Changelog

We have updated employee and contractor onboard status logic as it relates to SSN validation, removing the need to enter placeholder SSN values in order to run payroll. Previously, an employee or contractor needed a value in the SSN field or would have a `blocking` onboard status; SSN validation status was not considered in onboard status. Now, either a missing or invalid SSN will result in a `needs_attention` onboard status. This makes employee and contractor onboard statuses more comprehensive, making it simpler for you to surface missing or invalid SSNs to end users. These missing SSN values are important to resolve before tax filings. Read more about SSN validation and onboard status here.

A common question your support operators receive from employers is, what is happening with my payroll right now, and are all payments looking good to land on time? Historically, you have had limited visibility to answer those questions in the Console and have needed to escalate any questions to Check.

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To solve this, we have added a new feature in Console called Payroll Status that will allow you to quickly see what is currently happening and, most importantly, what should happen next with a payroll and its associated payments given their current state. You can see this new functionality on any payroll object in Console under Payroll Status, below the Details section. Please see a Loom recording for more information.

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We have added three new endpoints to the Employee Tax Parameter API:

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• Bulk Get Employee Tax Params
• Bulk Get Employee Tax Param Settings
• Bulk Update Employee Tax Params

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These endpoints allow users to view and modify tax parameters in bulk for all employees at a company. They were designed to be highly performant and are especially beneficial for users managing larger scale employers, as you will now be able to manage all employee tax parameters in a single request.

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As mentioned in our release notes on April 25th, we began sending webhooks on the creation and deletion of payrolls for all payroll types in Sandbox. These webhooks have now been released to Production. For more information about these webhooks, please review the Webhook Event Types page on our API Reference.

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We’ve updated our Tax Ops Playbook to clarify Corrections SLAs at Quarter End. In order to ensure the current-quarter filing is accurate, Corrections for the current-quarter won’t start until the 1st day of the month following the end of the quarter (e.g., May 1st for Q1). To ensure Corrections do make it in a current-quarter filing, you can void payrolls or submit the Corrections at least 20 days before the quarter ends. 

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When a component link expires after 24 hours, Check can now automatically send an email prompt to the signatory’s email address with a new link to the same component. This will streamline your team’s workflow by eliminating the need to manually regenerate and send component links or email notifications, simplifying the re-engagement process for employers during enrollment. For more information, please refer to our Onboard Component documentation.

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As previewed last week, we now send webhooks for Net Pay Splits and Integration Accesses. These are now live in Production. For more information about these webhooks, please review the Webhook Event Types page on our API Reference.

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We now send webhooks upon the creation and deletion of payrolls. These are live in Sandbox, and will go live in Production on 5/2. These webhooks will be associated with the payroll topic. Please note that these webhooks will be sent for all payroll types, including regular, off-cycle, amendment, and void. For more information about these webhooks, please review the Webhook Event Types page on our API Reference.

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We now send webhooks for Net Pay Splits and Integration Accesses. These are live in Sandbox, and will go live in Production on 4/25.  We’ve introduced two new webhook topics for the associated webhooks, called net_pay_split, and integration_access. For more information about these webhooks, please review the Webhook Event Types page on our API Reference.

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We now send webhooks for the Enrollment Profile. These webhooks are live in all environments. We’ve introduced a new webhook topic called enrollment_profile. For more information about these webhooks, please review the Webhook Event Types page on our API Reference.

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We’ve updated our privacy policy, effective as of April 18, 2024,  to reflect changes in applicable law. You can view the updated policy on our website.

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When loading pay history during Embedded Setup, Check operators often find historical deductions that are not presently configured on  employees. Deductions that are only present historically will now be marked with an external flag set to True on their respective API responses. These deductions will not be editable and will be hidden from list responses by default, unless otherwise specified via the include_external query param. For more information, see our Benefit and Post-tax Deduction API references.  

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We have launched a change to reduce the number of automatically-generated tickets for Embedded Setup companies, all while continuing to send all of the same information. Historically, while most communications about an Embedded Setup company occurred on one setup ticket, a separate ticket was automatically generated when the company was moved to the final activation step. To simplify managing all information about Embedded Setup companies’ go-lives, we will now send activation-related messages on the existing setup ticket rather than creating a new ticket. 

