PensionPro, Finch Join Forces to Streamline Plan Administration

In an effort to allow third-party administrators to more easily collect payroll and census data directly from employers’ payroll systems, PensionPro Software LLC, a workflow automation software for TPAs, announced it is partnering with Finch Inc., a unified API platform for employment services.

The partnership will automate the collection of plan sponsor information and, via Finch Connect, simplify onboarding and administration for sponsors.

TPAs can either embed the Finch Connect interface into their own platform or share a link to enable plan sponsors to connect it to their payroll system. Once the connection is established, the TPA can automatically pull census and payroll data from the payroll system into PensionPro’s platform, eliminating the need to manually format incoming sponsor data.

Finch already works with payroll providers like Gusto, Quickbooks, ADP and Paychex.

Accessing “timely, accurate and standardized” plan sponsor data has been a challenge for TPAs and recordkeepers for decades, according to PensionPro’s announcement. The norm has been for TPAs to rely on manual data entry or bulk file transfers, both of which are time-consuming, costly and difficult to scale.

As new plans are being created as a result of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, PensionPro argued that retirement providers need a fast, reliable and secure way to collect employer data.

Linda Chadbourne, vice president of defined contribution services at Definiti LLC, says this automated service is something that TPAs like herself are looking for in order to make the data collection process as seamless as possible.

Chadbourne says clients report payroll data at least once per year, allowing the TPA to conduct non-discrimination testing and help with Form 5500 filing. On these occasions, they typically need to log into a portal and manually upload census data.

“If you have a client that has 100 employees, and we’re asking them for maybe 20 different items on a spreadsheet, it can be very time-consuming,” Chadbourne says.

Plan sponsor clients often will ask the TPA firm to do the data entry for them, but Chadbourne says that comes at an extra charge. Chadbourne says an automated service like the one PensionPro is offering could transfer the necessary data within five minutes, whereas normally it would take the firm upwards of two hours.

She adds that it is important for a plan sponsor to monitor the service provider for cybersecurity reasons, as the provider will have access to important data like compensation and Social Security numbers.

“Accurate payroll data is critical to TPAs, and this partnership gives them an automated solution for acquiring that data for their administrative workflows,” said Darren Conner, PensionPro’s chief operating officer, in a statement.