End-of-year planning: get going early

By Education Gazette editors

Issue: Volume 95, Number 18

Posted: 10 October 2016

Reference #: 1H9d4e

It’s now the perfect time to start thinking about all that needs to be achieved in the last term. It is also really important that the processing of staff movements and organising their pay over the Christmas holiday period is high on the ‘to do’ list.

Education Payroll Ltd (EPL) – the company that manages the Novopay payroll, has announced that the end-of-year processing screens will open this week and will close on 28 November.

While that might feel like a long time, the best advice is to get onto it early or face a high-pressure situation at the end.

“We strongly recommend an early start,” says EPL capability advisor Shirley Walls.

“The instructions, self-paced learning modules and e-workshops are all available now, so as you come back it’s a good idea to get going as soon as you can.”

Shirley recommends doing the self-paced learning modules and attending an e-workshop as a start, then downloading and reading through the instructions to make sure you are familiar with what needs to be done.

The modules and instructions can be found on the Novopay website(external link) and the e-workshops (which are run by the Ministry of Education’s Training Services) can be booked through the same website.

The ‘get going early’ piece of advice is one that is reiterated by school staff who have been there before. Talia Andrews, executive officer at St Peter’s College in Gore, has been through the end-of-year process four times. She says doing as much as possible online as early as possible works well.

“It’s a good idea to plan ahead. I suggest you start as early as possible. Make time with your principal to check end dates and so forth and print out the end-of-year list early so you can check off the end dates for non-teachers."

“Read the instructions and do the online webinars if possible, too,” she says.

Broad Bay School principal Greg MacLeod says he found his first go at end-of-year a bit daunting, but he got through it with help.

“I had no idea what to do. However, we had Shirley Walls to bounce off and she supported my office administrator and me through the process rather easily. Being in a small school, I think it helped having a small number of staff to put through."

“Because it was my first year, the most difficult thing was navigating the system and knowing what information to use. The self-paced module helped.”

Greg advises getting onto it early and getting help if you get stuck.

“Make good use of the resources available, including your school account team advisor, the self-paced modules and the Novopay website,” he says.