Registration and
online client sign up
for payroll bureaux
Get ready with NOW: Pensions
3
Signing up clients online
4
Registration
5
Five steps to client sign up
6
Contributions models
7
Keeping track of client applications
8
Gaining access to your payroll bureau microsite
9
Get ready with
NOW: Pensions
Auto enrolment is an opportunity for you to offer an enhanced
service to your clients and generate more revenue. Our simple
online registration and client sign up process is the first step
to helping your clients get ready for auto enrolment.
This document gives you details about how to get started.
Software compatibility
Before getting started it’s important to check with your provider that your payroll software supports auto enrolment. This ensures you’ll be able to transfer the relevant data easily and quickly. Our system is compatible with most payroll software providers in the marketplace.
Register at: www.nowpensions.com/payroll/pre-registration
Registration
To sign up your clients online you’ll need to register for free with NOW: Pensions. This is a
simple one off online registration that takes just a few minutes to set up.
After you’ve registered you’ll receive an email outlining the tasks we expect you to be responsible for on behalf of your client. Once you’ve agreed to these responsibilities, you’re ready to start the online sign up process for your clients. Details found on page 6.
Clients can choose to sign up themselves and nominate you as their primary scheme administrator or they can ask you to complete the details for them.
It’s important to know that you will be using two separate systems with us – your
registration gives you immediate access to your own online account and online Help Centre where you will be able to sign up your clients into the NOW: Pensions Master Trust. Just go
to www.nowpensions.com and login with the details you used when you registered.
Registration
Tasks
Your online account 1
Your online account 1
Your bureau microsite 2
Your bureau microsite 2
Sign up checklist
Choice of contribution model
Employer name
Your client’s auto enrolment staging date (your client can start their
scheme early, to discuss the options available contact one of our
regional partnership managers)
Legal and organisational setup e.g. holding or subsidiary company/charity
registration number (if applicable)
Registered address
Estimation of the number of employees to be included in the scheme
Primary employer contact details (name and email address)
PAYE number
Payroll provider or bureau contact details who will be sent rele
vant
correspondence from NOW: Pensions
Centrally controlled business email address for employees
without email addresses to send communications to in a
PDF file (only if NOW: Pensions is handling the communication)
Payroll details (name and frequency)
Signing up clients online
If you have all your client’s information to hand, it takes about 5 minutes to sign up
or verify a client. The following sign up checklist shows all the information you need.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Five steps to client sign up
We’ve designed our auto enrolment proposition to be as easy to set up and manage as
possible, but to make the system run smoothly, there are five key responsibilities which
you’ll need to agree to during the registration process.
1.
Payroll bureau selects the contribution model that the client has chosen
Details about each model are shown on screen, so you can double check this is the correct selection. If an employer requires more than one tier type, you can add an additional tier by choosing from one of the five pre-defined plans in this section. See overleaf for more details.
Payroll bureau completes employer details
In this section we need to know the employer’s name, address, staging date, the nature of their business, information about the number of employees and their primary contact name and contact details.
If as part of the initial registration, we have been asked to take care of all statutory employee communications relating to auto enrolment for your clients, we will produce all these communications.
Ideally we will send these communications direct to each employee via email, but in order to do this you will need to ensure the data file you will generate from your payroll software, contains a unique email address for each employee. If you don’t have some employees email addresses, then as long as a PDF email address has been completed on the application, the statutory communications will be delivered to a generic business email as a PDF file for your client to send on to the employees. Email communications are sent free of charge but there is a postage fee for printed communications which will be sent in the absence of an employee email address, or alternative PDF email address.
Client approves participation agreement
When you have input all the relevant data, the system generates an electronic participation agreement and asks you to share the agreement with your client’s primary contact for their approval. The primary contact will receive an email from our system asking them to electronically authorise the agreement. If you need to send it to someone other than the primary contact you can do this here as well.
Client completes Direct Debit details
As part of the process for approving the participation agreement, the client will also be asked to complete their bank details for two Direct Debit Mandates. There is one Direct Debit required for pension contributions and another for our monthly employer service charge and any print and postage charges. Direct Debits for each payroll can be set up with different bank accounts if required. Clients can authorise Direct Debits through the system so there’s no need to issue mandates to the client after sign up.
