Newsletter – June 2011

 

Welcome to our Winter newsletter.  Please feel free to contact our experienced
team about any employment related matters.

 

Employment Agreements

 

The current law requires an employment agreement to be in writing.   Employers obligations will be extended on 1
July 2011 to require employers to retain a signed copy of the individual
employment agreement or retain a copy of the terms and conditions of employment
that make up their staff member’s individual terms and conditions.  An employer must retain a copy of the
intended employment agreement and be able to provide a copy to any employee who
requests it as soon as reasonably practicable.

Please contact us if you have any queries or would like us to arrange
employment agreements for your staff.

 



ABM
TIP

If
you change report selection often, remember you can save selections to use
again.

Click
on the

“Save
these Selections” button in the report generator, and next time the report
will default to this.

 

Employing Staff from Overseas

“The Immigration Act 2009” came into effect on 29 November 2010.  An easy way to check that prospective
employees can work in NZ is to visit VisaView www.immigration.govt.nz/visaview.

Employees Accruing Large Holiday
Leave Balances

It is important that
employers are aware of leave balances that their staff are accruing.  Any accrued annual holidays that an employee has not taken must
be paid out on termination.  Excessive
accrued leave can add a significant liability to any business particularly if a
number of staff have built up large leave balances.

Employment Status

When employing a new employee it is important to be clear about the
duties the employee is expected to perform, the hours of work and the status of
the employment.  This should be included
in the employment agreement.

 

An employee’s employment status may be defined as permanent/part time,
fixed term or casual.

Permanent /permanent part time employees are employed for an indefinite
period.

Fixed term employees are employed for a definite period, e.g.
for 12 months to cover parental leave.

Casual employment can be defined as
where an employee is employed when and if needed, e.g. to cover for sickness or only public holidays and where there is no particular expectation of continuing employment.

  • Reminder of GST Calculations
  • GST = GST
    inclusive * 3 / 23
  • GST = GST
    exclusive * 3 / 20
  • GST exclusive =
    GST inclusive * 20 / 23
  • GST exclusive =
    GST * 20 / 3
  • GST inclusive =
    GST exclusive * 23 / 20
  • GST inclusive =
    GST * 23 / 3



Cashing Out Annual Holiday
Entitlement

 

As part of the Holiday Amendment Act 2010 there is provision to allow
an employee to have up to 1 week of current annual holiday entitlement paid
out.  This is not compulsory.  As an employer you have the right to decline a
request made by the employee and are not required to provide a reason for doing
so.

The main points to consider
are:

  • An employee has
    the right to request their employer to pay out a portion of the entitlement of
    annual leave.
  • A request must be
    in writing and may be made on 1 or more separate occasions until maximum of
    employee’s annual entitlement is paid out in each entitlement year. i.e. 1
    weeks’ leave.
  • An employee can
    only request to cash up 1 weeks’ annual leave after the anniversary date of
    commencement of their employment, e.g.
    Anniversary date 1 June 2011, the employee can request cash out on or
    after 1 June 2011.
  • An employee
    cannot request to cash up outstanding leave, it must be in the current year.
  • Cashed up annual
    holiday entitlement cannot be from leave in advance.
  • An employee, who
    receives casual holiday pay as they work, cannot request annual leave cash up.

 

MYOB
Tip

When the bank reconciliation has been reconciled
successfully, it is a great idea to lock down your records to the last
reconciled date.  This means that
previous entries cannot be deleted or changed in error.

To do this, go to:

Set Up/Preferences/Security Tab

þ Lock Period: disallow entries prior to 1/7/2011.

 

Cashed
up annual holiday is a lump sum payment and will fall under the meaning of
“extra pay” for PAYE calculations

Testimonial

“Strategic Software have provided our company with business management systems for the past 9 years. Their products and services continue to support our company and have been a major contributor to our success in the following ways;
– Strategic Software installed a business management system that accurately assists with scheduling our workflow. This is vital to our business success and client satisfaction.
– We are able to see where jobs are at any time and can review profit on all jobs.
. . . Prospect and conversion rates can be measured and followed up on.
– The system helps us plan and schedule work.
– The system is flexible and Strategic can customize reporting to meet our needs.
– In regards to payroll, we provide the hours and Strategic do the rest.
– Assists with keeping up to date with employment legislation and reducing risk.
– Strategic processing our payroll means that all employees pay details are confidential and records are accurate, avoiding disputes or disgruntled employees.
These processes allow us to concentrate on our own area of expertise in relation to staff and customer management and the very important task of continued improvement in quality production techniques.
Working with Strategic has allowed us to make continued improvements in measuring our key point indicators and time saving in gathering these KPI’s is key.
Strategic deliver a very professional, prompt and friendly service and we have no hesitation in recommending them.”

Neil Lewis, Director
Lewis Windows Limited

Read More Testimonials