Fix pension errors - Smart Pensions

You may need to log into the Smart Pension portal to compare employee information. We recommend having login details to hand.

NOTE: Any details between payroll and Smart Pension must be identical. Include capital letters, lower case letters, special characters and leading or trailing spaces.

To find the full error message is Sage:

Smart submission pension errors

▼You have attempted to submit a contribution for an employee who has not been enrolled

This means either:

The employee hasn't yet enrolled in the pension with Smart
There’s a mismatch in the employee NI numbers

Use the steps below to compare the details of your employees in Sage Payroll and Smart Pension. Ensure they’re identical.

How to find these details in Payroll:

Select the Employees tab.
Select the relevant employee to open their record. Make a note of the NI Number. You’ll need to do this for each employee that is part of the pension scheme.
Select the Workplace Pensions tab and make a note of the Pension provider ID.

Use the steps below to compare the employee NI numbers and Pension provider ID to the ones held on Smart.

Access the Smart Pension dashboard.
Select Menu.
From the drop-down menu select Scheme Set up, then Employees.
Compare the NI number and Pension provider ID to the External Payroll ID.
If you need to change the details on Smart, select Update from the Actions column.
Select Employee Settings.
Edit the details that are incorrect, then select Update to save your changes.

Once you have made your changes, retry your submission.

Select the Summary tab.
Select View Submission Details.
Select Submit Online.

▼The Pay period start date must be one day after the end of the previous pay period

This error means the dates in Smart don't align with the dates of the submission in Sage Payroll. Follow the guide ERROR: 'Pay period is not consecutive. The pay period start date must...'

▼Please set your company staging date. Without this you do not have the option to assess

You have not set your company staging date (also referred to as a duties start date). It's required to assess your employees for Automatic Enrolment.

Check you've entered your staging dates in Sage Payroll and Smart using the steps below:

Select Summary.
Look at the Auto Enrolment / Pensions section. Enter the staging date you’ve received from The Pensions Regulator (TPR).
Select Set Staging Date.
Log in to your Smart dashboard.
Select Menu, then Scheme set up.
Select Update scheme start date to change the date.

If you don't know your duties start date contact The Pension Regulator.

▼National Insurance number in use, please use a different one

This message means that a National Insurance number is already linked to an employee.

Ensure that your employee hasn't already opted into another pension scheme. Check you’ve not accidentally input the employees NI number into a different employee's record.

To check this in Sage Payroll:

Select Employees from the menu bar.
Select the relevant employee name to open their record. You’ll need to do this for each employee that is part of the pension scheme.
Make a note of the National Insurance number.

To compare and amend these details in Smart, read their guide Manage your employees.

▼An error occurred while updating your pension provider account data. If the problem persists, please contact customer support so we can update these details on our systems

This means we couldn’t find any schemes from your pension provider when you tried to submit your data to them.

Check that the login details are correct. To do this, you can access the Smart pension dashboard.

Check that you’re logging in as either an individual or an agent (and the option selected is correct).

If you're still getting the error, check your Company ID is the same in both Payroll and Smart pension.

To check your Company ID on the Smart Pension dashboard:

Go to the Smart pension dashboard login page.
Select Account.
Select Profile details.
Select Profile settings.
From the API details section, check your Company ID.

To check and amend your company ID in Sage Payroll:

Select the Pensions tab.
Select Edit pension.
Changethe Company ID field if needed.

If you changed your Company ID, retry your submission:

Select the Summary tab.
Select View submission details.
Select Submit Online.

If the error still appears, contact us so we can update the details on our systems.

▼Submit pension contributions glossary

A list of common terms used by pension providers, with an explanation of what each term means.

Terminology	Explanation
Company ID	This is your unique reference for Smart. You can find your Company ID by logging into the Smart portal and accessing Scheme Details.
Contribution file	Contain details of the pension contributions your employees’ make from their pay. You need to upload these to your pension provider each pay period.
Contribution schedule	Create files for every combination of tax period, group, and payment source. Contribution files include employees who opt out of a pension scheme.
ERN (Employer Reference Number)	Your ERN (Employer Reference Number, sometimes called an Employer Reference). It's a unique set of numbers and letters used by HMRC to identify employers in the UK. When you register as an employer with HMRC, you receive the ERN in your welcome pack.
External payroll ID	Employees who are part of a Smart pension scheme have a unique ID, which Smart calls an External ID. Getting an error that refers to a missing external ID or a duplicate NI Number? Check the employee details on the Smart Pension portal. The external ID needs to be identical to the pension provider ID in Sage Payroll.
PAPDIS	PAPDIS (Payroll And Pension Data Interface Standard). This is an open standard report. It's designed to help payroll systems transfer information to pension providers.
Pay reference period	Pay reference periods align to HMRC tax periods. Tax months run from the 6th of a month and ends on the 5th of the following month. When you sign up with your provider, tell them that your pay reference periods align to tax periods.
Staging date	The latest date by which you have to have an auto-enrolment scheme in place for your employees.

Before you start

To find the full error message is Sage:

Smart submission pension errors

To check your Company ID on the Smart Pension dashboard:

To check and amend your company ID in Sage Payroll:

If you changed your Company ID, retry your submission: