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In the world of employment technology, partnerships are paramount. Systems of record can keep their customers happy with connections to the products they already know and love, and third-party applications benefit from direct integrations that deliver data straight from their customers’ source of truth. 

From the start, leading employee rewards and recognition platform Awardco knew they’d need to integrate and partner with all of the HRIS and payroll systems their employers use—and UKG was at the top of the list. 

By leveraging Finch’s integrations, Awardco and UKG were able to validate their integrations and launch a partnership in about 2 months—over 80% faster than average. The partnership has opened up a ton of growth opportunities for Awardco, while allowing UKG to retain more customers and ARR.

Awardco: Real-time data is ‘table stakes’

Awardco’s technology aims to improve employee retention and save employers time and money by automating employee recognition, rewards, and incentives. In their eyes, the biggest challenge these employers face is time and resource constraints.

“HR professionals are bogged down with a lot of administrative tasks, so we want to take some of those off their plate and allow them to focus on more strategic things,” said Spencer Linsley, Executive Director of Partnerships at Awardco. “How can we empower HR folks to have a seat at the table and be viewed as not just a cost center within the organization, but a profit center?”

“How can we empower HR folks to have a seat at the table and be viewed as not just a cost center within the organization, but a profit center?”

Keeping employees happy and engaged requires keeping track of a lot of data, from birthdays to hire dates to title changes. But it’s critical for retention that employees feel valued—turnover is a huge and costly issue for organizations big and small. 

Garret Brent, Strategic Partnerships Manager at Awardco, explained that companies without a “true integration” between their HRIS and employee engagement solutions struggle to scale their rewards programs due to a lack of time and resources.

“If employee data isn’t being updated in real-time, then you're going to miss the low-hanging fruit of recognition moments that are really going to make the employee experience a lot better and a lot more meaningful within an organization,” Spencer said. “And if we aren't able to do those table-stakes actions for a customer, then it's going to again create an administrative burden and quite frankly, they're probably going to look at other providers outside of Awardco.”

Building integrations at scale

After spending more than a year building their first HRIS integration in-house, Awardco recognized how time- and resource-intensive the process truly was. So they started looking for a provider that could unlock the hundreds of connections they needed through a single integration. 

Spencer said Awardco viewed a unified API provider like Finch as a “force multiplier” for their Partnerships teams, and a necessary tool to onboard new customers with various HRIS systems quickly. But they also wanted a solution that would help unlock key partnerships that would allow the Sales team to grow Awardco’s customer base. 

“At the end of the day, being able to build a single integration, maintain a single integration, was something that was really, really important to us, Spencer said. “And having a high level of confidence that through Finch we’d be able to expedite the whole process of becoming a certified and validated UKG partner, that was and continues to be really important to us.”

"Having a high level of confidence that through Finch we’d be able to expedite the whole process of becoming a certified and validated UKG partner, that was and continues to be really important to us.”

UKG: Partnerships are a ‘competitive advantage’

UKG, a leading provider of HR, payroll, and workforce management solutions, partnered with Finch in 2023 to expand their partnership network and grow the UKG Marketplace. As the system of record for tens of thousands of employers, UKG leverages Finch to allow their partners to integrate to their suite of products quickly.

“For us that means more happy customers. It means higher retention, and it means that we get to keep ARR in the long run. And it gives us something to showcase when we’re selling to an organization that is really happy with Awardco—we can show them that implementing UKG won’t mess up the workflows they already have in place. In that sense, it’s extremely helpful,” said Miguel Tavera, Senior Technology Strategic Alliance Manager at UKG. 

“We're lowering the barrier to entry and making the process smoother, and I don't know how that would ever be a bad thing,” added Adam Derus, Senior Marketing Manager at UKG. “It’s just absolutely amazing to have that in our back pocket. It definitely feels like a competitive advantage.”

“We're lowering the barrier to entry and making the process smoother. ... It definitely feels like a competitive advantage.”

Finch expedites time to launch by over 80%

To become a partner on the UKG Marketplace, applications like Awardco need to undergo a thorough integration validation with UKG—a process that must be repeated for each of UKG’s products. Validating any one integration typically takes 3-6 months.

But Awardco had an ace up their sleeve: they use Finch to integrate with two UKG products — UKG Ready and UKG Pro — which meant the connections were already in place. Both integrations between Awardco and UKG were validated in 2 months — 10 months faster than the typical process. 

“The faster we can get you up and running the better, and to have two UKG products available right out of the gate in less than 2 months—it's got to be some kind of a record,” Adam said. 

Both Awardco and UKG view the speedy partnership as a win–win: 

• Awardco can onboard customers more quickly, access timely, accurate data that is used to automate employee recognition, and build upon the trust that UKG has earned with the employers they serve. 

• Meanwhile, UKG can “meet customers where they are and keep them happy with options for best-of-breed vendors,” as Miguel put it. 

“As UKG changes as an organization and we put more focus behind one product or another, having these strong partnerships with validated integrations is a huge help,” Miguel said. “And it allows our partners to get ahead of the curve and ahead of some of their competition in the marketplace, too.”

