Ubiquity Saves 80 Hours per Week with Finch-Powered Automation

More than 25 years ago, Ubiquity set out to transform the retirement industry by offering something that wasn’t available anywhere else on the market: a 401(k) with flat, transparent pricing. The model was an instant success. In the years since, Ubiquity has powered retirement plans for hundreds of thousands of employees with a steadfast commitment to empowering small businesses.

As a full-service provider, Ubiquity is responsible for investing funds and maintaining compliance across thousands of plans. To keep up with ever-changing regulations and scale the business, Ubiquity needed a reliable, efficient, automated way of accessing sponsors’ payroll data. 

By leveraging Finch’s payroll integrations, Ubiquity has saved 80 hours per week on manual payroll processing. Beyond streamlining manual operations for these providers, they’ve also reduced sponsor onboarding time from weeks to minutes. 

"Payroll integration is almost mandatory for plans with 3(16) fiduciary services, which need frequent monitoring and reconciliation. For a lot of clients that's a challenge, and that’s where we can offer the support of technology to keep things running smoothly,” said Brian Britt, Payroll Processing Manager at Ubiquity.‍‍

‘Automation is required’

Ubiquity has a long history of being ahead of the technology curve. The company was founded in 1999 as the first to offer 401(k) plans entirely online and launched its own internal recordkeeping software in 2016. When APIs started gaining traction in the retirement industry, Ubiquity recognized they’d be key to maintaining a competitive edge. Today, the company uses Finch to integrate with six payroll providers, powering automated access to data from 350+ sponsors. 

“If you don't integrate with a sponsor’s payroll provider, they won't even consider you as their retirement recordkeeper,” Brian said. “It’s much easier for a client to change recordkeepers than it is to change their payroll provider.”

"If you don't integrate with a sponsor’s payroll provider, they won't even consider you as their retirement recordkeeper."

With these integrations, Ubiquity has been able to automate a lot of the work that used to take employees hours to complete. 

“Automation is required in the current marketplace because with provisions like auto-enrollment, timing is everything. It’s key for a lot of our clients because they don’t have to worry about potential compliance risks,” Brian explained.

With Finch’s 360° integrations, Ubiquity can automatically enroll participants as they become eligible, increase their contributions annually according to SECURE Act 2.0 requirements, and even write the new deduction amounts back to the sponsor’s payroll system from their own software. 

Greater control over sponsor pay data

Ubiquity also took control over its access to sponsor data. Unlike SFTP integrations that leave plan administrators at the mercy of the payroll provider, API integrations provide full visibility into the data exchange. 

“With SFTP connections, you're entirely reliant on the files that the payroll provider is sending you. If something’s wrong in the mapping at the payroll provider, or with the SFTP credentials, or a server timeout, it’s not something we can troubleshoot on our end,” Brian said. “But with Finch’s API, we have full transparency into the integration. It allows us to keep ourselves in the driver’s seat when it comes to the client experience.”

“With Finch’s API, we have full transparency into the integration. It allows us to keep ourselves in the driver’s seat when it comes to the client experience.”

That control goes a long way in building and maintaining trust with sponsors — something that is foundational to Ubiquity’s success, both a recordkeeper and a 3(16) fiduciary. 

“If you're behind on technology, that's a slippery slope. We wanted to get ourselves to a point that we could offer integration to just about anybody that wanted it. We felt confident that Finch’s extensive list of integrations would meet the needs of both our current and prospective clients,” Brian said.

Hours saved with automated integrations

Before they had automated integrations, Ubiquity’s payroll team was spending hours manually entering data and scrubbing files — a process that quickly became unsustainable.

“It grew so fast we just couldn’t keep up,” Brian explained. “With Finch’s field mapping, we don’t have to rely on clarifying field names and formatting with the payroll provider. We can be sure all the data points are going where they need to go. That's a big win for us.”

Brian estimates that Finch’s integrations have saved Ubiquity the workload of two full-time employees — half of which he attributes to integrating with Gusto alone. That’s allowed them to focus on creating a better client experience and improving internal processes so they’re more strategic. 

“Moving away from manual data entry has given us space to see where else we can improve. We’re not just automating the process for our clients — we’re also giving them better support throughout their retirement planning experience.

Delivering a modern sponsor experience

API integrations haven’t only made a difference for Ubiquity’s internal team — sponsors have reaped the benefits, too. Brian noted that onboarding time has been substantially reduced.

Rather than spending 2-4 weeks muddling through a complex SFTP setup process, sponsors can simply sign into their payroll system through Finch Connect and send data in minutes.

“It really streamlines the setup for them and creates a modern technology experience in an industry where historically, that hasn't always been the case,” Brian said. “It reassures them that we’re taking care of things on the back end, and they don’t have to follow up.”

“It really streamlines the setup for [sponsors] and creates a modern technology experience in an industry where historically, that hasn't always been the case.”

For clients that have experienced traditional SFTP onboarding in the past, the simplicity of Finch Connect has been a welcome surprise. Those setting up a plan for the first time simply view it as the status quo — which, for a company that prides itself on delivering straightforward plan administration and an easy-to-use platform, is a major win.

Scaling for the future

Ubiquity has always been a company of forward-thinkers, so it’s no surprise that they’ve embraced API integrations and the innovative user experiences they offer. Looking ahead, Brian sees APIs playing an even bigger role in the retirement sector. 

“Finch will allow us to stay competitive and keep up with the demand of our clients by giving us the capability to connect with multiple different providers, but to also stay current and involved within the API marketplace. That’s going to be more and more crucial within our industry.”