Guide to setting up and using your NOW: Pensions payroll bureau microsite PM00050.0416/11 0
Step 1 Logging in for the first time You will have received a web link, via email, that will provide access to your microsite with NOW: Pensions. The web link will be in the following format http://ae.nowpensions.com/... followed by a B and a random set of four characters e.g. http://ae.nowpensions.com/b1234. This microsite will be used for all of your clients who have asked you to be the primary administrator for the scheme. If you haven t received an email with a web link, please ring NOW: Pensions Client Support on 0330 100 3399. Website link Please click on the link provided in the email. The screen below will be available to enter the login details. Login Details The login details and temporary password will have been provided previously to the owner of the microsite, i.e. the payroll contact details provided by the client during the sign up process with NOW: Pensions. Please enter the login details in the relevant fields. If you haven t received login details and a temporary password, please contact NOW: Pensions Client Support Team on 0330 100 3399. 1
Change Password After the login is successful it will prompt you to change the password. Your e-mail address will appear in the address field. Enter a new password and re-enter the new password to confirm. Click on Save to update the new password, please be patient and ensure you only click the save button once as double clicking will invalidate the new password. The screen below appears when the password is successfully updated. 2
Welcome Screen Click on continue to view the welcome screen. Once you have logged in successfully you can use the same login details for all clients as all of the schemes you administer will be held on the one microsite. Step 2 Create additional users for the microsite As the microsite owner, you are able to create or edit login details for other members of staff, authorised to use this microsite. To create additional users navigate to Admin Login on the left hand screen menu. Select the Add button to enter the input screen. 3
User Roles: Please note that you should only select Employer when creating additional users for your colleagues on the microsite. As this microsite will have details of all your clients who ve selected you as their primary payroll administrator you cannot give any of your individual client s access to this microsite. Step 3 Verify client details You can access your client s details by selecting the Company Details from the left hand screen menu and clicking open. New pension schemes will be added via the online sign up tool and completed by either you or an employer who nominates you to administer their scheme. Their details will also appear in this section (as long as they have confirmed you will be the primary administrator for the scheme). Please check the existing details and make any changes as required for your client, and all subsequent clients where their scheme is created on your microsite. 4
Please ensure that you add your clients Pension Regulator Reference, which is a 10 digit number (sometimes known as the letter code, which can be found on the top right hand corner of your clients staging letter from The Pension Regulator). If your client cannot locate the letter please ask them to contact the Pensions Regulator on 0845 600 1011. If your client doesn t have email addresses for some or all of their employees and has selected to have statutory communications sent as a PDF to a generic business email address to be forwarded on, by them, to their employees within the statutory timescales (6 weeks) then please check that the email address is correct. If your client hasn t selected this option but would like it to be switched on, you must confirm with the employer that they are happy to turn on this facility and have the employer provide you with the email address at their organisation that they want to use for PDF delivery. Then select the Use emailed PDF attachments for employees without an email address held on the Employer Portal by ticking the box. Enter the generic business email address your client has chosen to receive the PDF communications and click save. We recommend that your client s associated inbox is checked daily to ensure that employees communications are forwarded on to the relevant employees as soon as possible, and within the statutory timescales. 5
Once all changes have been made please select the Save button to update the entered company details. Re-enrolment Dates When you enter the homepage of your microsite, you will see reminders that you need to populate the company re-enrolment date. The re-enrolment date can be found within the company details section, at the bottom of the page. You will need to set the company re-enrolment date BEFORE reaching re-enrolment to confirm the date intended as the company re-enrolment date. 6
