How to Manage Your HSA Payroll and Contribution Methods
When you're setting up your group's HSA plan, you'll need to determine the best way process HSA contributions from payroll. There are three different options to choose from, and you can decide which is the most convenient for your organization. You may also need to make additional contributions through the Group Portal. We provide instructions here on how to do that as well.
Group Portal
This method provides Further with a bank account that we set up for your group. Once you log into the portal, send us an electronic file of contribution amounts for your employees, and an ACH pull from the bank account will occur within 1-2 business days from confirmation. Benefits include:
- You can upload a file with your contribution information to make updates, enter it manually, or you can reuse previous contributions
- You can set up contributions to take place one time or make them recurring
- You can schedule a contribution up to 30 days into the future or 180 days in the past. If you choose to make this a recurring contribution, the date you choose will be shown as the first date of the contribution.
To add contributions through the Group Portal:
- Log in to the group portal
- Click Add Contribution
- Choose whether you want to add them manually (Add Contributions), copy a previously used contribution (Reuse Contributions), or if you want to upload a file (Upload Contributions)
- Whichever method you choose, follow the instructions on the portal screen to complete the new contributions
ACH Direct Deposit
The direct deposit method is recommended if your HSA contributions are initiated by an external payroll provider. The external provider must be able to connect directly into the account holder’s account.
To access the employee’s banking information necessary to initiate a direct deposit into the employee’s HSA:
- Log into the Group Portal
- In the Reports column, click HSA Account Number
- You can download the report into an Excel file by clicking the Excel button above the report
Secure File Transfer (SFT)
SFT is recommended when an external vendor is managing the data transfer or for groups with over 100 participants. Most groups who select this method choose it due to specific company requirements or if sending a wire and/or other ACH payments other than an ACH pull.
To use SFT:
- Fill out the SFT Agreement Form needed to set up vendor access to our SFTS
- Further will provide payroll file specifications and group-specific details to create the file
- Further will provide a set of login credentials for the SFT service upon setup of additional secure access. These credentials are different than the credentials to access the group portal.