Account Connections

How users connect payroll accounts through Link.

Search#

Search is the default user experience in Link.

Step 1Step 2Step 3Step 4

The user searches from a general list of potential incomes sources. This includes employers, government entities, and payroll services.

Common customizations

• Excluding specific Items or Item categories (employers, gig platforms, payroll providers, or government benefits).
• Limiting search to Items that support deposit switching.

List#

As an alternative to search, Link also supports custom lists:

1. Create a custom list using Link Flows in Console.

2. Apply this customization to your URL invite template, or by adding the following line to embedded Link initializations:

   1flowId: "<ID of the customization>"
   

Alternative:

1. Add an array of Item ID's directly within your Link initialization:

   1items: ["<ID of Item 1>", "<ID of Item 2>", "..."]
   

Direct login#

Directly connect users to a specific Item in Link, bypassing search entirely.

• The direct login method has the highest percentage of users that successfully connect a payroll account.
• Recommended whenever the user's employer or payroll provider is already known.

New connections#

1. Create a customized Link Flow in Console with deep-linking enabled.
2. Apply the customization to your URL invite template, or via the flowId initialization parameter.

Alternative:

1. Add an items array to your Link initialization with only one Item.

   1items: ["<ID of Item 1>"]
   

Existing connections#

• If you originally invited the user through Console's URL invites feature, follow the steps in our URL invites guide for reconnecting existing users.

• If you are embedding Link, use the optional accountId initialization parameter and pass in the ID of the account.

  1accountId: "<ID of the account>"
  

Employer search bar#

If you are embedding Link, you can add a simple employer search bar to your website or application that contains all the Items in Link. After the user makes their selection, they can be sent directly to that Item's login screen in Link.

• Demo our Employer Search sample application to see a live version of this example.
• Copy the entire sample application or its pre-built search feature (Github) (documentation) to speedily implement the direct login method this way.

Completing MFA#

Most payroll systems require multi-factor authentication (MFA) when a user logs in or takes action such as updating their direct deposit settings.

User experience#

The MFA process can be completed directly within Link.

Link is also designed to be persistent, meaning users can exit Link to retrieve their authentication information, and return to Link seamlessly without their session or the MFA process being interrupted.

Embedded Link troubleshooting#

If a user delays completing the MFA process for too long, they may encounter the expired_user_token Link error. Users tokens allow users to exit and return to Link without interruption, but to ensure security, user tokens expire after one hour.

To re-activate Link for the user, create a new user token and either:

• Re-initialize Link with the new user token.
• Pass the user token to the onTokenExpired callback.

Customizations#

For more information on customizing the connection process in Link, visit our Flows Guide.