Newsletter December 2013

 December 2013

On behalf of the team at Strategic Software, we would like to wish you and your families a Merry Christmas and our very best wishes for the year ahead.

Holiday Opening Hours:

Close 23rd December at 5.00pm

Reopen: 6th January 2014 at 08.30a.m

For urgent support over the holidays please ring our support phone on

03 2112595

Statutory Days Over Christmas/New Year

With Christmas turning up again next week it is prudent to review your obligations around public holiday pay and annual leave entitlements. All employees are entitled to a paid day off on a public holiday if it would otherwise be a normal working day. Public holidays for this Xmas/New Year are:

  • Christmas Day (Wednesday 25 December)
  • Boxing Day (Thursday 26 December)
  • New Year’s Day and the day after (Wednesday 1 and Thursday 2 January).

Public holidays are separate from any annual leave that is taken by employees over this time. In some circumstances, your employees may agree to transfer a public holiday to another working day depending on the needs of your business or their holiday plans. You’ll need to put the agreement in writing.

Shutting down over the holiday period?

If your business shuts down over the holiday period you can make your employees take annual leave at that time, provided you only have one shut down per year. You should give your employees at least 14 days’ notice if you intend to shut down.

When should annual leave be paid?

Employees are entitled to receive their pay for annual holidays before the holiday commences, unless the employer and employee agree that the normal pay cycle will continue. This is to make sure that employees have money available to them to pay for the additional expenses involved in a holiday. If an agreement is reached to pay the employee any of their annual holiday pay in their normal pay cycle, it’s a good idea to record it either as part of their employment agreement or in writing.

Employing Casual Staff Over the Holidays

Like any new employee, they’ll need to complete a Tax code declaration (IR330) form that includes their IRD number. If they don’t give you a completed IR330, you need to deduct tax at the no-notification rate. For employees, this is 45 cents in the dollar plus the ACC earners’ levy. For workers receiving scheduler payments, it’s generally 15 cents in the dollar on top of their normal tax rate.

Computer Virus Doing the Rounds

One of our client’s servers got infected with a computer virus recently which encrypts all standard Microsoft files: – Word, Excel, Access and Power point. Once the files are encrypted you cannot open them. If the computer is attached to a network it will also encrypt the files on the mapped drives on the server. There will be a demand to pay money to get a code to release the encryption. If it is a computer which is not connected to a network then contents of the hard drive on the computer will probably need to erased and re built by your computer support firm.

The virus is going through various name changes and these may not be updated in your anti-virus software – so please be wary when opening attachments in emails.

The email has a Subject of new voicemail message from a missed call” or something similar. There is an attachment with this email – Under No circumstance should you open the attachment.

In our client instance the office staff had been getting the email messages and had correctly been deleting them. Somehow an email was sent to another staff member via the office persons Outlook and they assumed as it was from the office that it was ok and double clicked on the attachment.

ABM Business Bulletin

Creates snapshot of Key Performance Indicators

Exports to Excel

Can be scheduled to run automatically and emailed

Multiple bulletins can be created; each can be emailed to different people

Contact Debbie on 03 211 2594 if you would like more information.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Testimonial

“I was concerned when changing from a payroll system that I knew so well to a new one. I needn’t have worried, the team at Strategic were able to recommend, install and train me on a new system that gave me improved reporting and helped with budgets. They made it easy and hassle free. I use Strategic Software for ongoing support as what could take me 5 hours takes them 5 minutes and I am confident with the result.”

Debbie Hodges, Office Manager
E. Hayes & Sons Limited

Read More Testimonials