During the employee contribution submission process, you may encounter data validation errors that alert you that something is wrong with the employee data.
Employee Roster Validation Errors are presented to you on the contribution grid after uploading contributions or while you manually enter contributions. These validations look for illogical or incomplete employee data.
In this article, we’ll address common errors and tips on fixing them.
After your contribution information is loaded into the contributions grid, the system evaluates that data based on a number of rules:
- Group 1: SSN issues (i.e. missing, duplicate, bad format, invalid)
- Group 2: Missing name fields
- Group 3: Unrecognized employee (i.e. an employee who is not identified as already in the system)
We automatically run validations on your employee data, one group at a time. For example, we evaluate all Social Security Numbers. Any validation errors are presented with fields that are highlighted in red. Once you correct all SSN-related errors, then the data is evaluated for any missing names.
Note: The number of errors is summarized at the top right of the screen. As you correct errors, the error count will go down.
Missing, Duplicate, or Invalid SSN Field
The system will alert you for any contributions associated with a person with a missing, duplicate, or invalid social security number. You must have a valid SSN on each contribution entry.
Missing Name Field
The "Missing Name Field" error will pinpoint cells that are missing an employee's first or last name.
Unrecognized Employee
If you include an employee that matches one already set up in MERIT, you will be alerted that you have an "Unrecognized Employee."
Resolving Validation Errors
- Exclude the Row - This will delete this employee from the contribution altogether. If you take this action and have already deducted money from your employee’s paycheck, be sure to return those funds to your employee. Take this action if an individual was included that will not be participating in MERIT or if you don’t have enough information about the employee available to add them at that time.
- Add Employee - If you select this option, you will be presented with a series of screens that allow you to add the employee. If you choose to add the employee, you will need to have all the required information to complete the process. Note: New employees are not eligible to contribute to MERIT until after 30 days from the date you enter them into the system.
Continue to work through all errors on the screen until the error count is “0” and the Send & Validate button is active and blue.
When all issues are resolved, click the Send & Validate button to continue, where each contribution is validated against a set of program rules.
If all is well with your contributions, you will be redirected to the “Review Submission” Screen. Otherwise, if one or more of your contributions triggers a validation error, then you will be directed to the “Unallowed Contributions” page with an explanation of each error that was triggered for each employee.
See our article "Contribution Validation Errors and Unallowed Contributions" for more information about unallowed contributions.