Pension Process

InPay currently has an API connection with People's Pension and Nest. This provides a two way stream of data, with opt out information coming into InPay and contribution information being sent directly to your pension provider. This means there is no requirement to download and the upload information, making your pension process quicker and more efficient. 

Please note: We would encourage you to check your data before uploading contributions to your pension provider. Data such as titles matching gender, and contributions matching auto-enrolment scheme requirements could potentially cause a contribution file to fail upload. 

Setup 

Go to company - pension schemes and to the provider details section. 

Provider - You can select either Nest pensions, or People Pensions. 

Company ref - This is the pension provider's reference. 

Nest pension - This will start with EMP followed by 9 numbers. 

People's pension - This will be numerical only. 

Last update - The date to retrieve opt outs from. Leave this blank to go as far back as possible. If you want to enter a date it must DD/MM/YYYY. 

The question mark will take you the pension section of the knowledge base as well. 

Please note: Nest Pension - If you are connecting to Nest you will also need to fill out custom ref 1 with the group name and custom ref 2 with the payment source. You will find these on within your NEST account. Once complete click save. 

If you haven't already you will need to fill out the rest of your pension details in the screen for each scheme you have. Go to company pension schemes for further help on how to fill out the full section.

Connecting to pension provider 

You will then need to log into the pension provider via InPay. 

In the top menu bar go to processing and then pension process. 

Select your provider in the dropdown. Your provider will only appear if you have set up the pension provider details as above. 

Click the - click here to login in and retrieve data from the pension provider - banner in the opt outs section to login to the pension provider and retrieve opt outs. 

It will then ask for your login details to your pension provider. 

Nest - a box will appear for you to enter the username and password you use to login to your nest account.

People's Pension - takes you to their website, you will need to login to your account.

Once logged in, a refresh token will be stored against your InPay user to remove the need to login in the future. Please note: If you don't use this page within 40 days you will need to login again.

Selecting payrolls and retrieving data

When you are ready to retrieve/send data, go to processing in the top menu bar,  and then pension process.

Select the payroll and pension provider in the dropdowns. You can check the account info, this will confirm if you are logged in, and provide details of the data.

If you are already logged in, your opt out data will be in the opt out section. However you can click refresh to check for any further data. This will also update any changes when you submit your contributions.

Your opt out data will be shown below. 

If you see - the click here to login in and retrieve data from the pension provider banner. This means you are logged out. Simply follow the process above to reconnect to your pension provider. 

Uploading opt outs

To upload opt out information, tick each applicable opt out that you wish to load into InPay.

Nest - Opt out information from Nest will only go back one month. Anything over that will not come through. 

You can use the search filter or the arrows to search for data. 

When ready, click apply selected. Please note: this will only apply to the entries you have ticked. 

If you wish to archive any opt out, tick the entry and click archive selected. 

Submitting contributions

To create a new submission, click Generate Submission, enter a period (0 - current, 1 - last or any valid period E.G. 202401), then click Generate. You will see an entry appear at the top with the current date and time, and a status of pending. You will see a total contribution column and the pay period column as well. You can also review historical submissions as well. 

Review the submission - Click the purple report button to review the submission data. 

A box will appear with all employee data required. You will have the option to CSV this information. Click close when ready.

Send the submission - Click the green arrow button to send the submission. The pension provider will queue the submission for processing. You can click the green refresh button at the top of the page next to the account info to update the page.

Delete the submission - If you don't want to send the data over to your pension provider you can click on the red dustbin, this will remove the submission. You will only have this option if the status is pending or has an error. 

Your status bar will change to accepted contributions. If you hover over this you will see an expected upload time.

Reviewing errors - If there are any errors, you will see a red error status bar. Click on this to load you error report. The report will advise you of the issue.

You will need to amend the errors, and then start the generate submission again. 

People's pension errors - You will get a link to the details of the errors.                                               

Nest Pension - You will see the employees no and the error. 

Successful submission - You will see a green uploaded status bar if the upload has been successful. 

Editing

Pending submissions can be edited before sending. Click the report button to view the submission. Click the row to edit.

Editable fields will be separated by a small white border. Edit the value and click the green save button to update the submission.

To delete rows, select the row, then click the red delete button.

Pending changes will be highlighted with a dark grey border, to cancel changes, click the Close button

FAQs

Incorrect Pay Reference Period

This can happen for one of two reasons:

The period has a pay date after the end date of the period - Some pension providers require the next pay period start and end dates to be sent where this is the case. If the pay date does not match, there is a setting on the Pension Scheme page to change the pay date to more closely match the date on the Nest side. More details can be found here: Company Pension Schemes.

The period start and end dates are incorrect on InPay or the pension provider - Correct one system and generate a new submission.

Errors From Nest

"The information you've entered for this member doesn't match this schedule. Please check that the earnings period for this member matches this schedule. You should also check that the payment source or start date for this member matches this schedule."

This is a standard error from Nest, usually this is one of the following:

Data not matching between Nest and InPay - Ensure key data matches. E.G. Surname, NI Number, AE Date

Nest is still processing data - It can take 30 minutes for updates to be processed once received by Nest.

Check data between InPay and Nest matches. If all looks ok, contact Nest to see why they have rejected the submission.

"StartDate The value provided is not a valid value for date"

This is usually returned from NEST where a joiner has been sent without an Auto Enrolment Start Date. This commonly occurs where the Opt In Date has been populated for an employee. Remove the Opt In Date and regenerate the submission.