eMPF employer platform: three levels of access explained

The eMPF Platform is now fully operational, and more employers are handling MPF administration digitally. Writing in the Hong Kong Economic Times on Monday (12 October), the MPFA’s external affairs department explained that the eMPF employer platform divides its functions into three levels — company management, scheme management, and payroll-group management. Each level carries different functions and permissions, and employers can assign different levels of work to different staff members as needed to improve efficiency.

Company management: company-level administrative settings

Company management handles company-level administrative settings. Its functions include registering a new MPF scheme for the company and updating company information. Staff authorised at this level can also view, add and delete company authorised persons, contacts, controllers and other users. When registering on eMPF, an employer or company must designate a “company authorised person”, who by default holds the company-management level permissions. They can also select the permissions they need at the scheme-management and payroll-group management levels, and delegate permissions at different levels to different staff so the team can share the MPF workload.

Scheme management: running each MPF scheme

Scheme management handles the operation of each MPF scheme the company has joined. An employer must designate a “scheme authorised person” when registering to join an MPF scheme; such persons by default hold both scheme-management and payroll-group management permissions. The related functions include updating the scheme’s information, adding member groups under a joined scheme, terminating a joined scheme, and viewing, adding and deleting scheme authorised persons, contacts and principals. Scheme authorised persons can also view designated account overviews and scheme balances, and can grant relevant permissions to “other users” as work requires.

Payroll-group management: day-to-day MPF administration

Payroll-group management is most closely tied to day-to-day MPF administration — for example, enrolling new employees in an MPF scheme, submitting contribution data each month, paying contributions, terminating an employee’s employment, and applying for an employee’s long service payment or severance payment offset.

Permissions can be split by duty

According to the article, because scheme authorised persons already hold scheme-management permissions for their designated scheme by default, they can delegate relevant permissions to “other users” according to actual workload or team division of labour — for instance, assigning employee enrolment, contribution handling or other MPF administrative tasks to different colleagues based on their duties.