What information do I need to set up a group?

You’ll need to think about the following information when you set up a group:

Pay periods, also known as earnings periods

In task 5 of the set-up process you’ll need to tell us how often you’ll pay by choosing one of the options from the drop-down menu. You can choose from weekly, tax-weekly, fortnightly, monthly, tax-monthly or four-weekly. Depending on your answer, you can continue to use recommended settings provided or you can custom settings to meet your organisation’s requirements.

If you’re setting up with NEST ahead of your staging date, you won’t have to pay any contributions for the current pay cycle. You only need to start paying contributions once you’ve enrolled your workers. You have six weeks from your staging date to complete your enrolments, unless you’re using a waiting period.

If you’re paying workers every month we’ll ask you for the date you pay them.

We’ll set a deadline for contribution payments. This is the date by which your contributions must have cleared in our account. This can be up to the 22nd of the following month after your pay period ends.

Payments for members within their opt-out period may be paid after the payment deadline. Please see How can I hold on to contributions during a member’s opt-out period? for more information.

You can find out more about setting up the right dates in How do I set up a pay period?

Contribution rates

If you create a group with customised settings you’ll also need to set the percentage of the worker’s wages you’re going to deduct contributions from. Each earnings basis has its own defined minimum contribution levels.

You can choose from two options:

• pay the current legal minimum contribution rates

• choose your own rates as long as they meet the current legal minimum contribution rates.

When you choose your contribution rates you’ll also need to tell us the earnings basis you’re going to use. An earnings basis is the part of your workers’ pay you use to calculate contributions, for example qualifying earnings. The earnings basis tells us what part of a worker’s earnings the contributions will be based on. We call that part pensionable earnings. Before you set up with NEST you should’ve decided if you’re basing your contributions on qualifying earnings, using a level of certification or choosing a custom setting.

Please see How do I calculate contributions? for more information on earnings basis and contribution rates.

Once you’ve selected the contribution rates and told us what part of your workers’ earnings you’re going to use, we’ll ask you if you want to set an upper limit on contributions.

If you wish to set an upper contribution limit, select ‘Yes, I’ll pay at least the minimum rates shown above, up to a limit of my choice’ and we’ll set the limit to 100 per cent. You can change the percentage of contribution for the upper limit.

This will give you flexibility to increase contributions for individual workers without having to set up an additional contribution rate.

Group name

During your set up with NEST we’ll automatically name your first group as ‘My group’. If you don’t want to use this name you can change it to a name of your choice. You’ll need to know your group name when you come to enrol your workers into NEST. If you have multiple groups and you upload files or transfer files to enrol workers you’ll need to enter the name of the group exactly as it appears on your account. If you have one group, you don’t need to tell us the group name. You can check your group name in the ‘Manage groups’ area from your NEST home page.