• By timehub
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  • 4 Oct 2017
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The NZ Reality is probably worse!

In a recent survey by the American Payroll Association - "Getting Paid In America" More than 34,400 participants shared their insight on trends and issues that affect how we get paid.

One of the key stats identified in the survey was the number of employees who were still using paper timesheets, punch cards or worse nothing (34%) to track the hours' staff work. Of the 34,400 employees surveyed over 14% still used paper timesheets!

Our experience is that the New Zealand reality is worse than this. We still see a large proportion of employers, especially in the Small to Medium space (1-50 employees) are still using manual or no systems. 

Not only is this inefficient and costly from a payroll perspective these employers will not be meeting their obligations under the Employment Relations Act, the Holidays Act or the Health and Safety in Employment Act, all of which require employers to keep detailed, daily records of the hours' staff work...

If you are not sure your record keeping is up to scratch give us a call today. 

Via https://www.employment.govt.nz/hours-and-wages/keeping-accurate-records/

As an employer, you must keep wage and time, and holidays and leave records that comply with the Employment Relations Act 2000 and the Holidays Act 2003. In particular, you must be able to show that you’ve correctly given your employees all minimum employment entitlements such as the minimum wage and annual holidays.

Good record-keeping makes sure that an employee's pay and leave are correct, prevents misunderstandings and protects the employer and the employee if there is a problem. Your employees have the right to know everything you are recording on their file and have the right to see these records.

While all the record-keeping requirements may not seem necessary, they’re needed to show a clear picture of each day in an employee’s working year, that is, which days were worked, not worked, on leave and what type of leave, and so on. This information is used to calculate different types of pay for such leave as annual holidays or sick leave, and entitlements such as parental leave.

For employers with fully computerised payroll software, maintaining the records can be easier, but they still need to check their payroll system to make sure it accurately records any changes to employees’ hours and pay.

For employers with manual systems, it can be harder to stay on top of recording everything. If you don’t understand or you don’t think you’re keeping accurate records of everything required, you can contact us.