Information for principals
The principal is delegated by the school board under section 66 of the Education Act 1989 to ensure that public money is being appropriately spent in the payroll. Whether this is through the Operational Grant (BG) or through Teachers Salaries (TS), that all salary and wage instructions comply with the intentions of the board, and are correctly actioned, and that expenditure is appropriately recorded in school accounting systems.
The principal's payroll responsibilities
As an employer, you must:
- ensure you are aware of the payroll responsibilities of the school board.
See Information for school boards
- know your payroll responsibilities and how they align with other responsibilities
- employ staff and ensure they are remunerated in line with relevant employment agreements and legal obligations
- follow requirements for managing employees' leave. See Leave management.
- keep employees notified of payroll matters/changes, and provide advice when requested
- provide accurate and timely employee, payroll and employer/school information to Education Payroll Ltd (or the Ministry, where specified)
- notify Education Payroll Ltd and relevant employees (and the Ministry, where relevant) of any errors, and assist in the resolution of those errors where required
- contribute to the continual improvement of the payroll services
- manage the school's payroll budget
- provide appropriate school IT infrastructure for payroll.
Authorised user access and training
As a principal, you must be an authorised EdPay user, to ensure that you can fulfil your delegated management accountabilities, and manage your administrators' pay.
Audit compliance
- As a formal delegate of the board of trustees, you must:
- comply with the Education Payroll Ltd requirements for signatures on authorised forms. See Completing forms.
- ensure that the person who checks the SUE reports is not the same person who entered the payroll information. See Fortnightly pay.
- ensure that each SUE report and accompanying transaction reports are verified and formally signed off by an independent reviewer, and are filed securely with financial records. See Reports.
- ensure that all paper instructions and source documents are filed in HR files (including personal files) that are held securely at the school. See Payroll record keeping.
Your own payroll instructions
EdPay does not allow any users at a school to alter a principal's salary details. The board or the Ministry of Education will send instructions regarding the principal's salary and annual leave entitlement directly to Education Payroll.
Other payroll instructions for principals must be submitted via a form to the Education Payroll Service Centre. If a form requires a signature, the board must sign the form. For more information, see Completing forms.
Resolve a payroll matter
If you cannot resolve a payroll matter using information on this website, see Contact us for the appropriate contact point.
Related links
Resources:
EDUCATION.govt.nz website:
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