Payroll User Guide SETTING UP YOUR NEW PENSION

Transcription

1 Payroll User Guide SETTING UP YOUR NEW PENSION

2 Contents 1. Introduction a How pensions work in payroll systems b Your payroll and auto enrolment c Other information 2. Setting up your auto enrolment pension for the first time a. Setting up your pension in your payroll i. Setting up the pension at company level ii. Assigning your employees to the pension scheme b. Providing your data c. Creating your report d. Communicating with employees 3. Maintaining your payroll a. Providing payroll data by.csv file 4. Contributions a. Paying contributions b. Refunds and corrections c. Wrong payroll is uploaded d. Wrong contributions paid 5. Troubleshooting Appendix 1 Dealing with day-to-day scenarios a. A new employee joins the company b. Somebody leaves the company or pension scheme c. Somebody opt outs d. Somebody wants to join the scheme during the postponement period e. An employee s details change f. Somebody needs to be re-enrolled g. The employer or employee wants to change their contribution rates

3 1. Introduction This guide covers the steps involved in setting up and maintaining your new auto enrolment pension in your payroll system. Setting up a pension is a fairly straightforward process in most payroll systems but because this is a general guide you might need to refer to your payroll user guide for specific information. If you need any extra help to apply the information in this guide to your own payroll system, call our helpdesk on Our system is designed to make it as easy as possible for you to run an auto enrolment pension scheme. Every time you need to do something we will you to let you know. Unlike some other solutions, with our system you simply provide your data after you have closed your payroll and, if any changes are needed, we will tell you before your next payroll run. If you ever have any questions or concerns you can always call our helpdesk for support. a) How pensions work in payroll systems Your payroll system is used to calculate the pension contributions you need to pay on behalf of your employees. To do this you need to: Set up the pension scheme Put your employees into it at the appropriate time Select the earnings on which pension contributions are payable Set the level of pension contributions to be paid as a percentage of earnings Maintain your employees records You will need to update the payroll for all your employees as they reach their auto enrolment dates, at the outset and beyond. After that, you will simply make changes when required, as employees join and leave and in the event that the rules change. 1 of 17

4 b) Your payroll and auto enrolment Every time you pay your employees, you will need to provide us with payroll data so we can assess your employees, communicate with them, collect their pension contributions and pay them into the pension scheme. We also maintain the audit trail required by law. Our system accepts standard payroll reports generated by your payroll software and also allows you to input any additional data required. c) Other information In order for us to collect all of the information that is needed to create an employee s pension scheme records at outset and as they join, we will need information that may not be held in the payroll system. This information is needed to make sure you comply with your auto enrolment duties. We outline what information is required later in this guide. The data you must provide every time you run your payroll is for all employees not just those who are enrolled into the Pension Scheme. 2. Setting up your auto enrolment pension for the first time We would recommend that, eight weeks before staging, you set up your pension scheme within your payroll software. Our auto enrolment solution works with the existing payroll and pension functionality found in any payroll system. There should be no need to upgrade or buy any new software. You should not need to buy the auto enrolment module offered by your payroll software provider in order to use our solution. a) Setting up your pension in your payroll This section sets out the information that is likely to be needed in order to set up the pension in payroll. The person who does this will need to refer to the relevant payroll system user guide for information about how to do this with the payroll software that you use. If you need any help or additional information, please call our helpdesk on The payroll system will use this information to calculate the pension contributions that need to be deducted from employees wages and those that the employer has to pay when your employees are enrolled into the pension scheme. 2 of 17

5 i) Setting up the pension at company level user guide Scheme type: Options Contracted In Money Purchase (CIMP), or Occupational Trust-Based Scheme, or Other Qualifying Scheme Scheme name The Creative Pension Trust is a Qualifying Workplace Pension Scheme Creative Pension Trust Provider reference Provide your own reference here Contracting out The Creative Pension Trust is not a contracted out scheme Qualifying Earnings The constituent parts of Qualifying Earnings for auto enrolment purposes are: Pensionable pay basis Salary or wages Commission Bonuses Overtime Statutory Sick Pay Statutory Maternity Pay Ordinary/additional statutory paternity pay Statutory adoption pay However only those earnings between 5,824 and 42,385 per year, or 486 and 3,532 per month, or 112 and 815 per week for the 2015/16 tax year are pensionable. You must ensure your payroll is set up correctly so that earnings below and above these amounts are not used to calculate pension contributions. Salary sacrifice Contributions cannot be paid by salary sacrifice. 1% employer contribution 1% employee contribution Contributions to be set up in the payroll (as a % of Qualifying Earnings) These are mandatory minimums and is the default contribution basis for all schemes until 1st October 2017 when the minimum contribution rates increase. If you would like to pay more than these minimums you can do so, but you cannot pay less by law. Please call our helpdesk on if you would like to increase the employer and/or employee contributions. Tax basis Contributions are taken before tax is assessed in the payroll, therefore the gross contributions detailed above (1% of qualifying earnings) must be collected from the scheme member s gross salary before income tax is assessed. Do not net this figure down. 3 of 17

