SD Worx Auto Enrolment (AE) module enables you to meet all of your Pension AE obligations through a single seamlessly integrated payroll and administration solution.

Key Application Features

SD Worx AE solution ensures efficient, timely and accurate pension contribution transactions, without the need for significant manual input. The software automatically identifies and enrols relevant employees into the chosen pension scheme and enables you to manage all aspects of administration:

Payroll functionality that performs all the worker assessment monitoring activity including postponement, auto enrolment into the pension, calculation of pension contributions, taking deductions, and automatically processing refunds for opted out workers
An administration and communication module providing employee self-service access to all pensions related information, messages & self-service processes and; back office administration access to all pensions related data, reports, correspondence and a case management tool
Data exports to pass data to the Pension provider
Import facility to allow the import of Opt Out instructions from the Pensions provider
Electronic reporting

Customers using an alternative system to manage the employee communication aspects of Auto Enrolment, have access to HRevolution Auto Enrolment Essentials which delivers:

Payroll functionality that performs all the worker assessment monitoring activity including auto enrolment into the pension, calculation of pension contributions, taking deductions, and automatically processing refunds for opted out workers
Data exports to pass data to the Pension provider
Data exports to pass data to the 3^rd party administration system
Import facility to allow the import of Opt Out instructions from the Pensions provider
Electronic reporting

Benefits

Minimal Payroll operational impact: We deliver auto enrolment assessment and monitoring that works in harmony with your existing payroll processes and schedules; eliminating the risk and additional administrative activity introduced by assessing workers external to payroll.

Best practice technology and processes: In addition to auto enrolment assessment and monitoring, we deliver a suite of fully automated set of auto enrolment processes providing you access to capabilities that cover all aspects of your auto enrolment obligations, for example online opt in and join processes; ability to opt out of salary sacrifice.

Reduced Costs: Auto Enrolment module is delivered via the internet as a Software as a Service based application providing access to all Auto Enrolment information and communications via employee self-service. Optional paper-based communications are available if required,

Management Information: Our comprehensive suite of reports provides you with the on-demand management information that you need to support compliance audits and key decision-making processes.

Auto Enrolment (AE) Essentials

AE Essentials solution has been designed to automate all the worker assessment activity including AE into the pension, calculation of pension contributions, taking deductions, and automatically processing refunds for opted out workers

Auto Enrolment Essentials also forms the basis for SD Worx Auto Enrolment solution.

Pensions Schemes

SD Worx Payroll has been built to handle all types of pension scheme and offers functionality that is designed to automate all aspects of pension calculation:

Handling of up to 99 cash or percentage payroll pension configurations
Configuration of different pensionable pay for different pensions
Calculations for tax approved schemes
Calculation of contracted-out pension schemes
Automatic reduction of employee percentage contribution by the basic rate of tax
Default employee and employer percentages that can be overridden at employee level
Default employee and employer cash contributions
Calculation of percentage contribution between lower and upper limits, either as cash or defined pseudonym values (i.e. LT, UT, etc)
Supplementary (AVC) contributions
Salary sacrifice (see Salary Sacrifice)

Auto-enrolment

Following processing of a live or trial payroll AE Essentials will assess, categorise and where appropriate auto-enrol employees into a qualifying pension scheme.

Postponement

Each payroll can be configured to postpone AE for eligible jobholders for the following periods:

1 to 3 months on a monthly payroll
1 to 3 periods on a lunar payroll
1 to 6 periods on a fortnightly payroll
1 to 13 weeks on a weekly payroll.

The system can also be configured to postpone different groups of employees within a single payroll for different postponement periods; however, this does not form part of our standard implementation.

To avoid complex pro-ration calculation where employees become eligible part way through a pay reference period the system requires that eligible jobholders are postponed to at least the beginning of the next pay reference period (one pay period).

Through data generation all employees can be postponed at staging date for clients using General Postponement Notices.

