Investment Allocation Testing
Confirm each fund's contribution matches the participant's election within a 1% tolerance and trace fund-level amounts from the payroll journal to the participant statement and trust.
Confirms each fund's contribution matches the participant's election within a 1% tolerance and traces fund-level amounts from the payroll journal to the participant statement and trust.
Purpose
To verify the accuracy, completeness, and proper allocation of employee contributions across elected investment funds and to confirm that amounts withheld from employee compensation are timely deposited and properly recorded in both participant accounts and the plan's trust.
Procedures
- Verify that the contribution amount withheld per the payroll register aligns with the participant's investment election form in effect, within a 1% tolerance threshold, supporting the accuracy of contribution amounts processed in accordance with authorized elections.
- Trace the total dollar amount of contributions from the Payroll Register to the participant statement to confirm that 100% of the funds withheld were deposited into the participant's account, supporting occurrence and completeness of remittance.
- Trace fund-level contribution amounts per the Payroll Register to the participant statement to confirm that contributions were allocated to the correct investment funds in accordance with the participant's elections.
- Vouch the investment elections recorded in the plan's records to the participant's signed election form on file, supporting the classification and accuracy of investment allocations and confirming that recorded elections are properly authorized.
- Trace employee contributions per the Payroll Journal to the Trust Statement to confirm that amounts withheld at the employer level were properly remitted to and received by the plan's trustee.
- Trace fund-level contribution amounts from the Payroll Journal to the Trust Statement to confirm that contributions were deposited into the correct investment funds at the trust level, supporting completeness and proper allocation of plan assets.
How this workflow is structured
This procedure is selection-driven. The fund name and allocation percentage are entered per row rather than read from an Engagement Variable. Enter one row per fund per participant; a participant invested in four funds needs four rows with the same employee name and pay date and a different fund name and allocation percentage on each.
Engagement Variables
None. This procedure is selection-driven; the elected allocation percentages are entered per row under Your selections.
Your selections
| Selection | What to enter | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Employee Name | Full name as it appears on the payroll journal, participant statement, and trust statement. | Drives matching across all four documents. Used to scope every extraction to the correct participant. |
| Fund Name | The exact fund name or identifier as it appears on the investment election form and payroll journal (for example, Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund). | Agentive uses this to locate the correct fund row in each document for fund-level contribution extraction and comparison. Partial names or abbreviations may cause matching failures. |
| Allocation % | The participant's elected allocation percentage for this fund, formatted as a decimal. Enter 0.05 for 5%, 0.25 for 25%, 1.00 for 100%. | The fund contribution percentage calculated from the payroll journal is compared to this value within a 1% tolerance. Entering 5 instead of 0.05 will cause the tolerance test to fail for every participant. |
| Pay Date Selected | The pay date for the payroll run being tested. Use the check or direct deposit date. | Scopes all payroll journal, participant statement, and trust statement extractions to the correct pay period. |
One row per fund per participant. The sample requires a separate row for each fund a participant is invested in. The workpaper tests fund-level allocations independently, so all funds in the participant's elected portfolio should be represented.
Documents to provide
| Document | What to provide | Key data extracted |
|---|---|---|
| Investment Allocation Form | The participant's signed investment election form in effect as of the pay date being tested. Not the most recent form if elections changed during the year. | Authorized fund names and allocation percentages; effective date of the election. Used to confirm that elections recorded in the payroll system are properly authorized. |
| Payroll Journal | The payroll journal or contribution detail report for the selected pay date, showing fund-level contribution breakdowns by participant. | Pay date confirmation; total contribution for the participant; contribution amount allocated to each fund; calculated fund allocation percentage. The 1% tolerance test and all fund-level traces originate here. |
| Participant Statement | The participant's account statement from the recordkeeper covering the selected pay date. Must show both total contributions and fund-level deposit detail. | Total contribution received into the participant's account; contribution amount credited to each fund. Confirms that what the payroll journal shows as withheld was received and properly allocated at the account level. |
| Trust Statement | The plan-level trust statement or custodian report showing contributions received by the trustee for the selected pay date, with fund-level detail. | Remittance date; total contributions received for the participant; fund-level contribution amounts received at the trust. Confirms remittance from employer to trustee and fund-level allocation at the trust level. |
Don't have these exact documents?
