What's covered in this guide?
About the 401go partnership
401go is the 401(k) retirement provider Workforce partners with for small and mid-sized businesses. They run a bundled 401(k) service that covers plan setup, recordkeeping, compliance, investment management, and participant education, with a focus on quick onboarding and a modern self-service experience for both employers and employees.
If you offer your employees a 401(k) through 401go, you don't have to maintain a separate connection or upload contribution files yourself. Once the partnership is set up on your account, payroll data needed to fund the plan transfers from Workforce to 401go automatically each pay run.
What 401go offers
401go is a full-service 401(k) provider, so the plan itself lives with them rather than inside Workforce. Through 401go, your business gets:
Plan setup and administration — designing the plan (Traditional, Roth, Safe Harbor, Solo 401(k), and similar), eligibility tracking, and ongoing administration.
Recordkeeping and compliance — annual filings, nondiscrimination testing, and IRS limit tracking handled on 401go's side.
Investment management — the lineup employees can invest their contributions in.
Employee experience — a portal and mobile app where employees enroll, choose their deferral rate (pre-tax or Roth), pick investments, and view their balance.
Employer-side activities like changing the plan design, adjusting employer match formulas, or running compliance reports happen in 401go's portal, not in Workforce.
How data flows between Workforce and 401go
The integration is designed so you can run payroll the way you normally would and leave the 401(k) piece to handle itself. After each pay run, the contribution data 401go needs — employee deferrals, employer match, and the wage and hours figures behind them — is sent through automatically.
In practice, that means:
When an employee enrolls or changes their deferral in the 401go portal, that election flows back so the right amount is withheld from their next paycheck.
When you run payroll, the 401(k) deduction shows up on the employee's pay stub like any other pre-tax or Roth deduction, and the employer match (if your plan has one) is calculated and recorded against the pay run.
After the pay run posts, contribution amounts move to 401go so they can be invested in each employee's account.
You don't need to download a contribution file from Workforce, log in to 401go to upload it, or reconcile totals between the two systems by hand.
State retirement mandates
Several states require employers to offer a retirement plan or enroll employees in a state-run program (CalSavers in California, Illinois Secure Choice, and similar). Offering a qualifying private plan such as a 401go 401(k) generally satisfies the mandate, so you can request an exemption from the state program.
Registering the exemption itself is something you do directly with the state agency. Once you're enrolled in 401go, you have the qualifying plan you need to claim it.
Getting started
To set up the 401go partnership for your business:
Sign up for a plan with 401go and complete their onboarding so the plan is in place.
Contact support@workforce.com to let us know you're using 401go. We'll connect your payroll account to 401go so contribution data starts flowing automatically.
Invite your employees to enroll in 401go. Once they elect a deferral rate, it'll be reflected on their next pay stub.
Tip: Day-to-day questions about deferral rates, investment choices, vesting, loans, and IRS contribution limits are best answered by 401go directly — they hold the plan and the participant records. Workforce's role is making sure each pay run's contributions reach 401go on time.