Employee Maintenance

Payroll | Masterfiles | Employee Details | Maintain

Payroll | Masterfiles | New Employee | Details

Employee Maintenance, also called the employee masterfile, is used to record employee details.

When setting up a new employee the Standard Employee details, entered via Setups | Payroll | Options | Standard Employee becomes the default for all fields which can be edited.

The Employee Details Report displays details entered in Employee Maintenance. Alternatively, use the List Wizard to view, sort, print and export data to various file formats. To open the wizard, choose Find (F2) in the Employee Code field and then choose Output (F11).

Use the toggle icon on the toolbar or choose Ctrl+E to switch between enquiry and maintenance modes.

Employee masterfile fields

See Employee Enquiry for information about functions in the employee masterfile such as Income (F2) and Notes (F4).

Online onboarding for new employees

Employee Onboarding lets you invite a new staff member to provide their details through a series of online forms. These details flow through to create a new masterfile, saving you time chasing paper forms and entering data.

You can also use onboarding to complete details of a new employee yourself. This may be quicker than completing the employee masterfile, especially when adding many new employees at one time.

Read about the new features or watch our 6-minute video

Related resources

Learn more about entering employee electronic document delivery details and custom fields (0.46 mins video).

Employee Code

You must allocate a code to each employee. This is an identification code by which employees are accessed.

Employee Codes have a maximum length of 8 characters. Any combination of letters and numbers can be used. For example, in the Sample Payroll Data company, employee codes use the first three letters of the employee's surname followed by the first letter of their first name.

Reports can be sorted by Employee Code. You can also select to print a range of employees on reports.

If the Employee Codes contain numbers and you want to sort the reports by employee code and not surname sequence, ensure to keep the codes the same length so they sort correctly. For example: 0001, 0002, 0005, 0010, 0020. If you entered these numbers as: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 they would sort as 1, 10, 2, 20, 5.)

To change an employee code, choose Payroll | Masterfiles | Employee Details | Change Loc/Employee Code.

Full Name

Display only. Once you have entered the employee's first, second and surname this field displays the full name.

You can specify in the Standard Employee how you wish the Full Name to display by either using Firstname Secondname Surname or Surname Firstname Secondname. If you wish to change how the Full Name appears, you can change the set up in the Standard Employee. For the change to be reflected on the employee masterfile, the surname needs to be deleted and re-entered.

Field

Description

Title

Type in title of the employee (Ms, Mr, etc).

Inactive check box

In Payroll masterfiles, the Inactive checkbox lets you flag the employee as being inactive.

By default, an inactive employee is not displayed in lookups and drop-down lists, but can be included in reports by selecting the Include Inactive checkbox when creating a report.

You can still view inactive employee in lookups by selecting ShowInactiv (F7) to reveal them, or HideInactiv (F7) to conceal them.

Note: Marking an employee inactive does not stop Auto Pay employees from being paid. A Stop Pay Unit date must be entered.

First Name

Type the employee's name.

Do not use commas, square brackets ([ ]), backslashes (\) or quotation marks (").

Australia

For Australia, the valid characters for name fields are:

letters (A-Z)
numbers (0-9)
round brackets ()
space ( )
ampersand (&)
slash (/)
apostrophe (')
quotation mark (")
hyphen (-)
full stop (.)

New Zealand

For New Zealand, the valid characters for name fields are:

letters (A-Z)
numbers (0-9)

Second Name

Surname

Address Line 1

Type the address of the employee.

Listed below are valid characters for address fields.

If invalid characters are used in address fields, they are ignored in the Magnetic Media file but are printed in payment summaries.

For Single Touch Payroll (Australia) batches, ensure there are no spaces at the beginning of the field as this will cause a batch error or rejection of the batch by the ATO.

letters (A-Z)
numbers (0-9)
round brackets ()
space ( )
ampersand (&)
slash (/)
apostrophe (')
quotation mark (")
hyphen (-)
hash (#)
full stop (.) — valid for Country field only.

Address Line 2

Suburb

Enter the name of the suburb for the employee's address.

You can use Find (F2) to search for a suburb from the post code file. Once selected, the suburb is displayed in this field and the corresponding postcode and state are automatically entered in the respective fields.

For Single Touch Payroll (Australia), if an employee has an overseas address and is required to pay tax in Australia, enter the Suburb but leave State and Postcode blank.

State

Type the name of the state where this employee resides.

For Single Touch Payroll (Australia), if an employee has an overseas address and is required to pay tax in Australia, leave this field blank and ensure the Suburb is entered.

Postcode

Type the postcode for this employee.

For Single Touch Payroll (Australia), if an employee has an overseas address and is required to pay tax in Australia, leave this field blank and ensure the Suburb is entered.

Country

Type the country for the employee's address.

DPID

An 8-digit number that uniquely identifies any address in Australia. Attaché uses the field to print postal barcodes on mail.

BSP

A 3-digit number that relates to Australian postcodes that can be printed along with postal barcodes on pay advices.

Job Title

Under Fair Work legislation Australian employers are required to show the employee’s Job Title, Pay Instrument/Award and Pay Classification on pay advices. Type the employee's Job Title. To display the fields on your pay advices they must be added to the pay advice print layout. See Payroll Pay Advice Form Design.

User Defined Fields 1-3

You can customise these fields to suit your company in Payroll Options (Custom Fields tab) to record additional information in the employee masterfile, for example: reason for termination, qualifications, membership numbers, driver's license. Details entered in fields can be printed on pay advices and labels.

The User Defined Fields are used for particular purposes in some countries, as detailed below:

Papua New Guinea

User Defined Field 1

Must be used to specify whether the employee is a National or an Expat as it affects Papua New Guinea reports. Type either National or Expat in either upper or lower case.

