The changes in the payroll system represent almost 12 months of solid work, most of those changes are below the surface so the speak, in that they are mainly involved in validation of data. Some of the changes represent a change in Work-Flow, hence a change in processing is required. Yet others are an expansion of the capabilities of Minder payroll to accommodate new types of employees, for instance.

This document s a brief introduction into those changes, and serves as a ‘goto’ page whilst you are processing a Payroll & you come across something that is not familiar.

Adding a New Employee

This has been re-vamped with new TAB’s used to group information into areas.

Open

Of note is TAB5 - Taxation. The form now follows the questions on the Tax File Number Declaration form,

Open

New Taxation screen

Q0: Tax Category will be 'R' - Regular for most employee’s, but can different

Q7: Payment Basis now has extra categories.

Q9: Tax Free Threshold hasn’t changed, nor has

Q10: Student loan (the old HECS).

What is different is that the system will work out the correct Tax Scale based upon the new Employee’s answers.

You can see that in the small box in the bottom left hand corner.

Income Stream

The majority of employee’s will be SAW, Salary & Wages. But Minder Payroll now supports SAW, CHP (Closely Held Payee’s) and WHM (Working Holiday Makers). The selections available are determined by Q0, Tax Category.

Copy Employee

A new button has been added to TAB 5. This is to allow you to Copy an Employee’s details into a new Employee Number.

You would do this, for example, should a former employee return with a break in service. Using their old Employee number won’t differentiate this break in continuity. The other reason may be to change their Income Stream from ‘SAW’ - Salary 7 Wages' to ‘CHP’ Closely Held Payee.

Medicare

New screen to accept the answers from a Medicare Levy Variation form which has been completed by an employee.

Based on their answers Minder Payroll will correctly calculate the new Tax.

Annual Adjustments

For Lump Sum payments etc.

FBT goes here:-

Diary memo’s.

We are now using diary memo’s to prompt the operator when certain changes to an employee are required. In particular should a new employee have a TFN of ‘111111111’, that is they have applied for a TFN, but don’t yet have it, the legislation requires you to if not received the new TFN within 28days of them starting, change their TFN to ‘000000000’. This means they will be taxed at the full rate. A diary note will remind you to do that.

Operational Changes

Termination of Employee’s

This has been moved to be part of the normal Payrun, you no longer enter the termination date on the employee master.

On TAB 6. Term.

In most cases a Termination Date and a Reason code is all that is required.

Should this be a redundancy, then you must select the type and enter the Lump Sums into the correct fields.

Should this termination have an ‘ETP’, Eligible Termination Payment, then those details will also be enter here.

You then popular the Annual Leave hours to clear the balance and click on ‘Cash Out’. Minder will apply the correct taxation to the payout.

Reason Code

A Reason Code MUST be given as it is used by Services Australia to determine eligibility to certain programs. This also releases you of the need to do a ‘Separation Certificate’ as these are now redundant.

Extra Payment Fields

On TAB 1 you will find additional fields for:-

• TOIL (Time Off in Lieu)

• Ancillary Leave - Reserves, CFS, SES as required.

• Paid Parental Leave

• Carers Leave (distinct from the normal Sick/Personal Leave)

• Other Leave 1 - can be anything

• Directors Fee - these are required to now go in via the payroll system.

• Cash Out of leave - Should a Cash out occur, then a check box has been provided to indicate this.

Cents Per Km

The ATO was rather stringent on how this is to be handled.

In Setup - System Defaults there are 2 new fields concerning business travel.

• If an employee claims under 5000km year and at 72cents, then the claim is treated as tax-free.

• If the employee claims under 5000km in a year, but at 86cents, then the portion at 72c is tax free, but the difference it taxed.

• Anything above 5000km, regardless of the rate is taxed.

Is your head hurting at this point, well your in luck. Minder takes care of this for you.

In Employee Maintenance, TAB4, first enter the user’s rate (it is normally more than 72c, typically 86c for the

Commercial Travelers Award for example)

Processing cent/KM in Payroll

TAB 2 - Allowances

Enter the claimed amount in the first field, here the employee made a service call with a 1200km round trip. She used her own car.

Minder Payroll will calculate the correct tax as appropriate.

The ‘Claimed’ value to the Right will index with each Payrun so that you can see when she has reached the 5000km tax free limit.

STP Lodgment.

On the surface this hasn’t change too much. A new declaration is required, and if you are using an agent (like your accountant), then they need to click the ‘As Registered Agent’ box.

• The code has been completely re-written and those with larger payrolls will notice a huge speed increase.

• The from / to dates should now calculate correctly.

• W1 and W2 now display.

• There is a reduction in the number of button presses.

Check STP Upload

This screen now allows for the display of the original XML file upload for troubleshooting purposes.