Payroll, made easy
webinar series

Join our Payroll Specialists in this exciting series designed to empower our payroll customers with the skills and confidence to tackle not only routine payroll tasks but also complex reporting needs and ad-hoc requests. With our guidance, you'll gain the know-how to help you ensure your staff get paid on time while staying compliant.

Part 1: Lump Sum Payments and Terminations

Join Brigid and Rebecca as they show you how to add lump sum payments like a pro and which method to select for maximum efficiency. We'll also take you through assigning termination reasons and dates, calculating terminations, and when it's crucial to refer to the ATO.

Part 1a: Termination Process for Employment Hero HR & Payroll

Following on from Part 1, we show you how to manage terminations from the HR platform. Whether you prefer to manage terminations through the payroll platform or HR platform, we're here to guide you every step of the way.

Part 1: FAQs

You are able to complete the process via either platform. In the webinar we showcased terminations from a payroll-first perspective, and we’ve included a short how-to video above to showcase how to do this from a HR-first perspective. 

Aggregating tax is done when you want to ensure that your employee pays the appropriate number of pay periods, e.g. a back payment for 4 weeks can be aggregated rather than the full amount being taxed as if it was earnt in one week.

If you are aggregating the tax across the 52 week period (or pay schedule equivalent) select Method A however, if the payment does not align to a specific pay period the ATO recommends using Method B(ii). If you are unsure which category your scenario falls into please reach out to the ATO directly.

Method A calculates withholding by apportioning additional payments made in the current pay period over the number of pay periods in a financial year, and applying that average amount to the gross earnings in the current pay period.

Method B(ii) calculates withholding by averaging all additional payments made in the current financial year over the number of pay periods in a financial year, and applying that to the average total earnings to date.

The system will calculate this for you based on the ATO’s Table A Withholding rates for ETPs.

Yes, as long as the leave category is ticked to be paid out upon termination.

The system will calculate the Lump Sum D portion of the ETP however, you can select ‘override calculations’ and enter an amount yourself, if need be.

Yes, you can. There is an edit pencil next to each type of leave taken/paid out where the amounts can be overridden.

As mentioned in the webinar this can be done by terminating the employee in a pay run and then reactivating them with the new employment type.

The calculation panel, excel and PDF files can all be accessed even after the pay run is finalised.

The system is not able to account for breaks in service. This would need to be manually adjusted.

Part 2: Leave

Part 2: Leave

Join Brigid and Rebecca as they show you how leave works, how you can avoid duplication issues when using timesheets, and understand how to handle leave taken over multiple periods.

Helpful resources

Payroll admin daily use guide

Part 2: FAQs

Yes, the employee can be set up with a Special TFN and not included in pay runs. They will then be able to apply for leave via the employee portal.

No, these would need to be reentered unfortunately.

There was a legislative decision that was implemented and then overturned hence why there are two leave categories. Please only use the one that most applies to you – learn more here. 

This is not currently possible but we are always looking at ways we can improve features so will take on board all feedback provided.

You could either edit the hours in the pay run to process the correct amount of leave or you can delete the timesheet line item and then use Actions > Take Leave to manually process leave in a pay run. Keep in mind, if you remove a timesheet line item from the pay run it will not be marked as processed and will remain in an approved status but can be deleted if need be.

Leave requests that have only been partially applied can still be edited. If this is done in the HR platform to reduce the leave days, the change will then flow into the payroll platform.

No there is no capping functionality for the negative leave feature.

Work types do not show on the payslips but rather the pay category.

No it is per the leave category and not the employee.

No unfortunately.

Yes, you can manually adjust on an ad hoc basis within the pay run.

No the timesheets aren’t updated to reflect this.

They are the same but you can setup different leave categories with different configurations should you wish.

If in HR and they are eligible to view their projected balance, they will see the projected balance based on their accruals to that date. So they can request the leave now, and their overall balance will be adjusted for them to view.

When an employee is requesting leave they can see the balance so they will be able to determine if they have the leave to cover the request. If they don’t have the leave to cover the request then they are best to speak with their manager.

The standard is for Hours per hour worked but you can adjust the configuration if you feel it is necessary for whatever reason.

Any approved leave requests within the pay period will be available to be included in the payrun. If there is negative leave prevented and converted to LWOP that will still be included.