AE Qualifying Earnings

Facilities are available to define which elements of pay (allowances) should be included in the calculation of qualifying earnings for assessment purposes.

AE Pension Scheme

Following a period of postponement workers will be assessed and if eligible, enrolled into the default AE scheme. The default AE scheme will be configured with default percentage contributions to ensure that workers can be auto-enrolled with no interaction from the user. Workers can also be enrolled into a salary sacrifice pension scheme (see Salary Sacrifice).

The default AE scheme will also be used for non-eligible jobholder who request to opt into a pension scheme. Functionality exists through standard payroll data codes (see Payroll Processing) or if purchased through the AE Module (see Employee Opt In) to opt into pension savings.

The system can also be configured to auto-enrol different groups of workers within a single payroll into different auto-enrolment scheme or with different contributions. Please note that this does not form part of the scope of our standard implementation but can be included for an additional charge.

Qualifying Pension Schemes

Any existing qualifying pension schemes can be marked as a Qualifying Scheme. Eligible jobholders who are members of an existing (qualifying) pension scheme will not be auto enrolled into the default AE scheme but will be categorised appropriately to ensure compliance should they choose to leave the scheme at a future date.

Entitled Worker Scheme

A default entitled worker scheme can be defined within the system for entitled workers to join. Functionality exists through standard payroll data codes (see Payroll Processing) or if purchased through the AE Module (see Employee Join) to join pension savings.

If at a later time a workers earnings increase and they opt-in or are auto-enrolled into the auto-enrolment scheme, the system will automatically close their membership of any entitled worker schemes at the point in which they are enrolled into the auto-enrolment scheme.

Opt Out / Ceasing Membership

To simplify the opt out / ceasing membership process, functionality exists through standard payroll data codes (see Payroll Processing) or if purchased through the AE Module (see Employee Opt Out and Employee Cease Membership) to opt a worker out of pension savings.

These processes will automatically assess the workers to ascertain if they were auto enrolled as an eligible jobholder or were assessed as an eligible jobholder at any point while being a member of qualifying scheme. In these circumstances relevant dates will be recorded to mark the worker for triennial re-enrolment purposes. In all other circumstance the worker will be marked as a non-eligible jobholder or entitled worker and will be re-assessed in the subsequent pay period.

For workers opting out within the 1 month opt out window, the system can automatically refund any employee and employer contribution and reverse any salary sacrifice.

Triennial Re-enrolment

Triennial re-enrolment commenced in 2015 SD Worx HRE Pension AE incorporates functionality to support this process. User employers must ensure that SD Worx payroll control parameters are aware of the next triennial re-enrolment point,

Salary Sacrifice

To assist clients wanting to take advantage of the cost saving of salary sacrifice SD Worx offers the ability to auto enrol eligible jobholders into salary sacrifice pension schemes.

For workers opting out within the 1 month opt out window the system will reverse any salary sacrifice or pay the amounts sacrificed under an alternate pay code.

For workers who choose not to take advantage of salary sacrifice functionality exists through standard payroll data codes (see Payroll Processing) or if purchased through the AE Module (see Employee Pension Salary Sacrifice Opt Out and Employee Salary Sacrifice Opt In) to opt the worker into and out of salary sacrifice.

A single AE scheme can include salary sacrifice and non-salary sacrifice workers, however, the same default percentage contributions must be used for both groups, with the exception that employee pension contributions can be reduced by the basic rate of tax if required.

To simplify salary sacrifice and make it easy to understand on both payslips and reports SD Worx will configure as follows:

A full (notional) salary will be held for the employee which will be displayed on the payslip.
A negative payment will reduce the full (notional) salary and will be displayed on the payslip.
Employer contributions resulting from the salary sacrifice can be added to the employer’s contributions on the same scheme or can be displayed (on payslips and reports) against a different scheme.