6 If you already have a pension scheme set up in your payroll for some or all of your employees, please call our helpdesk on before proceeding any further. ii) Assigning your employees to the pension scheme Once you have set up your pension scheme at a company level, and when your employees need to be enrolled into the pension scheme, you will need to set up their individual pension record at an employee level within your payroll system. This links the employee records to the pension scheme you have set up at company level. This enables contributions to be deducted from their salaries when they have to be enrolled. We will tell you when you need to do this. You will need to refer to your payroll software user guide for specific information about how this is done. We have provided typical information that your payroll software might require in the table below. If you need any more support or information you can call our helpdesk on Employee pension plan reference Date of joining scheme Type of scheme Provide a reference of your own choice here This could be, for example, the same reference you have used at the employer set up stage. This is the date at which the employee first becomes a member of the scheme and will be the date from which pension contributions start to be collected from their salary The Creative Pension Trust is a qualifying workplace pension scheme. Active membership date This date can be used for different purposes by different payroll systems. If your system requires this date, please refer to your payroll user guide for guidance. If you are still unsure, please call our Helpdesk on The payroll system will usually automatically apply the contributions rules to each employee. If your payroll software does not automatically do this you will have to apply the contribution rates to each employee s payroll record when they join the scheme. Before your staging date we would also recommend you run a test for a small sample of employees to ensure the payroll is calculating and deducting the correct pension amounts from the employee s wages. Please see the table below for some examples for monthly and weekly pay periods. 4 of 17

7 Pay Frequency Earnings Contribution Due Contribution Calculation Monthly 1, x 1% Monthly 5, x 1% Weekly x 1% Weekly 1, x 1% b) Providing your data You are legally required to provide certain employee information in order for you to comply with your auto enrolment duties. This enables us to assess your employees, communicate with them and tell you when employees need to be enrolled into the pension scheme. You must provide data for all of your employees regardless of whether they are in the pension scheme or not. You will need to provide employee data to us - we will let you know when you need to start doing this. You will then need to provide us with data every time you run your payroll. We will tell you when you need to start doing this. The information we require is detailed below and overleaf. Information that is highlighted must be provided every time you run the payroll. The other information is required at your staging date and whenever an employee joins your organisation. Note, we need employee data for all employees every time the payroll is run, not just for the employees who are enrolled into the Pension Scheme Employee payroll number Title First name Surname This is the unique payroll reference for the individual employee Mr, Ms, Mrs etc This is the employee s preferred first name and will be used for correspondence This is the employee s last name NI number This is the employee s national insurance number Date of birth This is the employee s date of birth Gender Male or female Address line 1 This is the first line of the employee s home address. 5 of 17

8 Address line 2 This is the second line of the employee s home address. This field must be completed Address line 3 This is the third line of the employee s home address. This field is optional Address line 4 This is the fourth line of the employee s home address. This field is optional Post code This is the employee s home post code Date joined company This is the date on which the employee joined the organisation. We will need the day, month and year address This is the address we will use to correspond with the employee. This can be a personal or work address. If we do not hold a valid address, we will provide you with personalised correspondence to pass on but we cannot accept responsibility for delivery. Pensionable earnings for the period Employee contribution amount This is the gross earnings for the employee for the pay period. This is the monetary contribution the employee has had deducted from their salary. Until October 2017, this is 1% of the pensionable earnings amount. All scheme members must contribute this minimum amount. Employee AVC This is any additional voluntary contribution the employee makes to their pension. Under the scheme rules, the employee can request to increase the percentage they pay into their pension above the minimum amount. If they do not make additional contributions, this field should be 0. Employer contribution amount This is the monetary contribution the employer makes on behalf of their employee. Until October 2017, this is 1% of the pensionable earnings amount. All employers must contribute this minimum amount for each scheme member. Employer AVC This is any additional voluntary contribution the employer makes to the pension for an employee. Under the scheme rules, the employer can also request to increase the percentage they pay into the pension above the minimum amount for all employees. If you would like to do this please call our helpdesk. If there are no additional contributions, this field should be 0. 6 of 17

