NI Verification Request (NVR)

A National Insurance number uniquely identifies an employee. An NVR submission allows employers to validate and employee’s National Insurance Number or request one where a new or existing employee does not have one.

You can make an NVR submission at any time. The HMRC will confirm via the HMRC message Data Provisioning Service (DPS) whether the NI number is correct or if it should not be used.

Submitting an NVR

You can submit a NVR either via the ACTION button on the main Employee Details maintenance screen or by selecting this submission option within the Payroll Utilities menu.

You are prompted for the employee you wish to send an NVR for and then asked to confirm you wish to verify or request a NINO for the employee. If confirmed you are prompted with the standard submission parameters.

XML Template – displays the template definition to be used for the NVR submission.

XML Filename – displays the XML filename to be created containing the NVR submission.

Print XML Output – set this option if you require a printout of the XML generated output file. This can be useful if the Datafile validation of the generated XML reports an error – if set send to output print the spooler.

Report Errors Only – set this option when omitting the printout of the XML output file to report the entries in the output where any errors are generated.

Test Submission – Identifies the submission as a test only, the HMRC will not process a submission flagged as a test but will validate the contents as acceptable.

Selecting the RUN option begins the process – you will be warned whether you have selected to process a test or live submission before being prompted to commence the output.

The standard General XML submission parameters are displayed for your company and any payroll agent you may have over the next two pages. Once the details are displayed select NEXT to confirm the general employer details and then next again to confirm any agent details.

If you commence output then the submission file is created and a summary screen shows the number of employees processed and whether Datafile has detected any errors within the submission.

If any errors have been generated then the XML printout includes details of the error. If any errors have been detected the system does not proceed to send the XML file and you have to correct the data for the reported error before repeating this process.

If no errors are detected then select Proceed and, after any printout of the XML file, the submission process to the HMRC begins.

The submission process goes through several stages in communicating with the HMRC Government Gateway. At the end of the process the system will report whether the submission was successful or whether any business level errors were detected. If a business level error occurs then you need to correct the advised error and then re-submit the file.

If the gateway is busy or off-line you may get the ‘Submission Poll’ message repeated. If this is the case keep trying for a few loops but if it continues select the SKIP button – the submission will have been made to the HMRC and you can use the ‘Check for Active Submissions’ option within the Payroll Utilities menu to check whether the submission has been accepted / rejected later.

After a successful live submission click CLOSE on the display above. You will be prompted to confirm that the HMRC response to the NVR will be posted to the DPS Mailbox – this can be accessed either via the Datafile DPS tool or the HMRC website.

You will be prompted to print a submission receipt – recommendation is to print this and file with your payroll reports for the period.