Pension Reform Indicator (P030)

Below is the list of statuses that will be visible on an employee’s record through Payroll

Status	Description
A or blank	Worker is not eligible for AE and will be assessed again in the next payroll period
C	Worker was assessed as an eligible jobholder and was auto-enrolled or was already a member of a qualifying pension scheme
H	Employee is a member of a Hybrid or DB scheme and is exempt from AE (used until 2017)
I	A non-eligible jobholder who has opted into the AE scheme
J	An entitled worker or non-eligible jobholder who has joined the entitled worker scheme
O	Eligible jobholder who has opted out / ceased active membership.
P	Worker is in a period of postponement and will be assessed again in the pay reference period following the postponement end date
X	Employee is over 75 or has been manually excluded from auto-enrolment for another reason (i.e. non-worker)

Payroll Processing

Upon processing of a new open payroll period, AE Essentials will undertake the assessment of any workers who are set to any of the following payroll statuses, see Pension Reform Indicator (P030):

A – Non-eligible Jobholder, Entitled Worker or under 16
I – Non-eligible jobholder who has opted into the AE scheme.
J – An entitled worker or non-eligible jobholder who has joined the entitled worker scheme.

Additionally, AE Essentials will assess any worker who is at the end of their postponement period.

Following the assessment, the system will categorise workers and auto-enrol into a pension scheme where required. For a detailed process flow see Payroll Assessment Process and Payroll Postponement End Process

New Payroll Data Codes

The following are available as new data codes within the following SD Worx payroll systems

HRevolution Payroll (HRe5P)
CPS 1.0
Source Payroll

These new data codes can be entered through the data entries screens or alternatively import templates can be setup to import data.

Code	Valid Entries	Description
E210	Y N	AE salary sacrifice override
P001	NN/NN/NN/NN	Employee Qualifying Pension Scheme(s)
P002	NN/NN/NN/NN	Employee Entitled Pension Scheme(s)
P004	NN	AE Postponement Periods
P008	AUTOENROL/DDMMYYYY OPTIN/DDMMYYYY JOIN/DDMMYYYY	AE Opt in or Join
P009	OPTOUT/DDMMYYYY/NOREFUND OPTOUT/DDMMYYYY/REFUND	Opt out of with or without a refund
P030	X/DDMMYYYY	Pension Reform Indicator, see section 2.4
P031	XX/Y XX/N	Salary sacrifice override
P032	XX/999999999	Employee Contributions in this Enrolment
P033	XX/999999999	Employer Contributions in this Enrolment

Auto Enrolment (AE) Module

SD Worx Auto Enrolment (AE) Module is delivered as a Software as a Service (SaaS). The module allows Pension Administrators to manage all payroll aspects of AE and to view the results of the live payroll processing of pension and AE Information. There are no requirements to install software on company PCs or networks; just an up to date web browser.

The AE Module consists of the following add-ins for managing all aspects of administration:

Authentication and Query Management
Assisted Self Service
Employee Communications
Employee Information
Reporting

Employee Information

The AE Module is fully integrated with AE Essentials solution and will display AE and pension information following processing of a live payroll.

Employee and AE Information

For each employee the following data will be stored, displayed and updated each pay period based on any changes provided into the payroll system.

Employee Number
Employee Name
Age
Employment Leaving Date
Current AE Status

AE information will be stored and displayed per pay period:

Pay Date
Pay Reference Period End Date
AE Status
Enrolment Date (if employee has been auto-enrolled)
Opt Out Date (if employee has opted out / ceased membership and was an eligible jobholder)
Postponement Date (if employee is in a period of postponement)
Qualifying Earnings (no bandings, this is the full amount on which the worker is assessed)

Pension Information

For each pension scheme the employee is a member of the following pension information will be stored and displayed per pay period:

Pay Date
Pension Scheme Number
Pension Scheme Joined Date
Pension Scheme Left Date (if applicable)
Pensionable Pay
Salary Sacrifice Contributions
Employee Contributions
Supplementary Contributions
Employer Contributions
Employee Contributions in Pension Year
Supplementary Contributions in Pension Year
Employer Contributions in Pension Year

