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Your step-by-step guide
to signing up
Our overview of the process tells you what to expect when you sign up, how long it might take and the information you need to gather.
When you’re ready to get started, we’re here to walk you through everything step by step. Along the way we highlight articles in our help centre that can give you more information, if you need it.
Step 1 – sign up for your Nest account
Enter a few details to create your online Nest account. This is where you get set up and complete your ongoing tasks.
After you sign up, we send you a confirmation email that has a link to register your account. You need to follow this link and register within 28 days to access your account.
What's in our help centre?
Our how do I sign up for a Nest account? article is here if you need it.
Step 2 – complete your five set-up tasks
When you log in to your account, you’ll find five set-up tasks to work through. Once you complete these, we send you an email confirming your account is activated.
Read and accept our terms and conditions
Your business has to agree the terms and conditions for using Nest. This involves reading through them and ticking a box to confirm your agreement.
What's in our help centre?
Enter information about your business
You need to tell us certain things about your business. This includes details about who your primary contact is for Nest. This is the person in your organisation who makes decisions about the account.
What's in our help centre?
Our section on your organisation details is here to walk you through this task.
Add details of any additional delegates
If you plan on using additional delegates to help you administer Nest, you need to enter some information about them. They could be individuals or a payroll administrator. You can do this now or add them at any time in the future, if you prefer.
Find out more about using delegates and third parties.
What's in our help centre?
The adding delegates section can support you with this task.
Tell us how you’ll pay contributions
You need a UK bank account to use Nest. The easiest way to pay contributions to us is by Direct Debit, but you can use a debit card too. You need to let us know your payment details so we can collect your contributions.
What's in our help centre?
Visit our choosing a payment source section.
Inform us what you’ll pay and when
Tell us the pay period you use for your workers. This is how often you pay your workers and might be weekly, monthly or fortnightly, for example.
This is also where you confirm your chosen contribution rate and what part of your workers’ pay you’ll use to calculate contributions. We can help you understand the contribution options you have.
You might not pay all your workers at the same time and you might not use the same contribution rate for every worker either, and that’s fine. You’ll see that it’s easy to categorise your workers into different groups in your Nest account.
Did you know?
If you’re using payroll software, it’s important that you set up your Nest account using the same pay periods you use in your software. For example, if you pay your workers monthly, you need to choose this option when you set up with us too.
You'll usually find clear instructions within your software that explain how you set it up with Nest.
What's in our help centre?
Head to our telling Nest when and what you’ll pay section. Our collection of articles on managing groups may also be helpful.
Step 3 – inform your workers
It’s one of your legal duties to keep your workers informed about their pension rights at certain times. This includes when you set up a workplace pension. If you delay your auto enrolment duties by using postponement, you have to tell your workers about this too.
Your pension duties toolkit explains what you need to send and has communication templates you can use.
What's in our help centre?
Our collection of articles on informing your workers covers everything you need to know.
Your next steps
After you’ve completed the sign-up process, there are some next steps you need to take as part of your duties.
Enrolment and contributions
You can now enrol your workers and make contributions from your online account. Our help centre has sections on enrolling workers into Nest and managing contributions.
Let The Pensions Regulator (TPR) know
You need to tell TPR that you’ll be using Nest to meet your workplace pension duties. This is called a declaration of compliance. The TPR will tell you the date your duties start, and you have to complete your declaration within five months of this date.
Find out more about making a declaration in our help centre.
Manage your account
Once you’ve set up with us, there are ongoing duties you need to complete to manage your account.
Open your Nest account
When you choose Nest, you’re doing the best you can for the people who work with you. All with as little effort as possible.
Our charges
Nest is free for you to use and our charges for your workers are kept low too.