Today is an exciting today.

You see today is the day we launch our book (at an event in London, tickets are still available here)

It’s likely if you follow me on twitter (you can find me @ChrisDaems) or on Linkedin or you’re an AE in a Box partner or introducer we might have mentioned it online, erm, once or twice.

Now whilst “Three Circles – The practical guide to automatic enrolment” is full of useful tips designed to help SME employers comply with this relatively new law I’m often asked about the three key aspects employers need to be aware of to comply successfully.

It’s quite difficult to distill what we know about automatic enrolment into 3 ‘key tips’ however let me give you my top 3 and also explain how AE in a Box can support you (if you’re an employer) or your clients (if you’re a partner or introducer) in meeting these obligations.

1) Understand your obligations

It’s important to ensure that employers and professionals alike understand the obligations they have. This can be done in a number of ways. There’s loads of information on the pension regulator website, you can obviously buy the book which is jam packed full of practical information or alternatively you can use AE in a Box.

AE in a Box helps employers and professionals understand their obligations in a number of ways. Firstly it breaks down the tasks employers need to complete in ‘bite size chunks’ allowing employers to take a step by step journey though the compliance process.

Secondly AE in a Box contains an ever expanding knowledge base taken from the questions we’re regularly asked by employers and partners.

and

Thirdly as regulation and the obligations your businesses faces change AE in a Box will keep you informed every step of the way

2) Prepare with plenty of time

For some employers they’re staging date is fast approaching. However for many they still have some time to go (if you’re not sure when you or your clients need to comply with automatic enrolment you can find out here).

One of the most important thing clients need to do is to ensure they start to prepare to comply with automatic enrolment with plenty of time to spare and we’d recommend that employers start to plan and prepare at least 9 months prior to their staging date.

At AE in a Box we ensure we clearly help employers do this is in a couple of ways….

Firstly we send regular emails to employers confirming what upcoming tasks are upcoming and overdue so that employers can track where they are with the work they need to complete at every stage of the process.

and

Secondly we allow employers to ‘sign up’ to AE in a Box at any time prior to their staging date. Whilst there is a nominal reservation fee for AE in a Box (currently £79 + vat) we only charge employers the monthly fee when they get to 9 months before their staging date.

This means that employers who are ‘staging’ (the date employers need to prepare everything in order to comply) in late 2015 and throughout 2016 can sign up to AE in a Box early and start to receive reminder emails when they start to approach their staging date…

This means employers with a while to go can reserve their place on AE in a Box without any monthly payment until they need it.

3) Keep track of the ‘tasks’ you complete and the decisions you make

It’s important employers need to ensure they keep a decent audit trail of the decisions they need to make, the pension they select on behalf of their employees and when and who completed the specific tasks relating to automatic enrolment compliance.

AE in a Box helps employers do this by ensuring that we ask for and retain important information for all employers from when and who completed specific tasks all the way through to why a specific pension scheme was selected.

This takes the pressure off of employers to store this audit trail independently by keeping track of tasks at every stage of the process…

So, whilst not definitive this is three of the most important things employers and the professionals who work with them need to consider when complying with automatic enrolment and how AE in a Box can help.

We’re aiming to help thousands of the 1.8 million employers who need to comply in the UK over the next couple of years and we believe AE in a Box helps do this…

Hopefully you can see why.