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We have added Toast-specific instructions to the Previous Provider Access Component (“PPAC”). The PPAC guides employers through providing Check access to their previous provider, in order to give Check the data needed for Embedded Setup. This change enables employers migrating from Toast to more easily provide this access, by providing them step-by-step instructions of how to navigate their Toast platform. To read the Toast instructions and other provider-specific guidance, refer to this guide.

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Check will be updating the logic behind employee and contractor onboard status to more accurately reflect SSN validation in late April. Today, if an employee or contractor has a missing SSN, their onboard status is `blocking`. Through this change, a missing or invalid SSN (as represented by ssn_validation_status = `invalid`) will instead result in a `needs_attention` onboard status. This change will ensure these onboard statuses are more comprehensive, making it simpler for you to surface missing or invalid SSNs to end users along with any other missing payee information. Note that at tax filing, Check will continue to send all-zero SSN values for missing and invalid SSNs in certain outputs from Check’s system, such as W-2 filings, as recommended by the SSA.

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You can now create multiple 401(k) benefits for the same employee, and Check will automatically combine contributions for tracking against the contribution limits. For more information, see the updated Defining Benefits guide.

We are trialing a support ticket survey tool to better capture satisfaction and effort for our Setup and Support experiences. Partners will receive periodic surveys asking for your feedback on tickets after resolution. We will begin testing these surveys on Embedded Setup tickets today and expect to expand our usage soon. Your answers to these surveys will help us to measure our progress and improve our offerings. 

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In some cases, a customer may need to go live on a date that requires a faster setup than our standard Embedded Setup timeline. For these businesses, you can now easily request an expedited setup timeline directly in Console. Simply indicate the desired first payday in the Embedded Setup submission form on the company’s Console page; if the payday is within 10 business days, you’ll be prompted to confirm your request. We will continue to evaluate these requests on a case-by-case basis, and will determine during Preliminary Review whether we can accommodate the request. Please note this change is an incremental step in updates to our timeline policies; we plan to introduce a firmer policy around requests for expedited timelines at a future date.

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The new Setup Summary View in Console will be going live today! As you onboard more companies through Embedded Setup, we know it can be difficult to manage the process across all companies and ensure each goes live on schedule. The Setup Summary view displays all companies currently going through Embedded Setup along with a new Embedded Setup Status indicating which companies need your attention. Finally, the view also allows you to generate a CSV export of companies being set up, providing a point-in-time snapshot of all ongoing Setups.

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We released an API that enables you to fetch the list of taxes that a Company is eligible for based on their configuration of employees and workplaces. This is a first step towards providing greater visibility and reporting capabilities around tax applicability for companies and employees on Check!

Learn more about this API in our reference docs: Get company tax elections.

We will be reducing the number of automatically-generated tickets for Embedded Setup companies, while continuing to send all of the same information. Today, most of the communications about an Embedded Setup company occur on one setup ticket; however, a separate ticket is automatically generated when the company is moved to the final activation step. To simplify managing all information about Embedded Setup companies’ go-lives, we will begin sending the activation message on the existing setup ticket rather than creating a new ticket. We will notify you when this change goes into effect.

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As previewed in last week’s release notes, we’ll be releasing a new Setup Summary view in Console for Embedded Setup companies next week on 3/28. The Setup Summary view helps you manage across all Embedded Setup companies, addressing those that need your attention and ensuring each goes live on schedule. 

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We have released an extension to the payroll journal report that breaks down net pay, earnings, benefits, post-tax deductions, and taxes by workplace. This enables multi-location employers to understand how their different locations are contributing to total payroll costs, and is especially helpful for employees working across multiple workplaces in each pay period.

Learn more about this report in our Help Center article and see our API documentation for more on integrating with this report.

Normally payrolls on a four-day processing period must be approved by 8pm ET four business days prior to payday. However, we make an exception for payrolls that contain only payroll items with a manual payment method. For example, if an employer forgets to run payroll, they can set the payment method for each item on the payroll to manual, approve it all the way up to and including on payday, and then pay employees with cash or paper checks.

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While useful to employers, it’s important to note that in these situations Check cannot guarantee that all tax payments will be made on time if the payroll is funded via ACH. We must wait three business days after payday before making any tax payments triggered by these payrolls, regardless of when the tax payments are due, to ensure we are not taking on ACH credit risk. To avoid late tax payments, we recommend that employers on four-day processing periods minimize the use of all-manual payrolls, and when they are necessary fund them via wire.