You must select the Add button to provide this date and continue to use the Add and Save function to confirm the chosen dates. It is only necessary to provide one re-enrolment date but more can be added at this time if desired. Validation is in place to ensure that the re-enrolment date is not in the past or outside of +/- 3 months of the three year anniversary of the staging date. When the re-enrolment date input, has passed, the field will be locked to ensure a record is held of the re-enrolment history. We will use this date as a guide to communicating a reminder that the re-enrolment date is approaching and as such it is important that you update this field as soon as you know which date you will be using for re-enrolment. If you re unsure which date might be best for you at this time, we recommend that you initially select the latest date available, as this can be changed once you have decided which re-enrolment date best suits your business needs. Don t forget that once that date has passed it will be locked in. If you notice that the company staging date is incorrect, you must contact NOW: Pensions to assist in making the amendments to the staging date. This may impact the re-enrolment date and must be reviewed again to ensure it is still within the allowed dates. Step 4 Adding client s address and company details Company Address and Contact details will be pre-populated but should you need to add or amend details either select Add or Open and complete the fields. Once complete select save. 7
Step 5 Setting up a client s payroll details After your client completed the NOW: Pensions online sign up application you will see that the payroll details such as payroll frequency and in some cases, the name that the payroll is known as are added to your microsite. This information can be found under the Reference Data tab on the left hand screen menu. Please check that these details are correct. If the payroll details for your client is not populated in your microsite then you will need to add a new payroll. To do this, navigate to Reference Data from the left hand screen menu, then select the add button under the Payrolls section. When adding new payrolls, please ask your client to complete a Direct Debit Mandate for contributions which can be found on the NOW: Pensions website http://www.nowpensions.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/direct-debit-form-contributions.pdf. The structure for your payrolls has already been created for you and can be seen in the Payrolls section. The payroll code and company code should be stored within your payroll software to ensure it is included in your files. If you need to add a payroll, select the Add button and enter the following: 8
Payroll Code - 4 digit alphanumeric code in the format of P00x. If you need to add a payroll, then set the pay code to the next number in the sequence for that employer e.g. P001 would be followed by P002, P003, P004 etc. for each additional payroll respectively. This code should then be replicated in the files that you produce from your payroll software (PAY CODE column) to identify which payroll the file relates to and can t be the same as one already set up for that employer. Payroll type this is the frequency of the payroll Company code you must select the company code that you want to use for the payroll that you are setting up. This code will also need to be included in the file that you are producing from the payroll software (ER CODE column) Commonly Known As this is a name given by you to the payroll to help you identify it. Once you have entered the relevant details please click on save. To view the payroll code that you have just set up please select the Payrolls List option and the code you have just created will appear in the list. Please note, a minimum of 3 months and a maximum of 12 months future pay periods should be entered in the microsite at any one time. Please do not attempt to upload a file until the end of the 1 st pay period following the staging date / voluntary start date. You must now enter the pay reference periods for the relevant payroll so that we can build up a payroll calendar in the microsite. There are two ways of doing this which are outlined below: i) Upload the pay periods To upload the pay periods into the microsite by CSV file you need to create a spreadsheet that contains the following columns (the headers should be entered as per the format below): 9
To make things easier for you please use the payroll details template that is included in the article entitled Uploading Pay Periods Using a CSV file which can be located in the Online Help Centre by clicking this link: http://www.nowpensions.com/faqs/uploading-pay-periods-using-csvfile/?r=company. This has all of the required fields already entered and you will simply need to populate the spreadsheet (an example of what the spreadsheet might look like is also below). Payroll Code this is the code that is generated by NOW: Pensions when you fill in the application online or the code you generated for any new payrolls Pay Period this is the tax week/month for the relevant pay period Pay Period Start Date this is the date the pay period commenced, and this should replicate the date that will be entered in the files that are produced from your microsite. Processing Date this is the last date you would expect to upload a file for any given pay period. If a file has been uploaded it is also the date the microsite will lock the pay period and process the data. Please allow yourself a couple of days from when you will be uploading the files as no changes will be allowed to the data once the pay period has been locked. Processed - This field should always show NO (until such time as NOW: Pensions has processed your import) Processed date - This field should always be blank (until such time as NOW: Pensions has processed your import) Pay Date this is the date the employees are paid Payroll Type this is the payroll frequency, i.e. Weekly Company Code this is the company s unique code (provided by NOW: Pensions) Pay Year to enable us to identify which tax year the pay period relates to please enter the starting year of the tax year in this field. For example the pay year for any pay period in the 2015/2016 tax year would be 2015. Commonly known as this is the familiar name you have assigned to the payroll. This is prepopulated by NOW: Pensions from the name assigned when the application online was submitted or the name you generated for any new payrolls. Once you have created the spreadsheet you need to go to the Import Data option, select the Payroll Details option from the drop down box titled Import Name, locate the file that you have just created, enter your email address and select import data. 10
