Workzoom Implementation Guide | Kickoff, Data Prep & Go-Live

The journey

What happens, and when.

Once contracts are signed and initial payment is processed, implementation kicks off. Meet once a week or multiple times, depending on how focused you want to be. Most clients are live within weeks, not months.

Prepare your data

Before Day 1

Use the data reference below to prep your employee data. Export what you can from your current system. Names, hire dates, contact info, pay rates. The more you bring on Day 1, the faster you're live.

You prepare, Coach reviews

Kickoff meeting

Day 1

Meet your Coach and Liaison. Walk through Workzoom together and set priorities. What modules matter most? What's the timeline? You decide, we plan.

Coach + Liaison + your team

Build your foundation

First sessions

Personnel data, org structure, compensation. These three pieces are the backbone everything else builds on. Your Coach leads the project, configuring backend policies and adjusting pre-built workflows. Your Liaison supports specific module topics alongside.

Coach configures, you validate

Learn and validate

Ongoing

Once the foundation is set, your Coach leads complex modules: Time Off, Payroll, Benefits, and Scheduling. Your Liaison configures Recruiting, Onboarding, and Performance. You learn each one in your sandbox and verify it aligns with how your team works day to day.

Coach teaches, you verify

Go live and beyond

You're ready

Flip the switch. Your team starts using Workzoom day to day. Your Coach stays with you through the first pay cycle and beyond, building on the training you received throughout implementation.

You run it, Coach supports

Your Workzoom team

Who you'll work with.

You set the pace, choose your priorities, and handle scheduling. We bring the product knowledge and implementation expertise. The goal is progressive wins on the areas that matter most to you.

Your Coach

Alignment plus complex modules

Keeps leadership aligned on progress and priorities
Runs fitting sessions for complex modules: Time Off, Timekeeping, Benefits, Pay Processing, Pay Structure, Payroll Filings, Expenses, and Scheduling
Loads your data and builds your org structure
Brings strong product knowledge and works with you to find the best fit

Your Liaison

Guided setup for simpler modules

Configures Recruiting, Onboarding, and Performance
Works from your questionnaire responses
Handles module walkthroughs and training
Gets simpler modules live while Coach tackles the complex ones

You bring

Meeting scheduling, invites, recordings, and cadence
Your employee data (names, dates, contacts, pay)
Your business rules, priorities, and what matters most
Time to explore and validate in your sandbox

Workzoom handles

Extensive product knowledge and implementation expertise
Migrating and loading your data into Workzoom
Fitting policies, workflows, and reports to your business
Progressive wins on your priorities, training, and ongoing support

Consistent group rules get automated. One-off exceptions get one-off support.

Your two environments

Sandbox and Production.

You get two separate Workzoom environments from Day 1. Think of Sandbox as your workshop and Production as the real thing.

Sandbox

Your workshop

This is where all the setup happens. Your Coach and Liaison build configurations here first so nothing touches your live data until you're ready.

Data imports, org structure, and policy configuration
Try things out, explore modules, test workflows
Preview new releases and features before they go live

Safe to experiment with configurations and workflows. Your employee data is copied to production when you go live. After that point, changes made in sandbox do not carry over to production.

Production

The real thing

This is where your employees and managers log in every day. You work entirely in Sandbox until a module is ready, then it gets transitioned to Production for go-live.

Real employee data, real payroll, real workflows
Where employees submit time off, clock in, update info
Where managers approve requests and run reports
Modules go live here only after they've been validated in Sandbox

Before you start

Format your dates like this.

YYYY-MM-DDYear-Month-Day

MM-DD-YYYYMonth-Day-Year

DD-MM-YYYYDay-Month-Year

Pick one format and use it consistently across all your data. Slashes (/) or dashes (-) both work.

Data prep

Before you export, read this.

Your spreadsheet should be simple: one header row at the top, then one row per employee. That's it. Here's what trips people up.