In the coming weeks we will be adding a `warnings` attribute to the Payroll object, which will be populated on four-day all-manual payrolls where there is a possibility of late tax payments. By watching this field you can determine when this case has occurred, and surface guidance to Employers on your platform accordingly.

Starting on 3/28, we will be releasing a new Setup Summary view in Console. As you onboard more companies through Embedded Setup, we know it can be difficult to manage the process across all companies and ensure each goes live on schedule. The new Setup Summary view will display all companies currently going through Embedded Setup along with a new Embedded Setup Status indicating which companies need your attention. Finally, the view will also allow you to generate a CSV export of companies being set up, providing a point-in-time snapshot of all ongoing Setups.

Setup Status

• Ready to Run: A company with a Setup Status of Ready to Run has completed Setup, and is ready to run their first payroll! We recommend paying special attention to these employers and holding their hand as they run their first payroll with you.
• On Track: A company with a Setup Status of On Track is progressing through Setup without blockers.
• Action Required: A company with a Setup Status of Action Required requires further action from either the company themselves or you, the partner. The specific action required will be communicated in the company's Zendesk ticket. Companies can enter this state under the conditions below. Once the information has been provided on the Zendesk ticket, the company will be moved out of this status.some text
  • The company misses their approval deadline for running a payroll that has a payday of their start date.
  • A Check team member requires additional information to continue with the setup.

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To reduce support burdens for running payroll, the Run Payroll Component now allows your customers to edit a payroll’s payday and processing period via the “Settings” button in the top left corner of the “Payroll Edit” screen. Payday configuration changes are allowed by default, and if you want to allow employers to edit processing periods as well, you can toggle this via the Component SDK settings.

Finally, when a payroll is saved, payroll items, contractor payments and dropdowns are now automatically sorted alphabetically. Learn more about using the Run Payroll Component here.

Starting March 4th, Check will update our default throttle policy in the live production environment from 10,000 requests/hour to 25 requests/second. This rate limit update to the throttle durations is aimed at reducing the severity in hitting rate limits and aims to improve Check API performance overall. The new throttle policy is already active and successfully running without issue across all partners in Sandbox. We have backtested your API usage over the past two months and do not expect this change to impact access. However we recommend you review your own API usage metrics to confirm. Learn more about how to handle rate limits and best practices.

If you would like to opt-in to the new throttle ahead of March 4, or have concerns, please reach out to your technical account manager or create a developer support ticket.

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We’ve shipped two improvements to the Previous Provider Access Component, which directs employers participating in Embedded Setup on how to grant access to their prior payroll provider account. 

1. Previously, the component included a required step asking for the employer’s prior payroll provider. This step will now be skipped if the `previous_payroll_provider` field on the Enrollment Profile has been provided. This will make for a smoother experience in situations where prior provider information may have already been collected in a previous step.
2. The UI has been simplified to prioritize guided instructions upfront, and now includes a double confirmation for the employer to attest that they have both granted access and set the appropriate permissions level for the new account. 

For more details, see the Guide to the Previous Provider Access Component.

Previously, in the event of a failed funding, employers would immediately be downgraded to 4-day processing. We’re rolling out an update so that now in the event of a failed funding, your employer will remain on 2-day processing unless they do not resolve the failed funding within 5 business days. Note that these failed fundings will still count towards the 6-failure limit before being de-platformed. This update will take effect Monday 3/4. Head to our FAQ in our Help Center to learn more.

We have enhanced the Historical Payroll Audit Report, which provides an output of payroll data comparing calculated payroll results from a company's previous provider to calculated payroll results in Check. Namely, we’ve added variances to the report, which contain the differences between the payroll calculations on the historical payroll and Check’s payroll calculations for that payroll. We’ve also removed empty columns to streamline review of the report. Head to the FAQ in our Help Center to learn more.

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Effective as of February 22, when Check requests bank statements as part of an employer diligence review or a processing upgrade request (i.e, from 4-day to 2-day processing), Check will require those bank statements to match the bank account that the employer provided to Check during onboarding. Check is making this change to ensure that the employer has sufficient funds in the correct account and to minimize fraud risk. If an employer wishes to change their bank account in Check’s system, you can generate an Onboard link for this purpose.