You will then be shown the payroll importer options screen, no action is required on this screen and you just need to select Begin Loading Data into the Database Once the import process has run the following screen will appear. Please note the content of the screen which will indicate whether or not your import was successful. 11
Please note the Status Detail field which should read as complete and (Success). If you do encounter any errors then you will need to correct these on the CSV file and then re-upload the file using the process above. ii) Create the pay periods manually Once you have selected open by the payroll code you wish to add details to, check the pay code and frequency in the microsite and select the Add button under the payroll details option. 12
The following input screen will appear once you have clicked on the Add button. Please enter the required information in the fields provided, as per the instructions below: 1. Pay period is the tax week or month. This will be replicated in the file that is uploaded to us for each pay period 2. Processing date is the last day you would expect to upload the file to us. If a file has been uploaded it is also the date the microsite will lock the pay period and process the data. Please allow yourself a couple of days from when you will be uploading the files as no changes will be allowed to the data once the pay period has been locked. 3. Pay period start date is the date the pay period commenced, this should be replicated in the file that is uploaded to us 4. Please ignore Processed and Processed Date as these fields do not need to be completed 5. Pay date is the date the employees will be paid 6. Please ignore the Full Payroll Details field 7. Pay Year - to enable us to identify which tax year the pay period relates to please enter the starting year of the tax year in this field. For example the pay year for any pay period in the 2015/2016 tax year would be 2015. 8. Once you have entered the above details select save and then Payroll Details List. This will then show you the pay period that you have created and allow you to add further periods. 9. Repeat steps 1 8 until you have created all the periods for this payroll type e.g. 12 periods for a monthly payroll. Please note we need a minimum of 3 months pay periods to be entered. 13
A completed monthly payroll setup might look like this. Step 6 Importing client data You are required to upload your client s data into the microsite. This data needs to be imported for each pay period to ensure that up to date information is passed to NOW: Pensions. You can upload a file for each client individually, or as the example below sets out, you can upload all client data on one file, although this would generally be done on a pay frequency basis, i.e. all weekly payrolls on one file and all monthly on a separate file. Producing client data Your client data will come from your payroll software and you should produce the file after running your payroll. This data should be in the format required by NOW: Pensions (please see separate specification for this format) to enable our systems to recognise the file format during a data import. The example file below (which does not contain all of the relevant columns) has been provided to demonstrate how to include more than one company on a file, please note the columns entitled PAY CODE and ER CODE. Please ensure that the file that you create is a CSV (comma delimited) 14
How do you upload client data in into the microsite? To import the client data, navigate to the Import Data menu at the top of your screen. From the Import Name drop down field, select Generic Input File. Browse to locate your employee data file. The e-mail address will be used to send notifications once the import is complete. Select the Import Data button. A pop up notification will appear select OK. 15
You will now be presented with the Importer Options Screen. This screen allows you to select Add and/or Update options, depending on your preference. Most commonly, both options are selected, which will allow the microsite to import additional (new) records, as well as update existing records. Once you have made your selection, select the button below this screen to begin the data import process. You will then be presented with a progress screen. Depending on how much data you are importing this process may take a little while, however please note that you do not have to stay logged into the microsite and the file will process even if you exit the website. You will receive an email once the file has processed so you can log back in on receipt of this email, if necessary. 16
Once the import is complete, a results page will appear. Be sure to note the Results section of this screen, where any import errors will be listed. You will also receive notification via e-mail which confirms how many files were imported successfully as well as any rejected or skipped files. 17
