SFTP Integration Guide

Contact your Audit1 administrator or navigate to Settings → Connections → SFTP to request SFTP access. You'll receive:

• Host — the SFTP server address
• Port — typically 22
• Username — your dedicated SFTP username
• SSH Key or Password — authentication credentials

Using your preferred SFTP client, connect with the credentials from step 1:

# CLI example
sftp -i ~/.ssh/audit1_key [email protected]

# Or with password
sftp [email protected]

Once connected, you'll see your home directory with a pre-created folder structure for file uploads.

Your SFTP home directory is organized by your payroll company name. Drop files directly into your root folder:

/your-company-name/
  payroll-report-2026-03-15.csv
  payroll-report-2026-03-29.csv

The platform automatically identifies files based on your folder and matches employers by FEIN, company name, or historical patterns.

While the platform can process files with any name, descriptive naming helps with tracking and troubleshooting:

# Recommended format
{employer_name}_{pay_date}_{policy_number}.csv

# Examples
acme-corp_2026-03-15_WC2026001.csv
smith-mfg_2026-03-29_WC2026042.csv

Avoid special characters beyond hyphens and underscores. The platform ignores the filename for processing — identification comes from the file contents (FEIN, employee data patterns).

The platform accepts:

• CSV (.csv) — comma, tab, or pipe delimited (recommended)
• Excel (.xlsx, .xls) — first sheet is used by default
• Fixed-width (.txt) — auto-detected column boundaries

The Column Cognitive Recognition engine automatically maps your column headers to the platform's 4,400+ recognized header variations. You don't need to rename or restructure your columns.

Most payroll companies automate SFTP delivery using:

• Cron jobs (Linux/Mac) — schedule a script to run after each payroll cycle
• Task Scheduler (Windows) — same concept, Windows-native
• Payroll software exports — many payroll systems have built-in SFTP export features

# Example cron job — upload every other Friday at 6pm
0 18 * * 5 /usr/bin/sftp -b /path/to/batch.txt [email protected]

The platform processes files within minutes of upload. There's no need to notify anyone — the system detects new files automatically.

After uploading, files appear in your portal under Roster Files. Each file shows:

• Status — pending, normalized, validated, completed
• Row count — total employees in the file
• GREEN/RED split — how many rows passed validation
• Premium — calculated premium once Phase 3 completes