Guide to administering your payroll

We’re committed to helping make the administration of your scheme as streamlined as possible while providing scheme members with a safe and secure way of saving for their retirement.

It’s important that we receive all of the correct information that we need to administer your scheme on time, in the right formats – so the investments can be made on time, every time.

We’ll always work with you to help correct any issues with payments and payroll files, like data errors or delays in receiving the data, to prevent any delays in getting members’ payments invested.

Here’s some hints and tips to help ensure that we get the information we need to process your payroll – and it’s a success every time.

Helping to make your submission successful

Please check the information under each of these sections before submitting your payroll file and making your payment.

Submission Steps

Your payroll file

We’re not able to amend your payroll file to correct errors - we’ll always ask you to correct it and re-submit it to us.
The data you send us should only relate to current members of the scheme, including new members who have completed their applications to join.
The correct date must be shown. For example, if the payroll file for April is exactly the same as the March file and you resend the March file without changing the date, we won’t be able to upload it.
Your payroll file can only have positive monetary values. To correct any overpayment that’s been made, please contact us and we’ll arrange a refund.
The files you send us need to be in the correct format. Please see the section ‘Formatting the information you send us’.
The right contribution types need to be listed on the payroll file. Please see the section ‘Formatting the information you send us’.

Formatting the information you send us

It’s important that the payroll files you send us, containing member information, are provided in the correct format. This means we can successfully upload the information and it helps us get your members’ contributions invested as quickly as possible.

For the payroll files you send us, it’s important to know that:

Member data must start on row 1 - please don’t include any column headers.
Each contribution type must have a separate row. If a member is making two contributions with different contribution types, they need to be recorded as two separate entries (see rows 4 and 5 on the example).
The trailer record (row 6) must be included – it tells the system that there are no further members to be processed.
The value of the total contributions in the trailer record must match the sum of the individual member’s records and the BACS payment.

This is an example of how the payroll file looks in an excel spreadsheet:

There's a detailed explanation about the information we need in each of the columns of the payroll file, at the bottom of this page.

Naming and saving your payroll file

Naming your file

The file name has a specific format so we can match it to your payroll file and process it correctly:

XXXX_ZZZZZZ_DDMMYYYY_MMYY_name

The file name has the following information and formats

XXXX	ZZZZZZ	DDMMYYYY	MMYY	Name
The scheme code e.g. L002	Your unique payroll number	Due date for the payment e.g. 19012022	Payroll period number. Must be sequential and can be calendar monthly or financial year monthly, e.g. 0122 (for Jan 2022) or week of the year e.g. 2622 for the 26th week of the year.	Text to describe the file – maximum of 10 letters, e.g. the employer name or the payroll name

For example: L002_E00000_19012022_0122_Prudential.csv

Please use underscores between each of the components that make up the file name (as shown above)
The file name can’t have any spaces

Saving your file as a CSV (Comma Delimited) type

The payroll file you send us must be a CSV file - it’s the only format the system can read. If you send us a different file type we’ll ask you to correct it and resubmit it to us – we aren’t able to correct this for you.

When you save the payroll spreadsheet please:

Select Save As
Check the File name has the correct format (as described under Naming your file)
Click on the pull down menu beside Save as type and select CSV (Comma delimited)
Then click Save

When to send your payroll file

Email your payroll file to avc.cashschedules@prudential.co.uk and include your pay-point number in the subject header to help us identify that it’s yours.
We’ll need this information by the 19^th of the month following contributions being made (this is a regulatory requirement)
Submit one payroll file and one payment for each pay-point on each due date. For example, if you submit contributions monthly we’ll need one payment and one payroll file each month
We won’t be able to accept:
payroll files with more than one month’s information
more than one payment or payroll file for the same month
files that contain information from more than one pay-point
Files must be processed in chronological order. For example, we need to process February’s file before March - even if February’s hasn’t been received or has errors.

BACS payment details and file formats

All payments must be made by BACS. This helps us to audit payments and where necessary, to refund payments back to you quickly and efficiently.

