Introducing AQA epay Your online payment system

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1 Introducing AQA epay Your online payment system AQA epay is a convenient online service we ve introduced exclusively for our associates. It allows you to view your remittance advice slips online and will store them for you securely for future use. This user guide gives you an introduction to AQA epay and provides answers to some frequently asked questions about the system. Contents 1. Welcome to AQA epay 1 2. How AQA epay works 2 3. Switching from print to online 2 4. Getting started 4 5. Using AQA epay 5 6. Frequently asked questions 8 Further information If you have any further questions regarding AQA epay please claimsman@aqa.org.uk 1. Welcome to AQA epay AQA epay is a convenient online service which enables you to save, view and download your remittance advice notices online. The system, introduced to support new pension and taxation regulations, includes comprehensive safety features, such as a secure log in, password and security questions which you can set and amend as you require. You ll find all your future AQA remittance advices stored here, available to you whenever you need them. The first time we issue a payment into your bank account you ll be sent a Welcome to AQA epay . Instructions on how to login to your personal account will be included in this welcome . There will also be support available to help in the event of any problems, such as forgotten passwords or login details. You ll find more about this on page 5 of this guide. Remember to check your SPAM filter before contacting us if you do not receive an from AQA epay within fifteen working days of submitting a claim as your settings may block initial s from the system. 1.1 Key features Access wherever you have an internet connection computer, laptop, tablet or smart mobile phone Available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year Current and past e-remittances stored in one place Current e-remittances online within minutes of bank payments being approved by AQA AQA Education (AQA) is a registered charity (number ) and a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (number ). Our registered address is AQA, Devas Street, Manchester M15 6EX.

2 2. How AQA epay works 3. Switching from print to online AQA epay is a standard payroll system which we have adapted, where possible, to take into account AQA s contracting arrangements with associates. However, certain off the shelf elements mean that you will see references to standard pay as you earn (PAYE) terminology in some places, e.g. terms such as payslips, payroll and P60s. The guidance below explains what these terms mean for you and AQA. 3.1 Payroll number Our payment system generates a number for you known as your payroll number which will be used by AQA epay to recognise what electronic payment slips to show you. It will be listed on your e-remittance advices and also on the AQA payment statements we send you separately. Your payroll number is different to your AQA personal number which is the number unique to you within AQA systems. Every time you contract with us you ll receive a new payroll number unique to the time period you work for us. But you don t need to worry about this as you do not need this number to access the system. Important: Please note that by receiving a payroll number you do not become an employee of AQA. This is simply a unique number applied to you within our payment system as an AQA contractor. The term payroll simply reflects the terminology applied within the system. Your terms and conditions of your AQA contract remain valid and your employment status continues to be that of a self-employed contractor. 3.2 AQA personal number You will need your AQA personal number and a password to log into the system. This will take you into your personal security area and only on completion of this area will you pass into your personal portal area. No one at AQA or epay has sight or access to the questions and answers you set up in your secure area. Your AQA personal number is sometimes referred to as your AQA personal identification number, Examiner number, person number, EPS number, EPS PIN and/or AQA PIN in AQA documentation depending on the Confidential - internal use only Ref: 5126/C07/ of 10

