Guide to setting up and using your employer portal Employer user guide v12 EM00051.0416/14 1
STEP 1 Logging in You will have received a web link via e-mail and the first thing you must do is log in using the details already provided in the implementation e-mail. If you haven t received an email web link, please ring NOW: Pensions client support on 0330 100 3399. 1. Login Name This will be the e-mail address of the primary contact. 2. Password This will be the password provided in a separate e-mail. Upon first login you will be asked to change the password. Please only click the save button once, as double clicking invalidates the new password. 2
The screen below appears when the password is successfully updated. Click on continue to view the welcome screen. Whilst your portal will contain some basic information on first login, you must verify the data and enter additional information to ensure that your portal works correctly. Please follow these steps to complete your setup: STEP 2 - Verify company details Access your Company Details by selecting it from the left hand screen menu. Please check the existing details and make any changes or additions as required. Please ensure that you add The Pensions 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 staging letter from The Pensions Regulator. If you cannot locate the letter, please telephone The Pensions Regulator on 0845 600 1011). If you did not select PDF communications as a delivery method for employees who do not have a valid e-mail address but want to select it now, please tick the box shown and provide the e-mail address that should be used for PDF delivery. We recommend that you use a centrally managed e-mail account to ensure that communications are printed and passed to the relevant employees within the statutory timescales (six weeks). Each PDF communication will be delivered separately with the subject bar clearly showing the employee s name and the type of correspondence attached, to assist you in managing the onward delivery. 3
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 the portal, 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. 4
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 3 - Employer/Admin role account setup As the portal owner, you are able to create or edit login details for other members of staff, authorised to use this system. To create additional users, navigate to Admin Login on the left hand screen menu. Select the Add button to enter the input screen. 5
User Roles: Please note that you should only select Employer when creating additional users on the portal. STEP 4 Setting up your payroll After filling in the NOW: Pensions online sign up application you will see that the payroll details such as payroll frequency and the name that the payroll is known as, are added to your employer portal. This information can be found under the Reference Data tab on the left hand screen menu. Please check that these details are correct. If you need to add a new payroll in your employer portal, then you will need to navigate to Reference Data from the left hand screen menu, then select the add button under the Payrolls section. When adding new payrolls you will need to complete a Direct Debit Mandate which can be found on the NOW: Pensions website: http://www.nowpensions.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/direct-debit-form-contributions.pdf Please note, a minimum of 3 months and a maximum of 12 months future pay periods should be entered in the portal at any one time. Please do not attempt to upload a file until the end of the 1 st pay period following your staging date / voluntary start date. 6
The structure for your payrolls has already been created for you and can be seen in the Payrolls section. If you need to add a payroll, select the Add button and enter the following: 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 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 system (PAY CODE column) to identify which payroll the file relates to and can t be the same as one already set up. Payroll type this is the frequency of the payroll. Company Code can only be your 4 digit ER code which can be found in the portal URL and the Company Details section and will be pre-populated for you. 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. 7
To view the payroll code you have just created please select the Payrolls list option and the code you have just created will appear in the list. You must now enter the pay periods for the relevant payroll so that we can build up a payroll calendar in the system. There are two ways of doing this which are outlined below: i) Upload the pay periods To upload the pay periods into the system by CSV file you need to create a spreadsheet that contains the following columns (the headers should be entered as per the format below): 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/help-centre/company/technical_support_hc/setting-up-payperiods-using-csv-file. 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, locate the file that you have just created, enter your e-mail address and select import data. 8
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 on the screen will indicate whether or not your import was successful. 9
Please note, the Results field which will confirm the number of records that have been imported. If you do encounter any errors then you will need to correct these on the CSV file and upload the file again 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 portal and select the Add button under the payroll details option. The following input screen will appear once you have clicked on the Add button. 10
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 system 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 be made 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. A completed monthly payroll setup might look like this. 11
STEP 5 Postponement Decisions (for employers who have selected NOW: Pensions to undertake the assessment) You can choose to postpone auto enrolment for up to three months. To do this you need to select reference data from the left hand screen menu and select postponement decisions. Payroll Code This is the 4 digit code that was created in step 5. Weekly Payroll Postponement Staging Date Please enter either 0,1,or 2 to 11 depending on whether you wish to postpone employees from your staging date for either 1, 2 or 3 etc weeks. 0 = 1 week. Postponement New Joiners - Please enter either 0,1,or 2 to 11 depending on whether you wish to postpone new joiners for either 1, 2 or 3 etc weeks. Postponement Becomes Eligible - Please enter either 0,1,or 2 to 11 depending on whether you wish to postpone employees who become Eligible for either 1, 2 or 3 etc weeks. Fortnightly Payroll 12
