Document pensions process

[rub1e]

The pensions process is quite awkward, and needs to be documented as part of the payroll process.

• [ ] Document process for The People's Pension payments
• [ ] ... for Xero
• [ ] ... for opt-outs & refunds

[rub1e]

And before any of that can happen, I need to get TPP to amend our pensions start date because I just found out that Xero and TPP are refusing to integrate (might have been nice to be told about this two months ago... 🙄)

https://central.xero.com/s/article/Fix-problems-with-pension-filing#ErrormessageswhenenrollingwithThePeoplesPension

12/6 - turns out they hadn't been processing the request because I didn't email from the right account 😠

[rub1e]

This was sorted only two weeks ago, so I would be ready to document the process but... Xero have now decided that they're launching a whole new integration from October, so there's very little point in writing up a now defunct process.

Will update when the new integration is launched.

(If anyone is worried about how we do payments, we've got a direct debit so it's all automatic)

[iteles]

We’re currently working on our TPP integration and hope to have that live by the end of the Financial Year.

I think that means we're doing it manually from October until March 2019 if we're lucky.

[rub1e]

Yeah I'm holding my breath

Looks like I can still submit this month's file, and if I process next month's pay run early then I can get that file to TPP early, and if the integration isn't updated by then we'll switch to manual upload and I'll write up that process (which is like pulling teeth because of TPP's godawful website) ☹️

[rub1e]

We've been chased for pensions contributions by The People's Pension.

As above, TPP and Xero's integration has been retired for the moment, so we have to upload manually

Xero have created a special TPP csv file which is specifically designed to be uploaded straight into TPP

Perhaps unsurprisingly, after three attempts TPP is still rejecting the Xero file.

So I've opened a support request

But this is such a joke - a big part of the reason for picking TPP was the Xero integration which was supposed to save me having to run around the houses like this.

Anyway, will document when I've had a response

[rub1e]

Xero are now looking into our account to figure out why this is happening (which at least means it wasn't my fault!)

[rub1e]

Lolsies - Xero say that the Special TPP csv file that's specially designed to be uploaded into TPP... isn't compatible with TPP

They have asked me to get in touch with TPP to see why this is. Which I've done. But not before I asked Xero to escalate this issue and explain to me why the specially designed file that's actually called TPP csv doesn't work, and why they expect me to sort it out myself.

[iteles]

and why they expect me to sort it out myself.

Exactly.

[rub1e]

So, TPP have told me how to solve the issue, but it's 100% Xero's fault - they've not included a column which TPP say is mandatory, so we have to add it in ourselves.

Temporary pension details upload process

• Go to Xero > Payroll > Pension filings
• Go to the month you need to upload and select Download TPP CSV from the three-dot menu on the right
• Open the CSV in Google Sheets (or whatever you use)
• Scroll to Column AA - Total earnings and enter 0 for each row (the column is mandatory but not used in calculations)

• Re-save the CSV

• Log in to TPP
• Go to Submit employee data
• The pay period they want uploaded is displayed there - make sure you've got the right CSV for that period
• Select the CSV in the file picker
• Select the date format as yyyy-mm-dd (screenshot)
• Hit confirm
• Under 3 - Choose upload method, if you're not feeling confident you can tick Assess Only and run it in training mode (just be aware that when you finish, it'll take you right back to the start of the process for you to submit for real); otherwise, hit Assess and upload
• (I've set it to only display the CSV column-matching when there's an error or something needs checking so you shouldn't see it unless there's a problem)
• Hit confirm (the system will do more calculations)
• Now you should see a screen with salary and contribution information to check; compare the figures here with what it says at Xero > Payroll > Pension filings - they should match. Hit continue
• Continue past this next part - you don't need the assessment summary
• The final screen is a demand for payment, but we've got automatic banking set up so don't worry about this.
• fin

👆 ~This is as far as I got because the system then rejected me for a different, unrelated error~ 😂

Also, I've asked for the issue to be escalated because all Xero need to do is amend their CSV template and we'll be set. The mind boggles.

[rub1e]

Pensions payments need to be reconciled to Employer and Employee contributions. Usually I'd do this at the end of the tax year all in one go along with Wages, but because of the slight overlap of Accounting Period and tax year, this has to be done now for April 2018 (https://github.com/dwyl/hq/issues/461#issuecomment-438648741)

Since that was the first month of our pension scheme, the opt-outs also need to be processed

Pensions reconciliation process

• ☝️ WIP

[rub1e]

I've manually done all the historical pensions files so we're up to date with our filings, and we'll be up to date with our payments on 5th December when they take out the next direct debit.

I've not had a response from my complaint with Xero, nor have they updated the CSV file to be compatible with TPP - so I've reiterated my displeasure.

[rub1e]

It's unclear to me whether Xero or TPP fixed the issue, or it just kinda sorted itself out somehow... but we no longer need to go through the rigmarole of changing the CSV file (as described here) - just upload the file and TPP takes care of the rest

[rub1e]

Update: I'm not going to bother documenting the Xero process properly because they're hopefully launching the new automatic Xero --> TPP integration in the next few weeks.

I will document the refund process and general pensions reconciliation process as part of #515

And depending on how the new integration works, I might make "upload/check the pensions data has been transferred from Xero to TPP" the final task on the monthly payroll checklist