User Guide Intellitron Pty Ltd

Transcription

1 User Guide Intellitron Pty Ltd

2 2 Table of Contents Foreword 0 Part I Welcome to 6 Part II Getting Started 8 1 Add... New Company 8 2 Entering... Company Details 10 3 Editing... Pay Dates 11 4 Entering... Employees 14 5 Entering... YTD figures 14 6 Entering... Leave Accruals Part III Employees 1 Employees... Overview 19 2 Move... or Copy Employees 19 3 Details Departments Pay... Settings 24 Pay Rates Pay Rate Groups Special User... Defined Pay Rates 30 Salary/Wage... Sacrifice 31 Payslip Options Tax... Rates 32 7 Leave Leave Entitlem... ent Adjustm ents 35 Holiday Leave... Calculator 35 Sick Leave... Calculator 36 Long Service... Leave Calculator 38 Custom Leave Super Add or Edit... a Super Fund 45 Alter Super... Guarantee Rate for Multiple Em ployees 51 Mem ber Registration Send Updated... Em ployee Details to Super Fund 56 9 Allowances... Deductions Part IV Pay Processing 1 Pays... Overview 62 2 Editing... Pays 62 3 Editing... Past Pays 65 4 Copying... Hours From Last Pay Intellitron

3 Contents 3 5 Marking... Pays as Complete 66 6 Printing... Pay Reports 67 7 Printing... Payslips 67 8 Direct... Entry 68 9 Entering... Details for Employees Not Being Paid Adding/Deleting... a Pay Bonuses,... Commissions and Back Payments Termination... Payments 73 Ordinary Term... ination 73 Term ination... Due to Ill-Health 78 Death of Em... ployee 78 Genuine Redundancy... or Early Retirem ent Schem e 79 Part V Company 83 1 Company... Overview Payslips and Payment Summaries 84 3 Defining... Financial Years 85 Part VI Super Fund Deposits 89 1 Super... Fund Deposits Overview 89 2 Create... Super Fund Deposits 91 3 Export... Deposits to Superstream 93 4 Export... Deposits to CSV 96 5 Viewing... or Editing a Deposit 99 6 Creating... a Miscellaneous Super Fund Deposit Undoing... and Deleting a Super Fund Deposit Superstream... Mailbox Direct... Bank Entry of Super Deposits 104 Part VII End of Financial Year Procedure ATO... Lodgement Options EOFY... Step by Step 110 Part VIII Settings Settings... Overview 119 Part IX Editing Pay Details Edit... Pay Overview Entering... Ordinary Hours Paying... Leave Allowances Deductions Intellitron

4 4 6 Bonuses... and Commissions Back... Payments Salary... Sacrifice Tax Superannuation Payslip... Notes 128 Part X Business Ownership Changeover Business... Ownership Changeover 131 Part XI Hints and Tips Backup... Your Data Password... Protect Your Information Handy... Tax Calculator Free... Video Tutorials Reinstate... Employees Custom... Reports Payslip... Options Staying... Up-to-Date Updates... and Changes to Navigating... Multiple Pay Periods Copy... Hours From Last Pay Convert... Fractions to Minutes Set... Default Pay Period Based-on Date 140 Part XII Troubleshooting Index Intellitron

5 Part I

6 6 1 Welcome to is the successor to WagezWindow - a payroll program first released in 1997 and trusted by thousands of businesses across Australia for over 15 years. 's design has been based on that of WagezWindow's with vast improvements to its functionality, ease-of-use and overall modernity. We trust that you find both intuitive and reliable, and if you have any suggestions or support queries regarding the product, then please contact the support team at support@lightningpayroll.com.au.

7 Part II

8 8 2 Getting Started The Getting Started guide will help you on your way to setting up and consists of four main topics: Entering Company Details Entering Employees Entering YTD Figures Entering Leave Accruals 2.1 Add New Company does not limit the number of companies you wish to process pays for. You annual subscription only limits you by the total number of employees across all of your companies. To add a new company in, simply click Company >> Add new company. You will be prompted to enter your company s name and ABN via the Create New Company Assistant.

9 9 After you have entered your company's name and ABN, the assistant will help you to setup your pay schedule/s. The tick boxes allow you to set what frequency you'll be intending to run pays for. For example, if you pay your staff week ly, tick 'Week ly?'. If you pay some staff week ly and some staff monthly, you would tick both 'Week ly?' and 'Monthly?' boxes. Depending on which pay schedule box or boxes you have ticked, the related date selector will light up beneath. Select the date/s you wish for your next pay period ending. If you need to enter pays prior to this, you may. You are simply informing the program of a point to build its pay date structure upon. Note: Pay end dates can be edited later if need be. For more information, please see Editing Pay Dates.

10 10 Once you have done this, click Finish and you will immediately be taken to the Company section of. Work your way through the first four tabs, starting at the Details tab (the Super Fund Deposits tab provides a functionality that you will not yet need to utilise). 2.2 Entering Company Details Details. Under the Details tab, enter the basic information for the company such as address, phone number and ABN. Departments. If your company is divided up into departments, then you can specify them under the Departments tab by typing a department name into the text box provided in the top-left corner of the window and then clicking Add Department. Bank Account. The Bank Account tab is where you set up the company s bank details for direct debits if you use, or will be using, this method to pay wages. If your bank cannot be found in the list of banks to select from, then click the plus button next to the Bank drop-down list. . If you would like to payslips or EOFY payment summaries to your employees, you must first enter your SMTP server settings into the section. These settings can usually be

11 11 obtained by checking the account settings in your program, but you may find you need to contact your ISP. For more information on setting up the ing of pay slips, see ing Payslips. Pay Dates. This section lets you configure the date that the main Pays screen opens up to by default. For more information see Set Default Pay Period Based-on Date. Financial Years. If you need to alter financial year start and end dates, do so here. This is normally used in cases where you need to include or omit pay run at the end of your financial year, or if the company has changed owner or ABN throughout the year. For more information, see Business Ownership Changeover. Leave Balances. This section allows you to setup custom leave types for your company. Common examples include RDOs, or days in lieu. For more information see Custom Leave. Pay Rate Groups. Pay rate groups, otherwise referred to as 'global pay rates' can save you time by allowing multiple employees have access to commonly used pay rates. For more information please see Pay Rate Groups. Super/BPay Reference. If you pay super using BPAY for any of your employee's super fund providers you can keep track of BPAY reference information here in the BPAY Reference tab. BPAY biller code information is specific to each super fund, and can be edited under Settings >> Super Fund Providers. SBR Submissions. After submitting EOFY payment summaries via SBR you'll be able to view detailed ATO response messages/receipts here in the SBR Submissions tab. For more information, see EOFY Step by Step. 2.3 Editing Pay Dates Setting up Pay Period dates in is an important part of getting started in. By default, will want to establish an initial pay date, based on both your system date and the date that you enter as your next pay period ending date. This process is best to have been setup when creating your company initially as explained in the previous Add New Company section, but if dates need to be altered down the track, you can do so as follows. To change the default pay period date, use the pencil button beside the start and end pay dates at the top of the main Pays screen. Always keep in mind that the pay period end date is the more important date. Pay period start dates don't affect much at all within the program. They are determined by the previous pay period's end date. Pay period end dates refer to the last day of the period which you intend to pay employees for. You can manually adjust pay dates a couple of different ways in. Method (1) - Future Pay Runs Are Changing to a New Schedule: If your past pays are already entered and set to the correct dates, and you just want to change the dates for future pay runs you're best off doing this in Company >> Pay Dates.

12 12 Simply click the Edit button and select the new pay period end date for whichever schedules (weekly, fortnightly, monthly) that require change in future. For example, if your week ly pay run has always ended on a Sunday, but in future you want it to now end on a Monday, you'd set the week ly to the nearest Monday in the list as shown below. For information regarding which pay period you wish to consider as the 'current' period, see Set Default Pay Period Based On Date. Method (2) - Adjusting Pay Run Dates on Previously Completed Pays (Advanced): This is a little more advanced, but gives you more power over your pay run dates. Normally this feature is only

13 13 necessary if dates have been setup incorrectly at an earlier date, allowing you the ability to fix them up. This is done under the main Pays area. After you click on the pencil icon you will see a window which looks like this: To view any pay run in the list click on the View button beside the pay run dates you wish to jump to. To edit the end dates of a pay run, click the Edit button beside the dates you need to adjust, and a window will appear that looks like this: Simply change the start and/or end date and click Save. will recalculate surrounding pay run dates and adjust them accordingly.

14 Entering Employees To start entering employees, click the Employees button, then click Actions and select New Employee. In the window that appears, enter the employee s name and date-of-birth, then click Finish. The employee will appear in the list box to the left and you will now be able to start entering the details for this employee. New employees are setup as full- time permanent (which will accrue leave). If the new employee is a casual, remember to disable their leave under Employees >> Leave >> Leave Settings. To the right of the list of employees will be seven buttons, each with multiple tabs that will show below the buttons. Work your way through the buttons and their tabs that show below them, and fill out the necessary details for the employee. Press F1 on the keyboard at any point during the setting up of your employee(s) to find out more information about the section of the program you're in at the time. PROCEED TO NEXT TOPIC: ENTERING YTD FIGURES 2.5 Entering YTD figures If you purchased part-way through a financial year, then you will need to enter the employees' year-to-date figures into the system before you run your first live pay run. There are two methods of doing this: - Method 1: Entering YTD figures via a YTD adjustment. The easiest way to enter past pay information into is via Employees >> Year to Date >> Adjust YTD Totals. Here you'll be able to enter any YTD amounts as a starting point before entering pay data directly into the program's 'Pays' screen. Just click 'Next' to carry on and enter amounts for any YTD bonuses, allowances, leave payouts, etc.

15 15 Method 2: Entering all the pay runs in one-by-one This is the best, but most time consuming method of getting your employees' year-to-date figures into the system, and basically involves entering each and every pay in from the start of the financial year. To begin, go into Pays, then click and hold the Last Pay Run button until you get a drop-down menu. From the drop-down menu, select the first pay date of the financial year (you may need to do this a second time if the list of dates does not go back far enough) and then click Edit Pays. Ensure that the pay details are correct for each employee; stepping through each one by clicking Save + Next as you go. When you reach the last employee, click Save + Close to save the details and exit the Edit Pay window. When the pays are complete for all the employees, click the Next Pay Run button to proceed to the next pay. Continue this process until you have reached the first live pay run that you will process with Lightning Payroll. For more information on processing pays, see Pay Processing. PROCEED TO NEXT TOPIC: ENTERING LEAVE ACCRUALS Method 3: Entering the YTD figures into one large pay Using the pencil button (See above), beside the pay period start and end dates (for the pay period relevant to you), setup your next pay period ending date for the current financial year. How you proceed from here will depend on the pay types for each of your individual employees and/or what

16 16 information you have for their pays processed up to this point in the financial year... For wage earners and/or those employees whom you have a record of the hours for, go into Pays and check the pay date that you're at. If you are at the pay run preceding the first live pay that you will be processing with, then simply click the Edit Pays button to start entering the employees' YTD figures; otherwise, click the Last Pay Run button to get back to the pay preceding the first live pay that you will process with, and then click Edit Pays. When the Edit Pay window opens for the first employee, type the total amount of hours and minutes that the employee has worked in the current financial year so far. If an employee has different pay rates, then you will need to divide their total hours for the financial year over the various pay rates accordingly. You will also need to enter the total hours of leave taken, for each type of leave, in the leave window. Click the Edit Leave button to do this. Note: If you do not have records of your employees pays to this level of detail, then you may need to use the method mentioned further below for salary earners. If it is only the leave hours that you are not sure of, then you could enter them in as Ordinary Time Worked hours, providing your employees are not entitled to annual leave loading. If any of the employees have allowances or deductions, then enter the year-to-date amounts for each of these in the Allowances and Deductions tables. If an employee is paid bonuses, commissions, or if they salary sacrifice a portion of their pay, then click the Edit buttons for these to enter their year-to-date figures. Since the program will be treating this pay as a single pay run, the tax amount that is calculated will likely be incorrect; if it is, then click the Edit button next to the tax amount and alter it accordingly. Do this for the superannuation too, if necessary. Note: The Edit Pay window will also allow you to enter the accrued leave totals for each employee if you choose to do so at this point in time - in which case you can skip the last topic of this Getting Started guide. When all year-to-date details have been entered into the employee s Edit Pay window, click Save + Next to save the details and move on to the next employee, or Save + Close to exit the Edit Pay window. For salary earners and/or those employees who you do not have a record of the hours for, go into Employees, select a relevant employee and then click Pay Settings. In the Pay Rates tab, set the Pay period gross pay to the total year-to-date gross amount for that employee. If the employee is paid allowances, and you have a record of the year-to-date figures for those allowances, then do not include these amounts in with the total gross figure that you enter here as it would be preferable to enter those totals separately - particularly if they need to show separately on the employee's payment summary at the end of the financial year. Once you have entered the year-to-date gross amounts for each of the relevant employees, go into the Pays section of and then click Edit Pay for one of these employees. In their Edit Pay window, you should notice large gross, tax, net and super amounts. In the Allowances and Deductions tables, enter the year-to-date figures for their each of their allowances and/or deductions. If an employee is paid bonuses, commissions, or if they salary sacrifice a portion of their pay, then click the Edit buttons for these to enter their year-to-date figures. Since the program will be treating this pay as a single pay run, the tax amount that is calculated will likely be incorrect; if it is, then click the Edit button next to the tax amount and alter it accordingly. Do this for the superannuation too, if necessary. Note: The Edit Pay window will also allow you to enter the accrued leave totals for each employee if you choose to do so at this point in time - in which case you can skip the last topic of this Getting Started guide. When all year-to-date details have been entered into the employee s Edit Pay window, click Save +

17 17 Next to save the details and move on to the next employee, or Save + Close exit the Edit Pay window. For more detailed information on the Edit Pay window of, see Editing Pay Details. PROCEED TO NEXT TOPIC: ENTERING LEAVE ACCRUALS 2.6 Entering Leave Accruals Once you have finished entering the employees year-to-date figures into the system, the last step is to enter their accrued leave to date. To do this, select the Leave Entitlements Adjustments tab of the Leave section in Employees and enter the amounts due for annual leave, sick leave and long service leave, for each employee.** If you ever have to manually recalculate leave balances in order to update these totals, remember to calculate totals as at the date which sits atop this Leave Entitlement Adjustments area (E.g. Leave Entitlements as of 28 July) **Depending on the method you used to get the employees year-to-date figures into the system, you may already see accrual amounts there for each employee, however, these amounts will be incorrect for any employee who was working for you in previous financial years.

