Payroll Update 17 January 2022

News for School Payroll Staff


 Kia ora koutou

In this Payroll Update:

  • Key dates
  • Pay period 22
  • Start of Year 2022
  • Check your employees' start dates
  • Schools’ start dates cannot be on a regional or public holiday
  • Annualisation top-up will be in pay period 24 – reminder
  • Salary assessment for 2022
  • Employees on continuous ACC leave
  • 2021 audit reports available soon

Key dates

  • 20 January – draft SUE report (no second draft SUE report)
  • 22 January – final SUE report
  • 31 January – NOVO23NTs need to be submitted by 5pm
  • 2 February – employees restarting in pay period 23 need to be restarted in the Start of Year screen in EdPay
  • 4 February – SAAR and Leave Liability reports available in EdPay
  • 25 February – Start of Year screen closes

Pay period 22

Due to Wellington Anniversary Day, there are some changes to note for pay period 22:

  • there will only be one draft SUE report (on Thursday 20 January), which will include termination pay
  • the final SUE report will be available on Saturday 22 January (instead of Tuesday 25 January)
  • no changes can be made to pay period 22 after 5pm on Friday 21 January except stop pays.

Our School Account Team will still be on the phones and able to answer your queries on Wellington Anniversary Day (Monday 24 January).

Start of Year 2022

The Start of Year (SOY) screen opened in EdPay on Wednesday 8 December 2021.

The green SOY Tool Box on the home page contains links to guides and training including:

Check your employees’ start dates

Term-time-only employee start dates

Use your employee's actual start date for term-time-only employees. Please note they cannot start on a weekend or a public holiday.
Term-time-only employees who do not return at the school's start date also need to have LWOP booked from 7 February 2022 until the day before the employee is due to return. Not completing this step could result in overpayments.

Returning teacher start dates

Regardless of what date the school opens for instruction, if a returning fixed-term teacher is employed at your school, 28 January is their start date in the Start of Year screen. If a fixed-term teacher is starting after your school's start date, please see page 6 of the Start of Year Guide 2022 to see whether leave should be booked.

Note: in order to make changes to an employee's hours, allowances, funding etc, you must first submit their start and end dates in the Start of Year screen. Employees need to be restarted by the pay period that they return. Please make sure your counter in the Restart employees tab in the Start of Year screen is zero when the Start of Year screen closes on 25 February 2022.

Schools’ start dates cannot be on a regional or public holiday

Please be aware of any national or regional public holidays when entering your school's start date for 2022, as schools cannot start on a public holiday or a weekend. For example, if your school is in Auckland or Nelson, the start date cannot be 31 January 2022 as it is anniversary day for both regions.

Annualisation top-up will be in pay period 24 – reminder

Any 2021 annualised employees who complete the annualisation period (which ends 30 January 2022) and are owed a top-up amount, will receive it in pay period 24 (pay day 23 February). Top-up amounts may include a holiday pay top-up for additional hours worked throughout the year, or a percentage of gross earnings for pay periods 19 to 22 if someone was term-time-only in 2020, but annualised in 2021.

Salary assessment for 2022

Please submit any salary assessments for new teachers as soon as possible. Thank you to everyone who sent in applications last year for new teachers in 2022 – early applications mean we can give you better service.

Please note:

  • salary assessments can be submitted even if the employee doesn't yet have a Ministry of Education number, IRD number or NZ bank account number
  • your brand new teachers will be started on the minimum grade and step by default, if they have not been salary assessed before they start at your school
  • salary assessment may require several supporting documents, so it's good to allow plenty of time to gather them all.

The Salary Assessment page on the Novopay website has more information about these requirements, and how the assessment is done.

Employees on continuous ACC leave

If your employee is still on continuous ACC leave or still covered by the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) scheme, you will need to continue to submit a NOVO12acc leave booking form (PDF). For more information, please visit our ACC page.

2021 audit reports available soon

The 2021 audit reports, which schools require in order to complete their financial statements, will be available on Friday 4 February 2021.

The following reports will be available for download from EdPay:

  • School Annual Accrual Report (SAAR)
  • Leave Liability Reports.

The following reports will be available for download from the Ministry's Secure Data Portal:

  • Overpayments Error Schedule
  • Stop Pays Error Schedule
  • Funding Code Error Schedule.

Key audit dates

  • 4 February – reports are available in EdPay
  • 31 March – financial statements should be with auditors
  • 31 May – annual reports to be submitted to the Ministry.

For more information about audit reports, check the Audit requirements for payroll records page on the Novopay website.

The Ministry of Education is preparing a detailed instructions document, which you will be able to download from its website soon.
If you need help with these instructions or have specific questions about preparing the 2021 annual financial statements, contact your regional Ministry school financial advisor:

School finance advisor, region and contact details

Tai Tokerau
Corrine Gillum
Phone: 09 436 8908
Email: corrine.gillum@education.govt.nz

Auckland
Rebecca Cook
Phone: 09 632 9481
Email: rebecca.cook@education.govt.nz

Waikato
Alan Smith
Phone: 07 850 8984
Email: alan.smith@education.govt.nz

Hawke's Bay / Tairāwhiti
Nneka Okonta
Phone 06 833 8471
Email: nneka.okonta@education.govt.nz

Wellington
David Hyland
Phone: 04 463 8673
Email: david.hyland@education.govt.nz

Southland/Otago
Hannah Levy
Phone 03 474 6695
Email: hannah.levy@education.govt.nz

Auckland
Carmel Riordan
Phone: 09 632 9440
Email: carmel.riordan@education.govt.nz

Bay of Plenty / Waiariki
Jodie Hickson
Phone 07 349 7460
Email: jodie.hickson@education.govt.nz

Taranaki / Whanganui / Manawatu
Peter White
Phone 06 757 6496
Email: peter.white@education.govt.nz

Nelson / Marlborough / West coast, Wellington
Andrew Seagar
Phone 04 463 4825
Email: andrew.seagar@education.govt.nz

Canterbury
Alex Dieudonne
Phone 03 378 7362
Email: alex.dieudonne@education.govt.nz

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Education Payroll