How can we connect our payroll software to a chat widget for instant answers?

Chatref’s knowledge-base turns your PDFs, policy manuals, tax forms, and internal FAQs into a single source of truth. Upload once, and the AI retrieves only what’s in your content – no guessing, no internet search. That guarantees instant payroll answers grounded in your actual rules, not generic web responses. When your handbook changes, re-upload the document and the widget updates immediately.

Using ai-agents, you define how the assistant responds – in your company’s tone, with your exact policies. Employees can ask about pay schedules, deductions, time-off accrual, W‑2 access, or common errors and get a precise answer every time. The agent resolves repeat employee payroll questions automatically, letting your HR team focus on exceptions instead of FAQ tickets.

Drop the website-widget snippet on your intranet, HR portal, or self-service dashboard. In a few lines of code, a chat bubble appears that offers self-service payroll help 24/7. Employees get the exact next step – a link, a policy excerpt, or a form – without leaving the page they’re on. Connect payroll to chat once and give every team member instant, private access to payroll information.

Custom-actions let the widget pull data directly from your payroll system’s API. An employee can ask “What was my last net pay?” or “How many PTO hours do I have left?” – and the widget fetches a live, read-only answer from your backend. No sensitive data is stored; the action just reflects what’s in the system at that moment. You define the endpoint, Chatref handles the rest, making AI payroll support truly interactive.

What payroll software can connect to a chat widget?
Any payroll system with a public API – ADP, Gusto, Paychex, a custom in-house platform, or others – can be linked through custom actions. Even without live data, you can still connect your payroll documentation and give employees grounded answers from the knowledge base.

How do we keep payroll answers up to date?
When a policy changes, update the source document in Chatref. The AI always retrieves the latest version, so answers shift the moment you upload a new PDF or adjust a text snippet. No retraining is needed.

Can the chat widget pull data from our payroll system?
Yes. Custom actions call your payroll system’s API in real time to fetch payslip details, leave balances, or tax withholdings. The widget never stores that data – it only displays the reply inside the same secure chat session.

What happens if the payroll data changes?
Because custom actions call the API at the moment of the question, the employee sees the current value. If the API is temporarily unavailable, the AI falls back to your uploaded policy content so the employee still gets a useful, document-backed answer.

How do we train the AI on our payroll docs?
Upload your PDFs, paste URLs, or type plain text into the knowledge-base. Chatref automatically extracts and indexes the content. You can also give the agent a personality instruction – like “answer in a warm, professional tone” – so every response feels right for your team.

Will this work with multiple payroll systems?
Absolutely. You can create multiple custom actions pointing to different payroll platforms or set up separate AI agents trained on distinct document sets – all accessible from the same payroll help widget. The widget and your account scale with you, with no per-bot fees and only pay-as-you-go credit usage.