Auto Enrolment or AE Status

Below is the list of statuses that will be visible on an employee’s record through the AE Module

Status	Description
AE completed	Employee was assessed as an eligible jobholder and was auto enrolled or was already a member of a qualifying pension scheme
Postponement	Employee is in a period of postponement and will be assessed again in the pay reference period following the postponement end date
Non-Eligible Jobholder	Employee is a non-eligible jobholder
Entitled Worker	Employee is an entitled worker
Opt Out	Eligible jobholder who has opted out / ceased active membership
Opt In	A non-eligible jobholder who has opted into the auto-enrolment scheme
Opt In Requested	Employee has requested to opt into the AE scheme and the opt in has been deferred as the employee’s earnings are not above the lower threshold. Employee will continue to be assessed each payroll period until earnings increase above the lower threshold at which point the opt in will occur
Entitled Joiner	An entitled worker who has joined the entitled worker scheme
Entitled Joiner (Non-eligible)	A non-eligible jobholder who has joined the entitled worker scheme
Hybrid or DB exclusion	Employee is a member of a Hybrid or DB scheme and was exempt from AE until 2017
Exempt	Employee is under 16, over 75 or has been manually excluded from AE for another reason (i.e. non-worker)

Documentation

It is possible to scan and upload any relevant forms against the employee’s record within the AE Module. Examples of such forms are:

Opt In
Join
Opt Out
Cease Membership

Authentication and Query Handling

The following section details the processes that will be used in the AE Module for authenticating employees and dealing with queries.

Employee Authentication

Employee Authentication allows Administration users to validate an employee’s identification to provide assisted self-service functionality over the telephone. For a detailed process flow see Employee Authentication.

Query Management

Query Management allows Administration users to log, categorise and record a resolution to any queries that the employee has raised in relation to Auto Enrolment.

Queries which are not responded to immediately can remain open for future resolution and can be viewed by all Administration users with access to the system, see Query Management.

The “Brief Description” and “Description” fields are free text all other fields are entered from standard lists. The values available within the lists are:

Field	Value
Query Processes	Pensions
Query Sub Process	AE Cease Memberships Contributions Fund Valuation Join Opt In Opt Out Other Pension Query Refund Retirement Information
Query Type	How do I… Further Information
Query Status	Active Closed Escalated Pending 3^rd Party
Communication Method	Document/Letter Email Fax Telephone

For a detailed process flow see Appendix A

Employee Contact Management

Employee contact management allows an Administration user to review open employee queries and update or close where appropriate. For a detailed process flow see Appendix A

Assisted Self Service

The following section details the forms which an Administration user can process on behalf of an employee or following receipt of appropriate documentation.

Employee Membership Request

Administration users can enter a request from an employee to become a member of a pension scheme. The system will check if the employee is a jobholder or entitled worker and display the correct opt in / join form. If the employee is already a member of a pension scheme or is not eligible to join a pension scheme the system will advise of an invalid request. Once the completed form is submitted it will be logged against the employee’s record as a request (see section 3.3.8) and submitted to payroll for processing (see section 3.6). For a detailed process flow see Appendix A.6.

Invalid Request

Join Form

Opt In Form

Employee Opt In

Administration users can enter a request from an employee to opt into an AE pension scheme. Once the completed form is submitted it will be logged against the employee’s record as a request (see section 3.3.8) and submitted to payroll for processing (see section 3.6). For a detailed process flow see Appendix A.7.

Employee Join

Administration users can enter a request from an employee to join the entitled worker pension scheme. Once the completed form is submitted it will be logged against the employee’s record as a request (see section 3.3.8) and submitted to payroll for processing (see section 3.6). For a detailed process see Appendix A.8.

Employee Opt-Out

Administration users can enter a request from an employee to opt-out of pension savings. Due to anti-inducement legislation, this process should only be used for keying of an opt-out received on a paper form which has been provided to the employee by the pension provider. Once the completed form is submitted it will be logged against the employee’s record as a request (see section 3.3.8) and submitted to payroll for processing (see section 3.6). For a detailed process see Appendix A.9.