18 Part III

19 19 3 Employees 3.1 Employees Overview Selecting the Employees button from the top of s window will display a list of all your employees, and the various sections of the program for setting up and editing the details for whichever employee you have selected in the list at the time. The Actions drop-down button that appears above the list of employees enables you to add or delete an employee.** **Please be aware that you are obliged to keep records of your employees details for at least seven years. 3.2 Move or Copy Employees allows you to move or copy your employees. These options are available under Employees >> Actions >> Move Employee/Copy Employee. Moving An Employee Choosing the option to move an employee gives you the following message. Please be sure you are aware that moving the employee to a new company does not leave any record of that employee in the previous company. If you wish to leave them in the original company and start them off in another from this point in time, you should Copy Employee (See below), not Move Employee.

20 20 Click No to cancel, or click Yes to continue and you'll be given the following message, which lets you choose the company you want to move the employee and all of their pay records to. Copying An Employee If you choose the option to Copy Employee then you will see the following message, where you can choose the company you wish to duplicate the employee into.

21 21 You only need to highlight the company you want to copy them to and click Copy. Copying employees can be handy when setting up a new employee who is to be paid the same pay rates, allowances, hours, etc. as a current employee. The current employee's profile can be used as a template or blueprint for the new employee, for which you'll only need to adjust personal details, bank accounts, TFN, etc... or wherever their information differs. Note: You can copy an employee to the same company, whereas you can not move an employee to the same company, since they're already there. 3.3 Details Personal & Kin. The Details section consists of five tabs. The first two tabs are where you need to enter the personal details and the contact details for the employee, and their next-of-kin. The address for the employee will need to be entered into the Personal tab if you intend on ing their pay slips to them. Bank Accounts. If you pay your employees by uploading ABA files to your bank, then the Bank Accounts tab is where you need to enter the employee s bank details. If the employee has only specified one account for their pay to be deposited to, then enter the details for that account into the Default Account section. If the employee would like their pay divided up into multiple accounts, then enter the account(s) - in which they have stipulated specific amounts for - into the Additional Accounts table and specify the amount the employee would like deposited into each of those accounts. The bank details in the Default Account section will be where the remaining balance is deposited. Departments. The Departments tab is where you assign departments to the employee. If no

22 22 departments have been set up yet, then clicking Edit will take you to where you need to be in order to define the departments for your company. To assign a department to the employee, select it from the Available Departments list and then click Add to Selected Department. To remove a department assigned to the employee, click the department you want to remove, in the Current Departments for Employee list on the left, and then click Remove from Selected Department. Employment Dates. The Employment Dates tab is where the start date is specified for an employee, and where the termination date can be found for any terminated employees. Start dates can be edited here, however termination dates can only be edited by reversing and redoing the termination, making sure to use the right date. Click here for more on Terminating Employees. Options. The Options tab lets you choose whether you wish to record an employee's s for actual sending of documents from the program, or just for record-keeping sake. You may only want them to be sent for payment summaries but not for payslips (or vice versa). Tick the boxes which apply. The Alternate field overrides the field for sending. This may be helpful when you want to keep an employee's personal on file, but for all payslips and payment summaries sent from the program the alternate is the one to be sent to. 3.4 Departments allows you to assign employees to multiple departments, by a percentage of their gross pay. This helps show the cost of an employee and a breakdown of wages across multiple sites, stores, or departments within your company/s. If you wish to take advantage of 's Departmental Analysis report you will first need to setup and assign departments to your employees. To set up some departments within you will need to click on Company >> Departments. Give the first department a name, then click Add Department. Continue until all of your departments have been created. Next, you must assign staff to each of these departments. This is done under Employees >> Details >> Departments Simply highlight the employee and the department heading that you wish to assign, then click Add to selected department.

23 23 You will see a pie graph appear over on the right with displays graphically how the employee has been setup. By default the percentage allocation will be an even breakdown between departments, although percentage allocation can be altered by dragging any of the white points on the edge of the pie graph, creating a new percentage breakdown. Whatever percentages you have setup here under the Employees section will continue as each pay period continues on. If an employee's departmental allocation changes from week to week, you are able to edit their departmental percentages from within the regular Edit Pay window. To do so click Edit Pay >> Department %. Here you can setup an alternative percentage breakdown for a particular pay.

24 Pay Settings The Pay Settings section is where you set up the basic pay details for an employee, and is divided up into four different sections: Pay Rates Special User Defined Pay Rates Salary/Wage Sacrifice Payslip Options Pay Rates In the first tab, Pay Rates, you will find the following settings: - Pay method. There are three methods of pay for you to choose from in : Other, Cash and Direct Bank Entry. By selecting Cash, the employee will show in the Currency Requirements report in the Pays section of the program, but will not appear for selection during the Direct Entry process. If you select Direct Bank Entry as your method of pay, then the employee will appear for selection in the Direct Entry process and will not appear in the Currency Requirements report. Pay type. This is how you specify whether an employee is a wage earner, or a salary earner. Wage earners are paid by the hour and their hours may change from pay-to-pay, whereas salary earners earn a set gross amount every pay - with the possible exception of the occasional bonus or commission. The fundamental difference here, as far as is concerned, is that the Wage Earners Hours Worked report will only show those employees' whose pay methods are set to Wage. Pay Period. allows you to process pays for three different pay period types: weekly, fortnightly and monthly. You can have different pay periods selected for different employees, if need be. Employees will be grouped together in the Pays section of the program according to which pay period you set them to in this option. Employment Type & Tenure. These two settings allow you to define the employees' employment statuses that will show on their pay slips. You may leave the Employment Tenure blank, however, FWA standards require that you at least have the employees' Employment Type displayed on their pay slips. So you will need to have this set accordingly. Active Pay Recipient. Uncheck this option if you won t be paying an employee for a while, but will not be terminating them either (e.g. unpaid parental leave), to ensure that the employee s pay details are set to zero, as you do the pays, and leave is not accrued for them. However, you should still mark

25 25 their pays as Complete as you go. Copy hours from last pay. Leave this option checked if you would like the employee's hours worked to be copied from the last pay run over to the next. Award. This is where you define - or choose from a list of previously defined - awards and award work classifications. As with the Employment Type and Employment Tenure, this setting only affects what is displayed on the employee's pay slip. Award hours. If your employee works a set amount of hours every week, and the same amount of hours on each day that they work, then enter the award hours for each day that the employee works (usually 7.6 for a full-time employee) and the amount of days they work in a week; will then calculate the award hours for a full week. But if your employee s hours can fluctuate from week-to-week, or they don t always work the same amount of hours on the days that they do work, then it won t matter what you have for the award hours and days, but you would need to ensure that you accrue the employee s leave by checking the Accrue leave based on actual hours paid option in the Leave section of. Pay period gross pay & Pay rate per hour. If your employee earns a set gross amount every pay (e.g. salary earners or employees on a monthly pay period), then enter the gross amount they earn each pay run in the Pay period gross pay field. If, on the other hand, your employee s pay is calculated by the hour (i.e. wage earners), then enter their hourly rate in the Pay rate per hour field Pay Rate Groups allows you to set up global pay rate groups for employees who have similar pay rates to one another. This saves time and can help prevent typing errors since you'll only have to update pay rates once, rather than for each individual, yet similar employee. Here is how you can setup a pay rate group: 1) Go to Company >> Pay Rate Groups. You'll see a similar screen to this below.

26 26 2) On the left are the main control buttons, where you can create a new pay rate group, or edit an existing group. Click New Group to create a new pay rate group. 3) Simply enter the name of the group and press enter, or click save. These groups would be suitable for a restaurant, for example.

27 27 4) Once the group has been named, you can then add pay rates which you'd like to have available for all staff in the group. Adding staff comes next. To add a pay rate, click the green plus sign button over to the right of the main window. You'll then see this pop-up window where you can enter the particulars of the group's new pay rate. In this example, all of my Admin/Office staff would be paid the same overtime rate if working on Saturday. It would be setup like so.

28 28 Note: For custom pay rates for an individual employee they can be setup under Special User Defined Pay Rates. 5) Once the pay rates have been setup for the new group, they can be edited with the pencil button, or deleted with the cross button. When you're satisfied with the pay rates you can add employees to the group using the green plus button in the lower, Edit Employees window.

29 29 6) To add employees to the group, and thereby associate these new pay rates to them, simply tick the appropriate employees and hit enter/save. You'll then be able to pay these grouped staff using all the pay rates of that group, in addition to their own pay rates.

30 Special User Defined Pay Rates By default, will have time-and-a-half and double-time options already pre-set for each employee - based on the standard hourly rate. If there are any other special rates you need to pay, then these can be specified in the Special User Defined Pay Rates tab. The small green plus to the right lets you add new pay rates. Once created, pay rates can be edited with the small pencil. The Description field lets you give the new pay rate a name. The Rate Type lets you select between : o Normal - Multiplies by the ordinary time pay rate entered under Employees >> Pay Settings >> Pay Rates >> Pay Rate Per Hour. o Special - Allows you to enter flat dollar amount per unit. The Units field lets you give a description to the unit value being paid (E.g. Hours, days, kms, etc.). Ticking Overtime? will have an effect on how Super and Leave calculate. Super won't calculate on pay rates marked as overtime, unless your employee is set up to have up

31 31 super based on Gross opposed to being based on Ordinary Time Earned under Employees >> Super >> Superannuation Contributions >> Base Super On. Leave won't accrue on pay rates marked as overtime unless the two tick boxes at the top of the Employees >> Leave >> Leave Settings area have been ticked Salary/Wage Sacrifice To set up a salary sacrifice, enter a description and then the amount to be salary sacrificed for each pay. The amount will be taken off the employee's gross pay, thus reducing their taxable gross. If the salary sacrifice will be going into the employee s super fund, then leave the Super/RESC option checked; otherwise, uncheck this option. Check the Included In Super Calculations option if you would like to base the employee's super guarantee calculations on the gross plus salary sacrifice.

32 Payslip Options The Payslip Options tab will allow you to specify what you do and do not want to show on any individual employee's pay slip. 3.6 Tax Rates Tax Settings. The first tab here, Tax Settings, is where you need to enter the employee s tax file number. will automatically determine the correct tax scale to use for your employees depending on what you tell it in this section of the program. By default, the System Generated Tax Rate option will be checked, in which case you would simply check or uncheck the options that follow it as necessary. If the employee pays a special, agreed-upon percentage instead, then check the Voluntary agreement for PAYG withholding option and enter the percentage. The Upwards Variation option will allow you set a voluntary additional amount of tax to be paid as either a set dollar figure, or a percentage. Medicare Levy Exemption & Tax Offsets. If the employee is exempt from the Medicare levy or has tax rebates that need to be entered into the system, then the details regarding these can be entered into the last two tabs of the Tax Rates section. Reportable Fringe Benefits. This is where you can record any reportable fringe benefits paid throughout the financial year.

33 Leave Leave Settings. You can set up or alter the default leave accruals for an employee in the Leave section of. The default leave settings, suitable for a 38 hour per week full-time employee look like this: You can change these default values however. In, there are two methods of accruing leave: 1. As a set amount from pay-to-pay: Below are the default settings for any newly created employee, as shown below. These settings account for a steady accrual of days per year, multiplied by the Award hours for a full day (default is 7.6 hours) which is found under Employees > Pay Settings > Pay Rates. E.g. Default holiday leave values calculate as follows: To accrue 20 (7.6 hour) days per year for a full-time employee the program first converts the days to an hourly value. 20 days per year x 7.6 hours per day = 152 hours per year holiday leave This is then brok en up and rationed out for each completed pay run that this employee work s. 152 hours / 52 weeks (the same goes for 26 fortnights, or 12 months) = hours holiday leave accrued for each week ly pay.