In 2018, 401GO set out to build a platform that would make 401(k) plans accessible to all businesses. Their proprietary system lets employers set up a plan in as little as 15 minutes and outsource all of the administrative work, from enrollment to end-of-year reporting.

From the beginning, the 401GO team knew payroll integrations would be pivotal to their success. And while the company has an impressive engineering team, leadership wanted to ensure they were pursuing every avenue of expanding their integration network. So they turned to Finch.

Today, 401GO uses a combination of internal development resources and Finch-powered 401(k) payroll integrations to pull sponsor data and automate payroll processing to provide the ultimate employer experience. 

Empowering 401(k) sponsors through data

Without HR professionals dedicated to the complexities of plan administration, retirement plans have long been out of reach for many small businesses. 401GO launched in 2019 with a mission to change that narrative by taking on all of the administrative burden for their customers. 

“The idea that you can automate a process for a business owner is amazing,” said Jared Porter, co-founder and COO. “Our platform allows them to do all the things that you’d normally have an HR professional do. They’re meeting all the criteria for a 401(k) plan, but they’re not having to hire another employee to do it.”

That automation is why Jared and the rest of the team at 401GO knew they’d need payroll integrations. To take the administrative responsibility off their customers’ plates, they’d need reliable, automatic access to employment data. 

“The data that we're getting is so important to 401(k) administration,” Jared said. “It’s what allows us to send out notifications, enroll employees as they become eligible, and complete end-of-year reporting so the company, without even realizing it, is the best fiduciary. We’re leveraging payroll integrations to do that.”

Custom API payroll integrations > SFTP

From the beginning, API-powered payroll integrations were at the forefront of 401GO’s strategy. The team views other integration methods like SFTP as functional but far from ideal.

“The problem with SFTP is that it’s like you’re using half a car,” Jared explained. “Business owners don't understand that we’re going to have to accommodate for the other side of the car that’s missing.

“But with an API, you’re removing so much of the overhead and complexity, and it’s consistent. The updates are immediate. Everything is happening in a way that no human could do. And SFTP, as a file exchange of data, is really hard to scale.”

"With an API, you’re removing so much of the overhead and complexity, and it’s consistent. The updates are immediate. ... And SFTP, as a file exchange of data, is really hard to scale.”

In some cases, 401GO’s operations team performs the work on the employer’s behalf as part of their True360™ service; but API integrations can automate much of that process, freeing up internal resources to focus on supporting customers and taking on new accounts.

“The most straightforward thing is the data transfer, the idea that what's in the payroll system is now reflected in the 401(k) system. It’s not mind blowing, but the fact that data from payroll is being moved in real time into our platform so the plan is in compliance — that’s really valuable,” Jared said. 

Leveraging Finch to expand 401GO’s provider network

401GO has already built plenty of integrations in-house through its talented development team. But the payroll market is infamous for being fragmented, with nearly 6,000 systems in the US alone — and not all of them will allow retirement providers like 401GO to access their APIs. 

Gusto proved to be one such provider. With such a large volume of integration requests, Gusto couldn’t accommodate a direct partnership with 401GO, but they suggested an alternative: Finch. 

Related: Finch partners with Gusto to unlock the next wave of innovation in HR Tech

Once 401GO built to the Finch API, the company was able to access a pre-built integration with Gusto that allows its customers to authorize access to their payroll data in as little as 30 seconds. And since the Finch integration only needs to be configured once, 401GO can now expand their access to any of Finch’s 200+ supported HRIS and payroll providers without negotiating individual partnerships or building new integrations from scratch.

“A lot of our integrations with payroll companies are customized, so there's not one thing on our side that can connect them all. But having an aggregator like Finch is amazing, because we can connect into any one system that Finch is connected to. Then as Finch expands those relationships and its network of providers, that makes it a lot easier for us and a little more affordable to connect with more payroll providers,” Jared said. 

"Having an aggregator like Finch is amazing, because we can connect into any one system that Finch is connected to. Then as Finch expands those relationships and its network of providers, that makes it a lot easier for us and a little more affordable to connect with more payroll providers.”

Finch integrations can also be launched faster. The 401GO development team can build an integration in about 3 months, but that’s followed by a year-long monitoring and testing period. Finch allows the team to skip this step because their connection to the Finch API has already been proven, and because there’s a support team available to resolve issues that may arise on the payroll provider’s end. 

Since launching its Gusto integration, 401GO has also used Finch to integrate with Intuit Quickbooks — empowering automatic data collection and processing for 3x more customers. 

401GO still builds its own 1:1 integrations with payroll providers, but views Finch as a powerful tool in its arsenal as the company continues to grow and bring on customers with other payroll platforms. 

“It’s like retirement — you don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” Jared said. “Finch gives you options, and it allows you to go in different directions as needed.”

Addition Wealth is a financial wellness company that makes personalized financial expertise more inclusive and accessible. To do this, Addition partners with forward-thinking companies to support employees and individuals to work through personal finance decisions. 

