You may have heard that the new Payroll Giving legislation comes into effect on 7 January 2010 and wondered what it’s all about.

From 7 January 2010 if an employer decides to offer payroll giving (and it’s up to the employer) it gives employees the opportunity to donate to approved donee organisations directly from their pay and receive immediate tax credits that reduce their PAYE.  Previously employees had to wait until the end of the year to claim those tax credits.

You may have wondered if SmartPayroll will be able to cope with the new changes.  The answer is Yes!

Our team of technicians have been working hard to make sure that SmartPayroll will be able to handle payroll giving very easily when it goes live on the 7th January 2010.  SmartPayroll will handle all the employers’ obligations as follows:

• Deduct the requested donation amount from the individual employee’s salary or wage
• Calculate the correct tax credits for payroll donations for each donation made
• Record the tax credits for payroll donations for individual employees
• Keep records of all tax credits for payroll donations, donation amounts, donee organisations and payment dates
• Pass the donations to the chosen donee organisations within the specified timeframe of the deduction being made from the employee’s salary or wage
• Advise the donee organisation the donation is a result of payroll giving.

As part of SmartPayroll’s commitment to making payroll easier, we attended the recently concluded conference “Volunteering New Zealand” at the Wellington Town Hall. SmartPayroll provides the payroll solution to Volunteer New Zealand and is keen to assist those organisations who are doing a great job in the community. There were number of organisations that were interested in what we had to offer. Thanks to all those who came and spoke to us.

The latest SmartPayroll updates include:

1.  Department Costing Report – A new improved look to the Department Costing Report.  This is the first step in the Department Costing re-vamp.  You’ll be able to see a detailed report showing where the costing is allocated through each area of the payrun, including Leave and Allowances. 
2. Payrun Report changes – The Payrun Report now includes details of the company’s contribution for Kiwisaver.  This will ensure that the Payrun Report totals match the Direct Credit Schedule with the Kiwisaver information still separate, but easily accessible as a total.
3. Allowance Report – a new Allowance Report is available.  To find it, click on Reporting on the top menu, then select Allowance Report in the left-hand blue frame.  The Allowance Report can also be switched on in the Reporting area to be viewed automatically as one of the Check Payroll reports or Reports viewed after processing.

These are the main features of our recent update.  We are constantly enhancing the SmartPayroll system with new developments.   If you have any queries about these or other changes you have noticed, please call us at the SmartPayroll Helpdesk on 0800 10 10 38. 

Regards,
The SmartPayroll Helpdesk team

In the latest range of updates there are two changes that SmartPayroll clients will notice immediately -

The Letter of Credit amount will be visible on Process & Authorisation Screen;  You can now enter multiple pay rates which will accrue annual leave. (more…)

The SmartPayroll system will be offline for 3 hours on Thursday 2/7/09.  Tomorrow there’ll be some new enhancements to the system.