Solomon Islands

User Defined Field 2

Must be used for Taxable Non Cash Benefits. Enter the total yearly value.

Note: for tax to be calculated correctly, it is essential an amount is entered in this field. If an employee has no Taxable Non Cash Benefits, enter 0.00 so that tax will be calculated correctly.

User Defined Field 3

Must be used for Tax Exemptions. Enter the total yearly value of any tax exemptions.

Note: for tax to be calculated correctly, it is essential an amount is entered in this field. If an employee has no Tax Exemptions, enter 0.00 so that tax will be calculated correctly.

Start Date

The employee's exact commencement date must be entered for correct employment details.

This date will print on the payment summary for the first year of employment.

If Leave Accruals have been selected in Payroll Options, initially this date is used as the Leave Start Date on the Employee Leave Details tab. If you change the employee's Start Date, the Leave Start Date will not automatically be changed. If you also wish to change the Leave Start Date field, you must do so manually. This may occur if an employee changes from casual to part time or full time employment.

Stop Pay Until

The Stop Pay Until date will stop an auto pay being generated for an employee. The employee cannot have an entry made or pay processed until this date.

You can enter the date directly into this field or enter it during transaction entry and it will automatically update the field.

The stop pay will remain active until the date has passed or is the same as the Pay Period Ending Date selected during Check Pays. Once the date has passed and the employee receives a pay, the field will automatically be cleared. To clear the field manually, click on the field and enter Control+Delete on your keyboard.

If an employee who is specified as Auto Pay on the Pay Detail tab is on stop pay, no auto pay will be generated. A warning will display if a time sheet or adjustment pay is entered. You will be able to select to continue or cancel the entry. If you select to continue, the Stop Pay Until field will be cleared during Process Pays.

For example, An auto pay employee takes two weeks' holiday on the pay period ending 05/07. When entering the time sheet to pay the current week plus the two weeks leave, answer Yes to Stop Pay after this pay? Enter the date this employee can next have a transaction entered or a pay generated. In this example this would be after two weeks have passed (20/07). This will update the Stop Pay Until field automatically. When the next pay is processed for this employee in three weeks' time, the stop pay date will automatically be cleared. During Check Pays, a warning message indicates those employees whose auto pay has been stopped using this method.

Termination Date

Where an employee's termination pay has been entered and the Termination checkbox has been ticked on the first screen, when the terminated employees pay is processed, the employee is automatically flagged as terminated and the Termination Date field is updated with the date entered in the termination window during transaction entry.

To manually flag an employee as terminated, enter a Termination Date and select Terminated in the Employment Status field on the Pay Details tab.

To clear the terminated date, click on the field and press Control+Delete.

Note: If a termination payment exists for the terminated employee, you cannot remove the termination date. If you attempt to do so, the system displays a warning message.

Auto Pays for terminated employees will not be generated. A warning will display if you select to enter a time sheet or adjustment for a terminated employee. You can either continue or cancel the entry.

The Termination Date will print on the payment summary for Australia, the EMS for New Zealand and the Statement of Earnings for Papua New Guinea.

See Terminating an employee in Australia and Termination payments (New Zealand)

Home Phone Number

Type the employee’s telephone number.

For Australian users, a SuperStream requirement is that at least one telephone number (Home or Mobile) should be provided. The number must include the area code (that is, a 10-digit number) unless it is a mobile telephone number.

	Format	Example
Australian telephone numbers	2-digit area code, phone number	0299298700
Mobile telephone numbers	10-digit number	0412987456
Overseas telephone numbers	+ symbol, country code, telephone number	+61299298700

Note: If you have entered employee telephone numbers in Attaché Payroll that include spaces or brackets, the software ignores these characters and uploads the ten-digit number to ClickSuper / SAFF.

Linked Information

Type the full name of a file or folder (or a website address) to access during Maintenance and Enquiry. For instance, you can link to any of the following types of information:

Type of information	Example of field contents
File, such as a photograph of the employee	\\server1\staff\employee123\123.jpg
Folder containing files related to the employee	\\server1\staff\employee123\
Intranet page	http://intranet.yourcompany.com/staff/employee123/

To browse to a file, choose Find (F2) or click on the magnifying glass to display the Browse to file dialog box.

To browse to an existing folder, press Ctrl+F2 to display the Browse to Folder dialog box.

After you complete the field (and move to another one), choose Open Link (F8) to access the linked information. The effect is like double-clicking a shortcut in Windows, so you need a program that can open the linked information, such as Windows Picture and Fax Viewer for photographs or a web browser for a website address.

Field	Description
Gender	M = Male F - Female X - Indeterminate / Intersex / Unspecified The Pay Totals report will display the number of employees for each gender. If location totals are also selected, the number of employees for each gender within each location also displays.
Marital Status	M = Married S = Single D = De Facto O = Other For enquiry purposes. If the employee is entitled to a medicare adjustment, this field is used to determine whether the employee is single. De Facto and other are treated as married.
Date Of Birth	Enter the employee's birth date.
Previous Name	This field is optional and is used for enquiry purposes only. For example, Maiden Name. If you are using alpha employee codes you may also want to change the employee's code via Masterfiles \| Payroll \| Employee Details \| Change Loc/Employee Code.
Next of Kin	Type up to 25 characters. For enquiry purposes only.
Next of Kin Phone Number	Type up to 25 characters. There is space for an alternative phone number. For ease of reading enter spaces between numbers. For enquiry purposes only.
Next of Kin Relationship	Specify the relationship between the employee and the person nominated as their Next of Kin. For example, spouse, sister etc.