34 34 2. Leave can also accrue as a pro rata amount, based on an employee s hours paid, seen below. This is normally only used for permanent part-time employees who accrue leave based on a fluctuating number of hours throughout the year. To accrue the leave based on the actual hours paid, check the box which says Accrue leave based on actual hours paid and the rates below should be , and respectively. If you would like leave to also accrue on over time hours, also tick the box which says Accrue leave on over time hours. If the employee is entitled to leave loading, then set the Holiday leave loading percentage. This is usually 17.5%, but depends on the industry award. If you are unsure about this, check with Fair Work Australia. To set up long service leave, you need to let the program know how many weeks you want the employee to accrue over the number of years that you specify. The most common accrual setting (Full-time employee in most states) is - This formula for accruing long service leave can change from state-to-state and award-toaward, so you may need to check with the relevant government or industry bodies. Below is a list of links that may help you regarding long service leave: Federal: NSW: VIC: QLD: /industrial-relations/long-service-leave WA: SA: TAS: data/assets/pdf_file/0007/71827/lsl_guide.pdf NT: placeadvocate.nt.gov.au/pdf/nt_lsl_act_faq.pdf

35 Leave Entitlement Adjustments If one or more of an employee's leave balances has accrued, or has been setup incorrectly, it can be manually corrected. First though, you will need to determine the correct balance. You can do this using 's leave calculators, seen to the right-hand side of this screen. Once you have the correct balance, totals can be amended under Employees >> Leave >> Leave Entitlement Adjustments, or from the Pays screen, in that employee's Edit Pay window, as at a specific date. Note: For creating, editing or viewing any of your custom leave entitlements, please see the chapter on Custom Leave Holiday Leave Calculator For recalculation and checking of Holiday Leave, includes a calculator to help you accurately rebuild your employee's totals. To recalculate and update Holiday Leave balances, click the Holiday Leave Balance Calculator button under Employees > Leave > Leave Entitlement Adjustments Depending on award hours per week, and the period of time in which the employee has worked for your company, you will need to enter the rate of accrual in the form of weeks/years. If your employee's award hours p/week has changed throughout this period, create another line with the altered number of award hours p/week, making sure to specify the date range in which these award hours were the norm. The new balance will be displayed at the bottom of the calculator window, and confirmed by clicking Set Balance. Lines of information can be deleted using the red cross on the right. 'Total Holiday Leave Taken:' - This field shows you how much leave has recorded this employee as having taken since their employment start date. Tick this box to take into account these deductions before updating their current leave balance. 'Add to current balance?' - This field allows you to add the recalculated amount to the current balance. Leaving this box unticked when setting the new balance overwrites any the original balance

36 36 with the recalculated amount. Example: Here is an example of a holiday leave recalculation for an employee who has worked 38 hours per week for the ten year period between 17/04/ /04/2014. Four weeks leave earned per year = 38 hrs x 4 weeks = 152 hours holiday leave accrued each year. Ten years employment = 10 x 152 = 1520 hours accrued over ten years 248 hours holiday leave taken over this ten year period needs to be deducted before the total can be reset = = 1272 hours + current week's accrual. (Note: As this date range crosses over into the new pay period there is an extra 2 hrs 55 minutes accrual - 1 week 's worth - in the updated balance) Sick Leave Calculator For recalculation and checking of Sick Leave, includes a calculator to help you accurately rebuild your employee's totals. To recalculate and update Sick Leave balances, click the Sick Leave Balance Calculator button under Employees > Leave > Leave Entitlement Adjustments

37 37 Depending on award hours per week, and the period of time in which the employee has worked for your company, you will need to enter the rate of accrual in the form of weeks/years. If your employee's award hours p/week has changed throughout this period, create another line with the altered number of award hours p/week, making sure to specify the date range in which these award hours were the norm. The new balance will be displayed at the bottom of the calculator window, and confirmed by clicking Set Balance. Lines of information can be deleted using the red cross on the right. 'Total Sick Leave Taken:' - This field shows you how much sick leave has recorded this employee as having taken since their employment start date. Tick this box to take into account these deductions before updating their current leave balance. 'Add to current balance?' - This field allows you to add the recalculated amount to the current balance. Leaving this box unticked when setting the new balance overwrites any the original balance with the recalculated amount. Example: Here is an example of a sick leave recalculation for an employee who has worked 38 hours per week for the ten year period between 17/04/ /04/2014. Four weeks leave earned per year = 38 hrs x 2 weeks = 76 hours holiday leave accrued each year. Ten years employment = 10 x 76 = 760 hours accrued over ten years 8 hours sick leave taken over this ten year period needs to be deducted before the total can be reset = = 752 hours + current week's accrual. (Note: As this date range crosses over into the new pay period there is an extra 1 hrs 27 minutes accrual - 1 week 's worth - in the updated balance)

38 Long Service Leave Calculator For recalculation of Long Service Leave, includes a built-in calculator to help you accurately repair your employee's Long Service Leave totals. To recalculate and update your LSL balances, click the LSL Balance Calculator button. Since LSL accrual rates have changed at different points in time for certain states (As mentioned above), allows you to enter more than one line into your calculations. Depending on the state, industry award, and period of time in which the employee has worked for your company, you will need to enter the rate of accrual in the form of weeks/years. If your employee's award hours p/week has changed throughout this period, create another line with the altered number of award hours p/week, making sure to specify the date range in which these award hours were the norm. 'Total Long Service Leave Taken:' - This field shows you how much LSL has recorded this employee as having taken since their employment start date. Tick this box to take into account these deductions before updating their current leave balance. 'Add to current balance?' - This field allows you to add the recalculated amount to the current balance. Leaving this box unticked when setting the new balance overwrites any the original balance with the recalculated amount. The new LSL balance will be displayed at the bottom of the LSL balance calculator window, and confirmed by clicking Set Balance. Lines of information can be deleted using the red cross on the right. Example: Here how a recalculation of a New South Wales based employee, who worked the period between 03/09/ /01/2014 would look. In this example the employee changed roles on the 01/07/2006, meaning they went from working 30 award hours per week, to 38. Also, because 160 hours LSL has already been used the Deduct Leave Taken? box should be ticked so that this amount is taken into account before clicking Set Balance.

39 Custom Leave allows you to create custom leave types such as RDOs (Rostered days off), and compassionate leave, etc. To setup a custom leave type with customizable accrual settings, you'll first need to create a Leave Balance under Company >> Leave Balance. 1) Click the 'Create Leave Balance' button. 2) You'll then see the 'New Company Leave Balance' window which allows you to create a new custom leave type, which then becomes available to all employees within the current company.

40 40 In this example you can see how an RDO system would be setup for a company which allows one RDO per month. The default amount needs to be calculated manually, and in the above example it was calculated as follows: For one rostered day off per year we need to first find the yearly amount of leave to be accrued and then divide that amount by the number of pay periods, if accruing evenly by the 'Per Period' method. 1 day p/month = 12 days p/year 12 days/52 weekly pay periods = Type this calculation into the 'Default Amount' box and apply leave loading if applicable. Note: The default amount in the image here shows , and not as applies rounding to some amounts. stores tiny amounts of time data not as a decimal placed value, but as seconds. To connect an employee to your new custom leave balance you'll need to do so under Employees >> Leave >> Leave Accrual. When leave accruals have been setup and attached to an employee they'll appear in this section as displayed here. To see how to create an accrual, please continue reading...

41 41 You can also run a report for further information on custom leave liability via Reports >> Leave >> Custom Leave Liability. How to Create a Custom Leave Accrual for an Employee Before you click 'Create Leave Accrual' as described below you'll need to first setup a 'Company Leave Balance' type, under Company >> Leave Balance, explained above. Once you're in the custom leave area, under 'Employees', select the relevant employee from the employees list and click the 'Create Leave Accrual' button, shown below. You can then attach the new custom leave type to the selected employee, as shown with the RDO example below:

42 42 Default Accrual Type There are several possible ways to accrue custom leave balances, and they should allow you to account for almost every unique leave accrual scenario. Here is a description of how each accrual type operates: System Ordinary Hours: Leave will accrue by the default amount only when 's inbuilt 'Ordinary Time Worked' pay rate is being paid. System Overtime Hours: Leave will accrue by the default amount only when 's inbuilt overtime pay rates ('Time and a half' & 'Double time') pay rates are being paid. System Hours: Leave will accrue by the default amount whenever any of 's inbuilt pay rates ('Ordinary Time Worked', 'Time and a half', or 'Double time') are being paid. All Hours: Leave will accrue by the default amount whenever any hours (either inbuilt pay rates, or special user defined pay rates) are being paid. Pay Period: Leave will accrue steadily by the default amount with each newly completed pay. Pay Rate (advanced): Leave will accrue by the default amount only when a specific 'Special User Defined Pay Rate' is being paid. If you'd like to manage 'Special User Defined Pay Rates', you can do so under Employees >> Special User Defined Pay Rates. For more information, please see the related chapter on Special User Defined Pay Rates. To connect a special user defined pay rate to a custom leave balance you'll need to do so for

43 43 each individual employee, similar to the RDO example above. This is done under Employees >> Leave >> Leave Accrual. Once you're there, click the 'Create Leave Accrual' button, and you'll then see the 'New Leave Accrual' window. In this example, an employee receives double the standard holiday leave accrual ( hours p/hr paid, instead of hours p/hr paid) whenever they are paid using their custom 'Site B Overtime' pay rate. Adjusting Custom Leave Balances If you wish to enter a starting balance, or adjust an existing balance for a custom leave type for a certain employee, and as at a certain date you can do this under Pays >> Edit Pay >> Leave 'Edit' shown below.

44 44 Important Note: Deleted custom leave balances will remain visible in the Leave Taken/Custom Leave Liability Reports, or the Edit Pay/Edit Leave Balance windows whenever there is either a positive or a negative balance/accrual still against them. The deleted custom leave balance won't disappear from these reports until the associated balances have also been deleted. 3.8 Super Superannuation Contributions. The Superannuation Contributions tab in the Super section of the program is where you set up the calculating of the superannuation guarantee, and any voluntary post-tax contributions that the employee may want to make. The pane to the left, headed Superannuation Guarantee Settings, is where you can alter the way calculates the super guarantee for the selected employee. The default settings are the most ideal as they will calculate the minimum amount that an employer must pay.

45 45 The pane to the right, headed Post-Tax Additional Super contributions, is where you need to add any voluntary additional amounts to the employee s super fund that they may want to make after tax. Voluntary pre-tax contributions (RESC) need to be entered as a salary sacrifice. You can get to the appropriate section of the program to set this up by clicking Edit RESC Add or Edit a Super Fund Superannuation Fund. The second tab of the Super section is where you enter the details for the employee s super fund for reporting purposes. Click Add Super Provider to setup funds and member numbers for an employee, as shown below. You can add more than one should you need to. Make sure you tick Default? beside their primary super fund.

46 46 For more information on reporting the super deposits to the employees, see Super Fund Deposits. Creating Additional Super Funds If a super fund you wish to add is not available in the pre-filled list, you'll need to create a new super fund under Settings >> Super Fund Providers >> Create Super Fund Provider. Once created, you can return to the Employee >> Super >> Add Super Provider (seen below) section and you'll find the newly created fund will be available to use. For major funds the most important information to include is the Fund Name, the ABN and the USI (unique superannuation identifier). can complete the rest of the fund information using these details. You can obtain super fund ABN/USI information from your employees, from the funds directly, or from the ATO's Super Fund Lookup Table.

47 47 This example sets up an Australian Super product. Once the primary information has been entered, you can click on Populate Fund Data.

48 48 Select the fund or funds you wish to download details for (we recommend selecting all) and click Next.

49 49 If the ABN and USI are correct, the ATO's fund validation service should locate details and they'll be displayed in the upper box. If no extra details were found, the previously selected fund appears in the lower box. Click Finish and the chosen fund profiles - formerly only partly complete - now include extra information.

50 50 Once you've created the fund you can attach it to an employee under Employees >> Super >> Superannuation Fund >> Add Super Provider by marking the fund as Primary. Superstream Payment Methods Superstream payment methods available are as follows: Direct credit is the default option and needs to be chosen if you wish to use 's direct entry function, where a direct entry (.aba) file can be exported after sending a SuperStream message. The exported file can then be uploaded to your bank and has the capability of paying all

51 51 your super deposits in one go. If you wish to use any of the other payment methods we recommend you get in touch with each super fund for the most up-to-date payment information. Bpay gives you a convenient section under Company >> Super/BPAY Reference to store your company's customer reference number for each fund. The Biller code is entered with the super fund's core information, when setting up the fund (See above) Alter Super Guarantee Rate for Multiple Employees As at July 1 st 2014, the national super levy was increased from 9.25% to 9.5%. If you need to increase Super for all staff, click the Tools button, then click the Update Superannuation Guarantee Rates button. Select the employees you wish to apply the change to, choose their new super guarantee rate, and click finish to apply the changes to those selected. If you d like to check that the change has been applied, click on Employees and then on the Super icon.

52 Member Registration You can register your employees with a new superannuation member number/account, directly from. To create a new Superstream member registration go to Employees, and highlight the relevant employee from the list on the left before clicking Super >> Superannuation Fund >> Superstream Registration. Before you can register an employee for a particular super fund, you'll need to have already created the fund and entered their ABN, USI, etc. under Settings >> Super Fund Providers. For more information, see Add or Edit a Super Fund. Once the fund exists you'll be able to select it from the Register New Super Fund Member pop-up window, seen below. Simply select the fund you wish to register the selected employee into, and click Next.