No they won’t see this until the pay is processed as the request is not split until it is added to the payrun.

You can run the leave balances report and set the ‘As of’ date which will provide the balances at a specific point in time.

Yes, you can manually edit the leave taken in the pay run.

This will depend on how the Work Type or Rule is set up, e.g. the rule could be set to pay the pay category ‘none’ for the public holiday not worked. Alternatively, if the employee does not work and is not entitled to be paid for the public holiday they do not need to submit a timesheet.

The leave balance report in the payroll platform will provide a projected balance when the report is set to a future date.

This cannot be done on the timesheet directly but can be updated in the pay run using Rule Sets. Please see How to Automate Public Holiday Pay with Rule Sets

If you run the leave balance or liability reports for a future date the report will use a projected balance. For an accurate balance you will need to run the report for today or a past date.

You can run a leave balance report and filter to a specific employee and leave type/s.

Yes, in order to show the leave category on the payslip you need to adjust the leave category configuration – read more here.

Yes, as long as you have set up leave provisions in the Chart of Accounts settings. The details can be found here.

You need to identify where the issue is and rectify that issue.

You can run a leave balance report in the payroll platform to view the employee’s available balance and compare this to the leave request.

Use the Manage Timesheet screen which will show you all timesheets and will allow you to filter. The Create Timesheets page doesn’t give you the same flexibility.

No, the leave and timesheet management sections are separate. If you are converting leave requests to timesheets you will only see requests that have been approved already.

This can be done in the payroll platform; if using Leave Allowance Templates you can set the leave year to start on the 1st January otherwise this can also be set at an employee level in the payroll platform.

The leave management and timesheet management processes are separate. You will only need to approve both if you are converting leave to a timesheet. If you are applying the leave requests directly to the pay run you will only need to approve it once and it will flow through to payroll as approved.

If you wish to convert leave requests to timesheets this will need to be done per employee.

No there is not currently.

Instructions on how to set up a Purchased Leave agreement can be found here. The system will then accrue leave as per the new rate established and all leave taken will be processed as the same Annual Leave category. For more information on the rules surrounding how purchased leave is paid upon termination please reach out to the ATO.

This can be done by following the Adjust Leave process but applying earnings rules. Instructions can be found here.

No there are no warnings which mean you’d need to communicate to the staff member that they don’t have enough leave to cover the entire request.

If they don’t have enough annual leave to cover the request then you would need to speak with the employee and manually adjust if you are comfortable pushing the leave balance into negative.

No there isn’t an option for this.

Public Holidays can be configured in HR meaning any staff who take leave on those days will have the hourse zero’d. When the leave then pushes to payroll the employee will be paid according to any public holiday conditions that have been set up

When leave is taken, it will be assigned to the employee’s default location however, it can be manually adjusted in the pay run to another location.

If it has been paid previously in a payrun, then you can decline the leave request which will prevent it appearing moving forward. You could also mark the leave request as ‘manually applied’ in the pay run.

Not at this stage, the salaried employee will simply be paid their normal hours.

No there isn’t an option to import leave as timesheets.

If the employee has access to the work type they will be able to use it on a timesheet.

The two systems are different as one is for HR and one is for Payroll. If you are a Payroll only customer through Keypay, you are now an Employment Hero Payroll customer but everything remains the same regarding billing and platform access and support.

No, the employee will need to create a timesheet for any time worked, regardless of the day. If they do not work on the public holiday and are not entitled to be paid they do not need to submit a timesheet.

This will depend on what the payouts are for and when/how they are being requested and processed. E.g. anything being paid out during a termination will be automatically processed however, an annual leave ‘cash-out’ will need to be manually processed. Learn more here. 

Part 3: Rules

Part 3: Rules

Join Rebecca and Brigid for part three of our Payroll, Made Easy series where you'll understand rules, HR + PY, common misunderstandings, diagnosing issues, and getting support.

Helpful resources

Payroll admin daily use guide

Part 3: FAQs

This sessions covers how public holiday data syncs from the HR platform the rules and awards set up in the payroll platform, but you can set this up without the HR platform as well.

Yes, rules will only apply to timesheets. Rules exist in the payroll system via Payroll Settings > Rule Sets.

If you convert the roster to a timesheet then the work type will carry across. If not, if the roster is used as a guide for the timesheet, the work type also needs to be added to the timesheet to trigger the rules.