Employee Cease Membership

Administration users can enter a request from an employee to cease membership of a pension scheme. Once the completed form is submitted it will be logged against the employee’s record as a request (see section 3.3.8) and submitted to payroll for processing (see section 3.6). For a detailed process see Appendix A.10.

Employee Pension Salary Sacrifice Opt Out

Administration users can enter a request from an employee to opt of salary sacrifice. This can be entered either following AE or prior to AE (i.e. during postponement). Once the completed form is submitted it will be logged against the employee’s record as a request (see section 3.3.8) and submitted to payroll for processing (see section 3.6). For a detailed process see Appendix A.11.

Employee Pension Salary Sacrifice Opt In

Administration users can enter a request from an employee to opt into salary sacrifice. This can be entered either following AE or prior to AE (i.e. during postponement). Once the completed form is submitted it will be logged against the employee’s record as a request (see section 3.3.8) and submitted to payroll for processing (see section 3.6). For a detailed process see Appendix A.12.

Requests

All requests submitted through the AAE Module will be logged against an employee’s record along with the date the request was submitted and the user who submitted it.

Employee Self-Service

The following section details the forms that employees can submit directly through the employee self-service section of the AE Module.

Self-Registration

Employees can access self-service using a self-registration process. The self-registration process can be configured to identify employees based on any of the following information.

Field	Description
Payroll Number	This is the 6-digit payroll number allocated by SD Worx to uniquely identify the payroll
Net Pay	The employee’s most recent net pay figure
Bank Account number	The employee’s bank account number that their salary is paid into
Bank Sort Code	The sort code for the bank into which the employee’s salary is paid
Forenames	The employee’s forenames
Date of joining	The employee’s commencement date of with the business
Main Cost Code	The employee’s main cost code
Post Code	The employee’s home post code
Employee Number	The employee’s unique ID number on the payroll
Tax Code	The employee’s current tax code

During the self-registration process the employee will be able to define their:

Username
Password
Preferred email address

Once registered for self-service all communication will be switched from paper to electronic, see section 3.5.

Pension Membership Request

Through self-service employees can submit a request to become a member of a pension scheme. Upon selecting the form, the system will check:

If the employee is a jobholder or entitled worker and display the correct opt in / join form (as shown below).
If the employee is already a member of a pension scheme or is not eligible to join the system will advise of an invalid request.

Once the employee completes the form it will be logged as a request (see section 3.3.8) and submitted to payroll for processing (see section 3.6). For a detailed process flow see Appendix A.13.

Invalid Request

Opt In Form

Join Form

Leave Pension Scheme Request

Through self-service employees can submit a request to leave a pension scheme. Dependent upon individual circumstances, the system will do one of the following:

If the request is made within the opt-out window the system will direct the employee to the opt out process on the pension provider’s website.
If the employee is not currently a member of a pension scheme, the system will display an invalid request.
If they are outside the opt-out window the system will provide the employee with a cease active membership form which once completed will be logged as a request (see section 3.3.8) and submitted to payroll for processing (see section 3.6).

For a detailed process see Appendix A.14.

Invalid Request

Opt Out Form

Cease Membership Form

Change Pension Contributions

Through self-service employees can submit a request to change their contributions to a pension scheme. Once submitted the request will be sent to the Administration user for approval before being sent to the Payroll Administrator to be entered into payroll. For a more detailed process flow see Appendix A.15.

Pension Scheme Contribution Information will display text from the pension scheme which the employee is a member of detailing the rules around contribution changes.

Communications

The Auto Enrolment Module can produce both legislative and non-legislative communications to be sent to employees for auto enrolment purposes. The legislative communications contain all required information to meet the requirements within the Pension Regulator guidance. Employees who are registered for self-service will receive communications via secure messaging while word documents will be produced containing letters for employees who are not registered.