53 53 In the following screen you can add in additional information that a fund may require about the employee, using the Advanced pencil button. The additional Advanced options screen gives you many more options which are usually not required in an everyday member registration, or member update.

54 54 In the Remote Validation window, click on Remote Validation. If there are any errors, or missing information will display them here. If everything is OK, you'll see a validation complete message, like the one shown below. This means that the data is OK to submit across the Superstream network.

55 55 To finalize the member registration, you just need to send the validated message via the Summary page, shown below. Click Send Message and then Finish once sent. After the fund receives and processes the new registration message they will respond to you via the Superstream Mailbox, found under Super Fund Deposits >> Superstream Mailbox. Please allow up to 14 days for a response. Once the registration message has been set to a COMPLETED status by the super fund, Lightning Payroll will update the employee's superannuation fund settings under Employees >> Super >> Superannuation Fund with the employee's newly registered member number. It will also automatically set the new fund to default, as shown below.

56 56 Update Registered Employee Details You can also update an employee's personal details with their fund by clicking Send Update beside the registered fund/member information. This lets you send a new message to the fund, and overwrites personal details previously registered with the super fund with all of the employee details which are currently recorded inside Send Updated Employee Details to Super Fund If you have an employee or multiple employees who have had a change of personal information you can send a member update message to their super fund through and the Superstream network. To send an update to a fund you'll need to go into Settings >> Super Fund Providers >> Superstream Register Update. You'll then see a screen similar to this. A fresh member registration occurs if no previous registration has been setup for a particular employee, with the fund chosen on the next screen. If the fund already has the employee listed as a member, their currently recorded personal details found under Employees >> Details will be forwarded on to the specified fund. The updated details overwrite any previously registered member details at the super fund's end. Employees are identified by their tax file number.

57 57 To continue, highlight an employee, or multiple employees and click Next. Beside each employee's name, select the fund that you wish to send the update message to and click Next. The following screen lets you edit or add any other information if needed, using the Advanced button. Click Next to continue.

58 58 Prior to sending the update message, it will need to pass remote validation. Click Remote Validation to continue. If the message/s validate, no errors have been detected. To continue, click OK, then Next. You'll be taken to a Summary screen where you just need to click Send Message, and finally Finish.

59 Allowances Deductions Allowances. To set up an allowance, select the Allowances tab in the Allowances Deductions section of and then enter a description for the allowance. If the allowance is a set amount, that will need to be paid in every pay run, then enter the amount you need to pay the employee in the column headed, Default Amount per Pay (this amount can still be changed while editing the employee's pay). If the allowance is taxed, then ensure that the Taxable option is checked; if the allowance needs to be itemised on the payment summary at the end of the financial year, then check the Itemised option; check the Included in Super Calculations option if the superannuation guarantee is to be based on this amount as well.

60 60 Deductions. To set up a deduction, select the Deductions tab in the Allowances/Deductions section of and then enter a description for the deduction. If the deduction is a set amount that will need to be paid in every pay run, then enter the amount you need to pay the employee in the column headed, Default Amount per Pay (this amount can still be changed while editing the employee's pay). Most deductions are classified as Normal however you can change the Classification if the deduction is for Charity or Union fees. Most deductions are Post Tax but you can also setup Pre Tax deductions in if you need to. Bonuses. Under the Bonuses tab, you can add specific bonus names and specify whether or not they are included in super calculations.

61 Part IV

62 62 4 Pay Processing 4.1 Pays Overview The Pays section of is where you perform all tasks associated with the processing of employees pays. In this window, you can edit the pay details for the employees, print pay slips and reports for the pay details and create ABA files for uploading to the bank. You can also move back and forth throughout the pays, using the Last Pay Run and Next Pay Run buttons, to make any corrections to past pays, print out old pay slips or process pays in advance. To move back or forth, more than one pay period at a time, hold the Last Pay Run or Next Pay Run button down until a drop-down menu of dates appears and then release the mouse button on the pay you want to move to. The Pay Processing section of the Help is divided up into the following topics: Editing Pays Marking Pays as Complete Printing Pay reports Printing Payslips Direct Entry Entering Details for Employees Not Being Paid Create Pays 4.2 Editing Pays Click Edit Pays to start editing the employees' pays from the first employee in the list. If you would like to start from a different employee, or just edit one employee s details, then you can click the Edit Pay button for that employee in the list of employees. Once you re in the Edit Pay window for any given employee, adjust the hours worked, if necessary, and any other details as required.

63 63 Edit Pay Window Breakdown 1. The most commonly used part of the Edit Pay window is the Hours box, found in the upper lefthand corner, near the employee's name. You can enter additional pay rates using the Select pay rate... dropdown and alter hours/ minutes to be paid in the Values column. To remove a line, click the red cross. Pay rates are managed under: Employees >> Pay Settings >> Pay Rates (Primary/Award pay rate settings) Employees >> Pay Settings >> Special User Defined Pay Rates (Secondary/custom pay rates) 2. If you wish to alter an employee's department allocation, you can click the Department % button. For more information please see the chapter on Departments. Next to the department button you can alter the date of this individual pay using the small pencil button, if for some reason this employee was not paid at the same time as all others within the same pay period.

64 64 3. The Pay Summary column shows the running breakdown and summary of the Edit Pay window. You can also add or edit a Bonus/Commission, Back Payment, Salary Sacrifice, Tax or Super amount, right here. 4. This window shows any leave balances as at the current pay date. If you'd like to edit any values, click the Edit button and you'll be able to adjust an employee's current leave balances from the popup window. By default, there will only be Holiday, Sick and Long Service Leave types available, but more can be entered as described in Custom Leave. 5. Here is where you can pay out leave taken within this pay. For more information on this, please see Paying Leave. 6. Here is where you can edit the Allowances for the pay. Before they are available, you'll need to create an allowance for the employee under Employees >> Allowances/Deductions >> Allowances. 7. Here is where you can edit the Deductions for the pay. Before they are available, you'll need to create an allowance for the employee under Employees >> Allowances/Deductions >> Deductions. 8. Ticking the Termination Pay? tickbox begins the termination process.

65 65 To complete the pay click one of the following buttons depending on what you want to do next: Save + Next to accept the details for the current employee and move on to the next employee; Save + Previous to accept the details for the current employee and go back to the previous employee; Save + Close to save the details of the current employee and close back to the main Pays window; Cancel if you want to close out of the Pays window without saving any changes in the record of the employee that you re currently in. By default, the details for each new pay will be set according to how the employee has been set up in the Employees section of the program. Default pay data for an employee will be referred to as a 'full pay', opposed to a zero dollar 'empty pay.' When you create a new pay for an employee you will have the option to create either a full, or an empty pay. For more detailed information on the Edit Pay window, see Edit Pay Overview. 4.3 Editing Past Pays If you attempt edit a past pay you will notice a foggy, greyed-out Edit Pay window. with a message 'This is an old pay and has been lock ed from editing'.

66 66 This is only to make you think twice before making unwanted changes to an already completed pay. If you do intend to change what was previously saved, you can, just click the golden padlock button. As you re-save the pay it will automatically lock itself once more. For more detailed information on the Edit Pay window, see Edit Pay Overview. 4.4 Copying Hours From Last Pay Your business might require that you have multiple pay rates be used each week for multiple employees. Rather than selecting hourly-rate after hourly-rate every time you sit down to do your pays, use Lightning's shortcut which copies an employee's hours over from their last pay. This provides you with a different starting point for that employee's next pay, to help save you time. To copy hours over from the last pay run, click on Employees >> Pay Settings >> Pay Rates >> Then, tick the box to 'Copy hours from last pay? down towards the bottom of the window. This will need to be done for each individual employee you wish it to happen for. 4.5 Marking Pays as Complete When you save the details in the Edit Pay window, they will be marked as Completed in the main Pays screen. However, if an employee s pay details never change, then you can click Complete for them each time you process the pays, without going into that employee s Edit Pay window. If none of your employees details ever change, then you can click Mark all as Complete to let the program know that you are ready to print pay slips and create an ABA file if necessary. If you have made a mistake and wish to change the pay details for an employee who has already been marked as Completed, then simply click Edit Pay for that particular employee - in the relevant pay period - and make the necessary changes. (Note that if you pay your employees using the Direct Entry feature of, and you have already submitted an ABA file for this pay run, then you would not want to create and upload another ABA file as doing so will over-pay them

67 67 you may want to consider altering the details of the employee s next pay run instead). If you wish to remove the pay altogether, you can also delete pays. For more information see Adding/Deleting a Pay. 4.6 Printing Pay Reports Clicking the Reports button in the Pays section of will give you five options: Currency Requirements: shows you a breakdown of the cash requirements for paying the employees who have their Pay Method set to Cash ; Currency Requirements (Multiple): allows you to select multiple pay periods when needing to view a breakdown of the cash requirements for paying the employees who have their Pay Method set to Cash ; Pay Details: shows a summary of the pay details for the pay period you are currently viewing; GL Postings: shows a summary of the current pay s figures for general ledger entries; Pays Processed Today: allows you to select specific employees and specify a date range in order to view a summary and the grand totals for multiple pay runs handy for those who pay their employees via another method other than "Direct Bank Entry". 4.7 Printing Payslips Clicking the Payslips button will open a window, giving you the option to enter a note on all the pay slips and change their layout.** Click Next and you will then be able to select the employees that you need to print pay slips for. Once you have selected the relevant employees, click Next. In the next window, you have the option of previewing and/or printing the pay slips for the selected employees. In the final step, you have the option of ing the pay slips to all the employees that have their addresses entered under the Personal tab of the Details section in Employees. If you don t want to the pay slips, then simply click Finish. For more information on ing payslips, see ing Payslips. **Should you need to put a note on the pay slips of select employees, then you can enter them in the Payslip Note field in their Edit Pay window. For more information on putting notes on the pay slips of select employees, see Payslip Notes.

68 Direct Entry Direct entry files (.ABA files) contain all relevant pieces of payment information for multiple employees and multiple funds. This means that you'll only have to transfer one file to your bank, which then routes each individual payment inside the file to the appropriate fund. Direct entry files can not only be used to pay your staff their wages/salaries as explained below, but these files can also pay super funds in the same way. See Direct Bank Entry of Super Deposits for more information. If you pay your employees by uploading an ABA file to your bank, then click Direct Entry, select This Pay Run and a window will appear with a list of all the employees who have their Pay Method in the Pay Settings set to Direct Bank Entry, and still have pays outstanding. Select the employees you need to pay and note the processing date - this is the date in which the bank will transfer the funds. Click Next to move to the Preview screen. Click Preview and print out the report if the details are correct. Click Next again and you will be brought to the final window of the process in which you are prompted to save the ABA file to a location on your computer; ready for uploading to the bank via their software. This screen also has an Include Debit Entry option. This option changes the format of the ABA file slightly for certain banks that require it.** If you need to re-create an ABA file that has already been created once before, then simply go through the above process again, checking the List pays previously included in a direct entry file option in the first screen of the Direct Entry process.

69 69 **In most cases, the Include Debit Entry option can stay unchecked. However, if the software that you use to upload the ABA file to your bank tells you that there is no debit entry in the ABA file, then you will need to check this option. 4.9 Entering Details for Employees Not Being Paid If you re not paying a particular employee, in any given pay run, then zero all their figures in the Edit Pay window for that employee, and then click Save + Next or Save + Close. They will now be marked as Completed with a gross, tax and net of $0.00. Leave will not be accrued for part-time employees or casuals in this instance either - providing their leave is being accrued according to the hours entered. If an employee is on unpaid leave (e.g. unpaid parental leave), then uncheck the Active pay recipient option for that employee under the Pay Rates tab in the Pay Settings section of Employees. By doing this, the employee s pay details will be zeroed and no leave will be accrued until the option is checked again.

70 Adding/Deleting a Pay In certain situations, such as with bonus payments or terminations, you may find that you need to do a one-off payment for an employee separate from the main pay. To do this in, go into the Pays section of the program, ensure that you are in the pay run that you would like to add the pay to, then click the Create Pays button. In the Create a New Pay window that appears, select the employee(s) that you need to create an additional pay for, then select the date you would like this pay to be for and click Create. Note the tickbox at the bottom of the window which says Create Full Pay. Ticking this box will include default hours, allowances, etc in the newly created pay, rather than creating an 'empty' $0.00 pay.

71 71 When you are returned to the main Pays window, you'll notice an additional entry for the employee(s) that you created an additional pay for; its Status will be "Completed" and the gross, tax and net amounts will show as $0.00 or their regular gross (Depending on whether you created it as 'Full', or as 'Empty'). Click Edit Pay for the newly created pay and enter the necessary payment details, clicking Save + Close when done. If you are catching up, and the pay is from an earlier pay period, it may be locked from editing. Unlock with the gold padlock if this is the case. For more information, see Editing Past Pays. If, for any reason, you need to delete a pay for an employee that has been incorrectly added, then right-click the Complete button for that employee, in the Mark as Complete column, and select Delete.

72 Bonuses, Commissions and Back Payments The Edit Pay screen can accommodate pay amounts other than those generated by hours and allowances. Back payments, bonuses and commissions are among these additional payout amounts which can be entered underneath the Pay Summary section of any Edit Pay screen. To enter a bonus or a commission, click Edit beside Bonus/Commission.To enter a back payment, click Edit beside Back Payment. Once you click Edit a pop-up window will appear. Enter the appropriate information here and click OK once you're done. If you wish for more description options than the default Bonus/Commission, they must first be created under Employees >> Allowances/Deductions >> Bonuses. Note: Regarding the tax methods, we recommend always using method B, although the other methods are available. See NAT 3348 for back payment, commission and bonus tax tables.

