Overview
S4Labour can include employer pension contributions as part of your site’s labour cost calculations. This gives you a more accurate picture of your true employment costs, including pensions and helping you manage budgets, control costs, and stay compliant.
Note: If you do not currently see pension contributions included in your labour cost, please contact your account manager for more information or to activate this feature.
🚨 Important: Pension Cost Figures Are Estimates
The pension cost figures shown in S4Labour are estimates only.
They are not designed to match your payroll provider’s reports or exact payroll calculations.
These figures are intended to provide a closer approximation to your P&L (Profit & Loss) by reflecting the likely employer pension cost as part of your labour spend.
Calculations are based on weekly thresholds (not monthly or annual), because S4Labour operates in full weeks. This may cause differences compared to payroll provider reports, which often use monthly or annual thresholds.
For official pension reporting, always refer to your payroll provider’s documentation.
How It Works
Activation:
To include employer pension contributions in your labour cost, simply contact your account manager.
Employer Pension Setup
Pension contributions are configured per employee by users with access to the employee's profile.
Each employee’s pension can be set up to use either Qualifying Earnings or Total Earnings as the basis for contributions (see below).
Contributions start from the selected week and stop automatically if an end date or stop flag is set.
The selected week's rota would need to be unlocked for you to save the pension setup.
Where You’ll See Pension Costs
Rota Page: Hover over an employee’s cost to see a breakdown, including pension.
Reports & Dashboards: All totals (site, area, weekly, daily) include pension when the feature is active.
Exports: Pension costs are broken down in accounts exports for full transparency.
Real-Time Updates
When you add, remove, or edit shifts, all totals update instantly to reflect pension costs.
If pension contributions are stopped for an employee, they are automatically excluded from future calculations from the week after the selected week.
Key Terms
Qualifying Earnings
The portion of an employee’s pay between a lower and upper threshold set by the UK government each year.
Includes: Salary, overtime, special pay, statutory sick pay, and parental pay.
Does NOT include: Tronc (tronc in this estimate is classed as not pensionable and is not included in qualifying earnings).
Pension contributions are calculated only on the part of pay within this band.
For the latest qualifying earnings thresholds and official guidance, visit the UK Government workplace pensions page.
Total Earnings
All of an employee’s gross pay, with no lower or upper limit.
Includes: Salary, overtime, special pay, statutory pay.
Does NOT include: Tronc (tronc is not classed as pensionable in this estimate and is not included in total earnings).
Pension contributions are calculated as a percentage of the entire gross pay (excluding tronc).
Tronc
Tronc is a separate payment (often tips or service charges) and is not pensionable.
Tronc is not included in either qualifying earnings or total earnings for pension calculations in S4Labour.
While your tronc may or may not be pensionable according to your payroll provider or pension scheme, S4Labour treats tronc as separate for the purposes of these estimates and it is not included in this functionality.
Need Help?
If you have questions about your site’s pension settings or need help interpreting your reports, please contact your account manager or payroll administrator.
For the latest official guidance on workplace pensions, visit the UK Government workplace pensions page.
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