Check enables developers to return paper checks through our API so your customers can use them to print on their own check stock. In December, we announced a new DLT 159 check stock, provided by Deluxe, as our primary recommended check stock moving forward. This was previously only available through a query parameter, but as of February 8th, this is now the only paper check stock we return from our endpoints. Partners should recommend their end employers purchase this check stock when needed to print paper checks. As a reminder, DLT159 is backwards compatible with DLT104, our prior recommendation, for employers who haven’t yet purchased this new stock. Have more questions? Head to the FAQ in our Help Center.

Net Pay Splits now fully support breaking out pay by percentages in the API, Components, and Console, alongside the amount-based splits that have always been supported. Due to a breaking change in the structure of the Net Pay Splits API needed to support this change, the percentage field is available on our latest API version. Please reach out to the Check team if you would like to enable the latest API version for your integration.

We have added the ability to preview pay calculation on a payroll item basis, vs having to preview the entire payroll at once. Passing in the ‘?item=’ query parameter to the Payroll Preview endpoint will trigger pay calculation for only the specified item(s), enabling more performant previews when viewing individual employee’s. Learn more in our Preview API documentation.

We have added additional filters to the Failed Filings Report in Console to allow filtering by monthly and annual filings. Previously, monthly failed filings were reported via Zendesk. Monthly and annual filings are also available through the Tax Filings API.

The Georgia Department of Revenue (DOR) has updated Form G-4, State of Georgia Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate. Employees will be required to provide this new form, and will have an onboard status of Needs Attention until doing so. If an employee fails to fill out the new Georgia Form G-4, a default calculation will be used. This new form will be available in Console and Onboard by January 26th, 2024.

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You can now appeal a company’s fraud termination in Console, streamlining a process which was previously only available through one-off support ticket requests. When a company has been terminated due to fraud, you’ll see a ‘Request Secondary Review’ button surfaced in Console, which will prompt you to provide as much additional context about the company as possible. You will also be able to upload additional documentation via the ‘Company Actions’ tab.

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We’ve added a new set of validations to help ensure accurate payroll calculation and processing for all 2% shareholders in our system. Individuals who hold more than 2% of outstanding stock of a corporation are not permitted to receive pre-tax benefits such as Section 125 medical benefits (see here), and need to be designated as such via a company-defined attribute. The new set of validations reduce the need for corrections and will include:

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• Employees can only be marked as 2% shareholders with an effective start date at the beginning of a calendar year
• Employees that have an active pre-tax health benefit associated with them cannot be marked as a 2% shareholder unless their pre-tax health benefits are either deleted or ended before their effective start date as a 2% shareholder
• When uploading historical payrolls, 2% shareholder earnings cannot be created for employees that are not 2% shareholders

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As of the first quarter of 2024, all employers in South Carolina and West Virginia will be required to report Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes for all employees. More information about SOC Codes can be found from the agencies’ websites (e.g., Occucoder). In addition, West Virginia is requiring employers to provide the County Name associated with the primary work location of all employees.

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These new setup parameters will be available for employers by January 26th, 2024, and the onboard status for affected employees will be updated to Needs Attention. Employers will have until March 31st, 2024, to update all new parameters and ensure timely unemployment filing.

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The Iowa Department of Revenue (DOR) has updated Form W-4, Iowa Employee Withholding Allowance Certificate. The new form has updated the filing status and now requires the employee to provide an allowance amount instead of the number of allowances. If an employee fails to fill out the new Iowa W-4 form, the agency has provided a default calculation. The new form will be available in Console and Onboard by January 19th, 2024.

The Montana Department of Revenue (DOR) has updated Form MW-4, Montana Employee ‘s Withholding and Exemption Certificate. The new form will now request a filing status along with options to indicate multiple jobs.  The agency is requiring a new form to be completed by all applicable employees. If an employee fails to fill out the new MW-4 form, the tax will be withheld as if the employee is single. The new form will be available in Console and Onboard by January 19th, 2024

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We are making it easier for employers to navigate our wire policy when exceeding $100k in federal tax liability. Starting today, companies on accelerated payroll processing periods do not have to wire funds anymore, and only companies on 4-day processing periods with a pay date less than 4 days away will fall under this policy. We have updated our Help Center article to reflect this change.

