Payroll update 14 October 2026

 

Kia ora koutou

We hope you had a lovely term break and are enjoying the longer days now that daylight saving is here.

This payroll update includes a reminder about the cut-off time for SUE adjustments for pay period 16. It also includes information about the forms portal, recovered overpayments, auto increments for support staff, our survey for End of Year (EOY) and Start of Year (SOY), and the upcoming EOY special edition.

SUE adjustments have an earlier cut-off for pay period 16

Labour Day is just around the corner on Monday 26 October. Because of this, the cut-off time for Staff Usage and Expenditure (SUE) adjustments for pay period 16 is midday on Friday 23 October (day 10 of the pay cycle). We will remind you about this next week with a notice in EdPay.

 

Remember that the forms portal doesn’t replace EdPay

The forms portal only replaces emailing us PDFs. Continue using EdPay as you do now.

 

Here’s what recovered overpayments look like in your school accounts

Recovered overpayments are funds that have been recovered from employees who were overpaid. These funds appear differently in your school accounts depending on how they were recovered.

Overpayments we've recovered from employees appear as ‘EPL overpayment’

If your school is reimbursed for an overpayment we’ve recovered from an employee, it will appear in your school’s bank account as ‘EPL Overpayment’. The reference for the payment will also include:

• the employee’s name
• the school number
• the employee's MOE number.

If we are sending you payments for different employees, each payment will appear separately with each employee’s details.

We reimburse schools the overpayments we've recovered from their employees every four weeks.

Overpayments recovered from Inland Revenue appear as ‘OPTaxRef’

Overpayments recovered from Inland Revenue include those recovered through PAYE, KiwiSaver and student loans. If your school is reimbursed for an overpayment recovered from Inland Revenue, it will appear in your school’s bank account as ‘OPTaxRef’.

After the payment has been made to your school’s bank account, we will also:

• notify your principal by email about the payment
• send a hard copy of the remittance letter to your school – this will include the details of the payment.

Overpayments recovered from Inland Revenue are processed four times a year.

 

Check which support staff are due for an auto increment

Your support staff receive an auto increment to their salary each year

Most support staff receive an annual automatic salary increment (auto increment) on their work anniversary. The exceptions are:

• if the staff member is on the top step for their grade
• the auto increment is deferred by your principal.

Any deferrals must be discussed with the employee two months before the increment date. Please give your principal a friendly reminder about this if they aren’t a regular reader of the payroll update.

Please regularly check the auto increments screen in EdPay

The auto increments screen shows which support staff at your school are due for an auto increment in the next 90 days. Please check before End of Year closes because many support staff have work anniversaries in the new year. 

Go to EdPay > My School > Administration > Progression > Auto Increments

Keep in mind that term-time-only employees may not show in the auto increment screen, and annualised employees may not show until their annualisation is processed.

 

You still have time to complete our EOY/SOY survey

Thanks to those of you who have completed our survey about End of Year and Start of Year processes. For those of you who haven’t, there’s still time.

The survey closes 5pm this Friday 16 October. You can answer it by using the personalised link we emailed you on 22 September. The survey asks:

• if you would like extra support from us during EOY/SOY
• who we can contact at your school if a payroll emergency happens when the school is closed over the term four holidays.

Tomorrow you’ll receive a special edition of our payroll update about EOY

Tomorrow we’ll send you our special edition payroll update about the End of Year process. This update will include information about the why, what, when and how of the End of Year process. It will also include links to key resources.

 

Wishing you all the best for the beginning of term four.

Ngā mihi

Education Payroll