Jason Mackie, Product Owner – Payroll
If you’re producing pay runs and bank files in advance over the holidays, remember to future-date and check these two things.
- Your pay run parameter setting for the day it will be processed by the bank.
Check your work: review a sample of an employee’s Pay Summary and the date paid.
- Bank (Cemtex/ABA) file’s setting for the date it will process your payments.
Check your work: review the process date when loading your file into your banking software.
Reianna Vercoe, Product and Marketing Manager
Be aware of legislative payroll and HR changes that come into effect on 1 January 2021:
- From 1 January 2021 workers cannot be forced into an employer’s chosen super fund under new enterprise bargaining agreements (EBAs) and workplace determinations. All employees must be provided with a superannuation standard choice form and allowed to choose their own fund.
Please note: The new law is not retrospective. Workers under existing EBAs will stay locked into those arrangements until the next time the EBA is negotiated after 1 January.
- Services Australia have published their annual adjustment to the Protected Earnings Amount (PEA) that will apply from 1 January 2021: a weekly rate of $383.10. The PEA is a set minimum amount that must be left after tax and child support is deducted from a person’s wage.
- For employers in WA who are outside the national system (‘award free’) – there’s a legislated increase to the minimum wage from the first pay period after 1 January 2021.
Visit the Fair Work website to take note of 2021 public holidays for each state and territory in Australia.
Laura Rosevear, Customer and Business Support Manager
As a team manager I think it’s vital during the Christmas break to rest and relax so you can come back to work in the New Year with renewed energy and enthusiasm.
Once you have some distance, then you can look back on the year at work and think about what you’ve learnt, before setting out short term and long-term goals for the coming year.
Get in and find some focus while you’re away from the office and still have some breathing space – before the business-as-usual routines and pressures start again.
Jacqui Birch, BPOS Client Executive
Ensure staff are aware of any shutdown days over the Christmas period, and leave is entered and approved.
Staff also need to be aware of varied payroll processing cut-off times, and any other relevant payroll times, in the event back-to-back pays are being executed outside standard timelines.
Don’t forget to review configuration of public holidays and office closure dates during shutdown to ensure employees are paid accurately.
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