9 c) Creating your report Your payroll software can be used to generate reports and it may be possible for you to generate a report which includes all of the information we require. You will need to refer to your payroll user guide for information about what reports can be generated. This report must then be uploaded to your account as a.csv file every time you run your payroll. You must provide us with the same payroll report every time you upload a report into our system (see Section 3a Providing pay data by.csv file). If possible you should aim to generate a standard report that includes all of the information detailed above as you will not then need to manually input any member data. The simplest solution for you is likely to be to generate a report with all the fields, and in the same order, as detailed in the table above. Entering missing information at outset If you are unable to generate a report that captures all of the information detailed above, the first time you upload your payroll report you will have to enter any missing information into our system manually. Other than the details highlighted in yellow, which must be provided each time you provide your data, you will only have to enter this information once at outset for each employee, as and when an employee joins your organisation and whenever it changes. Entering missing information each pay period Every time you provide your payroll data to us we will tell you on screen if there is anything missing and you will need to provide it before you can complete your update. We will let you know of any changes that you need to make to your payroll before the next payroll run (for example, an employee who needs to be enrolled into the pension scheme). We will also send an to you in advance of every payroll date to remind you of any changes that need to be made and to remind you to upload your payroll report. Uploading your pay data to our system Importantly with our solution you will only ever have to make changes to the employees payroll records at the following payroll run. You do not have to wait for any reports to be sent to you before you process your payroll. Where you cannot generate a payroll report or convert it to a.csv file If you cannot generate a payroll report and upload it into our system as a.csv file, you can simply provide the required data into our system manually each time you run your payroll. If you do not have a standard payroll report that contains the fields we need, or you are not using the template data format outlined above, please contact our helpdesk on who will help you select a suitable report and set up our system to accept it from you. This will ensure everything is ready in good time before you have to upload your first payroll report. 7 of 17

10 d) Communicating with employees Employees and scheme members need to receive various statutory communications under the workplace pensions legislation. It is therefore very important that you provide either a work or personal address for your employees. Where we hold a valid work or personal address, we will supply these communications directly to the employee. Where we do not hold a valid address, we must supply personalised communications to you which need to be passed to your employees. In these circumstances, we cannot accept responsibility for delivery so we strongly recommend that valid addresses are supplied. It is very important that communications are supplied to employees and scheme members in a timely manner as the communication often marks the start of a specific period such a postponement period or opt out window. If we have to send information to you to pass on it is therefore very important that you pass this on to your employees immediately. Providing a work or personal address for your employees minimises the administration you need to do to comply with auto enrolment. 8 of 17

11 3. Maintaining the payroll It is important to check that no last minute changes have been reported by your employees before you close your payroll. To do this, simply log into your online account. Any outstanding actions will be shown on the home page, which is the first screen that appears after you log in. a) Providing payroll data by.csv file You will need to provide payroll data every time you run the payroll. You can do this by uploading a.csv file to your account. Select the Upload your payroll from a file option. 9 of 17

12 To upload a.csv file with the payroll data, the file will need to be exported from the payroll software and saved on the system of the person who will provide the data to us. The Browse button enables this file to be located on the system. In order to recognise the.csv file you upload we need to be able to recognise the format in which the information is provided. To do this, select the template you are using in the Input specification field. The example shown here, CBS AE, is the template outline earlier in this guide When the file has been located, click Upload. A screen will appear providing a summary of the payroll data. This provides an opportunity to confirm the intended file has been uploaded before the data is entered into our system. 10 of 17

13 Once the data has been successfully uploaded, a screen summarising the employees records will appear. This screen will advise if anything has changed and if any additional information needs to be provided. Any changes will be detailed in the two right hand columns. For information means that, for example, the employee has changed category and For action means, for example, the employee has left the scheme and you need to provide a reason. You can do this by clicking on the Member Ref, which will open a screen where you can make the necessary updates. It is important that you review these as you will not be able to move on from this screen until all the For action items are completed. Once the records are complete and there are no outstanding actions, select Confirm. We will process the data to assess and communicate with the employees, where relevant, update the audit trail and provide the contribution file to the pension administrators. There is nothing else you will need to do. A report will be displayed summarising the contributions due and any changes that need to be made to the payroll before the payroll is next run. If we do not have valid addresses for all the employees, there might also be some communications to pass on. These will be provided as personalised letters that can be downloaded and printed. The report and any communications will also be ed to the employer. 11 of 17