Common mistakes that break imports

Blank rows between departments
Department names as row separators
Multiple header rows or totals
Merged cells
Formulas in Excel cells (use plain values only)

	A	B	C	D
1	First Name	Last Name	Department	Start Date
2	-- Sales Department -- (not a person)
3	Jane	Smith	Sales	2023-01-15
4	Tom	Lee	Sales	2024-03-01
5	(empty row)
6	-- Marketing -- (not a person)
7	Sara	Chen	Marketing	2022-06-20

What your spreadsheet should look like

Each of these becomes a column header in row 1. Then one employee per row, no gaps. Required columns are highlighted. Everything else is optional and can be added later.

First Name Last Name Start Date Date of Birth Department Job Title Work Site Email Phone Pay Rate / Salary NIS / NIB / SIN Number Address

	A	B	C	D	E	F
1	First Name	Last Name	Start Date	Department	Job Title	Date of Birth
2	Jane	Smith	2023-01-15	Sales	Account Manager	1990-04-22
3	Tom	Lee	2024-03-01	Sales	Sales Rep	1988-11-03
4	Sara	Chen	2022-06-20	Marketing	Coordinator	1995-07-14
5	Mike	Patel	2021-11-10	IT	Systems Admin	1992-02-28
6	Alex	Brown	2023-08-12	IT	Developer	1997-09-05
7	Kim	Wilson	2024-01-08	Operations	Shift Lead	1993-12-17

Personnel data

What to include in your spreadsheet.

Select your country

Export from your current system as a CSV or Excel file. One row per employee, one column per field. Your Coach will review and load it for you. Don't have every field? That's fine. Start with what you have. Departments, work sites, jobs, and worker classes auto-create from whatever values you include.

Field	Format	Status
Identity
First Name	Text, up to 50 chars	Required
Last Name	Text, up to 50 chars	Required
Latest Hire/Start Date	Date	Required
Middle Name	Text, up to 50 chars	Optional
Alternate Name	Text, up to 50 chars	Optional
Name employee is also known as (e.g. John for Jonathan)
Salutation	MR, MRS, MS, DR, PROF, etc.	Optional
Suffix	JR, SR, I, II, III, IV	Optional
Contact
Address Line 1	Text	For Payroll & Benefits
Address Line 2	Text	Optional
City/County	Text	For Payroll & Benefits
Province	2-letter code (ON, BC, AB...)	For Payroll & Benefits
Postal Code	A1A 1A1	For Payroll & Benefits
Country Code	3-digit (CAN, USA, etc.)	Optional
Only needed if employees reside in multiple countries. Otherwise your business country code is used by default.
Business Email	Email	For Payroll & Notifications
Personal Email	Email	For Payroll & Notifications
Work Phone	(xxx) xxx-xxxx	Optional
Home Phone	(xxx) xxx-xxxx	Optional
Mobile Phone	(xxx) xxx-xxxx	Optional
Extension	Numeric	Optional
Demographics
Date of Birth	Date	For Payroll & Benefits
Gender	M (Male), F (Female), D (Undisclosed)	For Benefits
Marital Status	S, M, C, O, V, P, D, R, W, U	For Benefits
S = Single, M = Married, C = Common-Law, O = Other, V = Civil Union, P = Separated, D = Divorced, R = Remarried, W = Widowed, U = Unknown
Smoker Status	Y (Yes), N (No), D (Do Not Know)	For Benefits
Language	Text	Optional
Disabled?	Y (Yes), N (No), D (Do Not Know)	Optional
Identification
Employee ID	Numeric	Optional
Auto-generated by Workzoom. Speak to your Coach for alternatives.
External Employee #	Alphanumeric	Optional
Benefit cert number or existing payroll ID
Social Insurance Number (SIN)	xxx-xxx-xxx	For Payroll

Bahamian clients: Workzoom validates date of birth against NIB records before payroll runs. Including DOB in your spreadsheet helps catch mismatches early.