Field

Description

Employee Group

Employee Groups gives allows one set of default pay and/or leave accrual information for a group of employees on the same award or with similar requirements. For example, mechanics, clerks, nurses, bartenders, programmers.

If selected in Payroll Options, an employee may have either a single or multiple Group Standard Pays. This feature could be used where, for example, employees work a two-week cycle, 30 hours the first week and 60 the second week.

It is not necessary that all employees be allocated to a group. It is also not necessary that all details on the employee's masterfile come from the group. Once you allocate an employee to a group you can select the fields you wish to come from the group, and those fields that differ from the group for this employee.

Choose Find (F2) to display any groups set up for this company. Choose Setups | Payroll | Employee Group | Maintain to set up groups to hold standard pay and leave details for each group.

Global changes can be made to all employees within a group. Any changes made will automatically flow through to those employees allocated to that group. Only those fields that come from the group will automatically change when the group is adjusted.

For example, The normal pay rate for the group PROGRAMMERS was changed via Payroll Setups - Maintain Employee Groups to $32.00 per hour. All employees allocated to the group PROGRAMMERS, and where the rate field is specified as coming from the group, will be updated with this rate.

Ok to use group details?
The notification displays when an employee is allocated to a group. It does not display if an employee is changed from one group to another. Once an employee is allocated to a group you can select the fields you wish to come from the group and those fields that differ from the group for this employee.

If the majority of details on the group are applicable to this employee, click Yes. All fields on the following screens, except tax fields, will have Group included in field descriptions and can be accepted or changed.

If only a few of the details on the group are applicable to an employee, answer No. Access those fields on the next screens you wish to come from the group. Find (F2) displays a selection G = (from Group) which you can select or, if Find is not available, press Control+Delete for the field information to come from the group. See Setting up employee groups.

Auto Pay Check box

Y = Yes
N = No
G = from Group (only displays if the employee has been allocated to a group)

Auto Pay allows you to automatically generate a pay for an employee without having to enter any details. If the employee's pay does not vary much (or at all) between pay periods, select Yes. A pay will be generated for all auto paid employees within the ranges selected in Check Pays.

The pay generated will be based on the employee's standard pay. An Auto Pay can be overridden via transaction entry. It can be stopped by entering a date in the Stop Pay Until Date field on the previous screen.

For New Zealand users:

If Auto Pay is set to Yes, the Number of Days Worked will be picked up from the Standard Pay. This may differ from the actual number of days worked and will make the calculation of the Relevant Daily Rate inaccurate. To ensure accuracy of the calculation, Auto Pay should be set to No and the number of days worked entered in a time sheet.

Pay Advice Form Code

This field specifies the design that Attaché uses when you print or send pay advices.

If the field is blank Attaché uses the layout called {MASTER}.

Default Pay

E = Empty
S = Standard Pay
G = from Group (This is only shown if the employee has been allocated to a group)

Default Pay specifies whether you usually want to base time sheet pays for an employee on their Standard Pay or an Empty Pay. The selection of Default Pay can be changed during transaction entry.

If the employee is to receive an auto pay their Default Pay must be set to Standard Pay, otherwise an Empty Pay will be generated.

Pay Point

The Before Process Pay reports, History reports and the Leave History and Liability reports can be printed in pay point sequence. A range of pay points may be selected on reports.

The Pay Details report can show current pay totals for each Pay Point, and the History Pay Details can show period to date totals.

Any number of Pay Points can be set up via Setups | Payroll | Pay Points | Maintain. You may have a number of different Pay Points within the one location.

From Group

If you have allocated a group to the employee, you can choose to use the selection from the corresponding field on the group.

Press Ctrl+Delete to clear the field. Press Enter to display From Group.

Payment Method

C = Cash
Q = Cheque
B = Bank
G = from Group (This is only shown where an employee has been allocated to a group)

Employees can be paid by bank cheque or cash. An employee can have multiple bank accounts.

An employee bank account must be set up via Payroll | Masterfiles | Employee Bank Accounts | Maintain.

Home Clock No

If there is more than on bundy clock, enter the name or number of the clock this employee uses. This field can be bypassed if not applicable.

Instead of hand-writing details on clock cards, adhesive labels can be printed. The Home Clock Number, employee's clock card number, employee's name etc., can be printed on the label.

From Group

If you have allocated a group on the Pay Details tab, you can choose to use the selection from the corresponding field on the group. Press Ctrl+Delete to clear the field. Press Enter to display From Group.

Clock Card No

If using clock cards type the employee's name or number of their Clock Card. This field can be bypassed if not applicable.

Instead of hand-writing details on clock cards, adhesive labels can be printed. The home clock number, employee's Clock Card Number, employee's name etc., can be printed on the label.

From Group

If a group has been allocated on the Pay Details tab, you can choose to use the selection from the corresponding field on the group. Press Ctrl+Delete to clear the field. Press Enter to display From Group.

Pay Instrument / Award

Type the Pay Instrument/Award that the employee is employed under.

Under Fair Work legislation Australian employers are required to show the employee’s Job Title, Pay Instrument/Award and Pay Classification on pay advices. To display these fields on pay advices, they need to be added to the pay advice print layout using Forms Designer .

Pay Classification

Type the employee's Pay Classification.

Under Fair Work legislation Australian employers are required to show the employee’s Job Title, Pay Instrument/Award and Pay Classification on pay advices. To display these fields on your pay advices they need to be added to the to the pay advice print layout using Forms Designer.

Company Bank Acct

Indicate which Company Bank Account any monies banked for this employee are to update. The Company Bank Account controls which bank file is used for all banking transactions processed for this employee.

To set up a Company Bank Account choose Setups | Company | Company Bank Accounts | Bank Accounts Maintain.

