November 2023 Summaries

Finch is revolutionizing the benefits and retirement industries by offering a unified API solution that automates payroll deductions and contributions, addressing the significant inefficiencies in these sectors. Launched in 2020, Finch facilitates seamless read and write access to HR and payroll systems, enabling applications to manage employee details and deductions in a standardized format, which is crucial for benefits platforms to integrate smoothly into existing HR tech stacks. This automation reduces the tedious manual processes traditionally associated with managing benefits, especially for small businesses that lack the resources to handle complex administrative tasks. Finch's technology helps platforms like Thatch and TempoPay provide personalized, scalable benefits while maintaining compliance with evolving industry requirements, such as those introduced by Secure Act 2.0 and state-mandated retirement plans. By expanding its coverage of popular payroll systems and forming strategic industry partnerships, Finch aims to enhance its offerings and support employers and employees in achieving their financial, mental, and physical goals, positioning itself as a pivotal player in the ongoing transformation of payroll integration in the employment ecosystem.

TempoPay is a financial benefits platform developed to help employees overcome financial obstacles to accessing healthcare, founded in 2021 by Tim Danison, Erika Davison-Aviles, and Joshua Goldstein. The platform allows employees to manage out-of-pocket healthcare expenses not covered by traditional benefits through a mobile app that provides immediate access to funds via a TempoPay card, with repayments made through payroll deductions. TempoPay sought a seamless integration with payroll systems, leading to a partnership with Finch, whose unified API facilitated real-time payroll deductions, enhancing user experience and adoption rates. The collaboration proved highly effective, enabling TempoPay to swiftly implement deductions and expand its offerings to include pet care and comprehensive financial wellness solutions. Employees benefit from the flexibility of repayment options and zero interest fees, while employers enjoy reduced productivity losses due to health-related absences. TempoPay's solution is available year-round and tailored to meet each company's unique needs, setting new standards in financial wellness and healthcare access.

Finch has introduced real-time webhooks for customers on its scale plan, allowing for efficient monitoring of connections and sync jobs while providing notifications when data changes occur. The webhooks are categorized into three types: account update events, job completion events, and data change events, which help users maintain up-to-date applications with the freshest employment data. Account update events provide information about connection statuses, job completion events notify the end state of data syncs, and data change events alert users to modifications in data. Finch webhooks are designed for easy setup, secure operation, and scalability, ensuring consistent performance regardless of the number of employer connections managed. These webhooks eliminate the need for repeated data requests and are verified by Finch for authenticity, allowing developers to build seamless and secure applications efficiently. Existing Finch customers can explore the webhooks through available documentation, and new users can sign up for free to access these features.

Thatch is a health benefits platform founded in 2021 by Chris Ellis and Adam Stevenson to help startups provide personalized healthcare to employees quickly and efficiently. The company faced challenges with integrating payroll systems to manage health benefits, which led them to partner with Finch, a unified employment API that streamlined the process of reading and writing employee data across over 200 HRIS and payroll systems. This collaboration allowed Thatch to save $800,000 in payroll costs, launch their product 10 months earlier than planned, and achieve a tenfold increase in revenue without the need for additional engineering staff. By offering a seamless user experience and the ability to provide employees with flexible healthcare budgets, Thatch enables small businesses to offer competitive health benefits akin to larger companies. The partnership with Finch also allowed them to offer unexpected value-added services, such as notifying employers when employees need to be offboarded from benefits. Chris Ellis emphasizes that payroll integration should not be a core competency for startups and likens Finch's role to that of Stripe for payments and Plaid for bank accounts.