It’s usually during major public holidays like Christmas that payroll workers need to prepare a pay run to be processed earlier than usual, so employees can be paid as expected while their payroll teams enjoy a well-deserved break like the rest of the office.
As an Aurion customer you can download a comprehensive Aurion guide to producing a pay in advance (see below) that addresses how to resolve the issues you may encounter.
We’ve also collated in this blog the major information you’ll need to ensure your payroll is compliant when 2022 arrives to the sound of popping wine corks!
Pay runs in advance
The main thing payroll team can ensure at the end-of-year is that all employee leave is entered and approved, and they’ve reviewed configuration of public holidays and office closure dates during shutdown.
Employees will need to be informed about shutdowns and cut-off times for paysheets etc if back-to-back pays are being executed outside standard timelines.
Aurion customers will need to future-date and complete these two actions:
- Check your pay run parameter setting for the day it will be processed by the bank. Confirm your work by reviewing a sample of an employee’s Pay Summary and the date paid.
- Check your bank (Cemtex/ABA) file’s setting for the date it will process your payments. Check your work by reviewing the process date when loading your file into your banking software.
New rates & dates
Important payroll and HR changes that come into effect on 1 January 2022 include:
- A new weekly rate of $429.98 for the Child Support Protected Earnings Amount (the part of an employee’s or contractor’s wages that are exempt from child support deductions).
- Monday 3 January would have been the first working day of 2022 but is instead an additional public holiday for New Year’s Day.
Visit the Fair Work website to take note of public holidays over Christmas and New Year for each state and territory in Australia, and to find out about the rules and entitlements during the end-of-year period that may affect you.
Your wellbeing
Aurion’s own hard-working payroll processing team agree it’s vital during the Christmas break to rest and relax so they can come back to work in the New Year with renewed energy and enthusiasm.
Once you have some distance, you can look back on the year at work and think about what you’ve learnt, before setting out short term and long-term goals for the coming year.
It’s important find focus while you’re away from the office and have breathing space before the return of business-as-usual routines and pressures in the New Year.
Be prepared: download detailed step-by-step instructions on how to schedule payroll over the holidays, log in to access the Aurion user guide ‘Producing a Pay in Advance for an Entire Pay Entity’.
Have a Merry Christmas! From everyone at Aurion, we’d like to thank our customers for their support in 2021, together we’re going to make 2022 our best year ever!
Read about Aurion’s Gift of Community for Christmas: instead of hosting festive season events around the country, as we donate to three charities that build community health and resilience in very practical ways.