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We updated the look and feel of our Help Center (formerly “Knowledgebase”), so it’s easier to find and digest information. Added categories will help to meet you where you are on your payroll journey: Getting Started, Payroll Fundamentals, Support, Running Payroll, Filing Taxes, and Moving Money. Key highlights include a newly added FAQ page and Check Glossary and direct links to our API Guides and Release Notes. 

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If you have any articles bookmarked, you may find the links to those articles broken. You can easily find them again using our Search feature on the top of each page and create a new bookmark link. We are continuing to update our Help Center regularly to make sure it remains a great resource for understanding payroll and resolving issues.

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You can now filter payrolls by their status in the Payroll API by passing in the `status` query parameter. More information about how to send us this query parameter can be found in our documentation.

You can now change the active field on the company resource in sandbox environments by sending a patch request indicating the value you want for the active field. The active field defaults to true. When active is false, the company will not show up in your sandbox Console and the company will not be able to approve payrolls.

Over the coming month we will be reducing our API throttle durations from per hour to per second, in order to reduce the severity of hitting throttle limits and to improve API performance consistency overall. The new default throttles will be:

• Live: 75 requests per second
• Sandbox: 25 requests per second

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No action will be taken during the Heightened Awareness Period ending on January 16. We have back tested this change, expect no impact for your typical API usage, and we will communicate frequently to ensure a smooth transition.

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On January 17, 2024, we will switch the default throttle logic for all partners in our sandbox environment. Over the following weeks, we will switch the live throttle logic.

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To ensure a smooth transition, ensure API calls to Check implement retry and exponential backoff in response to HTTP 429 Too Many Request responses.

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You can now create earning rates in bulk, enabling you to more quickly set up earning rates rather than doing so one-by-one. You can access the earning rate bulk creation in the Earning Codes tab on the Company Details page in Console. Read more about different types of earnings in our docs.

Many states and the IRS have released updated withholding forms for 2024. Employees who are newly onboarding or updating their withholding elections will now complete the 2024 Federal W-4 and employees in 8 states will complete their new 2024 state withholding forms (Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Kentucky, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island, and South Carolina). Note that there are 3 more withholding form updates currently in flight, and we expect to see a few more 2024 forms which we will implement as they are released.

Starting January 1st, Morning Next Day Pay will become the default for any company set to 'one_day' processing period. No additional development work is required at this time. This update allows employees to have funds settled into their accounts by 8:30 am local time, and employers to initiate their payroll just one day before, by 8pm ET. Please note that Morning Next Day Pay has a different pricing structure than the current Next Day Pay offering. If you have any questions, please get in touch.

Faster payout speed has been a top request from partners and employers, and we’re excited to start offering Morning Next Day Pay, our new payroll processing flow, as of today. It allows employees to have funds settled into their accounts by 8:30 am local time, and employers to initiate their payroll just one day before, by 8pm ET. No additional development work is required to enable Morning Next Day Pay, and it’ll be default for any company set to the ‘one_day’ processing period starting January 1st. Please note that Morning Next Day Pay has a different pricing structure than the current Next Day Pay offering. If you’d like to get started using Morning Next Day Pay now, please get in touch.

Previously, if there was an issue when calculating the payroll audit, we showed a generic message indicating that something in the calculation went wrong. Now, when a payroll audit calculation error is due to a missing or incorrectly configured withholding value, we will show details about which withholding value is incorrect, allowing you to better identify and fix the issue.

Check enables developers to return paper checks through our API so your customers can use them to print on their own purchased check stock. In the past, we recommended customers purchase DLT 104 check stock, but we’re updating this recommendation to DLT 159 check stock, provided by Deluxe, a leading check printer for top payroll providers. This new check stock better matches our design so you can expect better feedback from your customers. We’ve also added the residence address of the payee to the check so now these checks can fit in #9 Double Windowed Envelopes and be seamlessly mailed. We’re rolling this change out first under a new query parameter `dlt159` on all paper check endpoints, so you can test with your customers before fully rolling out. We plan to migrate all paper check endpoints to the new DLT159 style by 1/31/2024. Note, DLT159 is backwards compatible with DLT104. To see our updated API guidance head here and for FAQs head here.

