REPORTS - Payroll Reference

PAYROLL REFERENCE GROUP REPORT 2010

I attend meetings in Wellington once a term where progress is reported and any problems or issues consulted with the group.   It is an interesting committee to be part of and all educational sectors are represented.

You will all be aware that the implementation of the Novopay service has been delayed.  They tell us this is due to the complex nature of the payroll and the wish to avoid any risks to schools.  The roll out is now being re-planned and the meeting in May should inform us of new dates. 

The current service through Datacom will continue and we have been given assurances that there will be no impact on the payroll service as the re-planning exercise continues.  Concern has been expressed by the group that staff levels may get to such a level at Datacom that the service could well be effected.  At this point in time it would be fair to say that schools are experiencing a high level of error factors and delays in response to requests. This has been acknowledged and remains a significant risk factor.

The Ministry and Novopay are committed to providing an accurate and timely payroll service.   A robust testing phase will be entered into before the system goes live. At this point the testing phases are taking longer than anticipated which is where much of the delay seems to be occurring.

Apologies have been given for the delay.

Lesley McCardle

Payroll Reference Group (PRG):  The Group has been reconvened to “strategically” advise MoE on the daily operation of the Education Service Payroll (ESP) and the implementation of outsourced payroll services for the Schools’ Sector through the Schools’ Payroll Project.  NZSTA alongside a number of other sectors groups is represented on the group by Colin Davies.

The ESP is the largest payroll in NZ.  Approximately $3.4 billion is disbursed annually to over 100,000 employees of some 2,500 primary, area and secondary schools.  Over two million fortnightly pays are made every year.  The schools’ payroll is administered by Datacom. 

The tender process has now been completed and Talent 2 will be the company taking us forward with a new payroll system.   Communications have been coming out to all schools under the heading “NovaPay”.

You will have received requests from your own pay serve company asking that various details be updated.  This is all in preparation for the new payroll system.

Alison Welsh from NovaPay will be present at conference and is offering a workshop so discussion can be generated around the new payroll system and perhaps a demonstration of what the payroll could possibly look like.

For those of you who have been using I Pay Data while the NovaPay system will be a little bit similar it will be completely live.  I Pay Data gets picked up by a pay clerk – data in NovaPay will go directly to the employees file and generate transactions.

Testing has now begun on NovaPay by some Wellington schools.  Once testing and adjustments have been completed the system will be rolled out to South Island schools next year.

At the next Payroll Reference Group meeting at the end of June the Group will have a live demonstration of the payroll package.  After working with the group for over a year now and having input into the system this is something we are all looking forward to seeing.

It is an exciting time for all of us and it may mean some schools will have to lift their game as far as IT is concerned but it is the way of the future and I think we can all be assured a great step in the right direction.

Lesley McCardle
May 2009