73 Termination Payments To process a termination payment, go into the Edit Pay window for the relevant employee in the appropriate pay period, edit any ordinary pay details (ordinary time, leave taken in this pay, etc.) as necessary and then check the Termination Pay check box. Click Next to the initial screen that appears, then enter the employee's termination date and select the reason for termination. To continue, please see the next chapter, Ordinary Termination. See below for information on the other available options: Termination Due to Ill-Health Death of Employee Genuine Redundancy or Early Retirement Scheme Ordinary Termination This is the termination procedure you need to select if an employee has decided to leave on their own terms or has been dismissed. Ordinary termination covers the vast majority of employment termination circumstances. If unsure, you may need to contact your Fair Work Australia or your industry/award organization for further information. In the Non-ETP payout options screen, check or uncheck the options that are applicable to the

74 74 employee's termination payout. will automatically calculate the amounts due depending on the employee's start date, hourly rate and what leave due. When you are satisfied that the settings are correct, click Next. In the ETP payout options screen, check or uncheck the options that are applicable to the employee's termination payout. If you intend to pay out wages in lieu of notice, there are three ways to do so. (1) By Date: Select a date to inform the program the end of the notice period for which you will be paying the employee until. The notice period starts from the termination date. (2) By Number of Hours: Enter the number of hours notice which you wish to pay the employee. This number will be multiplied by their ordinary hourly rate. (2) By Lump Sum: Enter a lump sum amount as your wages in lieu payment.

75 75 If you select the Show advanced unused leave settings option you'll see an additional screen which looks like this.

76 76 This Advanced area lets you make changes not commonly used in most termination payments such as LSL amounts which need to be shifted into the pre-1993 category, or manual adjustments of values, or a change to the employee's normal earnings. Normal Earnings are automatically calculated by. You can adjust this value just like any other on this screen if you need to. Normal Earnings as described by the ATO are: "...all payments, except those relating to termination payments, received in the last full period of employment. This includes taxable allowances, overtime and bonuses. Therefore, your payee's normal gross earnings should be taken to be the earnings relating to the last full pay period worked. Where your payee's pay fluctuates significantly over a number of pay periods, we will accept an average of gross taxable earnings for the financial year to date over the number of pays received." Click Next when you are ready to proceed to the termination preview.

77 77 In the final window, you will see a summary of the termination. There is also an option to preview and/or print a summary of the termination certificate. Please click 'Finish' to incorporate the termination portion of their final pay into the normal 'Edit Pay' window. If you need to adjust tax, super or any other part of the normal pay parameters, you will need to click 'Finish' and make those changes from the 'Edit Pay' window. Note that the terminated employee should drop off any pay runs which follow their final pay. Note: If they still appear on the next pay period's 'Pays' screen, it is usually due to one of two reasons: 1) If their pay has a complete status. If so, right click the 'greyed'-out' complete button to the far right of their name in the main 'Pays' screen. Mark the pay as pending again. Leave the screen, come back again and they should have dropped off. 2) The other reason is a double termination where two different pay periods have terminations in them. To check, click 'Edit Pay' and make sure the incorrect pay week (Not the week that corresponds with the termination date) is not ticked for termination. If the wrong week is ticked, please untick it and save the change. Then re terminate in the correct pay period's 'Edit Pay' screen and they should drop off after the termination date this time around.

78 Termination Due to Ill-Health This is the termination procedure you need to select if an employee has had to leave due to ill-health. For employees leaving their employment due to ill-health, please select 'Employee can no longer work due to ill health' as their reason for termination and follow the steps as per an ordinary termination. For more information relating to employment termination taxation rules and rates please refer to the ATO's employee termination info page Death of Employee This is the termination procedure you need to select if an employee has had to leave due to ill-health. For terminations as a result of the death of an employee, please select 'Death of an employee, benefits paid to...' as their reason for termination. There are three options regarding who receives the employee's termination payment. Please make sure to select the appropriate option depending on whether the payment is to go to the employee's dependent, a non-dependent, or to their estate. Once you have selected the reason, please follow the steps as per an ordinary termination. Note: For more information relating to employment termination taxation rules and rates please refer to the ATO's guide for what to do regarding the death of an employee.

79 Genuine Redundancy or Early Retirement Scheme This is the termination procedure you need to select if an employee has had to leave due to genuine redundancy or the early retirement scheme. For employees leaving their employment due to genuine redundancy or the early retirement scheme, please select 'Genuine Redundancy or Early Retirement Scheme' as their reason for termination.

80 80 Once you have calculated the redundancy payout amount, it needs to be entered into the field shown below. After this, follow the steps as per an ordinary termination.

81 81 For more information relating to employment termination taxation rules and rates please refer to the ATO's genuine redundancy information page.

82 Part V

83 83 5 Company 5.1 Company Overview Details. Under the Details tab, enter the basic information for the company such as the address, phone number, ABN, etc. Departments. If your company is divided up into multiple departments, then you can specify these under the Departments tab by typing a department name into the text box provided in the top-left corner of the window, and then clicking Add Department. A button to delete a selected department can be found below the list. Bank Account. The Bank Account tab is where you set up your company s bank details for direct debits if you use, or will be using, this method of paying wages. If your bank cannot be found in the list of banks to select from, then click the plus button next to the Bank drop-down list. . If you would like to your employee s pay slips to them, then enter your SMTP server details into the tab. Although these can be obtained by checking the settings in your client, you may find you need to contact your ISP regarding them. For more information on setting up the ing of pay slips, see ing Payslips. Pay Dates. This is where you initially set, or may later alter, your company's official pay period end date (not to be confused with the actual processing date, which can differ). You need only set the pay date for the pay period that is relevant to your company; the others can be ignored. Deleting the other dates is not necessary. For more information please see Set Default Pay Period Based-on Date. Regardless of what you set it to, changing the pay date here will not alter the pay period ending dates for current pays or past pays that have already been completed. It will, however, set the course for all pays that have not yet been completed if their dates don't already align with the date you set. Furthermore, the date you set will not prompt the program to go to that pay period by default when you click the Pays button (as will determine what your current pay date should be based on the system date) but it will influence what the program believes your current pay date should be, in accordance with your system date. Financial Years. When you go to process your first pay run for July, will begin a new financial year automatically. For more information on the Financial Years tab, see Defining Financial Years. Leave Balance. Here is where you can manage custom leave balances, for more information, see Custom Leave Pay Rate Groups. Here is where you can setup and manage global pay rate groups, for more information, see Pay Rate Groups. BPAY Reference. Here is where you can setup and manage BPAY customer reference numbers for superannuation funds, for more information, see Custom Leave. SBR Submissions. Here is where you can view detailed SBR submission messages/receipts regarding EOFY submissions to the ATO.

84 Payslips and Payment Summaries To pay slips or payment summaries to the addresses specified under Employees > Details, your SMTP settings will need to be entered under Company > . These settings come from your provider/isp and can usually be found by calling their tech support, or online by a quick search for '<provider name> smtp settings' (E.g. Bigpond smtp settings, or Internode smtp settings, etc.) Here is an example of how settings look for Gmail, Google's free service. Note: You can setup a Gmail address for free at Some users who happen to be using the below Gmail settings will still encounter errors. A recent change to Google's security settings is the cause of this. Click here and select Turn On to authorize to send s through your Gmail account if you encounter this problem. If you'd like to read more about this change to Google's Gmail security settings you can do so here. The fields you'll need to configure are: Display Name. This is how the sender of the will appear in the From column of the employees inboxes when the arrives. In most cases, the company name would be the most appropriate name to put here. Address. This is the address that any replies would be sent to should an employee, who receives a pay slip via , reply to the . It doesn't need to be the same as the address used within the background SMTP settings. Send me a copy? If you have this option checked, then will BCC (i.e. blind carbon

85 85 copy) you in on the so that you also receive a copy of it. Server Name. The server name is the address of the name server that sends your s. The common format is mail.serviceprovider.com or smtp.serviceprovider.com. The following is a list of common server names in Australia, however, if in doubt, please contact your ISP: mail.bigpond.com mail.optusnet.com.au mail.iinet.net.au mail.internode.on.net mail.tpg.com.au smtp.gmail.com smtp.live.com Port. In networking, the port number is the communications endpoint that is represented by a number. Usually the port number will either be 25, 587 or 995. If none of these port numbers work, then please contact your ISP. Encryption. Select the type of encryption your ISP uses for your s. If your ISP doesn t use any method of encryption, then select None. Authentication. Select the authentication type for your login. In most cases, this will be either Normal Password (LOGIN) or Normal Password (PLAIN) - if one doesn t work, then the other should. If you needed to switch your Encryption to None, then it is recommended that you select Encrypted Password (CRAM-MD5) to provide your s with at least some level of security. User name & Password. This is the user name and password your ISP would have once provided you with so that you can authenticate yourself with them and access the internet through their servers. Send a test . By clicking this button, will attempt to send a test to the address specified above. If the SMTP settings have been entered correctly, then you should receive the within seconds. For more information on ing pay slips, see Printing Payslips. 5.3 Defining Financial Years In the Financial Years tab is a record of all the financial years you have processed using Lightning Payroll, and the date range in which their are spread over. Each record for a financial year contains three buttons, Edit FY, Split FY and Merge FY. Merge FY will only be available to click if you have a second financial year to merge that financial year with. Edit FY

86 86 If a financial year's end and/or start date needs to be altered for whatever reason, then this can be done by clicking Edit FY and altering the Start and End Dates accordingly. Click Save when done. Split FY This function will enable you to split a financial year in two in the event of a business ownership changeover part-way through the financial year. For example, if your company was sold and changed hands on 30th December, then you would alter the Current Financial Year's End Date, as shown in the following screen shot. Click Save when done. Merge FY This option is available in case you split a financial year that doesn't need to be split. The financial year that you click this option for will merge with the financial year listed below it.

87 87

88 Part VI

89 89 6 Super Fund Deposits 6.1 Super Fund Deposits Overview As you process pays, keeps track of, and tallies all amounts that have been allocated to your employees superannuation funds. When you are ready to pay the amounts due, click the Super Fund Deposits button at the top of and you will be brought to the following area: E.g. This image includes created deposits for the four listed employees. The normal series of events involved in paying superannuation (and meeting Superstream compliance) is: Create Deposits >> Superstream Contribution >> Create a Direct Entry file to send the payments through your online banking. The main features of the Super Fund Deposits screen are: Create Deposits gathers up the super amounts that the staff have earned in a chosen time period. For more information, see Create Super Fund Deposits. The Superstream Mailbox is where you receive message updates and other correspondence from the super funds, clearing houses and gateway partners you report to. The mailbox receives response messages regarding your contributions and new member registrations. For more information, see Superstream Mailbox.

90 90 The Superstream Contribution area is where you send deposit information direct from to each superannuation fund involved. This is explained in the chapter Export Deposits to Superstream. During the export process you'll even be able to create a direct entry bank file which can be uploaded to your bank that pays all super contribution payments for a certain period, all in one go. Once deposit messages have been sent over Superstream, you'll still need to pay the amounts specified in the message. We recommend you do this using Direct Entry. For more information on creating a direct entry file to transfer money to multiple super funds, see Direct Bank Entry of Super Deposits. Other features of the Super Fund Deposits screen are: A deposit filter, to help you sort though past deposits that have already been created or paid, for those employees selected. The deposit filter consists of the two left-hand panels: Show Deposits by Date and Show Deposits for Selected Employees Show Deposits by Date gives you two quite distinct approaches to searching for deposits: o Paid between: Search for deposits by the date they were deposited to the fund/clearing house. The column title Date of Deposit (see above, '11 Mar 2015') shows this. o Earned between: Search for deposits by the pay run dates on which the super was earned. Create Blank Deposit is not often used, but it can come in handy if you ever need to make a miscellaneous super payment, a back payment of super, or a manual splitting of super into a secondary super fund. Note: Since blank deposits aren't attached to a pay they will only appear in the Super Fund Deposits report, and the Super Liability report. Reports inside the Super Fund Deposits screen provide a shortcut to two handy reports. o The Super Liability report displays deposit amounts that are still in an 'unpaid' status from a chosen period. o The Super Fund Deposits report displays deposit amounts that have been 'marked as paid' from a chosen period. It groups figures either by employees or by super funds. Mark All As Paid is to change the status of all unpaid deposits shown on screen to paid. This helps you keep track of which deposits have been paid to funds, or still need to be paid. Once marked as paid, a deposit note will be mentioned on payslips informing staff that the deposit has been sent to their fund. You can also mark individual deposits as paid using their respective Mark as Paid button to the right of the particular deposit being marked off as paid. Edit Deposit or View Deposit lets you edit and/or view a deposit in greater detail by clicking the relevant button. o Unpaid deposits give the Edit Deposit option. o Paid deposits give the View Deposit option. You can still edit paid deposits upon viewing and unlocking them.

