As its name suggests, Simply Payroll offers a streamlined, digitised and easy-to-use payroll service that will help you stay compliant with regulations, and on-side with your employees.
Instead of losing hours and hours chasing up and handling paper timesheets and working out all the calculations, your staff can use the Simply smart phone or web app to enter their start and finish times for you to review, edit and approve.
Spreadsheet payroll is time-consuming and prone to error. Simply Payroll handles the wages, PAYE, leave accruals, allowances and deductions for $5 per pay run, plus $1.25 per employee, excluding GST.
Set up, training and support is free of charge and all Feds members get a $50 credit upon sign-on.
The system also automates filing to IRD, including receiving and actioning deduction letters for things like child support and fines. It's the only New Zealand payroll system that tracks hours for salaried staff, and automatically compares against the minimum wage level. If a top-up is required, it's calculated automatically and you'll be prompted to apply it.
That's an aspect Andrew Hoggard appreciates.
"Other systems I've seen don't take into account that farming is variable in its hours. Simply Payroll is as near as bullet-proof as possible.
"PAYE, KiwiSaver, minimum wage rules, holiday pay...it's all done for you. You review it, and double click that it's okay to go."
From Simply Payroll's perspective, chief executive Asantha Wijeyeratne says they wanted a strong partner in the primary sector.
"Federated Farmers was a natural choice.
"We have a lot of empathy for farmers and businesses in the agricultural sector because what they do is fundamentally important to New Zealand, and yet they have to work extremely hard while also coping with challenges from every quarter - including social, health, environmental and legislative pressures."
For example, farmers have been targeted for breaches of the minimum wage regulations.
"This is despite the fact that the nature of the work is far more complex than can be covered by simple regulations written for a broad spread of business sectors. Farm staff are seasonally driven in terms of activity levels, and they work all hours as well. You also have things like use of farm housing that many staff enjoy, whereas few other industries house their staff as well," Asantha says.
Simply Payroll developed a calculator that alerts the person doing the payroll when minimum wage regulations are at risk of being breached.
It's part of the company's mission to make life easier for small and medium business owners.
"Our staff have bought into that mission, so when a customer calls with a question or a need or a problem, the Simply Payroll team member will focus on finding a solution until completion - to the exclusion of all else," Asantha says. "The payback is word-of-mouth from happy customers, and also innovation because customer problems and needs inspire design innovations."
For more information on benefits for members, visit www.fedfarm.org.nz