3 originating department. You will find your AQA personal number on any AQA offer of appointment, if you are providing exam based services or on your Introducing the AQA Examiner Extranet if you are a nonseries based associate. All associates will find their individual AQA personal numbers detailed on each electronic payment advice and on each AQA Associate Payment Statement and Teacher Release Voucher. If you forget your AQA personal number you can contact the Examiner Technical Contact Centre on or help@aqa.org.uk for your number during normal AQA office hours. 3.2 Payment advices (payslips) Your electronic payment advices are stored in the My Pay area of the portal. You can only view your own personal folders in this area. There will be two folders available to you: one marked Payslips, which will hold your AQA payment advice notices and the other marked P60s. This latter folder will be empty as HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) does not currently require AQA to issue P60s to associates. Regulatory changes being implemented by HMRC for the tax year 2014/15 will result in some administrative changes for you and AQA, which will see us using the P60 folder from April 2015, and further information will be provided in due course. Important: Please note that although you will access your payment advices via a folder marked Payslips and you will see other references to payslips within other portal pages, you do not and have not become an employee of AQA. This is simply a standard term applied within the system relating to any payment notice to an individual. AQA epay is not used or related to any payments made to employees. 3.3 Fees, tax and pension contributions The AQA epay remittance advices will include details of your fees, any pension contributions and tax information in an accessible and summarised format. This information is what you will need to submit in any self-assessment tax return to HMRC. Important: You will not be able to view any payment advice notices issued to you in print for this current tax year (up until 22 November 2013). You should therefore keep all AQA printed payment advices that pre date activation of AQA epay () in a safe place until you feel able to destroy them. In addition to your epay remittance advice AQA will send you a detailed AQA Associate Payment Statement by . This can be used to reconcile your claims to your payments more easily. These statements will not be available within the AQA epay system so please download, print them out or save them in a secure place. 3.4 Teacher Release Vouchers We previously issued Teacher Release Vouchers (TRVs) as an addendum to our printed remittances but in future we will issue TRVs direct to you as PDFs in a separate . This will make it easier for you to present them to your school or college. These vouchers will not be accessible through the AQA epay system, so you will need to check your inbox for these. 3.5 Your The majority of payment contact will be via once we introduce AQA epay, so please make sure we have your up-to-date address so you can receive this important information. Although you can change your details within the AQA epay system, any updates you make here will only be registered within this secure electronic portal. Confidential - internal use only Ref: 5126/C07/ of 10

4 Important: As the transfer of information is one way - from AQA payment systems into the AQA epay system - we advise you to only make amends to your contact details within the AQA Examiner Extranet or via your contracting department. 3.6 Transitional nominee If you do not have an individual personal address you can provide us with a nominee account you trust, which we will be able to issue Associate Payment Statements and Teacher Release Vouchers to until April But you will need to set up your own account by this time as nominee accounts will be used for a transitional period only. Important: Should you choose to provide a nominee account this will be at your own discretion. AQA cannot be held responsible for misuse or abuse of any information or details sent to this account, as a result of your instructions. 3.7 Access and storage Your AQA epay payment advices are stored continuously on line as your history continues to build every time we pay you but the system will deny you access 90 days after your contract end date (known as your leave date). Please make sure you download or print whatever you may need within this time period. Important: Every time you contract with us you ll receive a new payroll number but your user number will always be your AQA personal number no matter how many times you contract with us. For security reasons you will be logged as a leaver every time a contract with us ends (see 3.7 Access and storage on page 4) and be issued a welcome to AQA epay when you start a new contract. 4. Getting started AQA epay can be found at Your first screen is your login screen which will ask you to sign in here. You ll need: your user name: this will be your AQA personal number which is detailed on your offer of appointment or on your Introducing the AQA Examiner Extranet and your AQA Payment Statement. If you do not have this easily available contact the Examiner Technical Contact Centre on or help@aqa.org.uk for your number your temporary password: this will be sent to you separately in your welcome to AQA epay which will be issued to you when you are first loaded onto the system. Important: Don t forget you must include all the numbers listed in your AQA personal number, including any zeros at the front of the number e.g and that passwords are case sensitive. 4.1 Creating a password When you receive your welcome to AQA epay , don t delay, login to AQA epay immediately. Once you ve signed in for the first time you ll see a screen asking you to create your own password followed by your own security questions and answers. Important: Every time you sign into AQA epay you will need: your AQA personal number your personal password and your answers to all the personal security questions you set. Confidential - internal use only Ref: 5126/C07/ of 10

