Mastering Australian Payroll with Xero In A Day by Heather Smith
Mastering Australian Payroll with Xero In a Day For Dummies Published by Wiley Publishing Australia Pty Ltd 42 McDougall Street Milton, Qld 4064 www.dummies.com Copyright 2013 Wiley Publishing Australia Pty Ltd The moral rights of the author have been asserted. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data: Author: Smith, Heather Nicolette Title: Mastering Australian Payroll with Xero In A Day For Dummies / Heather Smith ISBN: 9781118572443 (epub.); 9781118572450 (epdf.); 9781118572467 (emobi.) Series: For Dummies. Subjects: Xero (Computer program) Accounting Computer Programs Handbooks, manuals, etc. Wages Accounting Computer programs etc. Dewey Number: 657.02855369 All rights reserved. No part of this book, including interior design, cover design and icons, may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Services section of John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd, Level 2, 155 Cremorne Street, Richmond, Vic 3151, or email auspermissions@wiley.com. Typeset by diacritech, Chennai, India 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANISATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANISATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ. Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Making Everything Easier, dummies.com and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. Xero is a registered trademark of Xero Limited. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing Australia Pty Ltd is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
Table of Contents Introduction 1 What You Can Do In A Day 1 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 2 Chapter 1: Navigating Payroll Basics 3 Gathering Payroll Information 4 Payroll information 4 Employee information 4 Setting Up Contacts, Accounts and Tracking Categories 5 Payroll contacts 5 Payroll accounts 5 Payroll Tracking Categories 6 Accessing Payroll for the First Time 6 Chapter 2: Defining Payroll Settings 9 Organising General Settings 9 Setting Up Pay Slip Options 12 Setting Up Pay Items 12 Earnings Pay Item for direct cost staff 13 Earnings Pay Item for overhead cost staff 14 Overtime Pay Items 15 Deduction Pay Items 15 Reimbursements Pay Items 16 Annual Leave Pay Items 17 Personal/Carer s Leave Pay Items 18 Deleting a Pay Item 18 Setting Up Payroll Calendars 18 Monthly calendars 19 Fortnightly calendars 20 Editing a Payroll Calendar 20 Deleting a Payroll Calendar 21 Chapter 3: Expanding Your Staff: Setting up Employees 23 Setting Up Personal and Contact Details 24 Entering Employment and Superannuation Membership Details 25
iv Mastering Australian Payroll with Xero In A Day For Dummies Taking a Look at Tax Declaration Details...28 Recording Bank Account Details...30 Chapter 4: Defining Pay Template Settings and Processing Payroll 33 Adding Earnings Pay Items...33 Adding a Deduction Pay Item...34 Adding a Superannuation Pay Item...35 Adding Reimbursement Pay Items...36 Adding Annual Leave...36 Adding Personal/Carer s Leave...37 Deleting an Item from the Pay Template...37 Processing a Pay Run...38 Getting comfy with employee timesheets...38 Working through a pay run...39 Creating a draft invoice...41 Chapter 5: Mastering More Advanced Payroll Functions 43 Learning about Advanced Payroll Functions...43 Entering Opening Balances...44 Publishing a Payment Summary...46 Connecting with Contacts While You re Cruising...48 Inviting Employees to Access their Portal...48 Exploring the employee portal...49 Applying for leave via the Employee Portal...51 Submitting a timesheet via the Employee Portal...52 Paying Pay Run Liabilities...54 Processing superannuation liability...54 Setting up the Automatic Superannuation Payments feature...55 Processing PAYG Withholding liability...56 Understanding Superannuation...57 Adding a regulated superannuation fund...57 Adding a self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF)...58 Editing and deleting a superannuation fund...58 Chapter 6: Where to Go from Here 61 Finding Out How to Use Xero...61 Say Hello to the Xero Community...62 Visit dummies.com...62
Introduction Welcome to Mastering Australian Payroll with Xero In A Day For Dummies. If you ve been using the cloud-based Xero system, and running an existing payroll outside of Xero, or you re looking to employ people, then this In A Day book is the resource you need. This ebook navigates you through the payroll basics, explains how to define payroll settings, and how to set up employees. Mastering Australian Payroll with Xero In A Day For Dummies also shows you how to define employee pay template settings, and helps you master some of the more advanced payroll functions in Xero. Employment expense is a significant chunk of outgoings for many businesses, so you want to make sure that you ve covered all your bases and that you re meeting all of the relevant Australian compliance obligations. With this resource handy, in no time at all you ll be confidently processing payroll in Xero in fact, you ll be there in just one day! Note: One of the great features of Xero being a cloud-based accounting solution is that Xero can make upgrades or updates to its pages or processes at any time and the next time you access your file, the upgrades have been implemented. No more waiting for the next software release! But this may mean a page or process you re looking at online isn t exactly the same as that shown in this ebook. Don t worry the process should still be similar enough that you can use this book to guide you through. What You Can Do In A Day This ebook explains the essentials of setting up employees and processing Xero Payroll. It shows you how you can get employees to take an active role in monitoring their payroll via the Employee Portal, and explains how to meet your superannuation and PAYG Withholding compliance obligations, and much more!
2 Mastering Australian Payroll with Xero In A Day For Dummies Foolish Assumptions It s never nice to assume anything about people without walking a mile in their shoes. But to write this book I had to assume a few things... firstly, I assumed you buckle down to work with a nice cup of tea, and when things get really hard you grab the chocolate. (Or is that just me?) Here are some other assumptions I ve made: 55 You can navigate your way around a computer or a mobile device and know how to access the internet. 55 You have an existing Xero data file set up. 55 You don t have a background in bookkeeping or accounting. Through my work I ve been exposed to literally thousands of people who have no accounting or bookkeeping background and I ve trained them in the essentials and got them up and running. So I ve used this experience to write this book in a way that highlights what s important, and breaks it down appropriately. 55 You probably don t have access to Hermione s Time Turner or Doctor Who s TARDIS, and your time is important to you. You want to work as efficiently and effectively as possible so I ve included lots of productivity enhancers. Icons Used in This Book Have a go at a quick exercise and tips with this icon. This icon marks some of the additional material you can find on the book s companion website at www.dummies.com/go/ inaday/masteringaupayrollwithxero. This icon highlights pearls of wisdom you should make a mental note about or even write down for yourself in an actual notebook! These show handy strategies and shortcuts to speed up your productivity or just generally make life easier gained through my own experience.