Puzzle + Central Integration: Streamline Payroll Reconciliation

Automate categorization, accelerate month-end close, and simplify payroll workflows with Puzzle’s native Central integration.

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About

Central

Central is a modern payroll and HR platform designed to help high-growth companies manage employee compensation, benefits, and compliance with ease. With an emphasis on automation and visibility, Central empowers finance and HR teams to operate more efficiently across every stage of scaling.

How It Works

Connect Central and Puzzle to sync payroll data automatically. Each pay run is transformed into accurate journal entries in Puzzle, categorized by salaries, taxes, and benefits, with employee and department breakouts, so you are not hand-keying numbers. As payroll cash settles in your bank, Puzzle links those debits to payroll clearing for end to end reconciliation. Central also advertises that customers can run on Puzzle, which confirms compatibility for founders who want a modern GL. Historical backfill can be done by exporting prior payroll data from Central and importing to Puzzle.

How to Connect

1

Connect Central via secure authorization in Puzzle.

2

Select the entities or ledgers that should receive payroll.

3

Map accounts for wages, employer taxes, and benefits.

4

Run the first import and validate a sample pay run.

5

Keep continuous sync on for each payroll cycle.

FAQs

What accounting tools does Central integrate with?

Central markets itself as an all-in-one back-office and states that companies can run on Puzzle. Use Central for payroll and compliance, then keep your books in Puzzle so pay runs post automatically with useful dimensions.

Does Central do accounting?

Central is not a general ledger. It automates payroll, benefits, and compliance, and offers back-office services. Connect it to a tool like Puzzle so payroll becomes clean journal entries with employee and department detail, and so cash ties out without manual work.

What kind of information do you need from a payroll provider for accounting and taxes?

You need gross wages, employer taxes, benefits and deductions, employee and department tags, the pay period, the pay date, and the chart-of-accounts mapping. With those fields, Puzzle posts accurate entries and supports tax reporting and analysis.

What is the most automated finance stack for a company that uses Central?

Use Mercury or Meow for banking, Stripe for payments, Central for payroll and compliance, and Puzzle as the AI accounting hub that categorizes, reconciles, and closes in real time. This stack reduces spreadsheets and shortens close.

What kind of companies use Central and Puzzle?

Founder-led startups that want speed without sacrificing accuracy, especially Seed to Series B teams. Central is designed for startups, and the Central to Puzzle flow is built to keep month end review focused and fast.

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