Novopay: payslips, Start-of-Year processing, and training

How to read your payslip

At the end of the school year as employees finish contracts or prepare to start new jobs, you may see one-off payments on your payslips. Seeing these may cause confusion, particularly for payments like holiday pay, which is paid out in PP19 on 10 December 2014.

To help you through this process, please remember that you can refer to the How to read your payslip fact sheet, under Information for school employees on the Novopay website.(external link)

This How to read your payslip fact sheet outlines each section of the payslip and the information contained within it and important things to look out for.

If you need more information about End-of-Year holiday pay calculations, with examples, please visit the Novopay website.(external link)

Please also note that the last pay you will receive before Christmas will be on Saturday 20 December.

A message from Cathy Magiannis, Deputy Secretary, Education Payroll Services

We are heading into another very busy period in the schools’ payroll calendar, and before I share some handy tips with you, I want to acknowledge your tremendous efforts in completing the End-of-Year processing requirements. Only a handful of schools needed extra help to meet the deadline which was a great result, thank you.

Today (8 December) marks the beginning of the Start-of-Year process with the opening of the SoY screen.

The key functions of the Start-of-Year process are to:

• advise the start and end dates for fixed-term teachers and term-time only auto-paid non-teachers
• provide the payroll information for any other employees who have changes from the start of 2015 to allowances, employment status, funding, start date, hours or contract dates
• provide leave details for the start of 2015.

This is all to ensure that school staff are paid correctly and on time.

Some key points to ensure your SoY runs as smoothly as possible:

• Complete Start-of-Year processing for all the employees you have SoY information about before you go on holiday at the end of the school term.
• Also remember that the Novopay Service Centre may need to contact you for more information, so it is best to complete as much of your Start-of-Year processing a week before you go on holiday.
• You can continue to use the SoY screens during the holidays and through February and March for payroll changes to employees returning within the current pay period.

Training

We recommend that all administrators download the excellent Start-of-Year self-paced learning module(external link) from the Novopay website if they haven’t already and then book into an e-workshop.

2015 Start-of-Year e-workshop

This small group, trainer-led, one-hour online workshop is for Novopay Authorised Users to build confidence and knowledge in using Novopay Online to complete their annual Start-of-Year (SoY) payroll process. The session will provide you with key information on the tasks that need completing to ensure you have a successful SoY. It covers the key SoY dates, the main tasks, handy tools and the online navigation steps.

The SoY requirements are not too different from last year. However, some extra functions have been included to make certain tasks easier to complete. They will be covered in detail. This session will also provide time for questions and practice.
Hurry and book one of the sessions as they are filling up fast. All sessions before the Christmas holidays are fully booked but you can still book a session for the New Year.

To book a 2015 Start- of-Year e-workshop:

• Log into the Training Services website(external link). 
  
• Click Browse Training in the left panel.
• Click the Courses link.
• Click on the required course link.
• Choose a session time and click Add Booking.
• Follow any instructions that you receive via email.
• For assistance with booking training, please contact training.services@education.govt.nz or call 04 463 0928.

And remember, there is a very easy-to-follow SoY instructions guide on the Novopay website that also includes a handy checklist.

All the best for your Start-of-Year processing.