Warning: A valid company bank account must be selected in for the employee to be included in the bank payment file.

From Group

If a group has been allocated on the Pay Details tab, you can choose to use the selection from the corresponding field on the group. Press Ctrl+Delete to clear the field. Press Enter to display From Group.

G/L Bank Acct

Enter the General Ledger Bank Account this employee's wages will be allocated to.

From Group

If a group has been allocated on the Pay Details tab, you can choose to use the selection from the corresponding field on the group. Press Ctrl+Delete to clear the field. Press Enter to display From Group.

Employment Status

Employment Status allows you to allocate each employee to a status under the terms by which they are employed.

Australia - Termination of Contract Employees

Contract Employees who cease to work for your company should NOT be terminated as this will set their Employment Status to Terminated resulting in their inclusion in production of Tax Certificates. Once an End of Year has been completed, Contract Employees may be set to Terminated and then deleted as required.

Status

F = Full Time	Full Time employees are fully employed and work a normal week. This category also includes fully employed shift workers, for example, typist.
P = Part Time	Part Time employees have regular employment but work a number of hours less than a normal week,, for example, sales assistant
T = Terminated	Terminated employees are no longer employed by the company. No auto pay will be generated for a Terminated employee. A time sheet pay or adjustment may be entered, however a warning will be given allowing you to continue or cancel the pay.
C = Casual	Casual employees are employed as and when required.
S = Seasonal	Seasonal employees are employed full time but only on a seasonal basis.
R = Contract	Contract employees perform work for the company but are not actually employed by the company. Any tax calculated for Contract employees will be rounded to the nearest dollar. Australia – Terminating Contract Employees Do not process termination pay for contract employees who cease to work for your company until after an End of Year that includes processing of their final earnings. Processing a termination pay sets the employee's Employment Status to Terminated, thus including the employee in production of payment summaries. After final earnings have been processed, you can terminate contract employees and then delete them as required.
O = Other	Other employees are those that don't fit into any of the above categories.
G = (from Group)	Select (from Group) if you wish to use the selection from the corresponding field on the group. This choice is only available if a group was allocated on the Pay Details tab.

Pay Frequency

W = Weekly
F = Fortnightly
M = Monthly
4 = 4 Weekly
B = Bi-Monthly
G = from Group (This is only shown if the employee has been allocated to a group)

Note: Bi-Monthly frequency means twice a month

An employee can be paid at any of these frequencies. In any payroll run, you can choose which frequency or frequencies to process.

The frequency allocated to an employee displays during transaction entry. Frequency also prints on the Pay Details Report for each employee.

Select (from Group) to use the selection from the corresponding field on the group. This choice is only available if a group was allocated on the first screen.

Base Hours per Month

Employee's normal working hours per Pay Frequency must be entered, for example, 38.0000 per week, 165.1190 per month.

Regardless of whether minutes or decimals have been selected in the Payroll Options, Base Hours must be entered as a DECIMAL.

These Base Hours are used to calculate the hourly rate of an employee where a weekly, fortnightly, monthly, 4 weekly or bi-monthly rate is entered.

If the Hours Exceeded warning is selected in Payroll Options, time sheet pays will warn when the hours entered for an employee exceed, or fall short of, these Base Hours. This warning does not appear for casual employees.

A casual employee whose pay is based on a rate per hour and who doesn't work a set number of hours per week, may have a Base Hours of 0.0000 and an hourly rate entered.

From Group

If a group has been allocated on the first screen, you can choose to use the selection from the corresponding field on the group. Press Ctrl+Delete to clear the field. Press Enter to display From Group.

Pay Rate Type

H = Hour
W = Week
F = Fortnight
M = Month
B = Bi-Month
4 = 4 Week
Y = Year
G = (from Group)

Choose the length of time associated with the pay rates you enter for the employee, for example, an employee with a monthly Pay Frequency can have a yearly Pay Rate Type, indicating yearly pay rates.

Pay Rate Type defaults to the value of the employee's Pay Frequency. You can accept the default or choose a different value.
Select (from Group) if you wish to use the selection from the corresponding field on the group. This choice is only available if a group was allocated on the Pay Details tab.

Normal Rate per Month

Enter the rate of the employee's normal earnings per pay rate type.

Examples

If an employee has an hourly pay rate type, normal earnings per hour would be entered:15.0000 per hour.

If an employee has a monthly pay rate type, normal monthly earnings would be entered: 2100.0000 per month.

The rate entered is used to calculate the pay per frequency and the annual salary. An hourly rate is also calculated for use in transaction entry.

When entering an employee's standard pay or a time sheet pay, you can select to pay an employee at their normal, award or at any other rate you enter.

From Group

If a group has been allocated on the Pay Details tab, you can choose to use the selection from the corresponding field on the group. Press Ctrl+Delete to clear the field. Press Enter to display From Group.

Award Rate per Month

The award rate will default to the normal rate per pay rate type.

You will only need to change this for those employees whose award rate differs from their normal rate and the award rate is to be used in any of their pay calculations, for example, leave loading may be paid at award rate.

When entering an employee's standard pay or a time sheet pay, you can select to pay an employee at their normal, award or at any other rate you enter.

From Group

If a group has been allocated on the Pay Details tab, you can choose to use the selection from the corresponding field on the group. Press Ctrl+Delete to clear the field. Press Enter to display From Group.

Maximum Pay per Month

Type a maximum gross pay per pay frequency. A warning displays on the check pays and adjustments listing if this amount is exceeded.

If you do not want a maximum pay gross warning, leave this field at zero.

From Group

If a group has been allocated on the Pay Details tab, you can choose to use the selection from the corresponding field on the group. Press Ctrl+Delete to clear the field. Press Enter to display From Group.