Postponement Staging Date Please enter either 0,1,2, 3, 4 or 5 depending on whether you wish to postpone employees from your staging for either 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 pay periods. 0 = 1 pay period. Postponement New Joiners - Please enter either 0,1,2, 3, 4 or 5 depending on whether you wish to postpone new joiners for either 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 pay periods. 0 = 1 pay period. Postponement Becomes Eligible - Please enter either 0,1,2, 3, 4 or 5 depending on whether you wish to postpone employees who become Eligible for either 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 pay periods. 0 = 1 pay period. Monthly, 4 Weekly and 4 4 5 Payrolls Postponement Staging Date Please enter either 0,1,or 2 depending on whether you wish to postpone employees from your staging date for either 1, 2 or 3 months. 0 = 1 month. Postponement New Joiners - Please enter either 0,1,or 2 depending on whether you wish to postpone new joiners for either 1, 2 or 3 months. Postponement Becomes Eligible - Please enter either 0,1,or 2 depending on whether you wish to postpone employees who become Eligible for either 1, 2 or 3 months. Click Save. Step 6 - Importing employee data Please do not attempt to upload a file until after the end of the first pay period following your staging date / voluntary start date. You are required to input your employee data into the system. This data needs to be imported for each pay period, to ensure that we have up to date information. Please note that our primary method of communicating with your employees is by e-mail and will be free of charge. In the event that there is no e-mail address provided for some or all of your employees, you can select to have communications for these employees delivered in PDF format to your company s managed and maintained generic e-mail address so you can print and deliver to these employees. Alternatively, communications can be issued in the post, however, we will charge you for the cost of printing and posting these communications. We recommend that you ensure that you include e-mail addresses in your files for as many of your employees as possible. Where does my employee data come from? Your employee data will come from your payroll software. This data should be in the format required by NOW: Pensions (please see A guide to generic input/output files for this format) to enable our systems to recognise the file format during a data import. How is my employee data uploaded to the employer portal? 13
To import employee data, navigate to the Import Data menu at the top of your screen. From the Import Name drop down field, select Generic Input File only (unless advised otherwise). Browse to locate your employee data file. The e-mail address will be used to send notifications of any rejected lines of data once the import is complete. If the file is a complete success then no e-mail will be received. Select the Import Data button. A pop up notification will appear select OK. You will now be presented with the Importer Options Screen. Please ensure the Add and Update options are ticked as this will allow the system 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. 14
You will be presented with a progress screen. Depending on how much data you are importing this process may take a while, however you do not have to stay logged into the portal, the file will process even if you exit the portal. If there are any errors on the file you will receive an e-mail once the file has been processed so you can log back in on receipt of this e-mail to resolve the errors. 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. Please note that you will only receive notification via e- mail where there are any rejected records. So what happens 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. 15
How will I know if a failure has occurred? Your employer portal 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 portal 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: Skipped records: Imported records: records that contain an error existing records that have not changed since the last import the number of records that have successfully imported How do I know what has caused the failure? The above screen contains an Error Log. Click on the CSV button. This action will call up the error 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 portal. How do I correct the error(s)? Please refer to the Common errors and warnings guide that is available in the Online Help Centre article called Full Implementation Guide under the important documents section. This document will help you to establish what the error message highlighted in the file relates to and how to resolve it. 16
You will need to correct the field(s) (as identified in the error log) in the file that you originally uploaded. Once that has been completed you will then need to upload the complete file again. Please note that you will also need to update the data on your payroll system (where applicable) to ensure the error(s) do not reoccur the next time you upload a file. 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 on a permanent basis after 7 days. STEP 7 How will you find out who has opted in or out? (Output file) Before you run each payroll 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 employer portal. 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: 17
From the Report menu, select Download the Generic Output File (by clicking on Run). Once you have clicked Run, the following report will be downloaded: You can then import the file directly into your payroll system, assuming you have built the capability to upload the Generic Output Report into your payroll systems. Alternatively you can manually input the changes into your payroll system. 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 opt out last day (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 will start to be deducted from the next payroll run. Additional Voluntary Contribution (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). 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. 18
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 system 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 employer portal the member record will be overwritten with the relevant data change. This will ensure that the data on your payroll system matches the data in our systems. Other useful documents If you would like to read more on how NOW: Pensions can support you please take a look at www.nowpensions.com where you can download a range of guides and help materials such as the following: Guide to common errors and warnings Generic input files Guide to avoiding data duplications NOW: Pensions Limited, Registered in England and Wales. Registered office 2nd Floor, 25 Christopher Street, London, EC2A 2BS. Company number: 07766398, VAT number: 127894966 NOW: Pensions is a UK occupational pension plan. Membership is only available through an employer, following satisfactory checks on the employer. This is written as a general guide only. It should not be relied upon as a substitute for specific professional advice. Please note, past performance is not a guarantee of future returns 19