Installing the award is one thing but within those awards there are pre-built rulesets. In this case, you would install the award and then use the rules that are specific to that award. There is no need to re-build the rules if you download and install a pre-built award.

Yes, you can preserve custom rules and leave templates when updating awards. Please read this article for more details.

Yes, you can create custom employment agreements but conditions and tags are governed by rulesets that will need to be custom built to meet the needs of your custom employment agreement.

No, you can only store an employee’s primary pay rate in their HR file.

This may depend on the pay category you’re selecting in the HR platform. If the pay category is Ordinary hours, this will take a salary and make it hourly which often changes $50,000 per annum to $49,999 per annum.

This can be done using rules. It will depend on what award the employee is on and the conditions of that award, however when they submit a timesheet it can then trigger overtime. From there, a rule can be created to say if pay category is OT then apply one unit of that allowance.

It can be treated differently in different awards. If it is coming through to the payrun as expected then it may be set up differently. However, if it is not then you may need to apply the tag.

This depends on your award and the relevant rule sets with in it.

This scenario would require a manual adjustment of the PAYG once you have manually calculated the correct PAYG amount (if the hours were in their correct pay period). The system will always calculate PAYG on the timesheets in the payrun regardless of the dates of the timesheets.

If you are subscribed to Premium Payroll, you can create your own custom rules for employees who aren’t on an award. From there you can build rules and then apply them to specific employees.

We are continuing to add to our list of pre-built Modern Awards. The priority of which awards are built first relies on customer demand and the complexity of the award. Premium Payroll customers can request additional awards under Payroll Settings > Manage Awards. Standard Payroll customers don’t have access to this page, so please submit a feature request via our Help Centre and we’ll add your vote to the list.

This will depend on your set up, but it sounds like you’ve used pay run inclusions instead of a rule set trigger.

Yes, If you go to Payroll Settings > Payslips, you can see the options there for the view of the payslips.

Reporting would probably be best as you could run a Pay Categories report and filter for OT categories

Unfortunately the system is not able to calculate/count the kilometres so this needs to be a record kept outside the platform. Both under and over 5000km can be accommodated, but it is a manual process to select the correct one for the particular employee.

Yes. The leave accrual visibility is set in the leave category itself. Go to Payroll Settings > Leave Categories and expand the leave category in question. Here you can see the Hide buttons and the choices available.

Yes, it can be accommodated to cover night shifts.

This could be related to the rule and the pay category that it points to. When you look at the rule, ensure that the pay category is the correct one.

You can learn more about managing this here.

Yes, you can go into that rule set, look at the URL and replace “Rules” with clone. This will create a copy for you. Note that the copy will not be updated with the usual Award updates.

Navigate to the employee’s payroll profile and open their pay run defaults. At the bottom of the page there will be a change effective from date. Often the changes are made as of today’s date however the pay run we are processing is for a prior week/period. You can either manually edit the pay run or you can exclude the employee, save the changes again and then re-include the employee in the pay run.

Hi Kylie, we are always working to bring the two together. The Payroll helpcentre has more specific payroll information. There isn’t a right or wrong answer on this but we hope to have the one place into the future

If it is a timesheet employee then there is no way to automate it; a timesheet is required to create earnings. If the employee is paid their hours by default then the normal ordinary hours pay category will apply for the day. Timesheet employees can use the ‘Public Holiday not worked’ Work Type to pay their ordinary earnings and still flag the day as a public holiday specifically.

Non-timesheet employees will be paid their standard hours by default however, the public holiday will not be itemised separately in the pay run. It will simply be paid as normal.

Review the Work Type settings and ensure the applicable pay category is linked, e.g. permanent ordinary hours. Also review the timesheet and ensure that the correct start and finish time or number of units is entered.

The work type will need to be included in the CSV file or it will then need to be manually added after the timesheets have been imported.

The work type won’t be displayed on the payslip, but rather the pay category will. So whatever your PH configuration is that pay category will be displayed.

Yes it needs to be added as a work type to timesheets

You may do this for your reconciliation processes. There is no way to show the Public Holiday Not Worked pay category automatically for salaried employees. It would need to be a manual adjustment in the pay run. Otherwise they will be paid their normal hours.

