iPayroll has built-in a number of standard Payment Pay Elements that are maintained by iPayroll for you to use. This greatly simplifies the work you have to do to set up and maintain your payroll, as we continually update these Pay Elements to reflect changing regulations and requirements.

Add a new Payment Pay Element to your iPayroll Organisation

You can set up your own special Payment Pay Elements to supplement the many standard Pay Elements that are set and maintained for you by iPayroll. Your own special payments allow you to easily calculate and pay any unique allowances or other payment types that exist in your organisation's employment contracts.

Tip: Before setting up your own Payment Pay Element, please check that no standard payments already do what you need.

Add a new Payment

To set up a special payment follow these steps:

1. Go to 'Setup' then 'Pay Elements' to add a new custom Payment Pay Element.
2. Press the '+Add' Payment button.
3. Complete the fields on the Payment form and press the Save this Payment button.

Fields to complete when adding a new Payment

Each Payment contains a number of pieces of information that control how the payment is calculated and reported.

Basic Details

Payment Code - Enter a Payment Code.

• The Payment Code appears in the drop-down list when you add transactions to timesheet’s. You should use a short, easy to type, code that you can remember easily. (If you are used to another payroll system that has allowances codes or numbers, you may like to use those for your payment code).

Description - Enter a description that will clearly describe to a person what this payment is for. This is displayed on peoples timesheet’s and payslips.

Note: If you include %rate% in your description, it will be replaced by the transaction's rate on the person's payslip.

Multiplier - Enter 1.0, unless the Payment is for overtime or penal time. The amount calculated is multiplied by this multiplier, and it should always be 1.0 except for overtime / penal time payments. (e.g. T1.5 - Time and a Half).

Calculation Rule - Select the appropriate type from the list. This is the main way to determine how a payment is calculated.

1. For a calculation that depends on a persons pay rate, select an Employee Rate (1 to 5). (e.g. T1 - Ordinary Time).

2. For a rate specific to this payment select use Rate Amount from Payment, and then enter the actual rate in the Rate Amount box.

Note: This option is also used when ad-hoc payments are made that vary each time they are entered. In that case, enter 0.0 in the Rate Amount. You can then enter the actual rate to pay when entering a timesheet. (e.g. RED - Redundancy Payment).

3. For a calculation that depends on a percentage of a persons earnings, select the appropriate percentage Calculation rule from the list, and enter the actual percentage in the Rate Amount box. (e.g. HP8 - Casual Holiday Pay - 8%).

Rate Amount - This entry depends on the Rate Type selected (above).

1. For a Fixed Amount, enter the actual rate to pay this payment at. Alternatively, enter 0.0 if the amount is to keyed when entering timesheet’s.

2. For a Percentage based rate type, enter the percentage to apply, (e.g. enter 6.5 for 6.5%)

Priority - Leave this blank, and an appropriate priority will be generated for you. (You will only rarely have to change the default priority).

The priority determines the order in which payments are calculated, paid and displayed on timesheet’s and payslips. Often this order isn't important, but sometimes payment calculations depend on other payments in the same timesheet. (e.g. a payment that is calculated on a percentage of Taxable Earnings must be calculated after all Taxable Earnings have been calculated). See the Payments page for a list, in priority order.

Costing Details

Default Cost Centre - Note: This is only displayed if you have the costing features turned on.

Select how this payment is to be costed. You have four options:

1. No default - A cost centre will have to be entered every time you include this payment in a timesheet.
2. Person's default - The person's default cost centre (set up on their personal file) will be always be used, unless you override it when you are entering timesheet’s.
3. Fixed Cost Centre - Select here the cost centre that will always be used, unless you override it when you are entering timesheet’s.
4. Template - This allows you to set up a rule that will direct the payment to the appropriate cost centre, taking part of the code from the person's cost centre and the remainder from the template. Enter a ? in each position that should come from the person's home cost centre. For example, 01??? will construct a cost centre starting with 01 and then containing the 3rd, 4th and 5th characters of the person's home cost centre.

Payment Type

Liable Earnings - Tick all that apply to this payment type.

• Employer ACC Levy - Select if this payment is to be included in the Total Liable Earnings for Employer ACC Levy calculations.
• Superannuation - Select if this payment is to be included in a persons Superable Earnings. This is important if you have another Payment that has a Rate Type of '% of Superable Pay', and you want this payment to be included in the calculation.
• Holiday Pay - Select if this payment is to be included in a persons Holiday Pay Liable Earnings (Tip: Taxable Earnings generally are). This affects the amount paid for Casual Holiday Pay and Annual Leave.

• KiwiSaver Earnings - Only select if earnings under this Payment Pay Element are not liable for KiwiSaver.

Earnings Type - Select the one that best describes this payment type.

• Salary/Wages - Select the appropriate earnings type to report this payment in the appropriate place on the Payroll Control and Payroll Hours reports.
• Allowance - Select the appropriate option. This largely determines how the payment is taxed, but it also affects how it is presented on reports, including the Payroll Control reports.

Reducing Balance Payment - Select if you would like to set a reducing balance amount to the payment where it will stop automatically once the balance amount has been paid. 

Payable on Final Pay - Select if a person should be paid out the leave liability in a final pay.