Payroll update 16 September 2026

News for School Payroll Staff

 

Kia ora koutou

We hope you are enjoying the first signs of spring wherever you are in Aotearoa.

First up, a huge thank you for learning how to use the new forms portal! We’ve received over 7,000 requests through the portal so far. We also hope you’re enjoying being able to track your requests.

This payroll update contains advice about using EP31 forms and gives you some bite-sized tips to help you with everyday tasks in the forms portal. It also asks you to complete our EOY/SOY survey.


Use an EP31 form in the forms portal for SUE adjustments and out-of-cycle requests

For SUE adjustments and out-of-cycle requests, please use the EP31 form in the portal and select from the dropdown menu either:

  • SUE adjustment, or
  • out-of-cycle payment.

When you use an EP31 form in the forms portal, it helps us identify and prioritise your SUE adjustments and out-of-cycle requests. This means we can process them on time. We may not be able to prioritise your request if you send it a different way (for example, if you submit an EP12).


Read our top tips for using the forms portal

Use email to update requests submitted before the portal went live

If you submitted a request through EdPay before the forms portal went live and we’ve asked you to update it, please reply to the email for that request, and include your update in the reply. Do not update the request in EdPay. If you do, you’ll see an error message.

If you can’t log in to the portal, check you’ve linked your ESL account

If you can’t log on to the forms portal at all, it could be because you haven’t linked your Education Section Logon (ESL) to EdPay. Find out how to link your account by visiting our Getting started in EdPay webpage.

Wait for your form to load before you select 'send'

Your form will take about ten seconds to load in the forms portal. Please wait for it to load before you select ‘send’. If you select 'send’ before the form loads, you won’t be able to enter your details, and we’ll receive a blank form.

Follow these steps to change the language and time in the portal

  1. After you’ve logged into the portal, click on your initials at the top right of your screen.
  2. A dropdown menu will appear. From this menu, select ‘Profile’.
  3. In your profile screen, select ‘Edit account preferences’ (the option at the bottom of the screen).
  4. In your account preferences screen, select ‘English (UK)’ from the ‘Language’ menu. Then select ‘Pacific/Auckland’ from the ‘Time zone’ menu.

You can watch a short video about how to change the date and time in the forms portal in our online training.

Use the Education Payroll logo to navigate back to home in the portal

To navigate back to the home screen in the portal, just select the Education Payroll logo at the top left of your screen.

You have different options for sharing your requests in the portal

You can select from options in the ‘Share with’ dropdown menu

You may have noticed the ‘Share with’ options in the forms portal.


The table below lets you know what each option means.


You can also share your request with specific users

To share your request with specific users, select ‘No one’ when you first create the request. Then select ‘Add request participant’, and add the emails of the participants you want to share the request with.


You can download and print forms from the portal

To download and print forms from the portal, first open the form. Select the three dots at the top right, then select ‘Download PDF’. Once you’ve downloaded the form, you can print it from your computer.


You can attach documents after you’ve submitted a request in the portal

If you’ve submitted a request in the portal and we’ve messaged you back to ask for more information, you can attach documents to your response. 

In the section of the page where you write your reply, select the icon that looks like a little picture of a mountain with a sun. This is the icon for ‘Add image, video, or file’.



Please complete our EOY/SOY survey

Our End of Year (EOY) and Start of Year (SOY) processes are coming. You will receive an email with a link to our EOY/SOY survey on 21 September. In this survey we’d like to know:

  • 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.

Have a lovely term break when you get to it

We hope you have a wonderful break. And thanks again for everything you do to make sure your staff are paid correctly and on time. We really appreciate it.

 

Ngā mihi

Education Payroll