It is a regulatory requirement that contributions and payroll files are provided to us correctly. Failure to do so may result in the scheme being reported to the regulator. Any errors or delays in the payroll file or the contribution payments could have detrimental financial consequences to your members.
Contributions will not be invested until the payroll file and contributions have been successfully received.
Late investments may result in compensation payments needing to be made by you to correct any shortfall in investment value caused by the late investment.
Any incorrect contribution types on the payroll file can cause tax payments and member benefit statements to be incorrect. This is particularly important where payments are made by a salary sacrifice arrangement.

The bank details you’ll need

Account Name	Prudential Assurance Company Ltd PRU BACS Receipts
Destination Sort Code	400250
Destination Account Number	31029142
Branch Address	HSBC, London, City of London Corporate Office PO Box 125, 8 Canada Square, London, E14 5XL

The BACS fields must be completed as shown for us to receive the money.

Field #	Field Title	Contents
1	Destination Sort Code	400250
2	Destination Account Number	31029142
3	Destination Type of Account Code	This field is always zero – 0
4	Transaction Code	Direct Credit code is 99
5	Originating Sort Code	The sort code from which payment is being made
6	Originating Account Number	The account number from which payment is being made
7	Free Format	Always 0000
8	Amount in Pence	Total value in pence of the payment being made
9	User’s Name	Name the account is registered to
10	User Reference	We need this to identify the payment - it’s mandatory. User reference format and example: Example: L02104352010621 [L021] Scheme code – 4 characters alphanumeric, [04352] Pay point number – Your unique payroll number [010621] Due date - 6 numeric characters, DDMMYY format.

When to send your BACS payment

BACS payments need to be sent no more than three days after the payroll file has been sent.

The payroll file must be sent first
The payment value must match the payroll file value.
Payments should not include any under-payments or over-payments. If a refund is due for a previous over-payment, please contact us and we will arrange this.

Detailed explanation of payroll file fields

The information in the payroll files that you send us need to follow these formats so we can successfully upload them, and get member contributions invested.

There's an example of what a payroll file looks like above, under Formatting the information you send us.

Column	A	B	C	D	E	F	G
Field type	Record Type	Member name	Member initials	NI number	Contribution amount	Contribution types	Premium code
Description	Value will always be 1	Upper and lower case letters. Hyphens, apostrophes and spaces are allowed	Upper case letters and spaces allowed. No full stops.	Numbers with upper case letters	Member payment. Numbers with 2 decimal places. No £ sign.	Upper case letters. Standard AVC employee payment: EEAVC – regular EEAVCS – single Shared Cost Local Govt AVC payment: ERREG – regular ERSGL – single	Set to X at all times
Format	1	A a – ‘	A B	AB123456C	999.99	EEAVC	X
Max characters	1	25	5	9	11 before decimal and 2 after	6	1

The trailer record on row 6 has the following information (only columns A – C have data):

Column	A	B	C
Field type	Record Type	Total contributions	Record count
Description	Value is always 9	Sum of all contributions. Numbers with 2 decimal places. No £ sign.	Total number of member records. No comma or decimal point.
Format	9	7 before decimal and 2 after	Numeric

Column

Field type

Record Type

Total contributions

Record count

Description

Value is always 9

Sum of all contributions.

Numbers with 2 decimal places. No £ sign.

Total number of member records. No comma or decimal point.

Format

7 before decimal and 2 after

Numeric

As a reminder

If there are any errors with the payroll file or your payment, we won’t be able to upload the contributions to your member records until the errors are corrected.
We’ll contact you to let you know how to correct the errors, and we’ll ask you to resend the file.
Delays to uploading contributions, due to errors in files or payments, may delay the investment date. We’ll return uninvested contributions to you if we don’t receive the corrected information within a reasonable timeframe.

If you have any further questions about your payroll files or BACS payments, please email us at avc.cashschedules@prudential.co.uk

"Prudential" is a trading name of Prudential Distribution Limited. Prudential Distribution Limited is registered in Scotland. Registered Office at 5 Central Way, Kildean Business Park, Stirling, FK8 1FT. Registered number SC212640. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Prudential Distribution Limited is part of the same corporate group as the Prudential Assurance Company Limited. The Prudential Assurance Company Limited and Prudential Distribution Limited are direct/indirect subsidiaries of M&G plc, a company incorporated in the United Kingdom. These companies are not affiliated in any manner with Prudential Financial, Inc, a company whose principal place of business is in the United States of America or Prudential plc, an international group incorporated in the United Kingdom.