By Hilary O’Dwyer, CEO, Titian Consulting
It’s always a frantic push getting ready for the break over Christmas. Sometimes I wonder if the mad rush is worth it as you get to the break absolutely wrecked! Before we get to set our OOO, there’s heaps that can be pre scheduled leaving those last few days of December freed up for whatever last minute situation occurs. And there’s always something!
I’ve already started to schedule in the final payrolls for December with the various teams. Some businesses are getting hit with 3 fortnightly pays this month with the last one falling on the 30th December.
It’s super easy to get this payroll scheduled; processed and uploaded to the bank. If you have straight forward salaried employees, then it’s simply a matter of asking them to put in their leave for that last week of the month and running the pay, remembering to set the payment date on the ABA file, which gets sent to the bank, to the right day. Once that’s uploaded to your bank and approved, you’re all set. If people’s leave changes over the period, then you can do a true up in January when you’re back at the coal face. And that could be for personal leave that was unexpected or days worked that were marked as annual leave.
While not as straight forward for casuals and those on rosters, it’s still possible to get the payroll happening. It’s likely your business will be shut on 26 & 27 as those are public holidays. Again, you can base the payroll on the roster and process it in advance from those planned shifts. If shifts aren’t worked or illness strikes, you can do a true up in the next pay cycle and catch any unders and overs then.
Remember, the payroll will be approx. 90% correct which makes it worth doing early. The other 10% is worth taking a chance on so you or your payroll fairy can also kick back; relax and swan off into the holiday sunset!
