Submitting NEST pension through Quickbooks

Employee Status error

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I have a client who we setup up Quickbooks Payroll for them in April. They were using a different payroll software before.   There is only two employees but only one is eligible for the NEST pension

Unfortunately, my client had trouble submitting the pension contributions via Quickbooks to NEST.

It comes up as as an error on "Employee Status" so checked the error.  

As well as ensuring your Nest Provider Reference is correct, the following information should match that recorded with Nest.

1) Employee NI numbers.

2) First & Last Names.

3) Employee Payroll IDs.

4) Payroll schedules will need to match. If you pay your enrolled employees on a monthly basis, Nest should have your payroll schedule as monthly and not weekly.

5) Your contribution amounts in Nest will need to exactly match the amounts you have configured in your Payroll software.

Now I am sure it has something to do with point 5 (as 1-4 is correct) but don't understand why it needs to match and secondly where you need to enter this information in NEST.  I have spoken to Quickbooks and NEST and Quickbooks said its NEST issue and NEST says its a Quickbooks issue.

Would appreciate any inputs - Thanks !

Replies (14)

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By Matrix
01st Jul 2021 15:03

Just enter the figures directly in Nest and submit through there.

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Replying to Matrix:
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By lionofludesch
01st Jul 2021 18:01

Matrix wrote:

Just enter the figures directly in Nest and submit through there.

That's the one, Sanjay.

Don't make it hard for yourself.

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Replying to Matrix:
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By sanjay100
01st Jul 2021 18:46

Yes I know but just be easier to have everything automated rather than my client having to log into NEST each time.

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By lionofludesch
01st Jul 2021 18:54

sanjay100 wrote:

Yes I know but just be easier to have everything automated rather than my client having to log into NEST each time.

It would if it worked.

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Replying to sanjay100:
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By Matrix
01st Jul 2021 18:59

Which services are you providing? We provide payroll and pension but we don’t act as a help desk if clients decide to do these themselves.

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Replying to Matrix:
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By sanjay100
03rd Jul 2021 12:09

Where possible stay away from payroll and book-keeping but really set them up so they can manage everything themselves as its not difficult.

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By Matrix
03rd Jul 2021 13:31

Completely agree about bookkeeping but payroll/pensions can be quite lucrative.

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Replying to Matrix:
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By sanjay100
04th Jul 2021 13:05

I don't think payroll or pensions are that lucrative as both don't take much time. If its something the client can do I let them do it and move onto higher value jobs. Certain services are win win for both parties as client ends up with lower fees and I don't get bogged down with routine stuff though some can argue lost revenue

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By User deleted
01st Jul 2021 16:15

Maybe suggest the client uses a proper payroll program.

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By carnmores
02nd Jul 2021 17:42

Sadly this is uninformed nonsense

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JCACE
By jcace
01st Jul 2021 18:53

You will need to ensure that your payroll software is correctly configured to calculate contributions on the same basis as NEST eg qualifying earnings, standard contribution %, net of tax. It's also worth double checking the other points, as sometimes NEST schedules can be a day different, causing rejection. So I would double-check all other points with a fine toothcomb.

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Replying to jcace:
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By sanjay100
03rd Jul 2021 12:22

Yes have checked everything. The only difference is they changed from May to NOT using qualifying earnings to June from using qualifying earnings. I have submitted May Pension manually and once that goes through will try to submit the June Pension though QuickBooks.

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By bernard michael
02nd Jul 2021 09:46

I've had this before and it turned out to be your para 4
I don't understand para 5 as Nest receives it's information from the payroll so they can't be different

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Replying to bernard michael:
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By Hugo Fair
02nd Jul 2021 12:30

".. as Nest receives it's information from the payroll so they can't be different."

Unfortunately it can be different, because 'it' is arrived at via two channels. One, as you would expect, is indeed what your payroll has notified to NEST ... but the other is what NEST has calculated *should* be the value. And these two obviously have the potential to differ.

To be fair, this is not specific only to NEST ... it is how all the major schemes were initially instructed to behave by TPR (presumably in case payroll 'got it wrong').
And, as jcace indicates above, it's a way for the Pension scheme to check whether or not your payroll is using all the same parameters for the calc.

Basically because there are so many variables across different pension schemes, extreme care is needed when setting up your payroll to handle a specific scheme (and there are some really major howlers out there).

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