Payroll management solutions are the core weapon of a payroll professional’s arsenal. In this insight we look in detail at how different workplace pension providers integrate with the Ceridian payroll system.
There is a perception by many that payroll is a simple process, with payroll professionals confined to the simple processing of the remuneration of staff. However, payroll professionals often make value contributions to a range of finance and HR projects when not snowed under by the management of company payroll, including managing workplace pension contributions.
Therefore, flexible integration between a workplace pension provider and payroll provider, accurately calculating and paying employer contributions, can make a big difference to the daily working life of payroll professionals.
Originally mainly used by HR and payroll professionals in the US, Ceridian now has a sizeable presence in the UK and Ireland providing payroll and HR data services to a range of retail and hospitality, manufacturing, health and social care, financial services and public sector businesses.
Ceridian is often deeply embedded within the businesses it serves. Its flagship Dayforce enterprise HCM software combines payroll, HR, benefits, talent and workforce management in a single cloud application.
Therefore, integration with Ceridian can be an important factor for HR and payroll professionals involved in the selection with a workplace pension provider.
Ceridian is one of the better served payroll management solutions by workplace pension providers with 9 provider propositions with an active integration with Ceridian payroll.
Aegon Master Trust and Aegon Workplace ARC are able to automate receiving auto enrolment assessment of employees lists, receiving postponement notifications, receiving employer set up notifications, retrieving employer setup details, receiving autoenrollment list of assessed employees/enrolling workers notifications, receiving member contributions/autoenrollment notifications, receiving set up details/joiners notifications, receiving payment approval notifications, receiving payment schedule/contribution notifications, receiving opt-out notifications, receiving stopped contributions notifications and retrieving refunds notifications.
Both providers these all on a CSV file basis with the file generated by the payroll provider in an agreed file format and sent manually.
Royal London can support the same range of integrations, also on a CSV file basis. In Royal London’s case this file in manually mapped and uploaded by either the employer or the payroll provider.
Standard Life and Standard Life DC Master Trust also offer most of the same range of integrations. However, neither is able to automate receiving employer setup notifications, receiving set up details/joiners notifications, or receiving payment approval notifications. The remainder of integrations are offered on a CSV file basis with the file generated by the payroll provider in an agreed file format and sent manually.
Legal & General and Legal & General Master Trust also offer live integrations with Ceridian payroll. Both providers can currently automate receiving autoenrollment lists of assessed employees/enrolling workers notifications, receiving member contributions/AE payroll update notifications, receiving set up details/joiners notifications, receiving payment schedule/contribution notifications, receiving opt-out notifications, receiving stopped contributions notifications and retrieving refunds notifications. Both providers do this on a CSV file basis with the file generated by the payroll provider in an agreed file format and sent automatically.
Scottish Widows is another provider to offer integration with Ceridian payroll. Clients of Scottish Widows are able to automate receiving autoenrollment lists of assessed employees/enrolling workers notifications, receiving member contributions / autoenrollment payroll update notifications, receiving opt-out notifications, receiving stopped contribution notification and retrieving refunds notifications. This is done on a CSV file basis with the file generated by the payroll provider in an agreed file format and sent manually.
Scottish Widows clients are also able to automate receiving setup details/joiners notifications on an XML file basis, with the file generated by the payroll provider in an agreed file format and sent manually.
Scottish Widows Master Trust and Mercer Master Trust (Scottish Widows) also offer an integration, but neither provider disclosed what it could automate and on what basis.
The final provider to offer an active integration with Ceridian payroll is Aviva Designer. Clients of Aviva Designer are able to automate receiving autoenrollment lists of assessed employees/enrolling workers notifications, receiving member contributions / autoenrollment payroll update notifications, receiving set up details/joiners notifications, receiving payment approval notifications, receiving payment schedule/contribution notifications, and receiving stopped contributions notifications. The integrations are offered on a CSV file basis, with the file generated by the payroll provider in an agreed file format and sent manually.
Overall, our data shows that whilst 9 workplace pension providers offer some form of integration with Ceridian payroll, not all integrations are made equal. Aegon Master Trust and Aegon Workplace ARC and Royal London offer the widest range of available automations.
It is also worth noting that all integrations are done on a CSV file basis. Unlike some integrations with fellow payroll systems including 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.