Annual Salary (Calendar Year)

Displays the pay an employee would receive per calendar year based on the pay rate entered. A calendar year has 52.142857 weeks.

Pay per Month

Display only field. This field is calculated based on the pay frequency.

Annual Salary (52 Weeks)

Display only field. Attaché calculates the pay for a calendar year, that is, 365 days or 52.14 weeks per year, rather than 52 weeks per year.

Cost Centre

Type the Cost Centre where this employee's earnings are normally costed. This Cost Centre is used as a default only. An employee can be costed to any number of cost centres per pay.

An employee's standard pay can be set up with standard costing to various centres. Transaction entry will also allow you to cost pay components to various cost centres.

In Setups | Company | Cost Centre | Maintain you can construct the reporting requirements for your Cost Centre. The pay costing and history costing reports can display the cost details for each employee as well as totals for each Cost Centre.

From Group

If a group has been allocated on the Pay Details tab, you can choose to use the selection from the corresponding field on the group. Press Ctrl+Delete to clear the field. Press Enter to display From Group.

On Cost %

This percentage is used to calculate the overheads of an employee, for example, leave, w/comp etc.

There is also an On Cost % available per cost centre. This could be used to cover things pertaining more to the cost centre itself, for example, rent, electricity etc.

The employees On Cost % is used to calculate the total "on cost" on the Pay Costing and Pay Costing History reports. The On Cost % allocated to the cost centre is used to calculate the total "on cost" on the Cost Centre PTD & YTD report.

From Group

If a group has been allocated on the Pay Details tab, you can choose to use the selection from the corresponding field on the group. Press Ctrl+Delete to clear the field. Press Enter to display From Group.

Tax Australia

Field

Description

Tax File Number

Type the employee's Tax File Number (or ABN if the Payment Summary type is set to Voluntary Agreement).

If you enter an invalid TFN, the message Tax File Number is Invalid displays.

If you leave the field blank, the message Warning: Tax File Number is blank displays on screen as well as on reports.

If a payee is not required to quote a TFN, has chosen not to quote a TFN, or the TFN is invalid, use one of the following codes (as defined by the Australian Taxation Office) in place of the TFN.

Codes

Code	Payment Summary Reporting	TFN Declaration reporting
000000000	The payee chooses not to quote a TFN or fails to provide one. This code may also be used if the payee does not fit any of the below categories.	(As for Payment Summary reporting).
111111111	If a new payee indicates on the TFN declaration that they have applied for a TFN but 28 days has not yet passed. The only time that the TFN code of 111111111 would be reported to the ATO is where the payee commenced work in mid to late-June and had not received notification of the TFN prior to the submission of the report to the ATO.	If a new payee indicates on the TFN declaration that they have not applied for a TFN, but 28 days has not yet passed. The only time the TFN code of 111111111 would be reported to the ATO is where the payee has not provided a TFN and the payer/payee relationship has terminated within the 28-day period.
333333333	If the payee is under 18 years of age and earns: $112 or less weekly $225 or less fortnightly, or $498 or less monthly they they may claim an exemption for quotation a TFN. If circumstances change and the payee subsequently earns a level of income that attracts tax, a TFN must be provided at that time.	(As for Payment Summary reporting).
444444444	The payee is a recipient of a social security or service pension or benefit (other than Newstart, sickness allowance, special benefits or partner allowance) they may claim an exemption from quoting a TFN.	(As for Payment Summary reporting).

Advise Super Fund

When this checkbox is set to Yes the employee Tax File Number (TFN) is included in the superannuation export file that is sent to the superannuation fund.

Tax Cert Category

The Tax Cert Category field allocates workers to the appropriate category for the reporting of income and tax paid when payment summaries are printed. Due to ATO requirements, the types of payments made (and the information shown on payment summaries) vary for each category of worker.

To show accurate information on payment summaries, you need to allocate each worker to the correct Tax Cert Category.

If a worker changes their terms of employment and moves from one category to another during the year, Attaché strongly recommends you set up a new employee in the Payroll system rather than changing the value of the Tax Cert Category field. For workers who are not Individual Non-Business employees, Attaché suggests you set the Employment Status field to Contract.

To ensure that amounts appear in the correct fields on the payment summary, you might need to set up new pay elements (such as allowances and deductions) with an appropriate Tax Certificate Code.

Tax Certificate Codes

N=Individual Non Business	Only workers allocated as Individual Non-Business (formerly PAYE) can receive payments such as itemised allowances/deductions, Lump Sum Payments on Termination and Fringe Benefits payments. Similarly, Individual Non-Business employees cannot receive Non-Cash Benefit Payments.
V=Voluntary Agreement	Workers whose Tax Cert Category is Voluntary Agreement must supply their ABN number. Enter this information in the ABN field on the Tax tab.
L=Labour Hire
O=Other Specified Payments
P=Personal Services
H=Working Holiday Maker	This Tax Certificate Category applies to employees who have been hired under the Working Holiday Maker (WHM) program (Visa 417 or 462). When the Tax Cert Category is set to H=Working Holiday Maker: The Tax Cert Category on the PAYG Tax Reconciliation report and the Payment Summary Details report displays as Working Holiday Maker. On the EMPDUPE file (ATO electronic file), the Income Type field for a WHM employee displays the identifier H (otherwise S is displayed). On payment summaries, the Income Type box for a WHM employee displays the identifier H.

Tax Scale

Choose Find (F2) to view the Tax Codes available. The code selected will determine how an employee's tax is calculated.

The tax calculated can be manually changed when entering time sheet pays.

You can set up any number of Tax Scale Codes. These can include scales to calculate tax based on a percentage, or a scale to calculate zero tax. Refer to Working with tax scales for further information.

