Flexible integration between a workplace pension provider and a chosen payroll provider to accurately calculate employer contributions can make a big difference to the daily working life of payroll professionals. In this insight we look in detail at how different providers integrate with the Workday payroll system.

Nowadays most payroll professionals use automated payroll management solutions to help them with the process of the management of company payroll, processing data and making payments, including managing workplace pension contributions.

One of the most used payroll systems is Workday. Workday offers finance, HR, planning and spend software through one system particularly popular with larger organisations. With a 97% customer satisfaction rating, wrenching Workday away from an organisation can be a challenge is it is generally deeply embedded within an organisation across a range of departments.

The Workday payroll system boasts that it is all even the largest organisation could need to mange payroll for the UK. It also enables users to dial payroll services up or down, while still maintaining payroll control and visibility due to partnering with other companies.

Therefore, integration with Workday is an important factor for HR and payroll professionals involved in the selection with a workplace pension provider.

Despite its popularity and boasting that it is a “single solution from hire to retire”, our data shows that just four workplace pension providers currently offer an active integration with Workday payroll. Those four providers are Aegon Master Trust, Aegon Workplace ARC, Fidelity and Royal London.

All four providers offer clients the ability to automate the same range of processes:

  • Receiving autoenrollment assessment of employees lists
  • Receiving postponement notifications
  • Receiving employer setup notifications
  • Retrieving employer setup details
  • Receiving autoenrollment lists of assessed employees/enrolling workers notifications
  • Receiving member contributions / autoenrollment payroll update notifications
  • Receiving setup details/joiners notifications
  • Receiving payment approval notifications
  • Receiving payment schedules/contribution notifications
  • Receiving opt-out notifications, receiving stopped contribution notification
  • Retrieving refunds notifications

For Aegon Master Trust, Aegon Workplace ARC and Fidelity this is done on a CSV file basis with the file generated by the payroll provider in an agreed file format and sent manually.

For Royal London this is also done on a CSV file basis but the file is manually mapped and uploaded by either the employer or the payroll provider.

It is also worth noting that all integrations are done on a CSV file basis. Unlike some integrations with fellow payroll systems Sage and Xero, some of which are done 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.