NOW: Pensions confirms application accepted
When the client has approved the participation agreement, they recieve an email from NOW: Pensions to say that the application has been completed successfully. You will also get an email telling you that the application has been accepted.
Contribution models
One of the most important decisions your clients need to make when they introduce auto
enrolment is how much to contribute to their employees’ pensions. We recognise that different
employers will want to contribute different amounts, so we offer five contributions models.
Banded earnings
For the 2015/16 tax year the qualifying earnings band is between £5,824 and £42,385 a year. This means the first £5,824 of an employee’s earnings does not count for the purposes of auto enrolment. So using our Standard plan for auto enrolment for a worker earning £20,000 a year, the amount we would calculate their pension contributions on would be only £14,176.
Basic earnings
These are the basic earnings of the employee excluding any fluctuating income such as bonuses, commission, overtime etc. The whole of the employee’s basic earnings are taken in to account when calculating their contributions. So using our Plus plan for auto enrolment for a worker earning £20,000 before overtime or bonuses, the amount we would calculate their pension contributions on would be the full £20,000.
Until March
2018* March 2019*April 2018 – 2019* onwardsFrom April
Contribution levels
Standard
Meets the minimum contributions required for auto enrolment based on banded earnings 1% Employer 1% Employee 2% Employer 3% Employee 3% Employer 5% Employee Plus
Meets the minimum contributions required for auto enrolment based on basic earnings 2% Employer 1% Employee 3% Employer 3% Employee 4% Employer 5% Employee Stepped saving A phased introduction to a more generous employer pension based on basic earnings 2% Employer 1% Employee 4% Employer 2% Employee 6% Employer 3% Employee Saving plus
Compliant contribution model with total contributions of 10% or more based on basic earnings 5+% Employer 5+% Employee 5+% Employer 5+% Employee 5+% Employer 5+% Employee Matched saving
Employee contributions, based on basic earnings, are matched by employer contributions within minimum and maximum amounts Flexible minimum and maximum ranges between 2-6% Minimum must
be at least 3% be at least 4.5%Minimum must
Plan
101
Plan
103
Plan
102
Plan
104
Plan
105
Keeping track of client applications
It’s easy to keep track of your clients’ applications by logging in to the NOW: Pensions website.
At any point in the application process you can login using your user name and password
and click on
‘Manage my applications’
. In here you’ll see the status of each application.
A description of each status is shown below.
Advanced form
Agreement preview – draft
Agreement preview – draft - shared
Direct Debit setup
Direct Debit setup shared
Agreement preview – final
Waiting for applicant to accept agreement
Application submitted online
Awaiting customer sign
Main application page.
First preview agreement page.
Preview agreement page that has been shared.
Agreement authoriser has clicked “Continue” and clicked “Yes” to “Are you authorised to apply...”, and is now at the Direct Debit page.
Agreement authoriser has clicked “No” to “Are you authorised to sign a Direct Debit Instruction on this account?” and shared the form with someone who is authorised. Agreement authoriser/Direct Debit authoriser has confirmed bank details and has moved to the final preview of the agreement.
Agreement authoriser (for whatever reason) has clicked “No” to “Are you authorised to apply...” and shared the form with someone else to authorise.
Application has been submitted using the electronic method.
Application has been downloaded for wet signature/ posting.
Gaining access to your
payroll bureau microsite
After the application has been approved by NOW: Pensions, you and your client will receive
an email containing your client’s participation agreement.
For more information take a look at our online Help Centre:
www.nowpensions.com/help-centre/payroll/top-faqs
You may find this link to a recorded webinar helpful
in the set up process: www2.nowpensions.com/ webinar-library-payrollbureaux
Contact your regional partnership
manager
When your first client is signed up you’ll receive another email with the URL to your payroll bureau microsite. This will be your unique microsite and we suggest you bookmark it for future use.
You’ll also receive a separate payroll helper email that contains a temporary password to enable you to access your microsite. It also gives you a link to the implementation guide to start setting up your payroll bureau microsite. Click on the URL in the email and use your login details and temporary password to access your microsite.
Once in the site you can manage your password and set up other users. Your microsite will be used for all of your clients who join the NOW: Pensions Master Trust and have asked you to administer the auto enrolment process. You will receive future email notifications informing you of any new employers that have been added to your microsite.
Microsite access Your URL Payroll helper Your password Guide Your microsite Seth
