Set up a workplace pension scheme in QuickBooks Online Advanced Payroll and QuickBooks Bureau Payroll

To process workplace pension files within your payroll, you first need to setup a pension scheme for your business.

To manually set up a pension scheme:

1. Go to Payroll Settings, Pension Settings.
2. Select Add Pension Scheme Manually.
3. Enter your Staging date, then Save.
4. Select Add Manual Scheme then fill in the following details:
   • Name: The name of your company
   • Provider Name: This is the name of the pension provider
   • Provider ID: A reference number that you can use internally to identify the pension provider (only really required for employers that have more than one pension scheme).
   • Employer Number: This is the ID given to the employer from the pension provider.
   • Providers Contact Information: This is the providers website.

Pension admin details

1. Fill in the details of the employer's name, address and so on.
2. Select Save.
3. You will see that you now have the option to add a contribution plan. Select Add.
4. Fill in the following information, then Save.
   • Plan name: You can use the name of your company.
   • Contribution Group ID: This can be the same as your provider ID.
   • Pension Type: Either select Net Pay or Relief at Source from the drop down menu.
   • Calculate pension on qualifying earnings: If you wish to calculate the pension on qualifying earnings then select this box.
   • Fill in the Employer Contribution and the Employee Contribution at the correct rates. If a pay category is applicable select it from the drop down menus, then select the frequency.

Once you have saved the scheme you will be able to assign that pension to an employee in the employee's pension settings.

Note: We do not currently provide CSVs for any providers.

It is not currently possible to switch between manual setup and PensionSync.

Edit pension

If you need to make changes to an employee's pension settings or contribution plan, simply go to the gear icon > Payroll Settings > under Business Settings, select Pension Settings.

Note: You cannot edit pensions created via PensionSync as the data is provided directly by the provider. If an employee is linked to a contribution plan via PensionSync, they'll need to reach out to their provider.

Error message

Pension Error 4084, value 'XXX' is too small
This error appears if you are trying to refund a pension from the previous tax year in the current tax year. Because you can’t do a refund across tax years, the RTI submission won't allow negative year to date values.

To solve this, simply re-run the last payroll and then do the pension refund in the previous tax year.

See also

Advanced Payroll hub