Tax Scales Australia:

Study and Training Support Loans – Australian employees who have an accumulated Higher Education Loan Programme (HELP) and/or Student Financial Supplement Scheme (SFSS) debt are required to have additional tax installments deducted from their pay when their salary or wage reaches the nominated value. Once an employee's income reaches the compulsory threshold, employers are required by law to make extra tax installment deductions for repayment of HECS. The additional tax installments are to be included as part of the normal payments of tax installment deductions to the ATO.

The Study and Training Support Loans (Tax Impost 1) checkbox in the employee masterfile is used to indicate whether an employee is required to have HELP/SFSS instalments deducted from their pay.

Note that Study and Training Support Loans will read the Tax Impost 1 Details tables.

For Working Holiday Maker employees, choose WHM = Working Holiday Makers.

Tax Rebate

If an employee is to receive a Tax Rebate, type the combined per annum value of each rebate, as shown on their Employment Declaration.

Example

Dependent Rebate	$830.00 per annum
Zone Rebate	$200.00 per annum
Tax Rebate	$2030.00 per annum

Medicare Adj

Y = Yes
N = No

If the employee has lodged a Medicare Levy Variation Declaration and is therefore entitled to an adjustment in the levy amount payable, select Yes.

If no Medicare Adjustment is applicable, select No.

The Marital Status field on the Personal Details tab is used to determine whether the employee is single. De Facto and Other are treated as married.

Dependants

This field is only relevant to employees claiming Medicare Levy Adjustment.

If the adjustment is to apply, enter the Number of Dependants.

Note: Spouse = 0, Single = 0

The Marital Status field on the Personal Details tab is used to determine whether the employee is single. De Facto and Other are treated as married.

Tax Impost Details

Study and Training Support Loans

If the employee is required to pay the tax impost, select the Study and Training Support Loans checkbox.

When setting up a tax impost, ensure that the Tax-free threshold claimed checkbox is set correctly so the appropriate tax table (With threshold claimed or No threshold claimed) will be used from Payroll Options.

Include RESC

Y = Yes
N = No

The definition of total income for tax and superannuation purposes includes certain contributions to superannuation, known as Reportable Employer Superannuation Contributions (RESC).

Set this checkbox to Yes to include RESC amounts in the calculation of Study and Training Support Loans payments. Employee deductions with a Tax Certificate Code set to 6 = Reportable Super Cont. (RESC) and employer contributions with a contribution category set to E= Reportable Employer Super Cont (RESC) are then treated as part of the employee's total income for the calculation of Study and Training Support Loans payments. This is not required by the ATO, but it should eliminate any demand for an additional payment of Study and Training Support Loans after the employee submits their tax return.

The setting of this checkbox does not affect the calculation of ordinary tax, which is based on taxable pay.

Include Reportable FB

Select this checkbox to add reportable fringe benefit (RFB) amounts to the employee's taxable income for the purpose of calculating Study and Training Support Loans repayments.

The grossed up amount of any allowances or deductions with a Tax Certificate Code set to Reportable Fringe Benefit will be added to the employee's taxable income. This has the effect of increasing the amount of Tax Impost 1 (Study and Training Support Loans) repayments made with each pay, so that the employee does not receive a request for further repayments from the ATO at the end of the tax year.

Fringe benefit amounts entered through employer contributions are not included in this calculation.

You cannot use the Include Reportable FB checkbox in conjunction with the Calculate Tax YTD checkbox.

Note: As the fringe benefit tax year (1 April to 31 March) differs from the financial year (1 July to 30 June), the calculation of the extra Study and Training Support Loans will not be completely accurate and may result in an under or over calculation of the withholding amount.

Tax-Free threshold claimed

Select this checkbox if the employee is claiming the tax-free threshold.

For Australia, the setting of this checkbox determines whether the With threshold claimed or No threshold claimed table will be used from Payroll Options.

Note: The "Tax-free threshold claimed" tick box here only affects the Tax Imposts for tax calculation purposes. The Tax Scale is a separate calculation, and thus if the employee is claiming the Tax-free threshold, the appropriate Tax Scale must be selected there as well.

Residency Status

R = Resident
N = Non-Resident

Enter whether the employee is a resident of the country or not. If you update this field you will need to re-submit a Tax File Number Declaration for this employee with the Australian Taxation Office.

Calculate Tax YTD

Y = Yes
N = No

This method of tax calculation may be used where an employee's pay fluctuates by a considerable amount each pay or from time to time. For example, you might use the method for a salesperson who receives a relatively low retainer for several pays, then a large amount of commission from time to time. Calculate Tax YTD will re-calculate earnings and tax paid from the start of the tax year, taking into consideration the current earnings and tax accordingly. Attaché Software recommends that you set Calculate Tax YTD to No, except on the advice of your consultant.

To determine the amount of tax payable for the current pay period, weekly tax payable is calculated on the total year-to-date earnings. Any tax previously paid is then subtracted from this figure to arrive at the tax payable for the current pay. Zero tax will be charged if a negative tax figure is calculated.

YTD Tax calculations for an employee who commences part-way through the year may vary from pay to pay. These variations may occur even if the taxable pay is the same in different pay periods. This is caused by the averaging method, which takes into account the employee start date if they are not employed for the full year.

Note: The Calculate Tax YTD averaging method uses weekly periods to calculate the tax payable on each pay for weekly and fortnightly frequency employees. If the calculated period includes a fraction of a week, the period will be rounded up. For example, 1 week and 1 day will be treated as 2 weeks and tax averaged accordingly. Do not use this method for monthly or bi-monthly frequency employees. The averaging calculation is not designed for these pay frequencies and variances between pay periods could be large and irregular.