HI Chris, if you are seeking to have you daily hours set to 7.6 hrs, this can be done within their Profile > Payrun Defaults tab.

It will simply show as ordinary hours worked and pay them.

If your salaried staff are paid by default and do not need to submit a timesheet, then there is no need to use the work types.

Dimensions is a new feature so reporting will no doubt be something explored into the future.

Public Holidays do not calculate automatically but there is an article here that outlines how to automate them using rules and worktypes. We also have information here on how to set up annualised wage agreements.

Part 4: EOFY Preparation

Part 4: EOFY Preparation

Join Rebecca and Brigid for part four of our Payroll, Made Easy series where we'll take a deep dive into EOFY prep.

Part 4 Resources

Part 5: EOFY Prep Continued

Part 5: EOFY Prep Continued

Join Rebecca and Brigid for part five of our Payroll, Made Easy series where we'll continue their deep dive into EOFY prep.

Part 5 Resources

Part 5: FAQs

This will vary for every organisation, based on whether they have weekly, fortnightly or monthly pay runs. Any pay runs with a PAID DATE on or after 1 July will NOT be included in the 2022/2023 financial year.

You can generate a payroll tax report in the payroll platform. More information about this can be found here.

There is no equivalent of this report in HR, but you could create a Custom Report (available on Premium and Platinum HR) via the Reports tab and add the necessary fields you are after. 

It’s recommended to use the resources that will be provided and discussed during today’s session and in the previous webinar. These will assist you in reconciling your data. This link to our EOFY Hub will be of further assistance.

Hi there, please see the article here covering closely held employees. If you’re unsure as to what STP income type you should be please contact the ATO or your accountant.

It is very strongly recommended to create and lodge an Update Event AFTER your final pay run and BEFORE your Finalisation Event. The RFB amounts are entered into the Update Event for any previously terminated employees.

It is very strongly recommended to create and lodge an Update Event AFTER your final pay run and BEFORE your Finalisation Event. The RFB amounts are entered into the Update Event for any previously terminated employees.

There are several reasons. Some of these will be covered today. More information can be found here.

It is very strongly recommended to create and lodge an Update Event AFTER your final pay run and BEFORE your Finalisation Event. The RFB amounts are entered into the Update Event for any previously terminated employees. For current employees, these will be entered into the Finalisation Event.

It is very strongly recommended to create and lodge an Update Event AFTER your final pay run and BEFORE your Finalisation Event. You can do the finalisation event once the above is complete.

Only a single, combined grossed up amount is entered when reporting for STP Phase 2.

It is very strongly recommended to create and lodge an Update Event AFTER your final pay run and BEFORE your Finalisation Event. The RFB amounts are entered into the Update Event for any previously terminated employees. For current employees, these will be entered into the Finalisation Event.

STP Phase 2 reporting commenced as of 1 March 2022 for those using our payroll platform and  who did not have an exemption (more details from the ATO here).

They will have been included in pay events after they returned and therefore should appear in your finalisation event.

You can follow the article here to complete an update event.

For the first part of this question, you can make adjustments through an ad hoc pay run if required and then either lodge a pay event (if the value of the pay run is more than $0). If they have a negative or $0 value you can refresh the data with the ATO through an Update Event.

For the second part of your query regarding duplicate data lodged, we recommend raising a ticket with support to assist you with this. Please sign into the payroll platform as an admin, then click on the support button on the bottom right hand side of the screen and follow the prompts to create a ticket.

Super payments from the April to June period are due on 28 July however, if you want to have a super contribution counted in the current financial year, ensure your super fund receives it by 30 June. If you are unsure what your business needs to do please speak to your accountant or financial advisor.

The ATO works in chronological order of data received. We do NOT recommend going back and lodging this pay event. Instead, we would recommend creating and lodging an Update Event which will ensure that the employee’s YTD data is refreshed correctly. 

This will need to be processed through a pay run (either scheduled or ad hoc) and then a pay event can be lodged to reflect this. If you require more specific advice, please raise a ticket with Support for assistance with this. Please sign into the payroll platform as an admin, then click on the support button on the bottom right hand side of the screen and follow the prompts to create a ticket. 