5 Your password and security questions and answers are your responsibility and can be changed at your discretion. No one at AQA or epay has sight or access to your personal security area so remember to never share your password or personal security questions and answers with anyone. Try to choose questions which will be easy for you to remember but unique to you. To change your password or you security questions and answers visit the My Details page and click on the appropriate link Change password or Change Security Questions. 4.2 Forgotten passwords If you have forgotten or lost your password, click on the Forgotten your password? link on the AQA epay Login screen and you ll be able to reset your password yourself. An will be sent to your stored address asking you to confirm you have requested the reset of your password. Once you have confirmed this, a second will be sent containing a temporary password to allow you to access the system and set up your password and security questions again. 4.3 Forgotten /usernames If an has not been logged in the AQA epay system against your name the will be sent to the AQA Examiner Payments Team. All accounts loaded into AQA epay are being set up with an individual s preferred address as held on AQA s processing and payment systems. Your username will always be your AQA personal number no matter how many times you contract with us. For security reasons you will be logged as a leaver every time a contract with us ends (see 3.7 Access and storage on page 4) and be issued a welcome to AQA epay when you start a new contract. 5. Using AQA epay Once you have logged in to AQA epay you will see the AQA epay Messages page. Confidential - internal use only Ref: 5126/C07/ of 10

6 Here you will find information about AQA epay and other important information about payments, pensions, taxation or AQA processes. This page will be refreshed as necessary so check it regularly for the latest information and guidance. To access your electronic payment advices click on My Pay located in the toolbar across the top of the page. This will open your personal payment documents area showing folders for Payslips and P60s. Click on the Payslips folder to view all your payment advices stored within epay. 5.1 Viewing payment advices To view one of your electronic payment advices you will need to click on the relevant View/print link within the Payslip column for the payment advice you wish to view. Payment advices will be listed in date order. Once you click on View/print the payment advice will appear in PDF format. To print or save a copy to your own computer as a PDF, select the relevant icon in your browser toolbar. Confidential - internal use only Ref: 5126/C07/ of 10

7 5.2 notifications The mail address stored in the My Details section of AQA epay will be used to send you a notification every time a new payment advice is available for viewing. Payment advices will normally be available within two working days of an Associate Payment Statement being issued to you. Please ensure you check the address listed in My Details the first time you login to make sure it is correct. If you notice any errors on the details listed for you within the My Details area, please contact us by holding your mouse over Contact Us in the heading bar and clicking on AQA. Important: If you need to update the registered in AQA epay, please note that this system does not transmit information into AQA s regular systems. We therefore recommend you only change your address within AQA epay if you require your payment advices to be sent to a different address to that used for the AQA Examiner Extranet or other AQA systems. If you need to advise us of a change in your normal AQA contact address, please contact your contracting department. 5.3 epay security The My Details section also houses your password and security questions for the system, so if you wish to update these after initial set up please select My Details from the toolbar and select either Change Password or Change Security Questions which are detailed at the bottom of this screen. If you click on Change Password you will see a screen asking you for your current password and new password and a field requiring you to confirm your new password. This confirm password field helps ensure any spelling errors can be corrected before your new password is saved. If you click on Change Security Questions you will see the screen below including your current questions and answers. You can amend your questions and answers as you prefer. Confidential - internal use only Ref: 5126/C07/ of 10

8 5.4 Useful Info The Useful Info page contains information about AQA s claims and expenses process and the AQA epay system. This page will be refreshed as necessary so check it regularly for the latest information. 6. Frequently asked questions 6.1 Software support What is the support process for someone who has forgotten their login? If you have forgotten your password, the login screen allows you as a user to reset your password. See 4.2 forgotten passwords above. Does the software have remember login details functionality? No, for security reasons AQA epay does not have remember login functionality. Who will I contact when I click Contact us epay or AQA? When you click on Contact us, AQA within the epay portal, and submit a request, your will be directed to the AQA Examiner Payments Team. Is support available 24 hours, 365 days a year? Support is available AQA office hours, from 8.00 am to 5.00 pm, Monday to Friday. Any requests we receive over a weekend period we will action as soon as the office reopens each week. Please note AQA offices are closed for bank holidays and from 23 December 2013 until 1 January 2014 inclusive. 6.2 Contact us What are the contact arrangements for the portal? You can contact the AQA Examiner Payments Team via the Contact Us, AQA link in the portal. Alternatively you can contact the team via claimsman@aqa.org.uk or telephone on Confidential - internal use only Ref: 5126/C07/ of 10