What if an error occurs? Should you receive notification that an import or part of an import has failed you will be required to correct the affected files. This may be due to unexpected data in a field/s or using a data file which does not match the required format. How will I know if a failure has occurred? The microsite will display a results screen, which lists any records which have failed to import. The e-mail notification received after the data import process has completed will also contain hyperlinks to your microsite login screen, as well as a link to the CSV file, where you can read the error messages. Once you have logged in you will see the following screen. Rejected records: records that contain an error which need to be resolved Skipped Records: existing records that have not changed since the last import no action required Imported records: The number of records that have successfully imported 18
How do I know what has caused the failure? The above screen contains an Error Log. Click on the CSV button. This action will enable you to view your error data file. The error message will appear in the last column of the file. In the example above, the PAY CODE for one of the records does not follow the expected format. This may be due to an error in data entry, or due to that particular pay code not being present in the microsite. To correct this error you would need to ensure that the relevant pay code has been set up in the website, as per Step 5 of this document, and then enter the code into the error file. Once you have resolved all of the errors highlighted on the file you can re-upload the data for the employees, please note you only have to re-upload the data for the employees on the error file as all clean records will already have been imported into the database. However, you may wish to consider making the appropriate amendments in your payroll software, and then uploading the whole file again, as this will ensure the same errors are not replicated. There is a lot of validation in the microsite and therefore you may receive a number of different error messages, most of the error messages are self-explanatory however should you encounter an error that you cannot resolve please contact our Client Support Team on 0330 100 3399. File upload history You can view what files have been uploaded, by whom and whether all of the employees records were imported into the database by selecting the Progress Report option in the Import Data Section. You can also view error logs within this section however please note that the data in each error log is deleted after 7 days. 19
Step 7 Retrieving Opt in, Opt out and Contribution Increases data for your clients Before you run the payroll for your clients you need to ensure that you have processed any opt in s, opt out s or increases in contributions for the employees. To obtain this information you need to download the relevant report from the microsite. This report should be run before you process each payroll to ensure you identify any changes since the last payroll run. To export the employee data navigate to the report menu at the top of your screen. Once you have selected reports the following screen will appear: From the report menu please select Download the Generic Output Report File (by clicking on Run) Once you have clicked run the following report will appear: You can then import the file directly into your payroll software, assuming you have built the capability to upload the Generic Output Report into your payroll software. Alternatively you can manually input the changes into your payroll software. The main changes that are confirmed on this file are: Opt out s if there is a date in the OPT OUT DATE column then you need to stop any future contributions being deducted. If this date precedes the one quoted in the OO LASTDAY column then a refund of any contributions already taken should be made through payroll. If the date is after the OO LASTDAY no refund should be made through payroll. Opt in s if there is a date in the OPT IN DATE column the employee should be enrolled in the scheme and contributions start to be deducted from the next payroll run. AVC rate if there is a figure in the AVC RATE column then the employee has requested to make additional contributions and the amount requested should start to be deducted from the next payroll (the figure quoted is a percentage of salary). 20
Step 8 Viewing and amending Employee Data You can view the employee records by either selecting the Employee menu option at the top of your screen, or if you are looking for a particular employee you can use the search facility located on the top right hand side of the screen. Once you have located the employee record then you can amend their data. However, please note that the best way to update employee data is to make the change in your payroll software so that when you produce the file for the next payroll run the change is included on the file - once this has been uploaded into the website the member record will be overwritten with the relevant data change. This will ensure that the data on your payroll software matches the data in our systems. Other useful documents: Below are some of the addition documents that you can find in the NOW: Pensions help centre to help support you. Visit nowpensions.com. Guide to common errors and warnings Guide to the generic input file Guide to avoiding data duplicates 21