Each pay period, you must assess your employees using their qualifying earnings, age and UK worker status.

Based on this assessment you should assign a category to each employee, which identifies if your employees need to be automatically enrolled. The pension assessment in the Pensions Module completes this automatically for you in seconds.

Also shortened to auto enrolment, this refers to when an employee is enrolled into a pension scheme due to meeting the qualification criteria when they were assessed.

This term is also used to refer to the overall duties placed on employers as part of workplace pensions. 

When an employee leaves the pension scheme outside of the opt out period, they have ceased their active membership, also known as a Cessation.

When you process an employee's leave request in the pension assessment, their status is automatically set to Cessation.

Every three years you must assess and re-enrol employees who have opted out of your workplace pension scheme. Find out more in our what is pension re enrolment guide.

Employees are entitled to tax relief on their workplace pension scheme contributions. This applies differently depending on whether pension contributions are deducted before or after tax.

This is an important setting to get right on your pension scheme, as it affects the pension calculation your software completes. Your pension provider can advise what to select for this option if you're unsure. Find out more in our which settings are used to calculate pension contributions guide.

The duty start date is the date from which workplace pension duties automatically begin for an employer. From 1 October 2017 onwards, the duty start date is automatically the day the first employee starts work.  

An employee who meets the qualifying criteria and is eligible for automatic enrolment. You must auto enrol these employees into your workplace pension scheme unless there's a reason not to, for example, if a postponement is in place or if the employee has already opted out.

An employee who doesn't meet the qualifying criteria to be automatically enrolled or to opt in. These employees can decide to join the pension scheme. Their employer can choose whether to contribute to the employee's pension.

When you use Send Pension Data to send pension information directly to your pension provider you must assign a group to each employee.

You can create and manage employee groups in your pension provider online account, and assign each employee to a group. Then when you send your pension data you assign the correct group to each employee. 

When an Entitled worker decides to become a member of their employer's pension scheme, they can submit a join request.

The employer doesn't need to contribute to the employee's pension pot in this case but can choose to do so. Find out how to process this in our handy how do I process opt in/join requests in the pensions module guide.

When an employee's opt out period ends they can still choose to leave the pension scheme. This is known as a leave request and the employee is not normally entitled to a refund of their contributions.

Find out how to process this in our how do I process opt out/leave requests in the pensions module guide.

When a pension scheme deducts before employees' tax is calculated, this is also known as a net pay arrangement. To calculate this, your software first calculates the employee's pension contribution for the period you are processing, then deducts this from the employee's taxable pay. Tax then calculates on this lower amount.

This calculation applies when you select the Deduct before tax checkbox in your pension scheme settings. Find out more in our which settings are used to calculate pension contributions guide.

An employee who doesn't meet the qualifying criteria to be automatically enrolled into a pension scheme, but can choose to opt in to the scheme.

When an employee opts in, the employer must contribute to the employee's pension.

If a Non-eligible jobholder decides to become a member of their employer's workplace pension scheme, this is known as an opt in. The employer must contribute to the employee's pension pot when an employee opts in.

Find out more in our how do I process opt in/join requests in the pensions module guide.

This is the term used when an employee asks to leave their employer's workplace pension scheme within the opt out period. The employee is normally entitled to a refund of the pension contributions they made since they were enrolled.

Find out more in our how do I process opt out/leave requests in the pensions module guide.

The one calendar month period in which an employee can choose to opt out of their employer's workplace pension scheme and receive a refund of their first month's contributions.

For more information on when this period starts, visit The Pension Regulators website. Or, to check this date for your employees, contact your pension provider.

The PRP is the period in which earnings and contributions are calculated. This isn't aligned to the period the employee is being paid for, instead it's aligned to the tax period the employee is being paid in based on their pay date.

For example, when an employee is paid monthly, their PRP is the 6th of that month to the 5th of the next month.

You can find tax period dates for other pay frequencies in the tax week and month calendar.

This term is found in the Pensions Module when you use Send Pension Data. You create and manage your payment sources in your pension provider portal to set how the pension contributions will be paid to the provider.

When you send your pension data you must assign the correct payment source to each employee in Send Pension Data. 

PDX is the system that connects your payroll software to your compatible pension provider. This lets you send your pension data directly to your pension provider from Sage 50 Payroll.

Pensionable pay, also known as Pensionable earnings, is the total amount of your employees' pay that your software includes in the pension calculation.

In Sage 50 Payroll you can set whether each individual pay element is pensionable. Find out how to set up your pay elements for pension contributions >

When an employee first becomes an Eligible jobholder the employer can apply a postponement for up to three months.

This delays automatic enrolment, but the employee can still choose to opt in to the scheme during their postponement. How to I postpone a pension assessment? > 

The amount of an employee's pay used in the pension assessment, this is used when checking which worker category they fall into. In Sage 50 payroll, you can set whether each individual pay element is included in the Qualifying Earnings value or not.

If you're not certain of whether to include a pay element as qualifying earnings, check with your pension provider.

QE thresholds refers to a lower and an upper threshold which are applied in some pension schemes. When set up on your pension scheme, only your employees' earnings between these thresholds are used to calculate their pension contribution.

Find out more in our which settings are used to calculate pension contributions guide.

A pension scheme that meets The Pensions Regulator's requirements for use as a workplace pension scheme. 

If your pension scheme deducts after employees' tax is calculated, it's known as a Relief at source arrangement. To calculate this, your software reduces the pension contribution by 20% to allow for basic rate tax, which the pension provider reclaims from HMRC and adds to the employee's pension pot.

Your software applies this calculation if the Deduct before tax checkbox is cleared in your pension scheme settings. Find out more in our which settings are used to calculate pension contributions guide.

Salary Sacrifice is an option some pension providers offer, in which pension contributions are deducted from employees' pay before both tax and NI are calculated.

This can lower the tax, Employee NI and Employer NI calculated on employees' pay.

Applicable to employers who employed staff during the phased introduction of workplace pensions, the staging date was decided by the pensions regulator and set when workplace pensions duties started for these employers.

As the phased introduction of auto enrolment is complete, this term has been replaced by duty start date.

The Pensions Regulator is the government body responsible for monitoring compliance of workplace pensions legislation.