When Calculate Tax YTD is selected, do not override the tax amount calculated during pay entry.

If there is a change to Tax Scales during the year, set the field to No for all employees. If Calculate Tax YTD is used when rates vary during the tax year, tax will be calculated to spread over the whole year based on the new tax rate, resulting in incorrect tax deductions from employees.

You cannot use Calculate Tax YTD in conjunction with the Include Reportable FB checkbox.

Voluntary Tax

If an employee wishes to have Voluntary Tax deducted over and above the tax amount calculated, enter the amount to be deducted each pay run. It is then generated on the employee's pay and flows through to any current unchecked time sheet pays.

You can enter or change any Voluntary Tax amount during transaction entry. During transaction entry, voluntary tax is displayed as a separate amount and then combined with other tax figures for reporting.

In the cycle of weekly and fortnightly pays, in some financial years there will be 53 weekly (or 27 fortnightly) pays. When this happens, there may be a shortfall in the PAYG withheld from employees wages. An additional amount may be withheld each pay (with the employee's agreement). The recommended amounts are shown on the tax tables published by the Australian Tax Office.

Superannuation Choice Offered

Type the date on which a choice of superannuation funds was offered to the employee.

Choice Last Exercised

Type the date on which the employee exercised their right to choose a superannuation fund.

Payment Summary

Displays the number of PAYG and ETP payment summaries created, printed and transferred to the magnetic media file during the financial year.

Employee Finalised

The Employee Finalised flag is applied automatically if an employee has been reported via Single Touch Payroll as tax ready and the batch has been ATO Confirmed. If using Single Touch Payroll, you’ll need to finalise your employees as part of your end-of-year processing, when terminating an employee at any time during the year or if a company has been liquidated.

Pay Locator Reference

This field is for enquiry purposes and is only used if the employee does not usually reside at a fixed address. For example, if the employee is located on a ship you can record the ship's name in this field.

Senior Offset

Select this checkbox if the employee is claiming the Senior Australians Tax Offset.

Zone Rebates

Select this checkbox if the employee is claiming a Zone, Overseas Forces, Dependant Spouse or Special Tax Offset.

TFN Dec Signed

Enter the date on which the employee signed the Tax File Number (TFN) Declaration or leave this field blank if the employee has not yet signed the TFN Declaration.

For more information, refer to Managing employee Tax File Number Declaration Forms.

TFN Dec Status

The TFN Declaration Status field shows if a Tax File Number (TFN) Declaration is:

Lodged
Pending (ready to be lodged)
Hold (not yet ready to be lodged)

For existing employees the status defaults to Lodged.

For new employees the status defaults to Hold.

When ready to lodge an employee’s TFN Declaration with the ATO, change the status to Pending. The employee’s details will then be included the next time the TFN Declaration file is generated.

Tax New Zealand

Field

Description

IRD Number

Enter the employee's IRD Number. This number will print on the employee details report and the EMS.

Warning: No IRD

A valid IRD number must be entered in this field. To be accepted as valid the IRD number must be greater than 10,000,000 and less than 150,000,000. A warning displays if this field is left blank.

SDR Cert.

Select this checkbox if the employee has a Special Deduction Rate (SDR) Certificate from the Commissioner of Inland Revenue advising that they are entitled to a reduced Student Loan (SL) payment rate.

SDR End Date

Enter the date that the Special Deduction Rate (SDR) expires.

Tax Code

Select Find (F2) to view the Tax Codes available. The code selected will determine how an employee's tax is calculated.

The tax calculated can be manually changed when entering time sheet pays.

You can set up any number of Tax Scale Codes. These can include scales to calculate tax based on a percentage, or a scale to calculate zero tax. See Working with tax scales.

Tax Rebate

This field is not required for New Zealand.

SL Rate Override

Select this checkbox only if you wish to override the default student loan deduction rate set in the employee's Tax Code.

SL Deduction Rate

Type the SL Deduction Rate as advised by the IRD in decimal format. For example; enter 5% as 0.05.

Tax Impost Details

Tax Impost 1, Tax Impost 2 and Tax Impost 3 are available only if the corresponding tax impost Description field has been completed in Payroll Options.

Tax-free threshold claimed

This field is not required for New Zealand and is only available if a tax impost Description field has been completed in Payroll Options.

Residency Status

R = Resident
N = Non-Resident

Enter whether the employee is a resident of the country or not.

Calculate Tax YTD

Y = Yes
N = No

This method of tax calculation may be used where an employee's pay fluctuates by a considerable amount each pay or from time to time. For example, you might use the method for a salesperson who receives a relatively low retainer for several pays, then a large amount of commission from time to time. Calculate Tax YTD will re-calculate earnings and tax paid from the start of the tax year, taking into consideration the current earnings and tax accordingly. Attaché recommends you set Calculate Tax YTD to No, except on the advice of your consultant.

To determine the amount of tax payable for the current pay period, weekly tax payable is calculated on the total year-to-date earnings. Any tax previously paid is then subtracted from this figure to arrive at the tax payable for the current pay. Zero tax will be charged if a negative tax figure is calculated.

YTD Tax calculations for an employee who commences part-way through the year may vary from pay to pay. These variations may occur even if the taxable pay is the same in different pay periods. This is caused by the averaging method, which takes into account the employee start date if they are not employed for the full year.

Note: The Calculate Tax YTD averaging method uses weekly periods to calculate the tax payable on each pay. If the calculated period includes a fraction of a week, the period will be rounded up. For example, one week and one day will be treated as two weeks and tax averaged accordingly. For this reason, Calculate Tax YTD may not be suitable when using monthly and bi-monthly pays, as there may be significant variations in the tax calculated, depending on the number of weeks from the beginning of the tax year to the current pay period. At the end of the year, the total tax paid on total earnings will be correct, regardless of the variations during the year.

