Payments
 

You can set up your own special Payment elements to supplement the many standard payments that are set and and maintained for you by CloudPayroll™. 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, please check that no standard payments already do what you need.

Adding a Payment

To set up a special payment follow these steps:-

  1. Go to your Payments.
  2. Press the Add Payment button.
  3. Enter a Payment Code and Description.
    The Payment Code appears in the drop-down list when you add transactions to timesheets. 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).
  4. Press the Add Payment button.
  5. Complete the information on the Payment form and press the Save this Payment button.

Information on a Payment

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

Description Enter a description that will clearly describe to a person what this payment is for. This is displayed on peoples timesheets 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.
  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.
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 timesheets.
  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 timesheets 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.

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 timesheets.
  3. Fixed Cost Centre - Select here the cost centre that will always be used, unless you override it when you are entering timesheets.
  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.
Liable Earnings Tick all that apply to this payment type.
  • Employer ACC Levy - Tick if this payment is to be included in the Total Liable Earnings for Employer ACC Levy calculations.
  • Superannuation - Tick 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 - Tick 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.
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.