Following on from Tuesday’s insight which looked in detail at which pension providers integrate with Xero, in this insight we look in detail at how different providers integrate with Sage at each step of the workplace pension processes.

Our data shows that there are currently only five workplace pension providers that currently have active integrations with Sage Payroll, which is more than Xero. These five providers are Aegon Master Trust, Aegon Workplace ARC, Fidelity, Royal London and True Potential.

We have identified 12 key steps in the process where data can be transferred between the payroll provider and pension company, and nine ways in which it can be transferred.

Getting data from one place to another can be a very manual process or an automated process via an Application Programming Interface (APIs).  The nine ways, ranked in order as to what we see best, are:

  • CSV File – manually mapped & uploaded by either the employer or payroll provider
  • CSV File – generated by payroll provider
  • CSV File – generated by payroll provider in an agreed file format and sent manually
  • CSV File – generated by payroll provider in an agreed file format and sent automatically
  • XML File – generated by payroll provider in an agreed file format and sent manually
  • XML File – generated by payroll provider in an agreed file format and sent automatically
  • API (own non-standard)
  • API (standards based)
  • API (standards based plus)

Royal London is able to automate a wide variety of processes with Sage Payroll. Clients can automate receiving an auto-enrolment assessment of employees list, receiving postponement notifications, receiving employer set up notifications, retrieving employers set up details, receiving auto-enrolment list of assessed employees/enrolling workers notification, receiving member contributions/auto-enrolment payroll update notifications, receiving set up details and joiners notifications, receiving payment approval notifications, receiving opt-out notifications, receiving stopped contributions notification, and retrieving funds notifications. Royal London does this via a CSV file which is manually mapped and uploaded by either the employer or payroll provider.

Aegon Master Trust, Aegon Workplace ARC, and Fidelity are also able to automate all the same processes via Sage Payroll. They do this on a CSV File basis, generated by the payroll provider in an agreed file format and sent manually. This would generally be seen as a better than a CSV file which is manually mapped and uploaded by either the employer or payroll provider.

True Potential however has a more limited set of processes it can currently automate via Sage Payroll. Clients of True Potential can only automate receiving automatic-enrolment assessment of employees lists, receiving postponement notifications, receiving auto-enrolment list of assessed employees/enrolling workers notifications, receiving member contributions/auto-enrolment payroll update notifications, receiving set up details/joiners notifications, and receiving payment schedule/contribution notifications. True Potential does this on a CSV File basis, generated by the payroll provider in an agreed file format and sent manually.

Interestingly, no providers integrate with Sage on an API basis. Generally, API integrations are the preferred method for most HR and payroll professionals as they offer a real-time and secure data connection from one software system to another. This limits the amount of rekeying of data and therefore the potential for human error or delays occurring, as well as limiting the amount of work that needs to be done by the employer.

Overall, whilst five workplace pension providers offer integration with Sage Payroll, not all integrations are made equal. Our data shows that the integration from True Potential offers considerable less in terms of automated processes.