91 91 For more information on editing or viewing deposits, see Viewing or Editing a Deposit. To Delete a deposit, right-click the Mark As Paid button at the end of the deposit line you wish to remove. Right-clicking the Mark As Paid button also lets you change a deposit from paid to unpaid 6.2 Create Super Fund Deposits From the Super Fund Deposits area, click Create Deposits to begin. Select the date range for the pays that you need to pay the super for, and a list of employees will appear with the amount of super due to them. You'll also see the number of pay runs which are included within the period you have selected. Select the relevant employees, alter the Date of Deposit (at the bottom) if necessary and then click Create. If you see red text (example below), you are missing fund information for those employees. Fund information can be setup under Employees > Super > Superannuation Fund, for more info see Add or Edit a Super Fund. Once you've associated a default fund to each employee, their names will display in black and you'll then be able to continue with deposit creation.

92 92 The super deposits will now appear in the main Super Fund Deposits screen, with a status of Unpaid. They're now ready to be sent through Superstream to the involved super funds or clearing house by either of the two following methods: 1) Export Deposits to Superstream (recommended). 2) Export Deposits to.csv

93 Export Deposits to Superstream Click the Export button, under Super Fund Deposits. Select the deposits you wish to include in the file to be exported. The date range filters by the date of deposit, not by the pay dates on which the super was earned. Also, if you've already clicked Mark As Paid or Mark All As Paid in the main Super Fund Deposits screen, you'll need to tick Include Paid Deposits to be able to send them to the Superstream network if you haven't already done so. Select Send Superstream, then click Next. Note: If you wish to include an intermediary select from the Intermediary drop down box at the bottom of the window. An intermediary is a third party - such as your choice super fund - who may be elected to forward on contribution message details to the receiving super funds. Payment of super would still be sent directly to the receiving super funds. This next screen lets you double check the payment details to be included in the message. For more info on super fund payment methods, see Add or Edit a Super Fund.

94 94 If there are any errors or missing pieces of information, they'll be displayed in the next screen, and look something like the image below. You can fix the errors by selecting a particular error, then clicking Fix Selected Item. Once these basic errors have been dealt with, you'll be allowed to progress where the information can be validated further. This next level of validating is to ensure the data that's been entered will be acceptable for the Superstream network.

95 95 If validating fails, error messages will be displayed to inform you what employee or fund information needs to be entered or fixed up before you can try again. If the data has been validated, a pop-up window will appear, similar to below. Just click OK >> then Next. You'll then be able to preview the deposit information before sending the message through to the involved fund/s. To send the message/s, click Send Messages. This lets the funds being paid know what payment information to expect.

96 96 Once the Superstream message has been sent, you can go ahead and deposit the super payment/s using the previously selected payment method. We recommend using 's Direct Entry feature which can pay several deposits to several funds in one go. To create a direct entry file (.ABA) click on Direct Entry and follow the prompts, or for more information on paying super funds using direct entry please see Direct Bank Entry of Super Deposits. Once a Superstream message has been sent and paid you will be notified within 14 days of the completion (or other status) of the deposit through the Superstream Mailbox. Please see this mailbox section for more information on updates to the status of your Superstream messages. 6.4 Export Deposits to CSV If you've decided to use the alternative file format Superstream submission method, or if you're with a clearing house who require you to export deposits to.csv you can do so as follows: Click the Export button, under Super Fund Deposits.

97 97 Select the deposits you wish to include in the file to be exported. The date range filters by the date of deposit, not by the pay dates on which the super was earned. Also, if you've already clicked Mark As Paid or Mark All As Paid in the main Super Fund Deposits screen, you'll need to tick Include Paid Deposits to be able to send them to the Superstream network. Select Generate CSV, then click Next. You'll then see something like the following SuperStream Export screen where columns are to be selected depending on the specifications of each super fund or clearing house you will be submitting the.csv alternative file format file to. The default columns are from the ATO Alternative File Format which can be used for SuperStream

98 98 reporting in many cases, however a large number of funds and clearing houses prefer you to customize the file to their own standards before it can be processed. Please contact the service providers to which you will be sending Superstream data for their specifications, then save a customized template in using the Save As button. To customize and save the.csv file: Contact a superfund/clearing house you wish to submit a data file to. Ask them for.csv specifications, and what information/columns they need. They'll usually provide you with a spreadsheet example which you can then reproduce using this Export screen. Tick the columns you need included as per the fund/clearing house's specifications. Tick the box at the bottom to Include ATO Headers if it has been specified Put the columns into the required order - if need be - by dragging column headings into place. Click Save As to name the export template for future use. Specify a save location at the bottom, using the blue folder icon. Click Finish to export your.csv to the chosen folder location. Open your spreadsheet to edit any fields manually if necessary, then resave. (Note: To edit.csv files you will require spreadsheet software such as MS Excel, LibreOffice Calc, Apple Numbers or Google Docs Spreadsheet) You'll next need to send each customized file to the appropriate fund/clearing house by their specified methods. Some will accept delivery, others may ask you to upload the.csv through their websites. Upon delivery of the SuperStream data file you will also need to arrange payment to the service provider for the amounts displayed in the.csv file being sent. Please ask each fund or clearing house for their available payment options, and instructions. Once the super deposit data files and payments have been transferred you can mark the deposits as paid in for reporting purposes. Click the Mark as Paid buttons to do so. This will then change the status of each filtered, 'Unpaid' deposit to 'Paid'. If you would like to review or change any of the details for a particular deposit, then click its Edit Deposit button (or View Deposit button if it has already been marked as Paid ). For more information on viewing or editing a super fund deposit, see Viewing or Editing a Deposit. When all your newly generated super fund deposits have been marked as Paid, click Reports and select the Super fund deposits report to print out a record of the funds that need to be, or have been, transferred (bear in mind that the date range you select for the

99 99 Super fund deposits report needs to encompass the actual deposit date(s), not the period in which the super was earned). 6.5 Viewing or Editing a Deposit If you need to edit - or would just like to verify - the details for a super deposit, then click its Edit Deposit button situated to the right (or View Deposit if it has already been marked as Paid ) and the Edit Super Fund Deposit window will appear. If the super deposit has already been marked with a 'Paid' status it will be locked. If you need to make changes however, unlock the deposit using the padlock button, shown here. In this window you can: Alter the deposit date Add the super amounts from a pay which may have been left out upon the creation of the deposit

100 100 originally. View or remove any and all pay runs that the deposit is made up of, along with their amounts. You can also see the super amount from each of an employee's pay, broken down into its four most common categorizationssuper Guarantee: The compulsory super levy calculation, e.g in the financial year this is the 9.5% calculation. Member Contribution: This is also known as a 'Voluntary post-tax contribution', or a 'Personal super contribution' and comes out of a pay's net value. Sacrifice/RESC: These super payments are when an agreement has been made with the employer to sacrifice superannuation from the gross, pre-tax pay value. These sacrificed amounts are classed as RESC (Reportable employer super contribution). Excess Super Guarantee/RESC: Amounts shown in this column appear when an employee is either paid an increase in their compulsory super calculations (e.g. 9.5%), or paid an additional/bonus amount of super at some point in a pay via Pays > Edit Pay > Edit Super > RESC Superannuation. Enter a transaction reference number. Mark the status of the deposit as Paid, or 'Unpaid'. Edit the total amount using the Edit button. Changing the total deposit value will record an adjustment entry within the deposit. 6.6 Creating a Miscellaneous Super Fund Deposit If you want to deposit an amount into an employee s super fund that is not tied to, or cannot necessarily be related back to, any particular pay run, then click Create Blank Deposit. When the Create New Deposit window appears, select the employee you want to create a miscellaneous deposit for, check that the Date of Deposit is correct and then click Create. You will then be taken to the Edit Super Fund Deposit window. Edit the Date of Deposit if necessary, and enter a transaction reference number if required. You may set the status to Paid in this window, or mark the deposit as paid from the main window at a later point. To enter the additional deposit amount, either click the Edit button and then type the amount in, or click the Add Pay button to add an unpaid super amount owing from a past pay run; the amount will then appear in the table of the Edit Super Fund Deposit window. Click OK to complete the miscellaneous deposit and you should then see it appear in the list of deposits back at the main screen. Mark the deposit as paid, when ready, if you have not already done so.

101 Undoing and Deleting a Super Fund Deposit If you decide that you are not quite ready to have a particular deposit finalised and marked as Paid, then you can right-click the Mark as Paid button for that deposit and select Mark as Unpaid. To completely delete a super fund deposit, right-click the Mark as Paid button for that deposit and select Delete Deposit. A deleted super deposit can always be re-created whenever necessary. 6.8 Superstream Mailbox includes a Superstream mailbox which helps you to keep track of all incoming and outgoing superannuation messages. It is located under Super Fund Deposits >> SuperStream Mailbox. Below is an example of a Superstream mailbox. You can filter the Superstream mailbox by date, or by message status. Messages are first created via Super Fund Deposits >> Export as explained previously in Create and Export Super Fund Deposits, and the mailbox is also where you submit member registrations, as described in Member Registration.

102 102 To create a direct entry payment file (.ABA) for any unpaid amounts, click Direct Entry. For more information, see Direct Bank Entry of Super Deposits. To check online for any new response messages, click Check Responses. To send any UNSENT contributions or member registrations, click Send Messages. A pop-up similar to this will appear. Message Statuses: Superstream messages go through a number of status changes on their journey through the Australian Superstream network. The most common series of events is often just SENT >> COMPLETE. Complete status occurs once a message and associated superannuation payment has been accepted by the recipient fund. While most super messages will be responded to in just a few days please allow up to14 days turnaround as these encrypted Superstream messages have to travel from, installed on your own computer >> through our server >> through several gateway provider company's servers (validated at each point) >> then along to the receiving fund for final validation/ acceptance, and then all the way back again.

103 103 Potential message statuses are as follows: NEW: The message has been created, but is yet to be validated, or sent. UNSENT: The message has passed all of 's checks and is ready to be sent on to the Superstream network. Note: New or Unsent messages can be deleted using the red cross. Once sent, a message can not be deleted. SENT: The message has been sent to a gateway without any first level message failures. Please allow up to 14 days for a response. You can check for responses using the Check Responses button. COMPLETE: The message has been sent completely, had no errors and has received a successful response back. MANUALLY COMPLETE: The message has been manually completed by the user which can only happen once you've passed the 14 days initial response period. Sometimes this is necessary, in cases where the message has had to be completed manually between an employer and a fund, or outside of the electronic message network. PARTIAL: The message has been sent and was completed, however it still contains minor errors. Contact the super fund directly for more information. PROGRESSIVE: This status is similar to a PARTIAL except will not reflect future changes. For confirmation of, or information on messages with a PROGRESSIVE status we recommend you contact the super fund directly. You may need to MANUALLY COMPLETE these messages (see above). FAILED: The message has been rejected for some reason, but it is due to a business failure and not a message sending or data validation failure. FAILED VALIDATION: This occurs when a message has failed initial validation checks on our servers. FAILED SEND: The message has failed to send correctly. Common causes of this error can include internet connection problems, or an unauthorized submission (not a registered Superstream customer).

104 Direct Bank Entry of Super Deposits has a handy direct entry feature which allows for simple bulk payments of superannuation to your employee's super fund/s. Direct entry files (.ABA files) contain all relevant pieces of payment information for multiple employees and multiple funds. This means that you'll only have to transfer one file to your bank, which then routes each individual payment inside the file to the appropriate fund. Direct entry files can be used to pay your staff their wages/salaries (see Direct Entry for more information), and these files can also pay super funds in the same way. Before you begin: 1. Mak e sure that your company and super fund bank ing information has been entered into the appropriate areas. Company bank account information is entered under Company >> Bank Account. (Note: USER ID is required. This is a six digit number provided by your bank when you register with them for direct entry processing) Super fund bank account information is entered under Settings >> Super Fund Providers >> Edit Provider. 2. Create the super deposits you intend to pay, as described in Create Super Fund Deposits. 3. Export/send super deposit messages via Superstream, as described in Export Deposits to Superstream. How to Create a Direct Entry File: The following Superstream Direct Entry screen can be reached from two sections of Lightning Payroll. The Direct Entry button on the Superstream export Summary screen, shown at the end of the export process. or, from the Direct Entry button at the bottom of the Superstream Mailbox, in the Super Fund Deposits area. If you make a mistake when creating a Direct Entry file don't worry, because you can just make another file by repeating this process. 1) Using the date range and message status options, you can search for the deposits you intend to pay. Select the contribution deposit message from the bottom window and click Next.

105 105 2) You can then click Preview to view more information about the fund, or funds being paid.

106 106 3) The Preview screen includes the amounts and account numbers for all funds to be included in the file. Since all five employees used in this example are with Sun Super that's what you see here, however a Direct Entry file can contain many super funds.each deposit line can represent payments to any number of employees who use that particular fund. 4) Once you close the preview window you'll be able to select a save location for the Direct Entry file, using the blue folder icon. This is not usually necessary. Once you're happy with the save location of your file, click Next. Note: Tick Include Debit Entry? if required to do so by your financial institution.

107 107 5) Now that the file has been saved, you can click Show Report to view or print a final summary of the file contents. Click Finish once you're done. 6) The final step is to deliver/upload the Direct Entry (.ABA) file to your bank so that they can transfer the funds to the involved super fund recipients. Each bank has their own procedure for accepting direct entry payment files, so you'll need to get in touch with them to find out how best to deliver the file and complete the payment process. Usually it is just a matter of uploading the.aba file through their website's internet banking portal, double-checking the amounts and confirming the transfer.c

108 108 This is an example of the Direct Entry BANK REPORT which can be saved or printed from the upper-left menu buttons. Values are displayed in cents, not dollars.

