Running a parallel pay run in Employment Hero involves executing a simulated payroll process alongside your regular operations. This allows you to guarantee accuracy and identify any discrepancies before fully implementing the changes. By duplicating pay runs and applying changes to the replica, you can thoroughly test modifications without affecting actual payroll outcomes. Parallel pay runs provide a controlled environment for validation and assurance, helping you fine-tune your payroll processes with confidence.

Essential aspects to be addressed during your pay run processing consist of:

• Initiating a pay run
• Incorporating timesheet data
• Applying leave requests
• Assessing pay run warnings
• Evaluating pay run data and preliminary reports
• Concluding pay run finalisation

How to Prepare/Dependencies

• All time and attendance and leave applications for the purposes of parallel testing have been entered into the system.
• For employees paid on an hourly basis or based on timesheets, it's crucial to apply any leave requests directly to their timesheets before importing them into a pay run. This ensures that accurate leave deductions are reflected in their payroll calculations.

Instructions

Create a Pay Run

1. Log into your Employment Hero Payroll platform.
2. Navigate to Business > Dashboard > New Pay Run.
3. Select the required information from the drop downs:

Required Information to Select

• Pay schedule: Select the appropriate pay schedule for the desired pay run creation.

• Pay period ending: When setting up an initial pay run for a specific pay schedule, input the corresponding pay period's end date. Later pay runs for the same schedule will automatically calculate pay period end dates based on the initial entry and frequency.

• Date pay run will be paid: For your initial pay run associated with a pay schedule, provide the paid date relevant to that run. Later pay runs for the same schedule will auto-generate paid dates, considering the initial entry and pay run frequency. The paid date is important for determining the reporting month for the pay run's figures, including STP reporting as per ATO guidelines. This differs from the pay period end date's purpose.
• Manually add employees to pay run: Enables manual addition of employees to the pay run, excluding the automatic inclusion of all regular pay schedule employees. The pay run will have no employees by default, and you will have to manually add them using the Add Employees function from Pay Run Actions. Choosing this option will disable the Import Timesheets feature.
• Create pay run with empty pays: All employees associated with this pay schedule as their default will be listed in the pay run, each displaying $0 earnings. Standard work hours, employee default earnings, or regular pay run inclusions won't be visible. It's essential to be aware that selecting this alternative will disable the "Import Timesheets" functionality.
• Import timesheets: In case your business employs timesheets and there are timesheets that need processing, you will encounter supplementary alternatives for importing timesheets into the pay run:
  • Timesheets for this pay period: This encompasses all approved timesheets relevant to the selected pay period.
  • All unpaid timesheets up to dd/mm/yyyy: Encompasses approved timesheets for the chosen pay period as well as any other approved or unprocessed timesheets from preceding pay periods up to the specified date.
  • Don't import timesheets: If you're running a pay run and prefer not to import any approved timesheets, this option suits your needs.

After configuring all pay run preferences, click the Create button. A progress dialog box will surface as the system calculates pay run data

Once this process concludes, the pay run screen will emerge, allowing you to initiate the pays processing.

Import Timesheets

1. Log on to your Employment Hero Payroll platform.
2. Navigate to Business > Dashboard > Pay Run.
3. Select the pay run for timesheets to be imported into.
4. Click on the Actions tab.
5. Click the Pay Run Actions button.
6. Click the Import Timesheets button.
7. Choose from the following options:
   1. Import timesheets for this pay period
   2. Import all unpaid timesheets.
8. Click Import.

Apply Leave Requests

1. Log on to your Employment Hero Payroll platform.
2. Navigate to Business > Dashboard > Pay Runs.
3. Select the pay run for leave to be applied to.
4. Click on the Leave Requests tab.
5. Click the Apply button.
6. Complete the following fields:
   1. From date.
   2. To date.
   3. Units.
7. Click Apply Leave.

Automation Review

To ensure that the automation interpretation aligns with your requirements in Employment Hero, conducting a comprehensive parallel pay run review is highly recommended.

