Migrate from Paychex to BambooHR

Paychex Workers (the primary employee object containing name, address, employment status, and hire date) map directly to BambooHR Employee records via email or employee ID as the dedupe key. We extract Workers through the Paychex Flex API and map employment_status, hire_date, termination_date, and address fields to BambooHR's corresponding Employee sections. Any Worker record with a termination_date in the past is flagged as inactive in BambooHR rather than deleted.

Paychex Compensation records (pay rate, frequency, salary history, and rate type: hourly, salaried, or commission) map to BambooHR's pay rate fields on the Employee record. If the customer subscribes to BambooHR Payroll, compensation maps directly; if not, pay rate data is stored as reference information on the Employee record and the payroll run remains in BambooHR post-migration. We preserve rate type and effective dates as metadata so the customer's first BambooHR payroll run reflects the correct compensation.

Paychex PTO accrual policies and current per-worker balances map to BambooHR's Time Off module. Accrual rate, accrual frequency (per pay period, monthly, annual), and carryover rules from Paychex transfer as BambooHR Time Off policies. Current balance (available, pending, and used) migrates as the opening balance in BambooHR so employees retain their accrued time at cutover. We flag any negative balances for the customer to resolve before migration.

Paychex health, dental, vision, and voluntary benefit enrollment records with effective dates map to BambooHR's Benefits section. Paychex structures enrollments by benefit type and carrier; we map carrier name, plan name, coverage level (employee, employee-plus-spouse, family), and effective date. Active enrollments at the time of migration transfer as current BambooHR benefit records. Historical enrollments are documented in a supplemental report for audit purposes.

Paychex federal and state W-4 equivalents (federal filing status, allowances, additional withholding amounts, and state tax elections) are extracted as a structured reference document rather than live configuration. BambooHR's tax filing module (when payroll is enabled) handles withholding setup independently. We deliver a Tax Elections Summary covering each employee's current federal and state elections as a PDF and CSV so the customer's HR team can enter elections in BambooHR during the first payroll setup. This prevents withholding errors in the first BambooHR payroll run.

Historical payroll registers (gross pay, deductions, net pay, and employer tax contributions per pay period) are extracted as a structured data file rather than loaded as operational records. BambooHR does not maintain a historical payroll register object; employees see pay stubs through BambooHR Payroll but historical Paychex registers are delivered as an archived report set for the customer to retain. We recommend the customer export the full register history from Paychex before the migration date to ensure no historical payroll data is lost.

401(k) enrollment status, contribution percentage, employer match configuration, and historical contribution totals from Paychex are delivered as a retirement data handoff document. Paychex partners with specific custodians, and BambooHR does not have a native 401(k) administration module. We extract enrollment records and contribution history and deliver them to the customer so the new 401(k) custodian or administrator can reconcile balances and continuation contributions. The customer's HR team initiates the custodian-to-custodian transfer separately from the migration.

WC class codes, rate configurations, and coverage policies are stored at the company level in Paychex and linked to Workers. We extract the policy details and the per-worker class code assignments as a reference document. BambooHR does not have a native Workers' Compensation module; the data is delivered as a structured CSV so the customer's new workers' comp carrier or broker can set up coverage under the new provider. Any active claims require separate carrier notification.

Paychex Custom Fields are defined at the company level and assigned per Worker, requiring two API calls: one to enumerate field definitions (label, type, options) and one to pull values per Worker. We extract all field definitions first to understand the schema, then map each field to a corresponding BambooHR custom field. Text, number, date, and dropdown types map directly. Multi-select and checkbox fields require transformation to BambooHR's supported custom field types. We flag any Paychex custom fields with no natural BambooHR equivalent for the customer to decide on during scoping.

Paychex company departments and org hierarchy extract via the API as a flat list with parent-child relationships. These map to BambooHR Locations (for office or work-site) and Departments (for org unit grouping). The parent-child hierarchy becomes a Department structure in BambooHR that drives the org chart view. We preserve department names and supervisor assignments so BambooHR's reporting and approval routing reflects the original org structure.