This question would be best directed to a HR Advisor, FairWork or the ATO who will be able to advise on the specifics for this employee. If you require technical direction regarding how to process this in the platform, you can then reach out to Support. This guide may assist further: Terminating an employee

Yes, tax file declarations can be lodged electronically. See: Updating Employee Tax File Declaration

You can only process an update event for one pay schedule at a time. If an employee has moved pay schedules during the FY, all of their data will be associated with their new pay schedule now.

You can lodge another update event if needed.

This will be reported via your Update event for previously terminated employees and the Finalisation Event for current employees. This is due on 14 July 2023.

The PAID DATE will determine which FY this pay run falls into. Any pay runs up to and including a PAID DATE fo 30 June 2023 will be included in this current FY.

You only need to perform the Update Event for the pay schedule that the employee is attached to (you can see this in the employees pay run defaults tab). Therefore, any data processed through an ad hoc pay run will be associated with the employee and reported when the Update Event for their primary pay schedule is lodged.

Please see this article which may assist. If you need further assistance with this, please submit a support ticket.

Data for 1/4/23 – 30/6/23 would be entered into your finalisation event next year, as it relates to the next FBT Financial Year (2024). This article has more details.

Here is a link to a guide to reconciling your data.

After you have lodged your final pay run for the financial year it is strongly recommended to create and lodge an Update Event and then after that has been successfully lodged create and lodge your finalisation event. You do not need to wait until 1 July to do this, as long as there will be NO further pay runs for the FY.

You can lodge the TFNs for your staff, but with STP Phase 2 this is not necessarily required. You can read more on this here (please see the section toward the end).

If an employee updates their super details, it will mean the next super payment will be made to that fund.

If there is no earnings data, you won’t be able to lodge the pay event. You can lodge an update event if you need to report data that may no longer be default earnings and would now be disaggregated as leave earnings.

We recommend allowing a variance of up to a couple of dollars to allow for rounding. This will be an internal decision if you would like to allow $5 variance.

Correct. It is based on the paid date so if you have a pay run spanning 29/06/23 – 05/07/23 with a paid date of the 07/07/23 then that will fall into the new FY.

Super payments from the April to June period are due on 28 July however, if you want to have a super contribution counted in the current financial year, ensure your super fund receives it by 30 June. If you are unsure what your business needs to do please speak to your accountant or financial advisor.

We would recommend processing your super batch at least 5 business days before the due date to allow the payments to be received into employee’s super accounts on time. See: Automated Super Payments using Beam

Yes, you could adjust the paid date and pay run dates to accommodate for this

You can create and process new pay runs with paid dates ON/AFTER 1 July 2023 without having processed your finalisation event for 2023 FY. Only data with a PAID DATE upto and including 30 June will be included in the 2023 finalisation event.

Yes, the update event will refresh the data that has been received by the ATO through previous pay runs if changes have been made.

Yes, you can start the finalisation process now if you wish or need to.

Instructions on how to create new pay categories can be found here.

This article will assist you with reconciling the data for annualised wage employees. For further advice about this, we recommend reaching out to your HR Advisor, FairWork or the ATO.

This article has more information about the Journal Report. If you have a specific query, please lodge a ticket with Support.

Part 6 FAQs

Part 7: Wrapping up EOFY

Part 7: Wrapping up EOFY

Recorded on 18 July 2023, this session will wrap up your EOFY, including FAQs, troubleshooting, processing an amended finalisation and earning reset events.

Part 7 FAQs

Part 8: Swag and Timesheets

Part 8: Swag and Timesheets

Join Bec and Brigid for Part 8 of our Payroll, made easy series. This session covers Swag, timesheets and upcoming product releases, as well as a live Q&A.

Part 8 FAQs

Part 9: Back Pay Wizard and CPI Increases

Part 9: Part 9: Back Pay Wizard and CPI Increases

Join Bec and Kathleen for Part 9 of our Payroll, made easy series. In this session, we'll cover the Back Pay Wizard and how to manage CPI increases.

Part 9 FAQs

Part 10: Public Holidays

Part 10: Public Holidays

Join Bec and Kathleen for Part 10 of our Payroll, made easy series. In this session, we'll cover Public Holiday management.

Part 10 FAQs

Part 11: Reporting

Part 11: Reporting

Join Bec and Kathleen for Part 11 of our Payroll, made easy series. In this session, we'll cover reporting.

Part 11 FAQs

That’s a wrap for the Payroll, made easy webinar series.
Thank you to everyone who joined us this year!

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