Christmas is only around the corner. Yes, you heard it right – Christmas.   Of course some of us still have to work, even if the sun is streaming outside the office windows.

As an employer though, working out what days are holidays, what days are taken as leave, and whether your staff are getting paid correctly can be confusing, especially because Christmas day this year falls on a Sunday. 

SmartPayroll is your saving grace. It’s automatic. Simple as that. SmartPayroll will record it all correctly for you, process it as normal and leave you completely stress free. Sweating over the payroll is the last thing you should be thinking about at that time of year. So don’t, leave it to us and you’ll be “sweet as,” as the old Kiwi saying goes.

Closer to the time Smartpayroll will send you details on how to enter the holiday statutory days and of course if you have any questions you can always call our helpdesk on 0800 10 10 38.

World Champions. It’s two simple words the New Zealand public has been waiting to hear for 24 years. 80 minutes and one heart stopping injury to Aaron Cruden later, our dreams had become reality. It’s hard to describe the raw emotion that this victory has brought but seeing Richie McCaw raise that trophy is something that will never be forgotten.

All we can say now is celebrate New Zealand; the All Black’s did it. We did it.

Looking to streamline your payroll processes? Looking to get practical advice from the best in the business? The answers are of course yes.  Isn’t every small business owner looking to do just that?  

Well SmartPayroll is at hand. On November 4^th we will be taking all our knowledge and expertise down to the Westpac Business Centre in Addington, Christchurch in a bid to further help the small businesses of Christchurch with their recovery process.

But you don’t have to be from Christchurch to take advantage of this and nor do you have to be a Westpac customer.  

So what could top all of that? Well, it’s FREE!

 With the Chamber of Commerce also on hand for all your questions, some of the key areas we will touch on in the 2 hour session are:  

• Payroll basics and essentials
• PAYE and other tax requirements
• Payroll deductions
• All employer obligations regarding IRD payments and penalties, ACC levies, KiwiSaver and staff leave.

So, all that is left to do is book your place. It’s as easy as getting in contact with Chris on 0800 10 10 38 or emailing chris@smartpayroll.co.nz. But if you’re not quick you might miss out and nobody wants that.

 A few weeks back the SmartPayroll team heard a little rumour that something called the Rugby World Cup was coming to town. Outside our office, cars were starting to set our city abuzz with flags of varying nations bustling through the wind.

Well, not ones to be behind the eight ball we decided that we too will show our support and decorate our individual offices with the colours of the competing teams. With the Canadian maple leaf draped down the glass of one office, a collage of pictures of the Statue of Liberty hanging across a desk, it quickly started to look like a mishmash of the United Nations.

We haven’t just gone for all the big teams though, as just like with our business, we proudly help and support the smaller businesses in New Zealand to enable them to try and take on the big guns. In fact, the average SmartPayroll customer has less than 10 employees. 

So even with the competition now in the knockout phases, and some of our team mementos now redundant, we’ve enjoyed getting into the spirit of things. And just quietly, of course we want the All Blacks to win. 

By the way, if your company has got involved as well, post a comment below and tell us what your office looks like.

Passing the 2 billion mark

If you’ve ever been on our site (which I’m guessing you have as you’re on it right now), you might have seen that we have a little purple box at the bottom of our home page that continually ticks over. Well, that little purple box represents the total amount of payroll we have processed since we launched five years ago. 

  In all of our celebrations though, we haven’t forgotten you. You are our customers and it is you that have helped SmartPayroll get here today. We think you should be just as proud as we are. 

  Although the first billion took us 36 months to achieve, we haven’t rested on our laurels and we have raced ahead to attain the second billion in less than half that time. 

So now that the one has turned to the highly anticipated two on the front of the counter, we sit and wait for the almighty three. Lets hope it comes just as quick.

SmartPayroll's milestone - passing the 2 billion mark

Congratulations to Westpac on the opening of their new Business Hub in Christchurch.

We see this as being of huge benefit to Christchurch businesses looking for premises to work from, hold meetings or hold seminars.  Note you don’t need to bank with Westpac to use the Hub, it’s open to anyone and is completely free.  If you want to book visit www.westpacbusinesshub.co.nz.