payroll for amounts that fall outside your regular pay schedule, such as bonus payments, bulk adjustments for salary increases, or other corrections.

1. Log in to Wealthsimple on a computer.
2. Select the Profile menu in the bottom left corner.
3. Select your company name to go to your employer dashboard.
4. Select the Payroll tab.
5. Select Create a one-off payroll.
6. Select the pay date. This is the date contributions will be deposited into your employees' accounts.
7. Confirm that Contribution format is set to No default contributions.
8. Select Create payroll.
9. In the Step 2 - Upload final payroll section, select Download template.
10. Open the downloaded file, complete with contribution amounts calculated from payroll and save the file. Only cells containing a $0 value in the template can accept contributions, whereas empty cells indicate no contribution amount can be processed for that specific employee and account type. An employee needs a fully opened account before they can receive contributions.
11. Return to the Payroll tab, and drag and drop or upload your saved final file.
12. Select Review payroll to review the summary of the uploaded data.
13. Select Finalize payroll to allow for processing on the selected date.

Adjust contributions

You can adjust a contribution in different ways, depending on the status of the payroll.

If the payroll is still open for changes

You can edit a finalized payroll until the pay date. To make changes:

1. Log in to Wealthsimple on a computer.
2. Select the Profile menu in the bottom left corner.
3. Select your company name to go to your employer dashboard.
4. Select the Payroll tab.
5. Select the payroll period you want to change.
6. Select Download full payroll to download the current contribution remittance file if you want to use it as your starting point.
7. Select Edit to reopen the pay cycle.
8. Update your contribution remittance file with the corrected amounts and save it. If you need a fresh template, follow the steps to download the contribution remittance file template in Process a scheduled payrun.
9. In Step 2, drag and drop or upload your corrected file.
10. Select Review payroll to review the summary of the uploaded data.
11. Select Finalize payroll to resubmit before the pay date.

If the payroll is no longer open for changes

• If contributions are missing: Proceed to Process a one-off payroll for the missing amounts.
• If contributions were made in excess, and the plan member is expected to be included in upcoming payruns:
  • Reduce that plan member's amount in your next scheduled contribution remittance by the excess amount, so total contributions to date match payroll deductions.
  • If the excess is more than their next contribution, spread the reduction across the following payruns until the full amount is recovered. The plan member will have received some contributions in advance, but you won't need to submit a reversal.
  • For example, if you contributed $100 too much and the plan member's next contribution is $60, enter $0 for that payrun and $40 less in the one after.
• If contributions were made in excess, and the plan member isn't expected to be included in the next payrun (for example, a terminated plan member): Proceed to Reverse an employee contribution.

Reverse a contribution

If a contribution needs to be reversed after it's been deposited into an employee's account, you can request a reversal through our support team or your dedicated Client Success Manager. As the plan sponsor, you'll need to sign a Letter of Indemnity (LOI) and send it with your request. For the template and full steps, see Reverse an employee contribution. This process is the same across all payroll models.