Bulk Enroll or Edit Benefits for Multiple Employees

The article outlines the bulk enrollment tool for managing employee benefits in Benefits Administration and Benefits Tracking. It details the process of enrolling or editing multiple employees simultaneously, including selecting employees, setting enrollment details, and updating existing enrollments. The guide includes a table of contents with links to video resources, steps for enrolling employees, and instructions for editing enrollments. Users are advised to create benefit plans before enrolling employees and to resolve any issues indicated in the Plans tab. The article also emphasizes the importance of accurate data for reporting and record-keeping. Additional sections cover scheduling enrollments for new hires and managing coverage options effectively.

Jul 8, 2026
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You can enroll or edit benefit enrollments for multiple employees at the same time using the bulk enrollment tool in Benefits Administration or Benefits Tracking. This guide walks you through selecting employes, setting enrollment details, and updating existing enrollments efficiently.

Table of Contents

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Enroll employees
Edit enrollments

The bulk enrollment process explained in this help guide apply to both Benefits Administration and Benefits Tracking.

Do you prefer hands-on learning? Our interactive guides will guide you through different aspects of your BambooHR experience. We have an interactive guide specifically designed to show you how to handle open enrollment. You can use the link below to access this guide. All you need to do is modify the "REPLACEME" with your BambooHR subdomain, and you can get started!

https://REPLACEME.bamboohr.com/home?pendo=clEEzmVrmMtWc9icK5zTP6HqF0Y&step=jRQquFIQGHOhzigive80MCs4bqA

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Enroll employees

We recommend creating all of your benefit plans (Benefits Tracking) / benefit plans (Benefits Administration) before you start enrolling employees because this feature only works if you do so. If you have multiple benefit plans under a benefit plan type, the system will automatically waive any employees enrolled in one plan from the other plans.

To access the bulk enrollment tool, navigate to Settings > Benefits > Plans. If you have not enrolled employees in a benefit plan, click Enroll someone. If you already have employees enrolled, click on the status listed in the Status column (e.g., # Enrolled, # Not Enrolled/Waived).

Additional messages on the Plans tab will appear if a plan is not assigned to a plan year or is missing additional details. Resolve these issues before using the bulk enrollment feature to ensure your benefits data is accurate for reporting and record-keeping.

After clicking on a status for a specific benefit plan, click Enroll Employees in the top right corner.

Step 1: Select Employees

Clicking Enroll Employees starts a three-step process, beginning with Select Employees. From the Available Employees list, choose which employees you need to enroll in the benefit plan and move them over to the Selected Employees list. After you have selected your employees, click Next Step.

You can filter the list of available employees by clicking on the dropdown arrow. Filters make it easy for you to find the employees who need to enroll in the benefit plan.

Benefits Administration view

When you select the bulk enrollment option, plan details, including carrier name, effective date, and attached plan years will appear below the plan name.

Step 2: Enrollment Details

Next, select when the benefit plan should go into effect for the selected employees. If you need to specify an effective date for each employee, you can do so in the next step. (See below about additional enrollment details for variable rate plans.) After you complete enrollment details, click Next Step.

Benefits Administration view

The Benefit Administration view will show "Default Details" instead of "Enrollment Details." This step is where you can enter a benefit effective date and deduction amounts in both Employee Pays and Company Pays fields (depending on plan type).

Additionally, you will be able to add approved coverage amounts (employee and dependent) when enrolling employees in the following benefit plan types:

Basic Life
Voluntary Life
Voluntary AD&D
Voluntary Life and AD&D
Supplemental Health

Benefit effective date: Error messages will appear to prevent the benefit effective date being set outside of the plan and plan year effective dates.

Variable rate plans

When using the bulk enrollment tool for a variable rate plan (e.g., 401k retirement plan), another section will appear under the Benefit Effective Date field. In the Default Benefits Details section, you can choose to enter a dollar or percentage amount in the Employee Pays and Company Pays fields. This provides you with a quicker and easier way to fill in enrollment data for employees enrolling in the benefit plan.

Step 3: Enrollment Information

The Enrollment Information step allows you to change the effective date for individual employees (if needed). The Who's Covered? column will reflect the coverage options* you have added to the benefit plan. Determine each employee's coverage level. If you add a comment about the enrollment, it will show up in the Benefit History table on the employee's Benefits tab.

Once you verify your employees' enrollments, click Save and Finish.

Benefits Administration view

Coverage options in Benefits Administration differs from the coverage options available in Benefits Tracking. The Who's Covered? dropdown menu will show a list of dependents for each employee (if applicable), and as you select dependents, the system will infer the coverage level (e.g., Employee, Employee + Spouse, etc.). Click here to learn more about supported coverage options in Benefits Administration.

