- DATE:
- AUTHOR:
- The Fountain team
Automation Restart for I-9 and W-4
Restart a worker's I-9 or W-4 automatically from an automation rule, without resetting the case by hand.
Restarting a worker's I-9 or W-4 meant an admin opening I-9 Center and resetting the case manually, one worker at a time. For teams redeploying workers at volume, that was slow and easy to get wrong.
What's new
Restart actions in the Automation Center — On a rule whose source is a worker, choose Restart worker's I-9 or Restart worker's W-4. On a rule whose source is an applicant, choose Restart associated worker's I-9 or Restart associated worker's W-4, which act on the worker linked to the matching applicant.
Triggered by whatever signals a restart is due — Pair the action with any worker trigger, including a change to a worker attribute, an I-9 status change, or a job or location change. A reverification date moving into the future is a common example.
Background processing with clear outcomes — Each restart runs asynchronously while the automation event stays pending, then closes as succeeded or failed.
Full form reset — The worker's current form state is reset, applicable WorkBright submissions are rejected, and I-9 or W-4 completion data is cleared so the form can be filled in again.
A clear audit trail — The restart is recorded on the worker's I-9 profile with the reason Restarted by automation, and every status change is written to the profile notes.
Automatic worker notification — When the relevant notification category is enabled, the worker receives an email or SMS with a link back to the worker portal.
Status kept in sync — Updated status is force-synced to Hire, even when the computed status appears unchanged.
Why it matters
High-volume teams can require fresh employment paperwork after a redeployment or another qualifying workforce change without an admin touching each case. That removes a manual step from an area where mistakes carry compliance risk, and keeps worker status consistent between I-9 Center and Hire.
What to expect
Restarting a form is destructive and irreversible. It resets the current I-9 or W-4, makes the form editable again, and requires the worker to resubmit. In I-9 Center the case moves back to Section 1 and is marked as rejected, with the reason shown as Restarted by automation, so a restarted case is easy to tell apart from one an admin rejected on review. Because a rule carries a single action, restarting both a worker's I-9 and their W-4 takes two rules with the same trigger and filters. Imported and non-provisioned WorkBright cases use a Fountain-only reset path that unblocks the form while preserving audit context.
Availability
Available to all I-9 Center customers.