Audit requirements for payroll records
Schools' financial statements are required to be audited each year. Schools should keep payroll records to support the school's annual financial statements.
See Financial Information for Schools Handbook: Ch 2.8 Audit process (Ministry of Education website).
Report retention
It is recommended that checked and signed copies of the reports listed below be kept until the year's financial audit is completed. The SUE reports, timesheet and leave downloads, and the School Annual Accrual Report are most likely to be asked for, however any or all reports may be required. Signed copies confirm that these reports have been checked in an appropriate and timely manner.
Transaction reports
Novopay Online was switched off on 20 October, 2021. Transaction reports did not move across to EdPay, as they only showed submissions completed through Novopay Online, not EdPay. Therefore, please retain copies of your transaction reports up until 5 October 2021 for any timesheets and leave completed in Novopay Online, and until 19 October 2021 for any changes to employee information completed in Novopay Online.
Reports in EdPay
EdPay timesheet and leave reporting has a live transaction history in the dashboards which are downloadable to CSV.
Entries submitted through EdPay will not show up in the Novopay Online transaction reports, so you will need to retain other forms of this information.
You can download CSV files of the Leave History, and Timesheet overview directly from the screens. We recommend you download the timesheet CSV on the 1st Draft Sue day (Thursday), and then again on 2nd draft SUE day (pay Monday) to see any final changes that have been made within this pay period. The leave history will show all Leave bookings, you can filter by leave type or employee number before downloading the CSV.
SUE reports are available from the Reports screen in EdPay.
Report checking
School boards of trustees should have processes in place for reports to be checked, including:
- who is responsible for the checking
- how the checking is confirmed on the report, eg signature and date of checking
- how the board know the checking is completed in an appropriate and timely manner.
It is best practice with any report produced for the purpose of checking a financial transaction to print and sign it to confirm it has been checked. The report(s) should then be filed and available for review by school auditor(s) to confirm that appropriate checking processes are in place and being followed.
Payroll instructions
After instructions have been checked against the draft SUE and EdPay screens (activity history, timesheet, leave), store the original form or print screen in the employee's personal file.
All forms need to be retained at the school for audit purposes.
- The Education Payroll Service Centre does not require a signed copy of forms that are sent electronically. However, it is good practice to obtain the employee's signature on these forms.
- Forms posted to the Education Payroll Service Centre must be signed, and a copy retained at the school.
See Completing forms.
School Annual Accrual Report
The School Annual Accrual Report (SAAR) is the annual financial summary and must be kept for seven years as part of the financial statements.
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