9 6.3 E-remittances and statements When will welcome s be issued? The Welcome to AQA epay is issued when your first payroll file is loaded and approved in the portal. All new starters will receive the welcome at this point. This means that at Go live, when we initially load everyone on our system into the portal, everyone we load will get a welcome regardless of whether you are actually being paid during that week. When will AQA s Associate Payment Statements be issued (weekly/monthly?) and what will they contain that won t be on the payment advice? AQA s Associate Payment Statements will be issued within 36 hours of our payroll files being loaded. This takes place each Wednesday. Statements will contain a detailed breakdown of your payment transactions for claims and/or script marking. They will detail gross amounts for these but will not include any tax or pension deductions or contributions. Payment advices will detail transactions grouped into relevant categories along with any tax and pension contributions. They will normally be available within two working days of your AQA Associate Payment Statement. Is the Payment advice the only one valid for HMRC or will both be recognised? The Payment advice is your legally required payment notification and contains your payment information with details of any deductions for tax and pension contributions. You will need your payment advices to submit any HMRC self-assessment required at the end of each tax year. Your Associate Payment Statement will contain a detailed breakdown of your expenses which may also be useful for self-assessment. However Associate Payment Statements are not recognised as proof of income and are provided simply to help associates reconcile payments and claims. Are AQA epay payment advices delivered by ? No, as delivery of payment advices by can be insecure we have chosen to only issue payment advices via a secure Verisign portal, which is hosted in the UK, so you can be confident of your personal security. Your notifying you that a payment advice is available will not contain any personal information, not even your name. Does AQA epay mean I can stop printing payment advices completely? You will need your payment advices to submit any self-assessment tax return and will only have access to the AQA epay system for the period you are contracted to us and 90 days after your contract with us comes to an end. For this reason we advise you to download or print whatever you may need within this time period. 6.4 Your details How much of the my details section will contain information provided by AQA and how much will associates need to enter themselves? This area is auto completed from the information held in AQA systems. It is not editable so you don t need to fill in any details. On the My Details page, under the My Notifications section, you can change the address used to issue your notifications, but this only changes the address within the AQA epay portal. As the transfer of information is one way - from AQA systems into the epay system - we advise you to only make amends to your contact details within the AQA Examiner Extranet or direct to usyou re your contracting department. 6.5 Terms and conditions Where will users find the terms and conditions of portal use? You can access the terms and conditions of use for all AQA websites and secure portals via our main website aqa.org.uk 6.6 Cost Confidential - internal use only Ref: 5126/C07/ of 10

10 Is AQA epay expensive to implement? Our payment advice service is intended to be more convenient for our associates, reduce AQA overhead costs and help us manage our people resources more effectively. Initial estimates indicate significant annual financial savings but we will be reviewing the system during its first year of use and will weight up the costs and benefits following consultation with users. 6.7 Security How can you guarantee the site is safe? AQA epay is hosted on secure servers which have been tested and audited. Many other companies and organisations, of similar size and larger than AQA, use epay. It is as secure if not more so than receiving your payment notice through the post. Because you have to detail not just a password but also answers to personally tailored security questions the layers of security built into the system are higher than perhaps other sites you may have used. Who can see my AQA epay account? Nobody can access your AQA epay account except for the person who knows your username, password and your answers to your three security questions in full. It is therefore critical that you do not share your password or security details with anyone. Who can see my payment advices? The AQA Examiner Payments Team work with epay to generate your payment advices and can view them in the event of any queries you may have. Confidential - internal use only Ref: 5126/C07/ of 10