What’s covered in this guide?
Employees are not syncing to Nest
If employees are not appearing in Nest after setup, possible causes include:
invalid Nest credentials
insufficient Nest delegate permissions
incorrect employer number
missing Nest groups or schedules
employee details not matching between systems
incorrect company file assignments
pension provider sync still processing
Check the following:
Nest username and password
employer number format
employee identifiers
company file assignments
pension eligibility
pension group configuration
payment schedules
⚠️ Important: Nest employer numbers should be entered without the EMP prefix.
Initial syncs may take up to 20 minutes depending on the amount of data being processed.
Contributions are failing
Contribution failures are commonly caused by:
payment schedule mismatches
employees not being enrolled
incorrect Nest group configuration
invalid contribution dates
incomplete employee information
missing member numbers
Check the following:
pay frequencies
Nest schedules
pension statuses
contribution dates
employee member numbers
payment sources
⚠️ Important: Pay frequencies and Nest schedules must match correctly between systems.
Examples:
monthly payroll → monthly Nest schedule
4-weekly payroll → 4-weekly Nest schedule
Duplicate employee records in Nest
Duplicate employee records are commonly caused by:
mismatched NI numbers
changed payroll IDs
inconsistent employee names
employees being assigned to the wrong company file
employees being enrolled before setup was finalised
Before syncing employees, always verify:
employee names
NI numbers
payroll IDs
company file assignments
⚠️ Important: Incorrect company file setup is one of the most common causes of duplicate pension records.
Employees appear in failed contribution logs after opting out
Employees may still appear in failed contribution logs after opting out if:
previous payslip contributions already existed
historical submissions are still processing
sync statuses have not updated yet
contribution submissions were generated before the opt-out was processed
If the employee has already been opted out successfully, no further action may be required.
If required:
wait for the sync status to update
review the employee pension status
retry the submission after corrections have been made
Employees were enrolled into the wrong pension scheme
This is commonly caused by:
incorrect company file setup
incorrect payroll memberships
incorrect pension group selection
connecting Nest before setup was finalised
Review the following:
employee company assignments
payroll memberships
pension groups
pension eligibility
⚠️ Important: Once a Nest integration is connected, eligible employees may begin syncing automatically.
Always confirm company file assignments before connecting Nest.
Credentials appear correct but employees are not syncing
If employees are not syncing even though credentials appear correct, check:
delegate permissions within Nest
whether the correct Nest scheme exists
whether the correct pension groups exist
whether the correct employer number is being used
whether the Nest account has been fully configured
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
Pension provider not appearing
If the pension provider is not appearing during imports or enrolment:
wait for the provider sync to complete
confirm the integration has been created successfully
confirm credentials are valid
retry the sync if required
⚠️ Important: Initial provider syncs may take up to 20 minutes.
Import validation errors
Validation errors may occur if:
required fields are missing
contribution percentages are invalid
enrolment statuses are invalid
employee identifiers do not match
company assignments are incomplete
pension groups are incorrect
Correct the errors in the CSV file before retrying the import.
Schedule mismatches
Schedule mismatches occur when Workforce pay frequencies do not match the configured Nest schedule.
Examples include:
monthly payroll linked to a weekly Nest schedule
4-weekly payroll linked to a monthly Nest schedule
Schedule mismatches may cause:
failed contributions
rejected submissions
incorrect payment processing
Always confirm:
pay frequencies
Nest schedules
payment sources
pension groups
before sending contributions.
View past sync requests
You can review previous requests sent between Workforce and Nest, including contribution submissions and employee syncs.
Go to: Payroll > 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.