When using bulk upload tools to create employees, contractors, or bank accounts in Console, you can now better identify and remedy errors through new changes to our error messaging. You will now see errors grouped and sorted by the row number of the uploaded CSV, as shown in the screenshot below. Read more about bulk uploading tools here.

We have added an `active` field on the webhook config resource that indicates whether a webhook config will receive events. Webhook configs that have only had failed delivery attempts for more than 7 days will be automatically deactivated. To reactivate a deactivated webhook config, set the `active` field back to `true` via an API request. We've reviewed your current webhook configs, and this should have no effect on your live environment integration.

We now send webhooks for Earning Rates and Pay Schedules. These are live in Sandbox, and will go live in Production on 12/7. We’ve introduced two new webhook topics for the associated webhooks, called earning_rate and pay_schedule. For more information about these webhooks, please review the Webhook Event Types page on our API Reference.

To keep your employers compliant with form changes, we have released the latest version of the Indiana WH-4 form. The form adds an additional exemption for each qualifying dependent claimed for the first time. In addition, the agency has added a box which will allow an employee to indicate if the submission of the form is for a change to a local county that should be effective Jan 1 of the next year. In order for the box to be checked, the employee must first have a completed form for the current year.

We have released two new attributes (` employee_w2_delivery_method` and `contractor_1099_delivery_method) on the Company object that can be used to configure W2 and 1099 delivery preferences. These attributes allow you to set overriding print-and-mail preferences, giving employers greater control in managing print-and-mail costs. These will be available in Sandbox tomorrow, 12/1, and in Production on 12/8. For more information about these attributes, please review the Company page on our API Reference.

Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance (DUA) requires a Power-of-Attorney (POA) in order for third parties to file and pay taxes on employers' behalf. Employers will need to complete this form in order for Check to properly pay and file Massachusetts State Unemployment Insurance (SUI) taxes. For newly onboarded companies where MA SUI is applicable, this form must be completed before employers can run payroll unless the State Account ID is marked "Applied For.” This form can be completed by employers via Company Onboard under the Filing Authorization section. Learn more about the Onboard Component here.

You can now update the PTO balance and sick balance on a payroll item after its associated payroll has been approved. Updates to these attributes will also be reflected on an employee’s paystub.

You can now fetch failed filings using Check’s Tax Filings API. Check will also send Failed Filing updates via webhooks. Currently, failed filing data is also available in a report in Console. Check out the API documentation here to learn more!

You can now download a CSV report in Console to view contractors with data errors that will prevent successful 1099 filing during Year End. This includes contractors with invalid or missing SSNs or EINs for individual and business contractors respectively, and contractors that are duplicated within a company. We are unable to complete 1099 filing successfully for these contractors, so part of Year End preparation, you can use this report to prevent issues ahead of 1099 filing. Learn more about the invalid contractors report here.

You may now “confirm and submit” or hit the /start_implementation endpoint for a company that has outstanding filing authorization forms needing to be signed. This means the company may be submitted while having a blocking “onboard status,” if the reason for the blocked onboard status is only due to filing authorization. Learn more about submitting companies to Check here.

When a company steps through Onboard or the payment setup component, they will now be able to link with Plaid or send us the account and routing information of their business checking account directly. To learn more about bank accounts and the difference between Plaid accounts and raw accounts, see here.

We have released a new version of the I-9 form, which is now available through the Forms API. We recommend implementing support for the new version of the form (edition 08/01/23) by 10/31/2023 at the latest in order to enable employers to surface it to workers by 11/1/2023. The new version of the form is available through the List Forms endpoint.

We have made changes to the Payroll API to make creating payrolls easier and more flexible. Previously, we prevented the creation of $0 and/or 0 hour earnings. We have now moved this validation to payroll preview and approval, allowing you to build payroll flows where you prefill default earnings, insert time & attendance data, or allow the employer to enter in base information and finish later. Read more about earning configuration here.

Check now offers the ability to input negative amounts and hours in payroll item earnings to reduce overstated wages within the quarter. Negative earnings offer a convenient way to make these corrections without the necessity of voiding and reissuing the entire paycheck. This flexibility allows for accurate adjustments to be made in a straightforward manner. Learn more about negative earnings here.

