If you're going away on holiday and need to process your pays, you can either process your pays on the PaySauce app or just set them up to go out on a future date.
If you want to set up your pays in advance, all you need to do is prepare each pay run, close it with the date you want it to be paid, then move on to the next pay.
Pays can only be closed in order, so you must work forwards only - you cannot process a pay then try to pay another pay period with an earlier date.
There are a couple of things to be aware of when processing pays in advance:
Filing to IRD: The filing period for a month only opens shortly before the end of the previous month. For example, filing pays in December is only possible after the period has opened towards the end of November. The January period is opened early (around the 15th December) to allow for January pays to be set up in advance over Christmas.
Funds deduction: Your employees will only be paid on the date you specify when you close the pays. The date on which the funds will be deducted from your account depends on which payment type you are using.
Akahu and the ASB API payment type both deduct funds on the day you close the pay, even though the employees won't be paid until the day you specify.
Other payment types will be deducted from your account either on pay day (direct banking integrations) or for Direct Debit with two day holding the two business day rules will always apply.
Paying employees for the hours they work
If your employees timesheet, or you normally pay them for time worked which may vary, doing pays in advance can be tricky. You'll have to decide what you want to do here. Some employers will discuss with employees confirming hours in advance, and either working to those hours or paying the difference later. For example, if you agree with someone that you'll pay them 7 hours a day for the period but they end up working slightly different, you can either pay the additional hours or deduct the hours from a future period - assuming you and your employee are happy with this arrangement.
Automating pay close
It is possible to set up automation of your pay runs. This does mean that pays will be closed based on the rules set, and can only be set up with the support of our team. You specify the rules, such as when you would want the pay to be finalised/closed, and then on that date and time the pay would close. This means that all pay information must be in prior to the automated close time. We recommend using this only for a short period of time, e.g. to cover a holiday. Automating all of your pay closures usually leads to not correctly updating important time and leave records for your employees.
Reopening pays
It is not possible to make amendments to pays that have closed and been paid, so we recommend you apply your normal careful checking processes to pays before you close them. A pay closed for a date in the future may still not be able to be reopened, so we always recommend being very sure you are happy with the pay details before closing.
PaySauce team not able to close pays
The PaySauce team is not able to prepare or close pays on your behalf, as we operate a support service for you to use the PaySauce software and not a managed payroll service. If you're not comfortable with the available options to run pays in advance or to run pays on the PaySauce app while you're away, then you'll need to ensure you have a back up payroll person who is trained and able to run pays for your business.