Turn the Empower Plan Service Center into an API

What you can build on the Plan Service Center

• Get pending contributions

  Build this

  Reads Pending contributions under Payroll: the contributions not yet completed and the completed ones you can still cancel.

  Takes

  Division (optional)

  Returns

  Reference number, division, payroll date, data processing date, expected total, cash effective date, actual total

• Get salary contribution changes

  Build this

  Reads Salary Contribution Changes under Payroll Changes on the To Do List: the reported deferral changes, filtered by the Updated box and a date range.

  Takes

  Updated (checked or unchecked), date range (optional)

  Returns

  First name, last name, employee ID, division number, division name

• Read PDI warnings from My Reports

  Build this

  Opens the PDI Warnings reports in Reports, My Reports for payroll files uploaded since a date and reads each warning row.

  Takes

  Uploaded since (optional)

  Returns

  File name, participant name, severity, message code, effective date, message description

• Mark salary contribution changes as updated

  Build this

  Checks the Updated box for the participants you name on Salary Contribution Changes and selects Submit to clear them from the To Do List.

  Takes

  Employee IDs

  Returns

  Employee ID, name, cleared

Automate the Plan Service Center with a workflow

A workflow runs your methods as one process, with nobody at the screen. A schedule or a call from your own system starts it, the steps run in order, and the result arrives in your inbox or in the systems you already use.

• Weekly deferral changes, sent to your payroll system

  Build this

  Starts

  Every Monday at 7:00

  Step 1

  Get the salary contribution changes still marked Unchecked.

  Step 2

  Keep the participants that were not on the list on the last run.

  Step 3

  Post each one, with employee ID, name and division, to your payroll system's webhook.

• Contributions still pending before market close

  Build this

  Starts

  Every weekday at 13:00 Eastern Time

  Step 1

  Get the pending contributions that have not been completed.

  Step 2

  Stop the run when there are none.

  Step 3

  Email you each one with reference number, division, payroll date and expected total.

• PDI warnings on the day's payroll files, sent to HR

  Build this

  Starts

  Every weekday at 18:00

  Step 1

  Read the PDI Warnings reports in My Reports for payroll files uploaded today.

  Step 2

  Keep the rows not seen on the last run.

  Step 3

  Post each row, with name, severity and message description, to your HR system's webhook.

You can run a workflow by hand on every plan, Free included. Schedules and webhook triggers come with the paid plans, from $29 a month.

Once built, one call from your code

Once you have built a method, it is one POST to /v1/runs from your backend, or a tool an AI agent calls over MCP. This is what “Get pending contributions” would look like.

curl https://api.fous.com/v1/runs \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FOUS_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "method": "plan.empower-retirement.com/get_pending_contributions",
    "input": {
      "division": "P 1 WKL Weekly"
    }
  }'

{
  "status": "completed",
  "data": {
    "plan": "Acme 401(k) Plan",
    "not_completed": [
      {
        "reference_number": "5094834461",
        "division": "P 1 WKL Weekly",
        "payroll_date": "2026-11-06",
        "data_processing_date": "2026-11-09",
        "expected_total": 18950.2
      }
    ],
    "completed": [
      {
        "reference_number": "5094812207",
        "division": "P 1 WKL Weekly",
        "payroll_date": "2026-10-30",
        "data_processing_date": "2026-11-02",
        "cash_effective_date": "2026-11-03",
        "actual_total": 18420.55
      }
    ],
    "count": 2
  }
}

An example with invented data, not a ready-made endpoint. The method exists in your organization once you build it, and its name, inputs and fields follow your request.

The Plan Service Center’s own options

Empower's APIs page lists a DC payroll bundle of census, deferrals and loans, plus balance, contribution and eligibility APIs; the developer portal's public catalog shows a Balance API. You register, request access to each API, and Empower reviews the request before sending keys. Otherwise payroll goes in through the Plan Service Center as a file or keyed entry.

Read on November 12, 2026: Empower APIs, Empower developer portal: getting started, Plan Service Center payroll processing guide (a plan's Empower guide).

Signing in to the Plan Service Center

The Plan Service Center signs you in with a user ID and password; a new user gets a temporary password by email, sets a new one at the first sign-in and verifies security authentication when prompted. Access is tied to your profile and division. With Fous you sign in once through the Plan Service Center's own sign-in with your own account: the login is sealed with AES-256, and an expired session is signed back in.

Worth knowing

An upload is not a finished payroll

A contribution file waits under Pending contributions after data validation, which can take several minutes. Someone still completes Remit Info, Remit Details and Confirmation before Empower creates the ACH debit.

Market close sets the effective date

Cash approved before market close, 4 p.m. Eastern, gets that day's Cash Effective Date; the bank is debited the next business day. A completed contribution can be cancelled until 11:00 p.m. MST the day before its Cash Effective Date.

Reports go to the uploader's My Reports

The Validation Rejections, Cash Turnaround and PDI reports land in My Reports for the user who uploaded the file, and are archived there for 30 days. A PDI report is generated only when the file had errors.

The To Do List keeps asking

To Do List emails continue until every action item is cleared. Once a participant is checked as Updated and submitted, they leave the list for every user.

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