109 Part VII

110 110 7 End of Financial Year Procedure 7.1 ATO Lodgement Options Choose how you would like to lodge EOFY data with the ATO The end of year instructions in the following chapter change slightly depending on how you wish to lodge with the tax office, so it is important you have an idea of which method you intend to use before using 's 'End-of-Year' assistant. Here are the current available methods: Method 1 - Lodge Online (Recommended) To lodge online, you ll need an ABN, and to register for an AUSkey with the Australian Business Register. Once you have downloaded your AUSkey, your computer can submit electronically. (For AUSkey-related support, call 1300 AUSKEY/ ) Submit through directly (recommended), or if you prefer to submit through ATO software, you can create your ECI/EMPDUPE file with LP, and then send it to the ATO online with either their ECI software or their Business Portal/Agent Portal. Note: Download the ATO s EOFY ECI software and visit the ECI information website for more detailed instructions regarding this. For ECI related technical support enquires contact the ATO on (Monday to Friday, 7am midnight) technical.help@ato.gov.au. If using the business portal, or ECI software method, visit lodging your PAYG withholding annual reports online for more detailed information. Method 2 - Lodge ECI/EMPDUPE File by Post on CD/DVD/USB If you wish to lodge your generated ECI/EMPDUPE file with the ATO by post, visit their info page or contact them on for more information. Method 3 - Lodge Paper Forms by Post If submitting on paper suits you best, you can still lodge using the ATO printed forms that you mail to them. To do this, the ATO advises you must use the stationery they provide to you, as payment summaries and reports from are not acceptable if using this method. You will need to complete and then post: the PAYG payment summary statement, and the payment summaries - you must include the ATO original copy of all payment summaries you issued to your payees. If you don't already have the ATO stationery you can get some posted out to you with their online ordering service, or by calling the ATO Publications Distribution Service on EOFY Step by Step Before beginning the EOFY process, there may be a little housekeeping necessary to ensure everything goes smoothly. The first two steps below will deal with this. Note: You don't have to run the End of Year Assistant before moving on with pays for the new financial year, as allows you to come back to do EOFY processing at a later date.

111 111 STEP 1: Complete the final pays for the financial year you're about to process Once all the pays for the year have been saved and completed as normal, your figures should be ready to round up and be processed in the End of Year assistant. STEP 2: Check financial year boundaries If you need to change the financial year that a certain pay run falls into, you don't need to alter the pay date. You can simply expand, or contract the length of your financial year. To do this, click 'Company' > 'Financial Years' > 'Edit FY'. E.g. If your pay run ends on July 2nd, 2014 (usually part of the 2014/15 financial year), but you need it to be included in the 2013/14 financial year, simply shift the end date of the 2013/14 year to July 2nd. The next pay to follow would then become the first pay of the new FY.

112 112 STEP 3: Open the End of Year Assistant Now that all of your pays are completed and the year boundaries include the right pay run end dates you can process end of year. The end of financial year procedure is launched by clicking the End of Year button at the top of the program. After clicking this button, a window will open to take you through the process of printing payment summaries, reports, submitting via SBR (Standard Business Reporting) and/or generating the electronic ECI (empdupe) file for lodgement with the ATO. STEP 4: Overview: Tell the assistant what you need This first screen is called the Overview. This is where you inform the program what EOFY information you're about to process. There are several options available, which allow you to customize your End of Year using the tick boxes and date dropdown. Select the financial year dates you intend to process from the dropdown box, as previous years can be re-run from this section if you ever need to. The program is likely to have selected for you. Enter different company information (optional) if you are processing EOFY for a company other than the one in the 'Company' > 'Details' area, tick this box. This is mainly used in situations where there has been a company changeover or change of ABN throughout the year, and saves you

113 113 changing details back and forth. If ticked, these details are to be entered in the next screen. Select payment summaries (optional) if you intend to summaries to your staff (Note: /SMTP setup is required for this to work, under 'Company' > ' '. See the previous chapter on ing payslips and payment summaries for more info on setting up in the program. Enter Supplier Information if you are processing the EOFY as a third party, such as a tax agent or accountant. Choose an electronic lodgement method by selecting either 'Lodge by SBR' (directly from LP), or 'Generate ATO ECI File (EMPDUPE). See ATO Lodgement Options in the previous chapter for more information. STEP 5: Select Employees You will now be prompted to select the employees that you would like to print the payment summaries and/or create the electronic file for. All employees who were paid in the financial year will show in the list, so in most cases you would simply leave them all checked and then click Next. Note: This screen can come in handy if you ever need to reprocess EOFY for a single employee, where perhaps a correction has been made or an old payment summary has been requested.

114 114 STEP 6: Correct errors, if there are any At this point the program will let you know if there is any problems with the information being processed. If there are no errors, you'll be taken straight to the 'Payment Summary' screen. Common errors include missing employee/company details (E.g. Postcode, City, State, Contact name or Company name not present). To fix, just click the Fix button beside an error and you'll be able to correct the problem.

115 115 STEP 7: Payment Summaries You're almost there. This screen is where you can review and even adjust your EOFY information in the one place. Most users can simply print out 'Payment Summaries' and a 'Summary Report' from the appropriate buttons, and click 'Next'. Should you need to adjust anything, or review more thoroughly, you can: Click on an employee's name to view their YTD figures If applicable, enter any Reportable Fringe Benefits or CDEP payments. If applicable, you can make adjustments or corrections, using the 'Advanced' button. If you're resubmitting payment summaries after making changes, mark the payment summary as amended, by ticking the 'Amendment?' box. The 'Refresh' overwrites changes made in the 'Advanced' section, and updates an employee's YTD figures by pulling across any corrections you might have just made in a particular pay run. Untick the box to 'Automatically sign payment summaries' if you don't want to manually

116 116 STEP 8: payment summaries to staff (optional) If you have chosen to payment summaries to your employees and have configured your SMTP settings correctly, click 'Send', then 'Next'. For more information on sending s from, please see the previous chapter on ing pay slips and payment summaries. STEP 9: Submit electronically - SBR method This screen allows you to lodge your EOFY data with the ATO directly from. To do this, select the AUSk ey credentials from the dropdown > create a reference number for your records > unlock your AUSk ey with your AUSk ey password > click 'Submit PAYG payment summary statement' > If successful, will let you k now by displaying 'Message Accepted' > click 'Next' Click 'Finish' to wrap up your EOFY payroll processing, and you're done! STEP 9: Submit electronically - ECI/EMPDUPE method If you've chosen to lodge using an ECI/EMPDUPE file, this window allows you to select the location where the program saves the file to. The small, blue folder icon lets you select the save destination, in case you intend to put it onto a USB memory device, for example. By default the ECI/EMPDUPE file will save under <current windows user>\documents\<company name>\empdupe.

117 117 Once the file has been generated it can then be sent to the ATO using your preferred lodgement method, as mentioned earlier under ATO Lodgement Options. STEP 10: Summary Page Click Finish to complete the end-of-financial-year procedure and continue doing pays as normal. The new financial year will be created automatically by clicking the Edit Pay button in the first pay run for July. For more information on editing financial years see Defining Financial Years.

118 Part VIII

119 119 8 Settings 8.1 Settings Overview Reminders. In the Reminders tab, you can set up reminders that will appear when you open the program on the date specified in the reminder. To create a reminder, click Add New Reminder down the bottom of the window and a new item will appear in the list to the left labeled "<No Summary>". Now over to the right, enter a brief summary or name for the reminder, set the reminder frequency and then enter a date to be reminded on. If you feel summary entered doesn't contain enough information, then you can go into more detail about what it is that you will need to be reminded of in the Reminder Notes field. If you ever need to delete a reminder, then you can do this by simply selecting the reminder that you would like to delete and then clicking the Delete Selected Reminder button down the bottom of the window. Password. Set up a password here to prevent any unauthorized access to. Simply enter and re-enter a password of your choosing, and if you have re-entered the password correctly, then you should be able to click the Set Application Password button to confirm your choice of password. Awards. The table in the Awards tab will display a list of the awards and award classifications that you have created. If you have not yet created any awards or classifications, then you can add them into the system here, ready for selection when you need assign an award and classification to an employee. Awards and award classifications will only show on the pay slips and do not affect the pays. Supplier Information. This section is where you can setup supplier records relating to the End of Year section of. Supplier information is used in cases where a third party (accountant, bookkeeper, tax agent, etc.) is submitting payment summary information via SBR or ECI methods in the End of Year process. Backups. To prevent loss of data, has the option to automatically save backup files to a location of your choosing. To do this, check the Backup your data automatically option, then specify the location in which you would like the backup files to be automatically saved to. It is recommended that you set the program to save the backup files to an external storage device such as a USB flash drive, or an external hard drive, in case the computer's main hard drive experiences problems. Please note, however, that if you set to save the automatic backups to an external device, then it will only be able to create the backup files if an external device is connected to the computer, with the same drive letter. Updates. By default, will automatically update. It is strongly recommended that you leave the program set to update automatically. However, if you do not want this to happen, then uncheck the Automatic Updates On option. You can alter how often checks for updates by setting the Frequency to Daily, Weekly or Monthly if download limits are a concern for you. Proxy. If your company's network involves an authenticated proxy you can enter settings into this area to allow to access the internet, bypassing the network restrictions. This means is able to keep you up-to-date with automatic update downloads and allows

120 120 you to connect to the ATO via SBR and to the national Superstream network. All of these features require to have internet access. Contact your IT department for settings. Here's an example of a proxy setup: Usage Information. In order to improve, the program can send anonymous usage information about how you use the program. This provides statistics which help us tailor the software to benefit the maximum number of users. Super Fund Providers. This section is where you can manage super fund information within the program, as shown below. Click Create Super Fund Provider to setup new super funds. For information on Superstream Register/Update, please see Member Registration.

121 Part IX

122 122 9 Editing Pay Details 9.1 Edit Pay Overview The Edit Pay window is where you check/alter the pay details for an employee. By default, the details for each new pay will be set according to how the employee has been set up in the Employees section of the program. The Edit Pay section of the Help is divided up into the following topics: Entering Ordinary Hours Paying Leave Allowances Deductions Bonuses and Commissions Back Payments Salary Sacrifice Tax Superannuation Payslip Notes Terminating an Employee 9.2 Entering Ordinary Hours 1. The most commonly used part of the Edit Pay window is the Hours box, found in the upper lefthand corner, near the employee's name. You can enter additional pay rates using the Select pay rate... dropdown and alter hours/ minutes to be paid in the Values column. To remove a line, click the red cross. Pay rates are managed under: Employees >> Pay Settings >> Pay Rates (Primary/Award pay rate settings) Employees >> Pay Settings >> Special User Defined Pay Rates (Secondary/custom pay rates) Employees who are salary earners shouldn t never need their hours adjusted as their pays are, by definition, based on a set gross amount every pay period.

123 Paying Leave To process leave for an employee, go into the Pays section of the program and then click the Edit Pay button for the employee that you would like to process leave for. In their Edit Pay window before doing anything else - click the Edit Leave button and a new window will appear. In this window, select the type of leave you will be paying in the Type column and alter the date if necessary. Now type the amount of hours and minutes that you need to pay the employee in the Duration column,** then type a description for the leave that was taken. The hourly rate, percentage of leave loading and the total amount to be paid out can be altered should you need to do this for any reason. How you proceed from here will differ depending on the circumstances: Paying leave taken within the current pay period only If you only want to pay leave taken within the pay period that you're currently processing, then simply leave the Spread tax over... option at the default 1 and click OK. When you are taken back to the employee's main Edit Pay window, you should notice that the Ordinary Time Worked hours have been reduced by the amount of hours that you entered in the Edit Leave window. So, for example, if the Ordinary Time Worked hours normally default to 38 hours, and you entered 7.6 hours (or 7 hours and 36 minutes) for a day of sick leave in the Edit Leave window, then the Ordinary Time Worked hours will now be reduced to 30 hours and 24 minutes. Check that the Ordinary Time Worked hours have been reduced to what you need them to be, alter them if necessary, and then proceed with the rest of the pay as normal. Paying out leave in advance If an employee is going on leave, and you would like to pay them for all of that leave in the one pay period, then type the amount of pay periods that this entire pay run will cover - including any hours worked. So, for example, if you do weekly pays and you want to pay the employee for two weeks leave that they'll be taking, plus the week they just worked, then the amount of pay periods you would need to enter would be 3 (i.e. the pay period they worked plus the two pay periods they'll be on leave for). When you are back at the employee's Edit Pay window, check that the pay details are correct, make any other changes if necessary, then proceed with the rest of the pay as normal. Note: The hours and amounts for the next pay periods (that have already been covered in the current pay period you're processing) will be automatically zeroed; you will only need save their details, or click the Complete button for them

124 124 when you process those pay periods. If the leave that you are paying in advance spans part-way into a future pay (e.g. an increment with a decimal was entered, such as 2.5 pay periods), then the pay run that has already been partially paid will have its default hours reduced accordingly. Employee is cashing out their leave If an employee wants to be paid out some of their annual leave, or long service leave, without actually taking it, then (unlike in the above method of out paying leave in advance) you would leave the Spread tax over... option set as the default 1, then click OK. When you are back at the employee's Edit Pay window, check that the rest of the pay details are correct. You will probably find that the Ordinary Time Worked hours have been reduced in accordance with the leave hours entered; if so, then re-enter them as necessary. What you may also notice is that the tax rate has been pushed up into a higher bracket due to a much larger gross amount; this is normal, and if an employee wants to cash in any of their leave, then they need to accept that this will happen since they are being paid a large amount in the one pay period, yet (unlike the scenario in the above method of paying leave in advance) they will still be paid in the next pay run(s). Finally, make any other changes to pay details if necessary, then proceed with the rest of your pays as normal. **If a public holiday falls within the period that an employee is on leave for, then these hours will need to be entered in as Ordinary Time Worked. 9.4 Allowances The Allowances table will be greyed-out for an employee until you have set up at least one allowance for them. If an allowance has an amount entered for its Default Amount per Pay option in the initial set up of the allowance - then it will show in each pay run automatically; allowances that do not have a default amount set for them can be selected in the Allowances table of the Edit Pay window by clicking the Select allowance drop-down list in the Description column.

