Finch

Today's employment landscape is fragmented and complex. However, the future promises greater connectivity and integration among top players in HR tech, benefits, and fintech. The Finch team is thrilled to announce the launch of our inaugural Open Employment Ecosystem Market Map. This map features 225 companies across 15 categories and offers a comprehensive view of the open employment ecosystem. "Companies today use many applications to manage their workforce, leaving critical employee data scattered across systems of record and point solutions. While companies continue to choose best-of-breed tools for their specific needs, the lack of connectivity between these systems is a huge challenge—especially to and from payroll systems," said Alex Tran, Manager Director at General Catalyst.  "The vision of an Open Employment Ecosystem where data flows seamlessly is the primary reason we backed the Finch team, and we’re thrilled to see the first version of their market map feature other General Catalyst portfolio companies such as Awardco, Factorial, Gusto and Thatch." Whether you’re an employment application, payroll provider, investor, or just curious, check out our detailed map here: https://lnkd.in/e6RyTyUm  #HRtech #HR

This week, the Finch GTM team gathered in San Francisco for a 3-day offsite focused on collaboration, brainstorming, and alignment. Our marketing, sales, and CS teams came together to drive growth, refine strategies, and ensure we're all moving in sync to better serve our customers and partners. And of course table tennis! 🏓

The "build vs. buy" dilemma is a constant challenge in software development, especially when integrating with multiple systems. Building integrations in-house can be time-consuming, costly, and increasingly complex as you scale. Unified API platforms like Finch offer a compelling alternative. We handle the complexities of integration, allowing you to seamlessly connect with a wide range of systems without the burden of building and maintaining each one individually. This translates to: ✔️ Growth: Expand your market reach by easily supporting diverse customer systems. ✔️ Cost savings: Eliminate the engineering time and expenses associated with custom integrations. ✔️ Focus: Prioritize your core product and innovation efforts. There’s a saying in tech: “Do the thing that makes your beer taste better.” For most companies, that’s not building complex integrations—but it is for Finch. Get in touch with us so you can focus on your core recipe for success.

5 challenges of building and maintaining payroll integrations 1️⃣ 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 The format and quality of data often vary significantly between payroll providers, so applications building a custom 1:1 payroll integration need to ensure the data is standardized to match their internal field names and formatting. Otherwise, the Operations team would need to manually map each data field, costing precious time and making it more difficult to build automated workflows. Establishing data standards can help standardize the quality, accuracy, and consistency of data from a wide range of sources. 2️⃣ 𝗚𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗔𝗣𝗜𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 Payroll platforms don’t often have public APIs, which means partnerships with providers are required to access API keys, documentation, and other essential information. Getting these agreements approved can take a significant amount of time, on top of the additional burden of security checks and fees. This can be challenging to overcome for start-ups looking to integrate their products with the broader market. 3️⃣ 𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝟭:𝟭 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 The cost of building just one custom integration can quickly run into six figures—our research shows that just one in-house integration typically costs upwards of $187,000. In the highly fragmented payroll market, where the top three providers only account for about 45% of employers, applications need to build dozens or even hundreds of in-house integrations to support all of their customers. This approach is rarely cost-effective. 4️⃣ 𝗢𝗻𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 Building 1:1 integrations is one thing—maintaining them is another. Even after they're built, these integrations need ongoing maintenance—including updates as and when required—which can be costly and resource-intensive. 5️⃣ 𝗟𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 Scaling in-house payroll integrations is expensive and requires significant time from software development teams. From accessing the API and developer documentation for each payroll provider to creating custom code and untangling data intricacies, it’s a massive amount of work. Multiply that by the number of integrations required—and it’s an untenable option. ================================ 💡𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗵 Offer your customers integrations to hundreds of HRIS and payroll systems all through a single integration with Finch’s Unified Employment API. #HR #HRTech #payroll

Unified APIs are quickly growing in adoption across all industries. These tools fall into one of two primary categories: horizontal and vertical.  While horizontal or generalized platforms offer broad data access across multiple verticals, verticalized APIs delve deeper into specific industries or system types, unlocking unique insights and enabling specialized workflows. Finch falls squarely in the latter category, specializing in the employment data ecosystem. This vast landscape covers everything from applicant tracking to equity management, but we recognize that payroll and HR data is the beating heart of it all. This data is not only crucial for compliance and tax purposes but also serves as the foundation for all HR and finance operations. Its unique blend of personal, employment, and financial information offers granular insights that are otherwise inaccessible. By focusing on this niche, Finch empowers companies to leverage payroll and HR data as a strategic asset, not just a data source. We provide deep integration capabilities, granular data access, and a thorough understanding of the unique workflows and challenges within the employment ecosystem. Our verticalized approach allows us to deliver tailored solutions that meet the specific needs of businesses operating in this complex landscape, from 401(k) providers to the providers of employee engagement tools. We're not just connecting data; we're unlocking the full potential of employment data to drive informed decision-making and empower businesses to thrive.

