Payroll Update 2 February 2023

News for School Payroll Staff


 

Kia ora koutou

In this payroll update:

  1. Key dates
  2. Weather events, disruption to schools and staff pay
  3. Start of Year 2023
  4. Annualisation
  5. School Caretakers' Cleaners' and Canteen Staff new pay rates from pay period 24
  6. Salary assessments for 2023
  7. Teacher-aide and administrator increments
  8. 2022 audit reports available soon
  9. Special tax codes
  10. End of Year survey

1. Key dates

  • 2 February – employees restarting in pay period 23 need to be restarted in the Start of Year screen
  • 3 February – School Annual Accrual and Leave Liability reports available in EdPay
  • 7 February – pay day for pay period 23
  • 21 February – pay day for pay period 24
  • 24 February – Start of Year screen closes at 5pm

2. Weather events, disruption to schools and staff pay

Our thoughts are with people in the upper North Island as they deal with unprecedented weather events and their impacts. While schools and kura may be closed due to the state of emergency, all employees – including teachers, principals, teacher aides and non-teaching staff – should continue to be paid as normal. You will have advised these employees of their hours (and weeks) of work for 2023 in line with their employment agreement and these continue to apply.

This includes day to day relievers and non-teaching casual staff who were booked in or otherwise engaged on the day(s) the school is closed. Where schools have moved to online learning, all staff should continue to be paid as normal, regardless of whether they can be engaged in online duties.

Where it is deemed safe, some non-teaching staff such as caretakers, cleaners or ground staff may be required onsite to perform duties that involve assisting with the clean-up of the flood damage before students return. Where this happens, these staff should continue to be paid as normal for the hours they work (in line with their relevant employment agreement) and for any additional hours.

Non-teaching staff who are not able to perform their work online should continue to be paid as usual. You will have advised these employees of their hours of work / weeks of work for 2023 in line with their employment agreement and these continue to apply.

If a school is open with online learning, but some staff are unable to work online due to dealing with flood damage in their homes and/or responsibilities in caring for their whanau, the Ministry of Education encourages you to accommodate these staff through providing discretionary paid leave.


3. Start of Year 2023

You have until 5pm, 24 February 2023, to complete your Start of Year tasks in EdPay. All of your processing must be completed by this date.

For everything you need to know:

Read

EdPay | How to | Start of Year

 

2023 Payroll calendar

Download

Start of Year guide

Watch

Welcome to Start of Year 2023 (opens in Vimeo 4.30mins)

  

Our payroll advisors are busy processing your payroll requests for pay period 23.  To help us focus on processing your requests during this busy time, we ask that schools please do not call to check on the status of a ticket, or lodge a second ticket for the same request when a payroll request has already been created. We will let you know when your payroll request has been processed. Thanks for your patience. Please do call if something cannot be resolved easily or is urgent or check our website www.edpay.govt.nz or one of these newsletters for information.

Start of Year Restart job tab should be zero

Check that you have restarted all your term-time-only employees and fixed-term teachers for the 2023 school year in the Start of Year Restart job tab.

Click the Add employee to be restarted box to see which employees still have jobs to be restarted.


When you have restarted all your employees, your job counter along the bottom of the screen will be at zero.


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 leave without pay booked from 7 February 2023 until the day before they are 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 2023 to see whether leave should be booked.

To make changes to an employee’s hours, allowances, funding etc, you must first enter their start and end dates in the Start of Year screen.

Employees not returning

If any employees who have left your school are still showing in the Add employee to be restarted box, then use EdPay to terminate their job.


4. Annualisation 

Pay period 23 will include the end of 2022 annualisation

Any employee who was annualised for 2022, and has chosen to be annualised for 2023, will need to be aware of the split that will occur in pay period 23 (25 January – 7 February).

Annualisation for 2022 completed on 30 January 2023, and annualisation for 2023 is effective from 31 January 2023. For pay purposes, this will result in:

  • 6 days at the 2022 annualisation rate
  • 8 days at the 2023 annualisation rate

For any employee who has not been previously annualised, the above will not apply.