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15 4. Contributions a) Paying contributions d) Wrong contributions paid The employer and employee contributions that are detailed in the information you provide to us each time you run your payroll are collected by the pension scheme. Contributions are collected from the employer by direct debit every calendar month, regardless of payroll frequency. b) Refunds and corrections If you deduct the wrong contributions for any reason, please contact our helpdesk. c) Wrong payroll is uploaded Our system provides a summary of your payroll information before you confirm the upload, to help you ensure you always provide the right data. If you confirm the upload and subsequently discover it was the wrong file, you will need to call the helpdesk for assistance. If you discover you have paid the wrong contributions, you will need to correct this through payroll. Any overpayments will need to be refunded through payroll and any underpayments will need to be collected through payroll. There are rules about how underpayments should be corrected and the system will need to be updated to reflect the changes so you will need to call the helpdesk for assistance. 5. Troubleshooting If you ever have any questions or issues, our helpdesk team will be happy to assist you. Please call them on of 17

16 Appendix 1 - Dealing with day-to-day scenarios a) A new employee joins the company When a new employee joins the company, we will need an employee record to be set up in our system. We need this from the first payroll period after they join the organisation. If the data is provided by uploading a.csv file each pay period, our system will automatically recognise when a new employee appears and will create a new record for that individual. All the required information must be provided at this time and the system will advise if anything additional is required that is not included within the.csv file. Our system will then automatically generate any relevant communications for that employee and will send them directly, if a valid address is provided, or produce a personalised communication for the employer to distribute if not. If you provide all data manually you will need to remember to do this when they join. You can do this by going to the Employee Details section within your account and selecting Add new employee. You can then create a new record manually. 14 of 17

17 You will also need to make the necessary changes to the employee record within the payroll system so that contributions start to be deducted from their pay. b) Somebody leaves the company or pension scheme If a scheme member leaves the scheme because they are no longer employed by the company, our system will automatically recognise this when the employee no longer appears in the.csv file you upload each time you run the payroll. We will let you know if we need any further information. If you provide all data manually you will need to mark the employee as a scheme leaver and provide the reason for leaving when you provide the payroll data for that pay period. This will enable any relevant communications to be produced. Scheme members can also leave while they are still employed, by calling our helpdesk. If this happens we will advise you so that the payroll system can be updated before the payroll is next run. c) Somebody opts out Certain employees must be automatically enrolled into the pension scheme. They can however choose to opt out during a 30 day opt out window by calling our helpdesk. We will let you know if this happens. If pension contributions have been collected for such an employee already, these will need to be refunded to the employee through payroll. Contributions that have been paid by the company will also be refunded to the employer. 15 of 17

18 d) Somebody wants to join the scheme during the postponement period Employees can choose to join the pension scheme during the postponement period by calling our helpdesk. If this happens we will advise you to start deducting pension contributions for them. e) An employee s details change If an employee s details change, we will need to be advised. If the details are included in the.csv file provided to us each payroll period, our system and the pension scheme records will automatically recognise that they have been changed. If the details are not included in a.csv file you will need to update the employee record manually through the employer account. This can be done by going to the Employee Details section within your account and selecting the relevant employee s record. f) Somebody needs to be re-enrolled Eligible jobholders that opt out of the pension scheme typically have to be re-enrolled on the third anniversary of the employer s staging date. We will tell you when this happens and will automatically produce any required communications. g) The employer or employee wants to change their contribution rates Both the employer and the employee can choose to increase their contribution rates above the mandatory minimum. This can be done by calling the helpdesk and then updating the payroll system to reflect the new payments. You can then update the record manually. 16 of 17

19 How to contact us Phone: of 17

20 CPL Auto Enrol Limited is a company registered in England and Wales under company number Registered offce: 349 Bury Old Road, Prestwich, Manchester, M25 1PY Creative Pension Trust is an occupational pension scheme governed by Pan Governance LLP (company number OC333840) of 3 Castlefeld Court, Church Street, Reigate, Surrey, RH2 0AH. The scheme issponsored by CreativeAuto Enrolment (company number ), Registered in England and Wales. Registered office: 125 London Wall, London, EC2Y 5AL.