Use Co-Audit to change which documents this request asks for, and to adjust the procedures and calculations that read them, so the workflow matches what your client actually provides.
Testing attributes
| Test | What Agentive confirms |
|---|---|
| Verify contribution aligns with election form within 1% tolerance (#Accuracy) | Calculates the actual fund allocation percentage from the payroll journal (fund contribution ÷ total contribution) and compares it to the elected allocation percentage in the selection. A difference within 1% passes; a difference exceeding 1% is flagged for review. Rounding in payroll systems commonly produces small variances that fall within tolerance. |
| Trace total contributions: Payroll Register to participant statement (#Occurrence) | Confirms the total contribution amount per the payroll journal matches the total received in the participant's account per the participant statement. A match supports that 100% of withheld funds reached the account. |
| Trace fund-level contributions: Payroll Register to participant statement | Compares the fund-specific contribution amount per the payroll journal to the fund-specific amount credited in the participant statement. Confirms contributions were routed to the correct fund, not just received in the correct total amount. |
| Vouch elections on records to signed election form (#Classification #Accuracy) | Agrees the fund name and allocation percentage in the payroll journal to the participant's signed election form. Confirms that the elections being processed are backed by an authorized, signed instruction from the participant. |
| Trace employee contributions: Payroll Journal to Trust Statement | Confirms that the total contribution amount per the payroll journal matches the total received by the trustee per the trust statement. Bridges the employer-side record to the plan-side record, confirming remittance was completed. |
| Trace fund-level contributions: Payroll Journal to Trust Statement | Compares fund-specific contribution amounts per the payroll journal to fund-specific amounts received at the trust level. Confirms that contributions were not only remitted but allocated to the correct investment funds within the trust. |
Update with Co-Audit
Real client data rarely matches a template exactly. When fund names differ across documents, the statements you receive lack fund-level detail, or your firm's tolerance differs from what this template assumes, use Co-Audit to retool the request. Describe what is different and it rewrites the document groups, AI Prompt Columns, and calculations to fit.
Situations where Co-Audit helps with Investment Allocation Testing:
- Fund names differ across the election form, payroll journal, and participant statement (for example,
Vanguard Inst Indexvs.Vanguard Institutional 500 Index Trust), so the traces fail to match. Have Co-Audit add a fund-name reconciliation column that maps the names to one another before the trace runs. - Your firm tests against a tolerance other than 1%. Have Co-Audit change the allocation tolerance to your firm's threshold so the pass/fail flag reflects your methodology rather than the default.
- The participant statement is quarterly and shows ending balances by fund rather than per-pay-period contribution detail. Have Co-Audit point the trace at the recordkeeper's transaction confirmation or contribution detail report, which breaks the deposit out by fund for the specific pay date.
- The custodian provides a separate trade confirmation report instead of a single trust statement with fund-level detail. Have Co-Audit add that report as its own document group and read the fund-level trust amounts from it.
Describe the difference in the Co-Audit panel
For example: "fund names differ across documents; add a fund-name reconciliation column that maps election-form names to the names used on the participant statement before the trace runs."
Let Co-Audit update the workflow
It revises the document groups, AI Prompt Columns, and calculations.
Review every change
Watch the columns for red text (a broken reference) and re-check any cell that involves math, where the AI tends to copy a number forward instead of recalculating.
For broader detail on tailoring requests and fixing broken column links, see Tailor a request with Co-Audit in the EBP hub. Remittance ties from this procedure pair naturally with Remittance Testing.
Continue your journey
← Remittance Testing
Tie contributions to the trust before testing allocations.
Investment Earnings & Valuation Testing →
Calculate plan- and participant-level return on average balance per fund.
How is this guide?
Remittance Testing
Agree pre-tax, Roth, and employer-match contributions from the trust statement to the payroll register and test remittance timeliness against the plan's standard.
Investment Earnings & Valuation Testing
Calculate plan-level and participant-level returns on average balance per fund and compare them to surface misallocations, calculation errors, or unauthorized transactions.