Novopay end of year proceeding well but challenges remain

  • Steven Joyce
Education

More than 90 per cent of schools have now entered their pay data for the end of the school year via an upgraded version of Novopay Online, Minister Responsible for Novopay Steven Joyce says.

“By the close of Monday – the deadline for inputting end of year payments – 91 per cent or 2228 schools had completed that process. That compares to just 45 per cent or 1112 schools at the same time last year and is also above the average of past years under the previous provider,” Mr Joyce says.

“The remaining 211 schools will be proactively contacted by the Ministry of Education to help them with the data entry required to ensure they can meet the 11 December pay date and staff are paid their correct end-of-year entitlements. Meanwhile those school administrators who have completed end of year processing can now enter their start of year pay data for next year on the just released “Start-Of-Year” screens.

“I would like to commend school staff for their patience and the effort they have put into training and using Novopay online.”

Mr Joyce says the Education Ministry and Talent2 were putting substantial effort and resources into ensuring the end of year/start of year process for school pay runs as smoothly as possible.

“While the pay period to pay period performance of Novopay has stabilised since the beginning of this year, the end of year/start of year is the most complex pay process in the school payroll calendar and will be a major test of Novopay’ s on-going improvements,” Mr Joyce says.

In preparation for the end of year/start of year processes, Mr Joyce says 65 bugs are scheduled to be cleared on 30 November and another five on 14 December. This includes three category two or ‘very serious’ bugs; 46 category three or ‘serious’ bugs; 19 category four or ‘moderate’ bugs; and two category five or ‘cosmetic’ bugs.

Mr Joyce says while good progress has been made for the end of year, resolving outstanding leave balances continues to be challenging due to the complexity of the issues.

“The correct recording of leave balances has been a stubborn issue. There are still around 5000 outstanding leave issues that need to be cleared. To ensure the end of year deadline is met, the focus is on prioritising and resolving leave associated with holiday pay before Pay Period 19 pay day on 11 December,” Mr Joyce says.

Ministers agreed in September to put in an additional $5 million towards fixing outstanding technical issues related to the end of year/start of year and leave balances. Another $1 million was allocated for comprehensive online system training for Novopay support staff and school payroll administrators.