The 401(k) plan, launched in 1978, quickly became a hallmark benefit for large corporations to draw in top talent. Yet, its high setup and maintenance costs have historically put it out of reach for many small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). Fast forward to today, and while over 90% of companies with 500+ employees offer a 401(k), only 12% of businesses with fewer than 100 employees do the same. Change is on the horizon, though. Thanks to recent legislative updates like SECURE 1.0 and 2.0, new initiatives such as Pooled Employer Plans (PEPs) and start-up tax credits are making 401(k) plans more accessible for SMBs. This shift is encouraging more SMB employers to step into the retirement market, creating opportunities and challenges for retirement service providers such as recordkeepers, TPAs, and plan advisors. The rise in SMB sponsors brings a demand for more personalized retirement solutions and places a greater administrative load on recordkeepers. We delve into the challenges faced by retirement service providers in accommodating first-time SMB sponsors and discuss how recordkeepers can effectively manage this growing clientele with innovative, automated solutions.

At Finch, we recognized a common pain point among software vendors: the manual effort required to access employer data from HRIS and payroll systems that don’t have an accessible API. These companies had teams of 20-30 employees who were manually downloading data from these systems of record, standardizing its format, and uploading the information to their own software systems. To address this, we built an in-house team of payroll experts who leverage scripts to pull the relevant data from employers’ HRIS and payroll systems, standardize that data, and make it available via the Finch API. We refer to these assisted integrations as Finch Assist. Finch Assist relieved our customers of a significant cost center, allowing them to focus on their core products and user experiences. Our end-to-end solution combines automated API connectivity with expert-led assisted integrations for edge cases and systems lacking APIs. This ensures seamless data access, regardless of the underlying system, and eliminates inconsistencies associated with direct integrations built between point solutions and the providers. Finch's assisted integrations are a key part of our commitment to providing a comprehensive, efficient solution for payroll and HR connectivity.

The best user onboarding is forgettable: it is so easy that it takes almost no time or effort. Manual onboarding and ongoing updates cannot meet customer expectations, so companies need to rely on integrations. Efficient and automated user onboarding builds trust and serves as a prelude to your ongoing partnership. Whether your customers are SMBs or large companies, automated onboarding provides a better customer experience. Here are five benefits.

I love the All-In Podcast. Catching up on E193, and David O. Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya are spot-on. The US has a big problem with employment data. A data mishap (reported on August 21st) at the Bureau of Labor Statistics—the third this year and the largest downward revision to job creation in 15 years—is just the latest example. These reports carry major implications for our economic policies, but the systems in place to collect and distribute this information are plagued with outdated technology, which leads to bad data. Chamath asked why we as a country haven’t made it a priority to fix this problem. The answer is actually pretty simple: it’s hard. Finch is already working with US Chamber of Commerce to solve this problem. The sector lacks a unified standard, and Finch is emerging as the solution to fill that gap. Ansel and I learned this first-hand when we started Finch. The employment sector as a whole hasn’t moved forward technologically the way other industries have. It’s still reliant on outdated or manual methods of moving data, in large part because the industry is so heavily regulated that the players in it are reluctant to take on the risks associated with implementing new tech. A lot of the systems that act as employers’ database of record don’t have APIs, so it’s difficult if not impossible to integrate systems. And that means that it’s really difficult to share that data, whether it’s with your company’s retirement provider or with the BLS. Right now, Finch is focused on building the infrastructure that will make industries like retirement, employee benefits, HR tech, and fintech more efficient. But in the future, we see our technology dramatically improving the way federal, state, and local governments collect employment data so we can trust that the data is reliable, accurate, and timely. Meanwhile, we'll just have to wait for the upcoming Fed meeting and hope to see the long-awaited interest rate decrease. https://lnkd.in/emm7xumK

Sponsor onboarding is a critical moment for 401(k) recordkeepers, setting the tone for the entire client relationship. Unfortunately, many onboarding processes are bogged down by paperwork, complex data requirements, and disjointed workflows. Traditional file-based methods like SFTP only add to the complexity. Unified APIs are emerging as a key solution for streamlining onboarding, reducing administrative burdens, and improving sponsor retention. We explore how recordkeepers can leverage these tools to enhance the sponsor experience from day one.