As part of an effort to make the Run Payroll Component easier to use for employers with many employees, we have introduced autocomplete search bars for all entity dropdowns. This will allow employers to search for the exact employees, workplaces, earning types and rates to ease payroll configuration. Read more about the Run Payroll Component here.

You can now create contractor objects with only a last_name; address is no longer required. This change allows employers to send contractors onboarding links to fill out their own addresses, rather than the employer needing to provide this information. Note that while these fields do not block contractor creation, they are necessary before paying a contractor and will cause a blocking onboard status. Read more about this process in the onboard status guide and the reference to create a contractor.

In the world of payroll, address validity is incredibly important to determine appropriate taxation. In the past, we only validated addresses upon creation of specific entities, like workplaces. We’ve now rolled out a dedicated address validation endpoint so you can check any address against the USPS database to ensure they are accurate and can be used in Check. If you created an address somewhere else in your platform, you can use this endpoint to determine if it will work in Check before creating a workplace, company, employee or contractor. Note that this feature is offered at no additional charge for now; Check may update the fee structure in the future. Read more about address validation in our guide here.

We now offer an API endpoint in sandbox to retry webhook events, to aid in development. By using this functionality, we'll re-enqueue an already sent webhook to be sent at our first availability. Read more in our documentation.

The Employee Setup step of Company Onboard has been added as a standalone component. Employers can view the onboarding state of each employee, and set company defined attributes for each employee, if applicable. Learn more about Check Components here.

When using Console to set taxes for companies or employees, you can now set one tax at a time, whereas you previously had to enter values for all applicable taxes at once. This enables you to enter taxes as you get them rather than wait for all of this information.

We have released a new Check Component which enables you to easily embed the ability for surfacing and downloading payroll reports in your product. Employers can view various payroll reports through this component, including the Payroll Summary and Payroll Journal report, for specified date ranges. Read more in our documentation.

When an enrolling company enters a FEIN that already exists in Check’s system, we will no longer block that FEIN from being entered altogether. Instead, the company will be allowed to use that FEIN and continue enrolling, enabling a more seamless customer experience. The company will still need to terminate with their prior provider before their first payroll, and instructions will be surfaced in Console in these cases.

We have introduced increased validation when a company submits EINs and account numbers. An employer will now be unable to submit a string containing a single repeated alphanumeric character into these fields, such as '11111' and 'aaaaa.' This validation helps to reduce failed tax filings due to invalid EINs and account numbers.

When you confirm and submit in Console, or hit the /start_implementation endpoint, we will now start requiring the company’s start date to be in the future of the current date. Read our docs for more information on validations around submitting to Check.

We have started automatically sending companies through the enrollment process in sandbox. When the /start_implementation endpoint is hit, or you “confirm and submit” in Console, assuming all other validations are complete, the company will automatically have their implementation status set to “complete." This change enables you to build automated testing and QA against our sandbox environment for the Enrollment process.

We have now released deterministic sandbox testing for the bank account API. By sending specific values in the routing number, your system can simulate different bank account verification statuses including validated, disabled_recoverable and disabled_irrecoverable. Testing bank account statuses enables you to build integration testing and QA testing around bank accounts. Learn more in our docs.

We are excited to have rolled out improvements to the enrollment experience today. These changes include lining up Check's company review process with the statuses you're already familiar with, and releasing a new view in Console for enrolling companies. Learn more in our Knowledge Base! 

We have released the Employee Benefit Component, which enables you to easily embed support for benefits in your product. Employers can configure benefits for a specified employee in this component, as well as view benefits managed by our benefit partners. Read more in our documentation.

Companies with no year to date payroll history can now be submitted to Check for implementation while employees and contractors are in a blocking onboard status. The employees will still need to reach a non-blocking onboard status to be eligible for payroll.

You can now find accepted file types for document requests in the Requirements API. We recommend using these in your in-product guidance for customers uploading documents. Read more about the Requirements API and accepted file formats here.

We have released a new Check Component which enables you to easily embed support for post-tax deductions in your product. Employers can list, create, edit, and delete both child-support and miscellaneous post-tax deductions for a specified employee in this component. Read more in our documentation.

Contractors are now listed in alphabetical order by name and then business name in the contractor lists API, displays in Console and all related components, making it simpler for you to find the information you need.