Organization
Department Title	Text	Optional
Departments auto-create from the values you provide here. No need to set them up separately.
Department Code	Alphanumeric	Optional
Work Site Title	Text	Optional
Work sites auto-create from the values you provide here. No need to set them up separately.
Work Site Code	Alphanumeric	Optional
Worker Class Title	Text (e.g. Full-Time, Part-Time)	Optional
Worker classes auto-create from the values you provide here. No need to set them up separately.
Worker Class Code	Alphanumeric	Optional
Employment
Employment Status	Active / Inactive / Terminated	Optional (defaults to Active)
Original Hire/Start Date	Date	Optional
May differ from Latest Hire/Start Date for employees who have worked for your organization multiple times.
Seniority Date	Date	Optional
Use if seniority date differs from hire date, such as for previously recognized service.
Job Title	Text	Optional
Auto-creates from information provided. New values are added to the Job Title list automatically.
Job/Position Code	Alphanumeric	Optional
Manager Name	Text	Optional
Manager Person Code	Alphanumeric	Optional
Hours/Day	Numeric	Optional
Hours/Week	Numeric	Optional
FTE	Numeric	Optional
Full-Time Equivalent (FTE). 1.0 = full time, 0.5 = half time
Termination
Term/End Date	Date	Required for terminated
For mid-year payroll conversions, include all terminated employees who received payroll or benefits during the current tax year.
Term/End Reason	Quit Other, Dismissed Other, Other, Work Ended Contract/Season, Illness/Injury, Quit Take Another Job	Optional for terminated
Return Status	ER, NE, NR, WN, WR, RE, RN, PR, RH	Optional
ER = Expected Return, NE = Not Expected, NR = No Return, WN = Will Not Return, WR = Will Return, RE = Returned, RN = Return Not Confirmed, PR = Pending Return, RH = Rehired

Compensation fields

Required for Payroll subscribers.

Field	Format	Status
Compensation Type	Hourly, Salary, etc.	For Payroll & Benefits
Compensation Rate	Numeric ($/hr or $/yr)	For Payroll & Benefits
Use $1.00 if unknown
Pay Scale Step	Alphanumeric	Optional
Seniority Level	Alphanumeric	Optional

Additional imports

Additional imports by module.

Imported through the organization once your key personnel data is in. Your Coach handles these with you. Every import is auditable: Workzoom generates lists you can review before going live, covering personnel, work assignments, worker classes, jobs, work sites, departments, and managers.

Banking DetailsPayroll

Benefit EnrolmentsBenefits

DependantsBenefits

Leave BalancesWorkforce

Working HoursWorkforce

Before your first call, it helps to know what platform you currently use (or if you don't use one at all) and the format of your personnel data. There are additional imports beyond these, and your Coach will walk through everything relevant to your setup.

Before you ask.

The questions every new client asks in the first week, answered up front.

What if my data is messy or incomplete?

Start with what you have. Your Coach reviews everything before loading it, catches formatting issues, and fills gaps with you. Nobody's data is perfect on day one.

Can we go live on some modules before others?

Yes, absolutely. Once your foundation data is in, modules open up independently. Most clients start using simpler modules (surveys, safety, learning) within the first week.

Do we need IT involved?

Usually not. Workzoom is cloud-based, so there's nothing to install. If you need SSO or API integrations, your Coach will coordinate with IT when the time comes.

How long does implementation take?

You set the pace. Meet once a week and you're live in 6-8 weeks. Meet multiple times a week and it's faster. Some clients run their first payroll within 3 weeks.

What happens after go-live?

Your Coach stays through the first pay cycle, then you move to ongoing support. Questions, changes, new modules. Same team, same responsiveness, no extra cost.

Can I export from my old system directly into Workzoom?

Export as CSV or Excel from whatever you're using now. Doesn't matter how the columns are named. Your Coach maps them to the right fields. The table above shows what Workzoom expects, but your export doesn't need to match it exactly.