Types of Communications

The below list provides information on the communications that can be generated from the Auto Enrolment Module.

Name of Message / Letter	Explanation	Legislative
Entitled Worker	Produced when an employee first becomes an entitled worker, providing they are not in a qualifying pension scheme	Yes
Non-eligible jobholder	Produced when an employee first becomes a non-eligible jobholder, providing they are not in a qualifying pension scheme	Yes
Jobholder, active member of a qualifying Scheme	Produced when the employee becomes a eligible or non-eligible jobholder and is in a qualifying pension scheme	Yes
General notice A/B	Produced when an employee enters a period of postponement at staging date	Yes (if using worker postponement at staging)
Tailored notice for a jobholder	Produced when an employee enters a period of postponement (except at staging where the general notice is used)	Yes
Automatically enrolled	Produced when an employee is auto-enrolled or opts into the auto-enrolment pension scheme May be issued by Pension Provider	Yes
Joined entitled worker scheme	Produced when an employee joins the joiner pension scheme May be issued by Pension Provider	Yes
Confirmation of opt out	Produced when an employee opts out of the auto-enrolment pension scheme	No
Confirmation of leaving scheme	Produced when an employee leaves the joiner scheme or opts out of the auto-enrolment pension scheme but was not an eligible jobholder	No
Opt-in deferred	Produced for employees who requests to opt into the auto-enrolments scheme, but upon assessment in the enrolment period is found to be an entitled worker	No

Generating Communications

To ensure that communications are generated at the appropriate time Administration users can determine when to produce communications.

Following submission of the request, electronic communications will be sent to employees who are registered for self-service and generate letters in Word document format for employees who are not.

Should any communications not be required, e.g. non-legislative, the corresponding check boxes can turned off during the implementation. This ensures they are not generated as part of the process to release communications to the employees. If required these can be switched back on at a future date.

Communication Recording

Following the generation of communications, a record will be stored against each employee detailing which communications was generated and the date.

Administration users will also have the ability to select the communication and regenerate at a later date.

Payroll Submission

HRe Payroll

For clients using HRe Payroll, the submission of the following requests to payroll will occur automatically.

Opt In
Join
Cease membership
Opt Out
Salary Sacrifice Opt Out
Salary Sacrifice Opt In

Auto Enrolment Reports

As a standard part of SD Worx AE solutions the following reports are available which can be produced electronically in a variety of format (i.e. csv, pdf, etc)

Auto-enrolment
Auto-enrolment Summary
Contributions by Employee
Employee Pension Reconciliation
Pension Reconciliation
Pension Summary
Organisation Pension Summary

Auto Enrolment (AE)

The AE report details the AE information for each employee and can also be produced by paygroup or by department.

Report Criteria

The following criteria are available for selection when running the export

Company Payroll Number
Period Run Types (i.e. Live, Trial)
Tax Year / Period
Auto Enrolment Status (see See)
Paygroups (when producing by paygroup)
Departments (when producing by department)

Report Information

The following information is contained within the report

Paygroup / Department (when producing by paygroup or department)
Employee No
Employee Name
National Insurance Number
Date of Birth
Auto Enrolment Status (see section 3.1.3)
Qualifying earning
Auto Enrolment Date
Postponement Date
Opt Out Date
Pension Scheme
Employee Contribution % (If set at employee level)
Employer Contribution % (If set at employee level)

AE Summary

The AE Summary report can be produced by paygroup, by department detailing the total number of employees by auto enrolment status in each paygroup / department:

Report Criteria

The following criteria are available for selection when running the export

Company Payroll Number
Period Run Types (i.e. Live, Trial)
Tax Year / Period
Auto Enrolment Status (see See)
Paygroups (when producing by paygroup) or Departments (when producing by department)

Report Information

The following information is contained within the report

AE Status (see See)
Paygroup / Department (when producing by paygroup or department)
Employee Count (number of employees within this Paygroup / Auto Enrolment Status)