Pensions can be a pain for payroll – here’s how we can help

Dan Donovan has worked for the UK’s leading workplace pension providers across the last 20 years.

Having worked for many businesses across the pensions sector, one of the most pleasing things for me since joining Smart Pension is the love we get from payroll teams. The amount of time many are saving each month is significant, and I want to make it known so I can help other payroll teams.

Does this sound familiar to you?

These are comments I’ve heard from payroll companies and teams about other pension providers versus what I’ve heard about Smart Pension.

1. “I have to complete so many admin tasks every month, such as adding new enrolments and uploading contributions.”
   Versus
   “With Smart Pension I can update everything with a single easy file upload.”

2. “I have to wait up to an hour for my pension provider to process new enrolments before I can upload the contributions… it drives me mad!”
   Versus
   “I can see enrolments on screen instantly, as soon as I’ve uploaded my file, with Smart Pension.”
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3. “I have to wait ages for my pension provider to process my contributions before I can see them to check everything is OK… sometimes, I have to wait overnight!”
   Versus
   “With Smart Pension I can see contributions on-screen instantly, as soon as the file is processed, even for larger files. This makes it so easy for me to check the totals against my payroll report.”

4. “I have to manually approve payments.”
   Versus
   “Smart Pension automatically collects the payment each month once I’ve uploaded the file.”

Even better, many of the most popular payroll software brands – including Sage, IRIS, Intuit Quickbooks and BrightPay – offer data integration with Smart Pension, which removes the manual file upload process completely. Your previously laborious pension administration becomes a simple button-click in payroll. 

How much time have you spent doing these tasks? 30 minutes? An hour? More?

My first ever job was in a group personal pensions admin team, where dozens of us would sit at old-fashioned computer terminals banking cheques and typing in pension contribution data from paper lists.

Fast forward 20 years and, thankfully, the world of pensions has moved forwards… or has it? In my opinion, not as much as you’d think. 

Virtually all of today’s major pension providers are still operating on clunky old mainframe systems, either their own or that of a third-party administrator. The only difference is it's no longer a team of admin staff wasting time inputting the data – it's the payroll team!

By the time you’ve logged in, clicked through all the screens, uploaded one file, gone away, come back, logged in again, uploaded another file, gone away, logged in again, approved a payment… how much time have you spent? 30 minutes? An hour? More?

And that’s just on one pension client. What if you have hundreds of them? 

Smart Pension is different. There are no legacy systems here. Our modern platform removes manual work, streamlines processes and cuts unnecessary wait times. Pension administration has never been easier. Our systems are tried, tested and trusted to solve payroll’s pension headache with a process that can be completed end-to-end in minutes each pay run.

Contact us

If you have any questions, drop us an email at [email protected].

To find out more about how we can help meet your clients' pension needs, visit our payroll services web page.