Stop Losing 401(k) Deals Because You Can't Integrate
PayKonnect gives independent payroll companies and service bureaus pre-built, maintained connections to 80+ retirement recordkeepers — so your team stops babysitting file transfers and starts winning competitive deals.
The Integration Challenges You're Facing
Clients keep asking 'can you integrate with our 401(k) provider?' — and you have to say no
Manual contribution file exports break every time a recordkeeper updates their format spec
SECURE 2.0 Roth catch-up and super catch-up fields require data fields you don't currently emit
Competing payroll companies use 401(k) integration as a differentiator in sales pitches
Your operations team spends hours each pay cycle babysitting file transfers and fixing encoding errors
How PayKonnect Solves This
180° integration delivers census and contribution data to recordkeepers in their required format automatically each pay cycle
360° integration handles return data — deferral elections, loan changes — so your team never manually keys recordkeeper updates into payroll
Multi-format engine handles CSV, XML, fixed-width, and direct API — whatever the recordkeeper requires, without custom builds on your end
SECURE 2.0 fields fully supported as of January 2026: Roth catch-up designation, super catch-up flag, prior-year and YTD SSA wages
Managed service model — PayKonnect maintains connections as recordkeeper formats and IRS regulations change
Relevant Integration Types
The Competitive Reality for Independent Payroll Companies
Every quarter, another payroll company loses a prospect to a competitor who can say “yes” to 401(k) integration. Your operations team knows the real cost of that answer — not just the lost deal, but the manual hours, the format breakages, the payroll deadline stress. PayKonnect was built specifically for this problem.
Since 2014, PayKonnect has connected 100+ payroll companies to 80+ retirement recordkeepers. The IPPA membership base — independent payroll companies like yours — is our core customer. We understand the operational reality of running a payroll bureau: lean teams, tight deadlines, and clients who expect 401(k) integration to “just work.”
What Breaks Without a Proper Integration Layer
When payroll companies handle 401(k) data manually, three things go wrong:
Format drift — Recordkeepers update their inbound file specifications. Without a managed integration, your team doesn’t find out until the file fails. Fixing a bad contribution file after a payroll deadline is one of the most stressful problems in payroll operations.
SECURE 2.0 field gaps — The IRS’s September 2025 final Roth catch-up regulations require payroll data streams to include prior-year Social Security wages for participants age 50+, plus a super catch-up designation flag for those aged 60–63. Most pre-2026 payroll-to-recordkeeper integrations don’t include these fields. Missing them creates compliance liability for your employer clients.
Manual keying of return data — When a participant changes their deferral or takes a 401(k) loan, someone has to get that information into payroll. Without 360° integration, that someone is usually a person at the employer or TPA — and the lag and error rate is significant.
How PayKonnect Solves This for Payroll Bureaus
One connection to 80+ recordkeepers. Instead of building and maintaining a separate integration for each recordkeeper your clients use, you connect to PayKonnect once. PayKonnect maintains the connection to each recordkeeper on your behalf.
Managed service, not a DIY tool. When Ascensus updates their inbound format, when the IRS changes catch-up contribution rules, when a new recordkeeper needs to be added — PayKonnect handles it. Your operations team doesn’t track regulatory calendars or chase recordkeeper spec sheets.
360° return data means fewer manual steps. When a participant changes their deferral rate at the recordkeeper, PayKonnect routes that election update back to your payroll system — either via API write-back (where your payroll platform supports it) or via a structured notification that gives your operator exactly the fields they need to update. No more decoding raw recordkeeper emails.
SECURE 2.0 compliance is built in. PayKonnect added the required SECURE 2.0 data fields to its integration layer in December 2025, ahead of the January 1, 2026 effective date — evidenced by Empeon’s release notes for their PayKonnect 401(k) integration. Your employer clients won’t face contribution rejections or correction procedures from missing catch-up designation fields.
Integration Types Relevant to Payroll Bureaus
- 180° Integration — Automated one-way data delivery: census and contribution data to recordkeepers each pay cycle
- 360° Bidirectional Integration — Return elections and loan changes flow back to payroll without manual handling
- Multi-Format Data Transformation — Handles every format: CSV, XML, fixed-width, API, Excel, database
- SECURE 2.0 Compliance — Roth catch-up and super catch-up fields natively supported
PayKonnect in the Independent Payroll Ecosystem
PayKonnect is listed in the Gusto App Marketplace, Paycor Marketplace, and PrismHR Marketplace. It’s an IPPA vendor partner and a sponsor of the Payroll Vault ALTITUDE 2026 conference — embedded in the same ecosystem where your clients operate.
See which payroll systems and recordkeepers are supported to verify coverage for your specific client base.