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Smart Pension Integration

Kay North avatar
Written by Kay North
Updated this week

What is the Smart integration?

The Smart Pension integration connects your PayFit account directly with Smart to keep pension information synchronised between both platforms. It simplifies scheme setup, improves accuracy, and handles employee updates like opt-outs and contribution changes more efficiently.

Key Features

  • Automatic synchronisation of scheme information

  • Validation of employee and employer contributions against Smart group rules

  • Nightly data synchronisation

  • Manual sync option available at any time

  • Supports opt-ins, opt-outs, contribution changes and pension refunds

  • Matches employees between PayFit and Smart using multiple identifiers

How to activate the Smart integration

  1. Go to Integration Hub > Smart Pension in your PayFit account

  2. Click activate and you will be redirected to the Smart employer account login page

  3. Login to your Smart Pension account

  4. You will be redirected back to PayFit with the Smart Pension activated

Once activated, the integration will begin syncing data nightly and will appear in your Integration Hub.

Note: You must ensure you check all of your company information, including company ID, group name, start of earnings period & payment due date.

Manual Data Sync

If you need to sync data immediately (outside of the automatic nightly sync):

  1. Go to the Pensions page in PayFit

  2. Click Sync now

  3. The sync will run and confirm once completed

Scheme Sync Details

When connecting to Smart, the integration will detect and configure the appropriate scheme type based on your setup in Smart:

  • Scheme Types Supported:

    • Net Pay Arrangement

    • Salary Sacrifice

Required Manual Inputs

While most scheme information is synced automatically, you’ll still need to fill in the following details in PayFit:

Scheme Details

  • Display name

  • Is this a qualifying scheme?

  • Should PayFit make submissions for this scheme? (Defaults to yes)

Contribution Settings

  • Basis for contributions

  • Earnings basis

If you’re using a salary sacrifice scheme, you’ll see an optional toggle to “Split contribution percentages on PAPDIS file” in your pension scheme settings.

Contributions remain combined, but switching this on will split the % between employee and employer, while £ amounts remain combined as ER. This means employees can see a breakdown on their Smart account, of what they contribute as % as well as what the employer contributes.

SMART Pension Settings

  • Group ('default' group is synced for new schemes)

  • Start of earning period (only retrieved if contributions have already been submitted via Smart)

Employee Matching & Contribution Handling

Employees are matched between PayFit and Smart using the following (in order of priority):

  1. Payroll ID (External ID on Smart)

  2. National Insurance number

Once matched, the connector will:

  • Opt out any employees who have opted out in Smart

  • Issue pension refunds for opted out employees that are eligible

  • Opt in employees who have chosen to join the scheme via Smart

  • Apply any pending contribution changes

IMPORTANT: If you have an employee returning to your employment who was previously enrolled in Smart, you must remove the Payroll ID and the NI Number from the old record on their Smart profile. This will then ensure the sync can connect to the new record we create when we upload the pension file.

Current Limitations

Maximum number of groups/schemes

PayFit supports a maximum of five pension schemes in total.

However, when using the Smart Pension integration, please note that Smart only supports two types of schemes:

  • NPA (Net Pay Arrangement)

  • SS (Salary Sacrifice)

You can only have one of each type set up for Smart, one NPA and one SS scheme.

For example, you could have:

  • 1 x Smart NPA scheme

  • 1 x Smart SS scheme

  • and up to 3 additional schemes with other pension providers

This means you can have a total of up to five schemes in PayFit, but only two can be Smart schemes (one of each arrangement type).

Fixed Amount Contributions

Smart does not support fixed amount contributions on their platform.
When syncing data between PayFit and Smart, any employees with fixed contribution amounts will be skipped during the sync.

All other actions, such as opt-ins, opt-outs and refunds will still process as normal.
Employees with fixed amounts will remain unchanged in both PayFit and Smart, and their contributions can continue as they are in PayFit.


Please also be aware of the following:

  • Scheme deletion must be done manually

  • Not all scheme details can be pulled from Smart (see "Required Manual Inputs")

  • Salary sacrifice contribution updates are not supported automatically. You will receive a required action in PayFit and must manually confirm the salary sacrifice amounts

  • If an employee wants to contribute more, Smart advise doing this by increasing the % contribution and adding the difference as an Additional Voluntary Contribution (AVC) instead.

FAQ

I have a starter on the payroll, do I need to add them to Smart myself?

If PayFit handle your pension submissions, then we ask you do not upload the starter information to Smart yourself. We will enrol employees with your contribution upload to ensure we can check for any mismatches of information and the record is sync'd correctly.

If you manage your own pension submissions, you will need to manage both enrolling starters & uploading contributions.

I have an employee that used to be on the payroll, returning as a starter. Do I need to do anything?

Yes, please go onto Smart, into the old employee record and remove the payroll ID and the NI number. This will ensure the sync does not match the old record to PayFit which may cause the employee to be removed from the scheme.

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