You may receive error messages when submitting your Pension data from BrightPay to Smart using our API connection (more information here)

As a first step, review the information on the article linked below.

Resolving Pension Submission Errors

If the steps in the above article do not work, continue troubleshooting using the steps below:

Check that all Smart Pension Employee ID Values are present.

• Click into the Pension section of BrightPay. 
• Select 'Smart' in the menu bar.
• Click the 'More' icon and select to 'View/Enter Smart Pension Employee id Values...'. Ensure all active contributors to the pension have their ID entered in this window. The ID values can be found on the Smart Portal.

Reset authentication

• Click into the Pension section of BrightPay. 
• Select 'Smart' in the menu bar.
• Click the 'More' icon and select to 'Reset Smart Pension Authentication'
• You will see a notice that 'Your Smart Pension authentication has been reset'. Click OK and try to send your submission again.

Common Error Messages

Error code 614 - Pay period is not consecutive.

This error will the next period that Smart Pension is expecting a contribution submisision for does not match with the period that you are submitting from BrightPay.

If you get this error message for all employees, this may indicate that Smart Pensions have already received the submission for that particular pay period. You can check this on the Smart Portal. If Smart Pensions does have the submission you are trying to send, you can mark this as submitted in BrightPay. To do this, click the spanner in the red shaded area beside the contribution submission error message and mark employees as included in the submission.

If you get this error message for only one/some employees, it may be that Smart expecting a submission for that employee for an earlier period. Looking at the pension logs for that period as they will generally indicate the next period that Smart is expecting a submission for the employee(s). Pension submissions must be submitted to Smart Pensions in sequence. To view the error logs, click the spanner in the red shaded area beside the contribution submission error message. A window will appear. Click to view the repsponse from Smart Pensions.

Error code 404 - Check that the smart pension company ID and customer ID are correct. In BrightPay, the company ID is found under Pensions > Smart > Edit details & groups

Ensure also that the the unique employee ID values have been entered for employees (guide further up in page)

Error code 642 - Contribution rates are below the legal minimum

This error can arise where the pension scheme is set up differently in BrightPay than on Nest. Check the group settings in BrightPay by going to Pensions > Smart Pension > Edit Details & Groups > Select the group.

The Earnings Basis will dictate whether the pension is calculated based on all an the employee's gross pay, or the pay between the upper and lower limits. Ensure this has been set up correctly.

On the payroll screen, click the spanner beside the pension element in an employee's payslip. A menu will open in which you can view the upper/lower limits and the tax relief method. If the tax relief method is set as 'tax relief at source' but Smart are expecting'Net Pay Arrangement', the employee contribution may flag as being lower than expected.

Contact our support team for guidance on changing the tax relief method to 'Net Pay Arrangement' if required.

Error code 2576 - This National Insurance number is already linked to an employee