Batch

Batch Overview

Batch allows you to run multiple tax lookups at once. Batches can either be imported using a CSV template or manually created. Additionally, you can create custom download templates to export the relevant tax and location data returned from the lookups.

There are three key steps to completing a batch within Portal:

1. Format employee data : prepare your employee data for entry into Payroll Point by using the CSV upload template
2. Enter data into batch: upload your batch data to Payroll Point or manually enter the batch lines one-by-one
3. Download results: download tax, location, and wage rate details using a custom download template and the standard minimum wage rate export

Batch returns the following data to the client:

• Tax data : all potentially applicable federal, state, and local taxes are returned for each employee's home and work location
• Minimum wage data: all applicable minimum wage rates are returned for each employee's work location within your batch file
• Location data: Location data is returned for each of your employees, including Federal Information Processing System (FIPS) codes and PSD codes for applicable locations within Pennsylvania
• Invalid input data: view invalid data included in a batch upload file that needs to be corrected

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Data retention policy

Batch data is retained within the user interface for 30 days from the day the batch file was uploaded to Symmetry Payroll Point.

Create a CSV batch

Payroll Point uses a standard CVS batch template for processing batch data. Clients should use the batch import template when preparing data for upload.

1. From within the Batch tab, click on the “Import batch” button.
2. Download the sample batch template and populate the required fields. Each line should contain one home and work address pair. Clients can see review the descriptions for each column in the CSV upload template, along with the possible values within Symmetry's Client Support Center (requires login).
3. Upload the completed CSV file.

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CSV file size limit

The batch upload file size limit is 5MB. Payroll Point will return an error if the size is greater than 5MB.

4. Enter the batch name (required) and adjust the other settings as needed.
5. Click “Import” to upload your data to Payroll Point.
6. A success message will appear if all rows are successfully processed. At this point, the batch has successfully completed!

Create a manual batch

Instead of uploading employee data using a CSV file as described above, clients can manually create batch within Portal.

1. From within the Batch tab, click on the “New batch” button, enter a descriptive name for your batch (e.g., December 2022 Payroll) and click “Save.”
2. Click on the batch row (or click on the ellipsis icon and select “Edit batch” from the dropdown) to begin adding new lines of employee home and work address pairs to your batch.
3. From within the Edit Batch page, click “New line.”
4. Enter in the employee’s information, including their work and home address locations, and click “Save.”
5. Continue adding new lines to the batch by repeating steps 3 and 4 until you are finished.

Run a Batch

Once the batch data has been entered by either uploading a CSV file or manually entering the batch lines, clients can run the batch to receive tax, minimum wage, and location data.

1. Verify the global batch settings for your company are correct.
2. From within the Batch tab, click “RUN” in the row for the batch you wish to run.
3. Once successfully run, the batch status will display “Completed.” Select “TAX RESULTS” to see the tax results from the lookups in the batch file.

Create download template

Once you've successfully created and run a batch, clients can download tax, minimum wage, and location data to a CSV in addition to reviewing the results within Portal itself.

Prior to downloading batch tax results, a custom template must be created to export relevant tax data. Clients can view a description of all fields available within the download template within Symmetry's Client Support Center.

Create Custom Download Template

1. Navigate to the Batch tab and select “Templates.”
2. Click the “New template” button to open the template builder.
3. Enter the template name (required) and description (optional) and adjust the other settings as needed.
4. Customize the columns of data returned when exporting tax results. Clients can view all fields and their definitions within Symmetry's Client Support Center (requires login).

• Once you select the columns you wish to include, drag the columns to the desired order.

5. After adjusting the settings and columns, click “Save.” You are now ready to use the template to download batch tax results!

Download results

Download tax results

1. From the Batch tab, find the batch results you wish to download, click on the ellipsis, and select “Download tax results” from the dropdown.
2. Select the desired custom download template and click “Download.” Data will download to a comma-separated values (CSV) file.

Download minimum wage data

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Minimum wage add-on

Minimum wage data will only appear for clients who have licensed the Minimum Wage add-on for Symmetry Payroll Point. Please reach out to your Symmetry Account Executive if you’re interested in learning more about this feature.

1. From the Batch tab, find the batch results you wish to download and click on the "Min Wage" button.
2. Within the batch results screen, click on "Download."
   Adjust how you want the data to appear in the export using the settings provided in the dialog box and click

Download location data (including FIPS and PSD codes)

Clients can include location data within their custom download template. Additionally, Payroll Point has a standard location data report available for export. To export the standard report for a completed batch, follow the steps below.

1. From within the Batch tab, find the batch results you wish to download, click on the ellipsis, and select “Download location codes” from the dropdown.
2. Adjust the download settings in the dialog box and click "Download." Data will download to a comma-separated values (CSV) file.

Location data - imprecise locations

Clients can view inputted addresses that were not geocoded to the rooftop level (GS05 result code) by accessing the "address audit download" report. Below is the data that's included in the address audit download:

• Addresses that were not geocoded to the rooftop level (GS05 result code).
• Addresses with geocoordinates outside of the United States.
• Addresses that match an address exception for your company that has geocoordinates outside of the United States. Read more about address exceptions within Symmetry's Client Support Center.
• Addresses that were processed using a suggested address (SA01 or SA02 result codes), when the "use address suggestions" batch setting is enabled. Read more about suggested addresses within Symmetry's Client Support Center.

To download the address audit report, navigate to the batch record, click on the ellipses, and select "address audit download." The address audit report will download in a CSV format.

Download invalid input data

Clients can view invalid data included in a batch upload file. Invalid data is not processed by Payroll Point (for example if the pay date was incorrectly inputted into the batch upload file). To download all invalid items in a batch, click on the ellipses on the desired batch and select "download invalid items."

Alternatively, you can also download the invalid items report from the batch itself:

Processing Batch Errors

When running tax and wage rate lookups in Batch, you may encounter an error when the data is improperly formatted. See below for instructions on how to resolve import and lookup errors!

Import Errors

1. After importing the CSV batch file, navigate to the batch table results by clicking on the Batch tab.
2. Find the batch that contains import errors, indicated by the red “IMPORT ERROR” flag.
3. Click on the “IMPORT ERROR” button to display the import error messages.
4. Correct the errors in the following ways:
   1. If the batch has not been run:
      1. Delete the existing batch by clicking the ellipsis icon and selecting “Delete” from the dropdown.
      2. Correct the errors within the batch CSV file and reimport the file.
   2. If the batch has been run:
      1. Manually delete the existing lines with errors, add new corrected lines, and click “RUN.”

Tax Lookup Errors

1. After importing a CSV batch file, navigate to the batch table results by clicking on the Batch tab.
2. Find the batch you just ran that contains invalid data, indicated by the “Invalid” Batch Status, and click on the row to begin editing that batch.
3. Search for the line(s) that contain invalid data (where Status = “INVALID”) and click on the record in the table to display the error message.
4. On the line that contains invalid data, click the pencil icon to begin editing.
5. Correct the invalid data and click “Save changes.”
6. A dialogue box will appear informing you that the status of the line was updated to “TO_PROCESS” and remind you that you will need to reprocess this record. Click “Close” to close the dialogue box.
7. Reprocess the corrected line(s) by doing one of the following:
   1. Run each tax lookup in-line by selecting “RUN” on the individual record in the Edit Batch table.
   2. Run the tax lookups in bulk by navigating back to the Batch tab and clicking the “RUN” button. Lines that have already been successfully processed with the batch will not be run again.