125 Deductions The Deductions table will be greyed-out for an employee until you have set up at least one deduction for them. If a deduction has an amount entered for its Default Amount per Pay option - in the initial set up of the allowance - then it will show in each pay run automatically; deductions that do not have a default amount set for them can be selected in the Deductions table of the Edit Pay window by clicking the Select deduction drop-down list in the Description column. 9.6 Bonuses and Commissions To enter a bonus or a commission, click the Edit button to the right of the Bonus/Commission amount shown in the Pay Summary of the Edit Pay window. When the window appears, select a description, then enter the amount for the bonus or commission and uncheck the Included in Super Calculations option if the super guarantee is not applicable to the bonus.** Next, set the Tax Method. There are three options here: Use date range. By selecting this method, you can specify the date range that you would like the tax amount for the bonus/commission to be spread over, in the columns that follow. Over this financial year. This option will divide the bonus/commission over the 52 weeks in the year and tax it accordingly. As normal earnings. Taxing a bonus/commission as normal earnings will simply add the bonus to the standard gross and tax the total as one large pay in the one pay period. This option is particularly suited to employees who work on a commission-only basis. When you are satisfied that the amount and settings are correct, click OK to confirm the details and return to the Edit Pay window. ** If you find you are continuously needing to uncheck the Included in Super Calculations option

126 126 for a regular bonus that should not attract super, then go in to the Allowances Deductions section of Employees and uncheck the Included in Super Calculations by Default option for that bonus or commission under the Bonuses tab. 9.7 Back Payments To process a back payment for an employee, click the Edit button to the right of the Back Payment amount shown in the Pay Summary of the Edit Pay window. When the window appears, type a description and then enter the amount to be back paid. Uncheck the Included in Super Calculations option if the super guarantee is not applicable to the bonus. Next, set the Tax Method. There are two options here: Use date range. By selecting this method, you can specify the date range that you would like the tax amount for the back payment to be spread over, in the columns that follow. Over this financial year. This option will divide the back payment over the 52 weeks in the year and tax it accordingly. When you are satisfied that the amount and the settings are correct, click OK to confirm the details and return to the Edit Pay window. 9.8 Salary Sacrifice Salary sacrifices are to be setup in the Pay Settings section under Employees. You can, however, do a one-off salary sacrifice, or alter the usual amount, by clicking the Edit button next to the salary sacrifice amount in the Pay Summary of the Edit Pay window. For more information on salary sacrifices, see Salary/Wage Sacrifice.

127 Tax will automatically calculate all tax for you. But if, by chance, you need to edit this amount, then you can do so by clicking the Edit button to the right of the tax amount displayed in the Pay Summary of the Edit Pay window. To undo any changes you may have made to the tax for a pay run, simply check the Auto. Calc. option to the right of the Edit button for the tax and it will return to the automatic calculation. For information on setting up the tax rates, see Tax Rates Superannuation will automatically calculate the superannuation guarantee for you, depending on how you have it set up for each employee. If you need to edit this amount, for whatever reason, then you can do so by clicking the Edit button to the right of the super amount displayed in the Pay Summary of the Edit Pay window. The Edit Superannuation window will then appear and you will be able to edit the Superannuation guarantee. If the employee has any additional post-tax contributions set up, then they will appear (and can be edited) in the table below; otherwise the table will appear greyed-out. To undo any changes you may have made to the super for a pay run, simply check the Auto. Calc. option to the right of the Edit button for the super and it will return to the automatic calculation. For information on setting up the super calculations, see Super.

128 Payslip Notes Should you need to put a note on an employee's pay slip, then you can enter it into the Payslip Note field in their Edit Pay window. This will be a one-off note that would need to be re-entered if you want it to show again on their next pay slip. On-going pay slip notes can be entered under Employees >> Pay Settings >> Payslip Options

129 129 For more information on pay slip notes, see Printing Payslips.

130 Part X

131 Business Ownership Changeover 10.1 Business Ownership Changeover When new ownership takes over a company, usually the company's ABN will change. If this happens part-way through a financial year, then the changeover needs to be treated like the clos-off of any other financial year with a few additional step. The following is a brief overview of these steps. After you have completed the final pay before the handover, click the End of Year button and complete the end-of-financial-year procedure for the old ownership. Doing this will produce the payment summaries to be issued to the employees, along with the ECI file to submit to the ATO at the end of the financial year. Now change the company's details (ABN, etc.) under the Details tab of the Company section. Finally, you will need to split the financial year in two. To do this, select the Financial Years tab in in the Company section of the program and click Split FY for the current financial year. In the Financial Year Split window, enter the date for the last day before the handover to the new ownership. By doing this, will start accumulating the employees' YTD figures from zero again, as at the first pay run after the date you enter. Click Save when done. You should now be ready to start processing pays for the new ownership.

132 Part XI

133 Hints and Tips 11.1 Backup Your Data allows you to select an automatic backup folder on your PC. This way, a full backup of all your payroll information (Including ALL companies) is generated and put aside to the location you ve specified every time you close down the program. To create an automatic backup location, click on Settings >> Backups >> Then tick the box to Backup your data automatically. The blue folder icon allows you to change the destination folder Password Protect Your Information allows you to setup a password which prevents unauthorized access to your sensitive payroll records. If you require that a password be entered before the application can be used, click on Settings >> then on the Password tab. Once you have established a password for the program, it will require it to be typed each time you launch the application.

134 Handy Tax Calculator now includes a simple, yet powerful tax calculator. This tool will let you know how much tax an employee will owe, just by entering an amount. You can even work backwards from a nett amount should you need to calculate a gross figure, and includes tax table information from a number of financial years.. To take advantage of this feature, click on Tools >> Tax Calculator Free Video Tutorials Many of our users are unaware that with each major release of a new feature, we also release simple-to-follow video tutorials on our Youtube channel. To learn how best to manage your time using check out some of these short tutorial videos at

135 Reinstate Employees Has a former employee come back to work for your company? Reinstating employees is easy in. Just click on Employees >> Tick Show Terminated Employees >> Highlight the employee to be reinstated >> Click Actions >> Reinstate Employee You will then be prompted for a new start date and be given an opportunity to enter a leave balance should one be required. Note: If the employee is coming back to work with a change of responsibility/tenure, remember to make relevant changes to their leave and pay settings - casual/full-time status, etc. - from within the Employees section, before processing a new pay for them.

136 Custom Reports In we have introduced the option to design, rearrange, save and export custom reports. With these customized pay and employee report builders you will be able to save time for the more important jobs. Custom reports can be setup under Reports >> Custom Reports. Once a custom report is saved it can be accessed in future, under Launch Custom Reports. Note: To build a custom report, simply set a date range and tick the columns you wish to be included. Column headings can be dragged around, and the data can be sorted by clicking on a column heading also Payslip Options Many users are unaware that they have the ability to customize their employee's payslips using 's Payslip Options section. Create a permanent payslip note and/or alter how the different leave types appear by clicking on Employees >> Pay Settings >> Payslip Options.

137 Staying Up-to-Date To check your computer's version of, click Help >> About. Your version is the number starting with 2013 or 2014: To update version or later, you can auto-update. Just click on Settings >> Updates, then Check for Updates Now. If there is no update section in your version of, your program is out of date. To fix this, please uninstall and re-install (Don't worry, your pay information is safe and wont go anywhere). To reinstall, first click on Start, >> All Programs >> >> Uninstall. Answer Yes to completely remove the software, if prompted. Once you've cleared out the old version of, you can start fresh by downloading and installing the latest full version, here Updates and Changes to Every few weeks or so, we release an update to either introducing a new feature or correcting a bug in the software. After new features have been added you will receive a message when opening which lets you know what has been changed in the program. If you ever miss this update notification or would like to look back over changes in previous versions of the program, click on Help >> Change log. Different versions can be selected from the drop-down menu at the bottom of this window.

138 Navigating Multiple Pay Periods In the main Pays screen, if you ever need to jump forwards or backwards in time, you can use the Last Pay Run and Next Pay Run buttons - like turning the pages in a book - where each page represents a single pay period. However, if you hold your mouse button down on either of these buttons, you can have the option to jump much further in time than one pay period. Continue the process again and again to keep moving even further backwards or forwards in time.

139 139 Note: To get back in a snap, leave the Pays screen (E.g. Click on Employees or Reports, etc) and come back into Pays and Lightning will have returned you to the current, default pay period Copy Hours From Last Pay now includes the option to copy last weeks hours over to the following week. This saves time when employees are paid multiple pay rates, meaning you wont have to continually select pay rates from the drop-down in the Edit Pay window each week. All you need to do is go into Employees >> Select the employee >> Pay settings >> Put a tick in the option to Copy hours from last pay. This will then start to copy over any hour/pay rate information from the last pay for that employee.

140 140 Note: You will need to do this for each employee who you wish this to happen to Convert Fractions to Minutes Whenever you see a duration field in Lightning payroll, you can type fractions of time into one box, and Lightning will be able to convert them across to any other boxes for you, saving lots of time. Using the Edit Pay screen as an example; type 7.6 hours into the ordinary time worked, and by pressing the tab key on your keyboard the.6 hours will be automatically converted to 36 minutes Set Default Pay Period Based-on Date If you happen to process pays each week for a pay schedule either in advance, or in arrears you may be tired of the default pay date not opening to when you would like it to. In this area of the program you can decide which pay period date Lightning opens up as its default 'Pays' screen, or to give the default pay period a bias in one direction or another. Under Company >> Pay Dates is the option to control which date 's 'Pays' screen opens up at.

141 141 By default, the closest pay period end date to today's actual date will be loaded when you click Pays, by choosing Past, Present of Future you can bias to make sure it opens up to an earlier or later pay period when you click on the Pays screen in future. See below for an example of how each setting affects the pay sees as the default. In the following examples, imagine that today's date is September 10th, 2014, and the last completed pay run entered into the program was yesterday on September 9th, 2014 (These examples use a weekly schedule but as the system works off the pay period end date, fortnightly and monthly schedules work in the same fashion). Closest - If today is 10/9/14 and the default pay date is set to 'Closest', you will find that when you go into 'Pays' the program will display the closest pay period (by end date) to today's date. (Eg. If you pay weekly, the two nearest pays to 10/09/14 are the pays ending 09/09/14 and 16/09/14. Since today's date (10/9/14) is closer to the 9th than it is to the 16th, the default pay displayed will be the week ending 09/09/14) Past - If today is 10/9/14 and the default pay date is set to 'Past', you will find that when you go into 'Pays' the program will display the previous pay to the one which today's date falls into. (Eg. As today's date (10/09/14) falls into the pay period '10/09/14 to 16/09/14', the default pay displayed will be the week ending 09/09/14, because it is the pay prior to the pay period which includes today's date) Present - If today is 10/9/14 and the default pay date is set to 'Present', you will find that when you go into 'Pays' the program will display whichever pay period that today's date falls into. (Eg. As today's date (10/09/14) falls into the pay period '10/09/14 to 16/09/14', the default pay displayed will be the week ending 16/09/14, because today is the first day of the period) Future - If today is 10/9/14 and the default pay date is set to 'Future', you will find that when you go into 'Pays' the program will display the pay period which follows the one that today's date falls into. (Eg. As today's date (10/09/14) falls into the pay period '10/09/14 to 16/09/14', the default pay to be displayed will be the following week, which ends 23/09/14, because it is the pay after the pay period which includes today's date) Note: 'Closest' is the default pay setting because it suits most situations. If you wish to use another setting (I.e. Past/Present/Future) please use caution and perhaps run a test on your regular pay processing day to ensure the program displays the right pay period. Any changes you make are automatically viewable by clicking on 'Pays', so feel free to experiment. Caution is advised as pays may be entered into the wrong period if not setup correctly.

142 Part XII

143 Troubleshooting If you are having problems running, there are several avenues of help available. FAQS The answers to most user questions are covered on our website at our Frequently Asked Questions page. Contact the Support Team Our Brisbane-based Technical Support team is available from 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday (QLD EST). They can be contacted several ways: From within under Company >> Backups >> Send backup to support. By telephone - (07)

144 144 By at By online chat at our website.