Console now offers the ability to void paid-in-quarter payrolls! The payroll must have a listed payday in the current quarter and must be in 'paid' or 'partially paid' status. Voiding out-of-quarter and failed payrolls will still require reaching out to Check Support.

Console now offers the ability to create and view a company’s pay schedule. Pay schedules offload the work of calculating period start, period end, and payday for a company to Check. You can also view all future pay dates for the company. To learn more about pay frequency and pay schedules, see our docs here.

Different payment types will now have unique transaction descriptions in employers’ bank statements, giving customers better visibility into their money movement. For example, employers will see the description "[Partner Payroll Name] TAX" as the description on their bank statements for upcoming Q2 variance collection and refund transactions. 

The full range of payment types and the associated descriptions is available in our Glossary. The Glossary will empower your Support teams to promptly address any inquiries from employers regarding payment types; additionally, we recommend sharing the glossary with your employers through another visible product surface for their convenience.

Stay tuned for additional enhancements as we make the payment experience at Check more simple and intuitive!

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We have released a new Check Component which allows you to easily embed a Profile UI in your employee payroll experience. Through this Component, employees can view their payroll information including general demographics and details, payment methods and linked bank accounts, and workplaces they have been assigned to. Learn more about this component in our documentation.

You can now view the status of a company’s legal name and Federal EIN verification in Console, as that match is checked against information from the IRS. You can update the company’s legal name and FEIN directly on this feature and trigger a new verification attempt. Please be aware that if there are 3 unsuccessful verification attempts, further attempts will be disabled and the customer will be required to upload documents.

You can now create employee objects with only a last_name; residence, date_of_birth and start_date are no longer required. This change allows employers to send employees onboarding links to fill out their own residences and DOBs, rather than the employer needing to provide this information. Note that while these fields do not block employee creation, they are necessary before paying an employee and will cause a blocking onboard status. Read more about this process in the onboard status guide and the reference to create an employee.

You can now remove the “X” button to close a component from the top-right of components, which can be confusing for components embedded directly in your product. To read more about this ability, check out our guide to customizing components.

You can now create, view, and edit the active status of employee Earning Rates in Console! This allows Console users to manage employee compensation when necessary. Earning Rate view and configuration can be found in the “Earning Rate” tab on the employee profile page. Learn more about Earning Rates in our API docs.

We have released two new endpoints to the company resource which allow updates to a company’s implementation status: /start_implementation and /cancel_implementation. This change enables you to add Console’s confirm and submit logic directly in your product, as well as giving you the ability to un-submit a company if its implementation status is not yet complete. Read more about these new endpoints in our API docs.

Employers can now view and edit earning descriptions in the Run Payroll Component. These descriptions will appear directly on the employee paystub and are particularly useful for employers and employees to distinguish between earnings of the same type (e.g. hourly).

You can now initiate a company’s termination directly from its Company Details page in Console rather than creating a support ticket, streamlining the termination process for you. Additionally, you will be able to view details about a company’s termination refund in Console.

You can now see tax liabilities and their associated statuses right in Console! Navigate to the Tax Deposits tab for a Company to view the comprehensive list of historical tax deposits. Alternatively, navigate to the particular Payroll Journal to view the breakdown of Tax Deposits for a payroll. Visit our Knowledge Base and API Docs for more information on Tax Deposits.

You can now find details about terminated companies in Console on the Company Info page, including termination date and reason.

Console now shows a payroll’s Payment Method(s) in addition to its Funding Method, giving you better visibility into the ways employees and contractors were paid. For payrolls in which all workers were paid manually, Console now provides additional information to clarify payroll status and tax payment timing.

You can now edit all fields on employees and contractors in Console, except for SSNs and workplaces (coming soon), directly on the employee or contractor detail page. This feature enhances the Console experience, allowing you to modify these fields with the same ease as you would edit a company detail. To update a worker’s information, click the edit icon on the employee or contractor detail page. We will continue to send webhooks when you update information in Console.

We have released four new Check Components aimed at viewing and downloading documents. You can now embed Check Components that allow companies, contractors, and employees to view tax and authorization documents so you don’t have to build these experiences yourself. See our documentation to learn more about our Company Authorization Document, Company Tax Document,  Employee Tax Document, and Contractor Tax Document components.