Annualisation top-up will be in pay period 24

Any 2022 annualised employees who completed the annualisation period (ends 30 January 2023) and are owed a top-up amount, will receive it in pay period 24 (pay day 21 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 19–22 if someone was term-time-only in 2021, but annualised in 2022.


EP24nt now available

The EP24nt – 2023 Annualisation agreement Change of hours/pay rate for support staff form is now on our EdPay.govt.nz website | EdPay and forms


5. School Caretakers' Cleaners' and Canteen Staff new pay rates from pay period 24

Eligible employees who have signed the new School Caretakers' Cleaners' and Canteen Staff Collective or Individual Employment Agreement (IEA) will be paid the new rates, as per their agreement, from pay period 24 (pay day 21 February 2023) providing EPL has been notified of this on an EP22 form.

If your employee has signed this new agreement and EPL has not been notified, please complete an EP22 form for them, so they can be paid on the correct rates from the next applicable pay day after the form has been processed.


6. Salary assessments for 2023

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 2023 – 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 allow plenty of time to gather them all
  • for more information see our website: EdPay | Salary assessment 

7. Teacher aide and administrator increments

The Attestation school report is an EdPay report that shows the names of your teachers, teacher aides and support staff who are due to receive an increment (in other words, due to have their salary increased). The report is available to all schools and is generated fortnightly. You can access it from the Reports area in EdPay.

Please check your Attestation report to see whether your employees are eligible to receive an increment, or if the increment needs to be deferred. Increments will happen automatically unless you have let Education Payroll know that it should be deferred. Deferrals need to be discussed with your employee two months before it is due to be applied.

Administrators

If an administrator has not met performance standards OR is not eligible to progress between grades (as their work remains solely within their current grade) please defer by placing an N in the appropriate field and return the signed report to the School account team. Schools must discuss a deferral with an administrator two months before it is to be applied.

Teacher aides

If a teacher aide has not met performance standards OR is not eligible to progress from Grade BC step 5 to step 6 (as their work remains within matrix Grade B), please defer by placing an N in the appropriate field and return the signed report to the School account team. Schools must discuss a deferral with the teacher aide two months before it is to be applied.


8. 2022 audit reports available soon

The 2022 audit reports, which schools require to complete their financial statements, will be available from 3 February 2023.

These reports will be available for download from EdPay:

  • School Annual Accrual Report (SAAR)
  • Leave liability reports

These reports will be available for download from the Ministry of Education (the Ministry) Secure Data Portal:

  • Overpayments error schedule
  • Stop pays error schedule
  • Funding code error schedule

Key audit dates

  • 3 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 see EdPay.govt.nz:  Audit requirements for payroll records

The Ministry has prepared detailed instructions on their website 2022 Annual reporting guidelines - Accounting for school payroll

If you need help with these instructions or have specific questions about preparing the 2022 annual financial statements, contact your regional Ministry school financial advisor:


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

Auckland
Lesley Winstanley
Phone: 09 638 2850
Email:lesley.winstanley@education.govt.nz

Waikato
Daryl Stewart
Phone: 07 850 8996
Email: daryl.stewart@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
Adrian Edwards
Phone 07 349 7460
Email: adrian.edwards@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


9. Special tax codes

Employees with a special tax code (also known as a tailored tax code) need to correct their tax code with Inland Revenue and Education Payroll before the end of the tax year.

Please update your employee’s tax code in EdPay for every tax instruction you receive. This will ensure that your employees’ correct tax codes take effect in pay period 1. The code for special tax codes in EdPay is STC.

To change an employee’s tax code in EdPay:
1. Select the employee
2. Select Financial details
3. Scroll down to Other financial details
4. Select the pencil icon in the right corner
5. Select the + symbol next to the tax code to change the tax code
Please ignore the start and end date that displays when you click save – your payroll advisor will update it.

For more information please check the Inland Revenue website.



10. End of Year survey

Thanks to everyone who answered our End of Year survey, we really appreciate hearing from you. We received some compliments about how EdPay has made it much easier to complete End of Year, as well as constructive feedback about what changes would make End of Year a better process. We are working through the survey responses now and will keep you updated on any changes that come from your feedback.

Ngā mihi

Education Payroll