Benefitter provides two options for entering employee information:
- Manual entry
- Upload via spreadsheet
Option 1: Manually enter employees
Enter employee data one person at a time by clicking on Start.

This will pull up the employee information window where you can enter information for the employee, including eligibility status, enrollment tiers, and any spouse or children.

You can add a spouse or child by clicking on the plus sign (+) under the employee name field. To remove a spouse or child, select the ⓧ on the right of their row.

Select the Show Additional Fields button in the upper-right to show address, social security number, and date-of-hire fields. Select that same button to hide those fields again.

Create the employee record by clicking on Add.

The confirmation page gives you the option to add additional employees or, if you have finished entering census data, to close the manual entry window and go to the employee overview page.
Option 2: Upload employees via spreadsheet
If the company has more than a few employees, it is often easier to use the census template spreadsheet than to enter their information manually into Benefitter. Download the census template by clicking on Download template.

Open the downloaded template and enter employee and dependent information.

Click on the Data Entry Guide tab in the template file for an example template and information about the census fields. The Employees (Census) user guide gives more detailed information on using the template file.
Save the file in CSV or Excel format. Upload the census file to Benefitter by clicking on Upload on the same page from which you downloaded the template.
Review processing results. If these results are correct, click on Continue. If they look incorrect, click on Cancel, resolve any errors in the file, and upload the corrected file.

Common sources of error are:
- Listing 2 spouses for 1 employee;
- Entering 9+ kids for 1 employee
- Listing an employee who is younger than 18;
- Invalid values for the eligibility and enrollment tier fields.
Add additional employees
After adding employees or uploading a census file, you will be navigated to the employee overview page. Click on the plus upload icon to add additional employees. Click on the download icon to download the online census data or download the expanded census.

For further information on Benefitter’s census functionality, please see the Employees (Census) user guide.