As part of the offering, individuals get access to a digital platform that brings together information from their employer, including benefits information, alongside an individual’s own personal finance accounts to give a holistic overview of what is offered by their company and what an individual already has. In the platform, Addition Wealth also offers individuals a recommended set of actions, including courses on personal finance topics, digital tools, content, checklists, and webinars. Individuals also have the option to speak with fully vetted financial advisors by booking an online virtual meeting.

Because Addition Wealth tailors its offering based on the employer or client they are working with, they needed a way to efficiently manage select employee data—so they turned to Finch. Today, the company leverages Finch to integrate with several HRIS and payroll providers to enhance their customers’ experience by seamlessly bringing in relevant data into the platform.

Democratizing access to quality financial advice

Addition Wealth works with employers by delivering tailored programs that help decrease employee stress, drive higher candidate acceptance rates, and increase overall employee retention. With its personalized approach, Addition can help any employee understand their unique financial situations and navigate through tough decisions, whether they are buying their first home, paying down debt, or planning for retirement.

“Our mission is to enable people to make the most of their money and bring personalized financial expertise to the masses,” said Amy Chou, Chief Product Officer. “It's extremely hard, unless you're already wealthy, to get access to high-quality financial advice. We help the average person get high-quality answers to their financial questions so they can live a healthier financial life.”

As an employer-sponsored benefit, Addition Wealth’s financial wellness platform provides individuals with the tools, resources, and insights they need to be financially healthy based on their own personal circumstances. Each digital platform experience is tailored to the company and the benefits they offer, from equity to student loan assistance. 

“A lot of employees aren’t taking full advantage of their benefits. Employers want their employees to use the benefits they’re given, and to value them,” Amy explained. “When employees understand the true value of their benefits, they’re more likely to stay with the company and be happy in their role.”

Reliable, consistent, comprehensive data delivery

Addition Wealth needs access to specific data to provide tailored insights to employees receiving access to their platform– for example, employee directories and salary information. Traditional methods of accessing that data like manually sending files or leveraging SFTP connections work, but it means that Addition Wealth may not have access to the most up to date information.

Finch’s API integrations, on the other hand, provide daily or on-demand data syncs. That means that if an employee’s data changes—say, for example, they get a raise or change their retirement plan contribution—Addition Wealth is able to immediately reflect the updates on their dashboard.

“We love the idea of being able to get real-time feedback on these very important pieces of information, versus having to wait for the monthly update. That’s what motivated us to work with Finch,” Amy said. 

“We love the idea of being able to get real-time feedback on these very important pieces of information, versus having to wait for the monthly update. That’s what motivated us to work with Finch."

Saying goodbye to SFTP headaches and manual intervention

Addition Wealth works with companies of all sizes—from early-stage startups to enterprise businesses. Managing small file transfers is one thing, but sending enormous data sets typically requires an SFTP integration, which can be a cumbersome, complicated process that involves a lot of back-and-forth. 

“For some of our customers due to their size, it can be difficult to batch files. It may take a long time, so it’s just easier to plug into something that already exists,” Amy said. 

Even the smoothest SFTP integration process can present a big hurdle for large employers; but there’s also a lot that can go wrong along the way: failed sends, NIGO errors, and corrupted files, to name a few. 

Customers that onboard using a Finch integration can authorize Addition Wealth to access the data in their HRIS and payroll system through Finch Connect, which takes only a few minutes to complete. The connection is continuous, meaning Addition Wealth can simply pull the data they need, when they need it.

Simplified data mapping saves hours of manual work

To take things a step further, Finch saves Addition Wealth time by standardizing all of the data through a unified API. 

Regardless of the HRIS or payroll provider that the employer uses, data pulled through Finch is always in the same format. In other words, data is mapped across different providers’ various field names to a single, consistent field name.

“Because Finch’s API standardizes the data, it’s a pretty easy 1:1 mapping versus needing to figure out what each client calls the same field, where some may call it ‘Salary’ and another ‘Salary Field 1,’” Amy explained. “That’s something we’d otherwise need to write into the code for each client, but we don’t have those issues with Finch because it’s all the same field—it’s just called ‘Salary.’”

Finch and Addition Wealth: Growing together

Amy noted that HRIS and payroll integrations provide value before a customer has even signed on with Addition Wealth. 

“Finch is a benefit in the sales process,” she said. “When prospective customers ask if we can integrate with their HRIS, Finch enables us to very easily say yes. People like having that option.”

“Finch is a benefit in the sales process. When prospective customers ask if we can integrate with their HRIS, Finch enables us to very easily say yes."

As both Addition Wealth and Finch continue to grow and expand their product offerings, Amy said she looks forward to leveraging even deeper real-time insights for employees.

“We’re pretty excited, as Finch continues to expand its capabilities, to bring in more nuanced information about employee benefits and estimate their collective value for the individual employee,” she said. “Integrations make things easier for end users—the more integrations, the better. It's just about finding the integrations that work best for the use case.”