In Benefits Administration, this step will show the following enrollment settings.

Status: Enrollment status
Effective Date: Enrollment effective date
Who's Covered?: Coverage level
- If you choose to remove the employee's coverage, you will receive a warning message alerting you that any information added for the employee within the bulk enrollment feature will also be removed.
Employee Pays and Company Pays: Deduction amounts; only applies to specific plan types
Employee Approved Coverage and [Dependent] Approved Coverage: Approved coverage amounts; only applies to specific plan types
- Basic Life
- Voluntary Life
- Voluntary AD&D
- Voluntary Life and AD&D
- Supplemental Health
Comment
EOI Status: When enrolling an employee in a voluntary life plan that has EOI settings for life insurance coverage, the EOI Status field is initially "No EOI Required." You can edit this field to another status (Pending, Not Required, Withdrawn, or Complete) if needed. If you set the status to "Pending," the EOI Pending tag will appear for that enrollment in the employee profile and bulk enrollment, but not on the Elections tab. For future-dated enrollments, the EOI Pending tag and any pending coverage amounts do not appear. They only display when the enrollment is active and the EOI status is set to Pending.

A banner at the top of the page will remind you to use the correct features when managing new hire and qualifying life event enrollments.

Scheduling enrollments for new hires

You can choose to schedule enrollments for new hires who have not yet started with your company. Make sure the effective date is on or after the new hire's hire date, and ensure that they have an active pay schedule assigned (found in their Compensation table).

Edit enrollments

To edit enrollments under a specific benefit plan, click on the plan's status in Settings > Benefits > Plans. Note the enrollment status tabs: Enrolled, Waived, and Eligible. You can choose any tab to view the employees in each status.

Enrolled

The Enrolled tab will show all employees currently enrolled in the benefit plan.

To edit enrollment details for specific employees at one time, mark the checkbox next to the employee(s).
If you want to edit all employees' enrollments, mark this checkbox, and the system will automatically select all employees.
After making your selections, click Edit Selected.

On the Edit Enrollment screen, you can then edit the enrollment details for each selected employee.

Benefits Administration view

The following fields are editable for each employee on the Edit Enrollments page:

Status: Enrollment status
Effective Date: Enrollment effective date
Who's Covered?: Coverage level
- If you choose to remove the employee's coverage, you will receive a warning message alerting you that any information added for the employee within the bulk enrollment feature will also be removed.
Employee Pays and Company Pays: Deduction amounts; only applies to specific plan types
Employee Approved Coverage and [Dependent] Approved Coverage: Approved coverage amounts; only applies to specific plan types
- Basic Life
- Voluntary Life
- Voluntary AD&D
- Voluntary Life and AD&D
- Supplemental Health
Comment
EOI Status: If you update an EOI status from Pending to another status for a voluntary life plan, the EOI Pending tag will no longer show in the employee profile and bulk enrollment, but it will still show on the Elections tab of Settings. To remove it from the Elections tab, edit the EOI status from the admin approval page and save the change.

Coverage errors in Benefits Admin

If an employee enrolls in a benefit plan with multiple coverage levels but does not have dependents selected, an error message will show.

If you are on the Enrolled tab, hover your cursor over the coverage level to view additional information and then select the checkbox next to the employee's name and click Edit Selected.

On the Edit Enrollment page, you can update the employee's coverage level within their Who's Covered field.

If you move from Benefits Tracking to Benefits Administration, the system will take note of any discrepancies in coverage options, as indicated by "Unsupported Coverage." Select the employees you need to edit coverage options for and then click Edit Selected. On the Edit Enrollment screen, update the coverage level in the Who's Covered column.

Variable rate plans

When editing enrollments under a variable rate plan, you can edit pay amounts on the Edit Enrollment screen.

Waived

The Waived tab shows you who has waived the benefit plan and when. To make changes, mark the box next to the employee(s). After making your selections, you can choose from one of the following options:

Enroll: Clicking Enroll will bring up a new modal where you can fill out enrollment information for the employee(s) to enroll them in the benefit plan.
Edit Status: Clicking Edit Status will bring up a new modal where you can update the employee's Enrolled status to something other than Enrolled (Eligible, Not Eligible, Terminated, or Withdrew).

Eligible

The Eligible tab shows you which employees are eligible for the benefit plan and when they are eligible. To make changes, mark the box next to the employee(s). After making your selections, you can choose from one of the following options:

Enroll: Clicking Enroll will bring up a new modal where you can fill out enrollment information for the employee(s) to enroll them in the benefit plan.
Waive: Clicking Waive will waive the benefit plan for the employee(s).

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