Users who pay on monthly or bi-monthly periods may prefer to manually adjust tax rather than use the Calculate Tax YTD method.

When Calculate Tax YTD is selected, do not override the tax amount calculated during pay entry.

If there is a change to Tax Scales during the year, set the field to No for all employees. If Calculate Tax YTD is used when rates vary during the tax year, tax will be calculated to spread over the whole year based on the new tax rate, resulting in incorrect tax deductions from employees.

You cannot use Calculate Tax YTD in conjunction with the Include Reportable FB check box.

Voluntary Tax

If an employee wishes to have Voluntary Tax deducted over and above the tax amount calculated, enter the amount to be deducted each pay run.

You can enter or change any Voluntary Tax amount during transaction entry.

Kiwi Saver

Status

Select the KiwiSaver status for this employee:

A = Automatic Enrollment	An employee who starts work on 1 July 2007 or later and who is not exempt for any reason.
P = Previously Enrolled	An employee who is already part of KiwiSaver when they start to work for this employer.
X = Exempt - Existing Employee	An employee who was employed prior to 1 July 2007 and who has not opted in to KiwiSaver.
G = Exempt - Age	An employee who is under 18 years old when employed and who has not opted in to KiwiSaver or who is over 65 years of age.
R = Exempt - Overseas Resident	An employee who is exempt as they are an overseas resident.
C = Exempt - Casual	An employee who is exempt, as they are a casual employee. These are employees who are employed on an irregular and intermittent basis and receive holiday pay with their wages. Casual employees are not subject to automatic enrollment. The 28-day automatic enrollment rule still applies to casual employment.
T = Exempt - Other	An employee who is exempt for another reason.
I = Opted In	An employee who was employed on or after 1 July 2007 and has decided to opt in to KiwiSaver.
O = Opted Out	An employee who was employed on or after 1 July 2007 and has decided to opt out of KiwiSaver. The Opt Out Date field and bank account details should be completed for an employee who has opted out. Note: For employees who opt out, you may refund any KiwiSaver deductions to the employee that have not already been remitted to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD).

Start Date

Update the Start Date if the employee's employment status changes, for example, the employee KiwiSaver status is no longer Casual, or the employee has Opted In, etc.

For a new employee, this will default to their start date.

Info. Pack Provided

The information pack should be provided to the employee within seven (7) days of their start date.

Last Deduction Rate Change

If an employee requests a change in their KiwiSaver contribution rate, enter a date in this field. An employer is only obliged to accept a change of rate every three months.

Opt Out Date

Enter a date in this field if a new employee (who is not already part of KiwiSaver) wishes to opt out of KiwiSaver. The Opt-out form must be given to the employer between 14 days and 56 days of commencing employment.

If a date has been entered into this field, a bank account must be entered into the Bank Code for Refund field to allow the IRD to refund KiwiSaver contributions already remitted to the IRD.

The date entered is the date the opt out notice was signed by the employee.

Do not set this date in a period for which a KiwiSaver report has been run, otherwise the opt out details will not be included in the report.

ESCT Percentage

Type the rate for the Employer Superannuation Contribution Tax (ESCT).

Holiday Period Start

An employee can apply to the IRD for a break (contributions holiday) from making KiwiSaver Contributions. The IRD will advise the employer of the holiday period to be taken.

Tip: You can make a copy of the notification and store it in Linked Information for the employee. For more information select the Details tab on this page.

Holiday Period End

Bank Code for Refund

The bank account details entered in this field will be used by the IRD to refund to the employee any KiwiSaver contributions already remitted to the IRD. If the KiwiSaver contributions have not yet been remitted to the IRD, these may be refunded directly to the employee.

The bank account number format used by all banks is numeric and includes the following parts:

Bank ID (maximum 2 digits)
Bank branch (maximum 4 digits)
Account base number (maximum 8 digits)
Account suffix (maximum 4 digits)

The Bank Account Number must be valid and cannot be entered if the details do not pass the IRD Bank Account Number validation routine.

Account Name

The bank account name entered in this field should be for the account entered in the Bank Code for Refund field. This is the name of the account to be used by the IRD to refund to the employee any KiwiSaver contributions already made.

Tax PNG

Field

Description

TFN/TIN

Type the employee's Tax Identification Number (TIN). This information will print on the Statement of Earnings.

Tax Scale

Choose Find (F2) to view the Tax Codes available. The code selected will determine how an employee's tax is calculated.
The tax calculated can be manually changed when entering time sheet pays.

You can set up any number of Tax Scale Codes. These can include scales to calculate tax based on a percentage, or a scale to calculate zero tax. Refer to Working with tax scales for further information.

Tax Rebate

If an employee is to receive a Tax Rebate, enter the combined per annum value of each rebate as shown on their Tax Identification Number Registration form.

Example

Dependent Rebate	$830.00 per annum
Zone Rebate	$200.00 per annum
Tax Rebate	$2030.00 per annum

Medicare Adj

Dependents

This field is only relevant to employees claiming Medicare Levy Adjustment. If the adjustment is to apply, enter the Number of Dependents.

Note: Spouse = 0; Single = 0

The marital status on the second screen is used to determine whether the employee is single. De Facto and Other are treated as married.

Tax Impost Details

Tax Impost 1, Tax Impost 2 and Tax Impost 3 are available only if the corresponding tax impost Description field has been completed in Payroll Options.

Tax-free threshold claimed

This field is not required for Papua New Guinea and is only available if a tax impost Description field has been completed in Payroll Options.