What’s covered in this guide?
Before you begin
Before connecting Nest, ensure the following payroll setup has already been completed:
Pay periods
Pay groups
Payroll memberships
Company files
Employee company assignments
Pension eligibility rules
⚠️ Important: Once a Nest integration is connected to a company file, eligible employees may begin syncing to Nest automatically.
Incorrect setup may result in:
employees being enrolled into the wrong pension scheme
duplicate employee records in Nest
failed contribution submissions
Always confirm your payroll structure before connecting Nest.
Recommended setup order
To avoid enrolment and syncing issues, we recommend completing payroll setup in the following order:
Pay periods
Pay groups
Payroll memberships
Company files
Pension eligibility
Nest integration
⚠️ Important: Do not connect Nest before company file memberships are finalised.
Connect Nest
To connect Nest:
Go to: Payroll > Payroll Settings > Pension Providers
Click: + New
Select Nest Integration
Enter:
Nest delegate username (the email address used to log into Nest)
Nest delegate password
Employer number
Click: Create
Note: Do not include 'EMP' before the Employer Number
Nest credentials and permissions
Your Nest username is the email address used to log into Nest as a delegate.
Your employer number is the Nest Employer ID, entered without the EMP prefix.
Example: EMP00123456 > enter 00123456
⚠️ Important: The Nest account connecting must have sufficient delegate permissions within Nest.
If pension management was previously handled by an accountant or external payroll provider:
they may need to transfer delegate access or permissions
or provide updated login credentials
Company files and employee eligibility
Nest integrations are linked to company files.
When the integration is connected, eligible employees assigned to that company file may automatically sync into Nest. If your organisation has more than one company file, you'll be asked to select which company file each Nest connection applies to.
⚠️ Important: before connecting Nest, always confirm:
employee company assignments
payroll memberships
pension eligibility
Incorrect company file setup is one of the most common causes of incorrect enrolments, duplicate pension records, and failed contributions.
Sync staff between Workforce and Nest
Once your Nest pension provider has been created, Workforce will begin syncing with your Nest account.
Sync duration depends on Nest and the amount of data being processed, you'll see a message that setup is in progress and will be ready shortly. There's no fixed wait time; if staff setup doesn't appear, check back after a few minutes.
Once syncing is complete, you can create Nest memberships for employees. Each employee requires:
a member number
a Nest group
a payment source
You can use the employee's existing Nest member number, or another unique identifier if the employee has not yet been enrolled in Nest.
Configure employee memberships
To configure employee memberships:
Go to: Staff > [Employee] > Payroll > Pension
From here, you can configure:
pension provider
member number
contribution rates
enrolment status
postponement settings
Nest group
payment source
For employees to enrol and send contributions successfully, they must have an active Nest pension contribution configured in Workforce.
Once syncing is complete, Nest groups and payment sources will become available for selection.
Pension groups and schedules
Nest groups and contribution schedules are configured within Nest itself. Workforce does not create pension schemes or groups within Nest.
Employee pension groups selected in Workforce must match:
the correct Nest group
the correct pay frequency
the correct contribution schedule
Examples:
monthly payroll > monthly Nest schedule
4-weekly payroll > 4-weekly Nest schedule
⚠️ Important: Schedule mismatches may cause contribution failures.
Employee matching
Workforce attempts to match employees between systems using employee identifiers. Many organisations use NI numbers or payroll IDs to match employees successfully.
⚠️ Important: If employee details do not match between Workforce and Nest, duplicate employee records may be created.
Always verify employee names, NI numbers, and payroll IDs before syncing employees.
Enrol staff in Nest
Employees can be enrolled in two ways:
Manual enrolment
You can manually mark an employee as enrolled by updating their enrolment status directly in their pension settings, rather than waiting for automatic assessment. Doing this outside the normal auto-enrolment assessment is tracked separately so Workforce knows the enrolment wasn't triggered by an automatic eligibility check.
Automatic enrolment
If an employee has a Nest pension contribution configured, has not opted out, and has not been postponed, Workforce will assess them during each pay run. If the employee becomes eligible, their pension status will update to enrolled and they will be synced to Nest automatically.
📝 Note: Whether Nest sends its own separate statutory communications to employees (in addition to anything Workforce sends) isn't something we could confirm, check directly with Nest, or rely on Workforce's own Pension Communications feature if you want automated employee emails.
Postponement and reassessment
If postponement has been applied to an employee:
Workforce delays enrolment until the postponement period ends
the employee is reassessed during the next pay run after postponement ends
if the employee is still eligible and a member number is present, they may then be enrolled
No manual action is required once postponement has been configured corre
Send pension contributions to Nest
Once a pay run has been posted, you can submit contributions to Nest from that pay run's page:
Option 1: After posting a pay run
After posting a pay run:
you will be taken to the success page
the option to send contributions will appear in the dropdown menu
Option 2: From a posted pay run
When viewing a posted pay run:
Open the pay run
Click: Actions
Select: Send Contributions to Nest
Depending on your pension provider configuration, contribution submissions may occur automatically or require manual review before submission.
Sync opt-outs from Nest
Once connected to Nest:
employee opt-outs should be managed within Nest
After a pay run is posted:
Workforce syncs opt-out information from Nest automatically
employee pension statuses are updated accordingly
⚠️ Note: Some sync updates may take time to process.
Link multiple entities to Nest
You can connect multiple entities within Workforce to Nest.
To configure multiple entities:
Navigate to: Payroll > Payroll Settings > Pension Providers
Click: + New
Select: Nest Integration
Enter:
Nest login details
employer number
contribution rates
Select the appropriate company file for each pension provider configuration
⚠️ Important: Always verify that employees are assigned to the correct company file before connecting Nest.
Incorrect company file setup may:
enrol employees into the wrong pension scheme
create duplicate pension records
cause contribution failures
View past sync requests
You can review previous requests sent between Workforce and Nest, including contribution submissions and employee syncs.
Go to: Payroll > Settings > Pension Providers
Then:
Open your Nest integration
Click: View Past Requests
From here, you can:
review sync statuses
view returned error messages
identify failed submissions
retry requests after resolving issues
⚠️ Note: Nest syncs may take up to 20 minutes or longer depending on the amount of data being processed.
If requests do not appear immediately, check again later.
For detailed troubleshooting guidance, see:
Common setup mistakes
Connecting Nest before company files are complete
This may enrol employees into the wrong pension scheme.
Before connecting Nest, always confirm:
employee memberships
company assignments
pension eligibility
Using the wrong employer number format
Do not include the EMP prefix.
Incorrect Nest permissions
Users without sufficient Nest permissions may experience sync failures.
Schedule mismatches
Pay frequencies and Nest schedules must match correctly.
Employee details do not match
Mismatched employee identifiers may create duplicate records in Nest.
Before syncing employees, always verify:
employee names
NI numbers
payroll IDs