• Begin by selecting a representative sample of employee data and processing it through the parallel pay run. As you navigate the process, verify key components such as standard ordinary hours, penalty payments for instances like weekends, accurate overtime calculations, and proper allowance allocations.
• Compare the results of the parallel pay run against the established benchmarks and guidelines.
• Any discrepancies or deviations should be investigated and corrected as needed.

This review process will not only guarantee the accuracy of the interpretation that has been built, but also foster confidence in the payroll automation system's adherence to your specific employment regulations and needs within Employment Hero.

By thoroughly reviewing these aspects, you can make sure that automation is fine-tuned to meet your specific needs.

Pay Run Warnings

Here is a summary of how you can view and address pay-run warnings:

• Notification Locations: Pay run warnings appear in two places: the 'Pay run' tab on the business dashboard and during the pay run process.
• Understanding Warnings: Warnings can emerge when creating or processing a pay run, depending on the actions performed.
• Viewing Warning Details:
  • Click on the "Warning" link - This will redirect you to a tab providing expanded details for each warning.
  • Click on specific warnings to unveil more information.
• Types of Warnings:
  • Missing ABA or BPAY Details
  • Negative Earnings or Unpaid Earnings
  • Birthday or Work Anniversary Notices
  • Leave Exceeding Accrual
  • Terminated Employees with Expenses
  • Expired Qualifications
  • Duplicate Earnings Lines
  • Leave Caps Reached
  • Pending Leave or Expense Requests
  • Leave Request Spanning Pay Periods
  • Incomplete Pay Run Tasks
  • Pro Rata Earnings for New or Terminated Employees
  • Scheduled Pay Rate Changes
  • TFN Quotation Delay
  • Applied Scheduled Updates
• Finalised Pay Run Warning: After finalising a pay run without setting up ABA or BPAY files, a warning will appear against the "Download Payment File" button.

Draft Reporting & Payslips

Before your payrun is finalised there you can run three different draft reports to find out about certain aspects of your pay run.

• Audit Report - The pay run audit report generates a detailed overview of pay run activities and associated data, offering insights into the various aspects of the pay run process. Read more about it here.
• Gross to Net Report - The gross to net report provides a comprehensive breakdown of an employee's total earnings, deductions, and superannuation within a specified timeframe. Read more about it here.
• Variance Report - The pay run variance report enables you to contrast data between two different pay runs and identify disparities in gross and net earnings, PAYG, super, leave, and individual earnings details. Read more about it here.
• Payslips - Payslips can be accessed for both finalised and draft (unfinalised) pay runs, though super and bank account details are exclusively displayed on finalised pay slips.
  • Payslips can be customised for your employees via Payroll Settings Business Settings

Finalising Pay Run

When you're content with the entirety of your pay run data, you can proceed to finalise it. This step locks the data at its current state, making it available for reporting purposes. To finalise a pay run, follow these steps:

1. Log into you Employment Hero Payroll platform.
2. Navigate to Business > Dashboard > Pay Run.
3. Open the desired pay run.
4. Navigate to the 'Actions' tab and select the 'Finalise Pay Run' button.

In the ensuing dialogue, you'll encounter options for finalisation preferences. If you've previously configured default settings during the setup of the pay schedule, they will be applied here. However, you have the flexibility to adjust these settings permanently or on an ad hoc basis by clicking the 'pencil' edit icon during the finalisation process.

Essential Tips for Testing

• If you need to unlock a pay run after finalising, this can be done by clock on the Pay Run Actions Unlock button and entering a reason for this step.
• Please be aware that all payroll reports will be accessible after the pay runs are finalised. It is highly recommended to review these reports comprehensively to determine which ones align most effectively with the specific needs and requirements of your organisation.
• All testing data will need to be removed from the platform prior to going live including pay runs. For more information on this, check out this article.
• Parallel testing is intended for the purpose of testing and validating new systems without transmitting actual data to external entities like the tax authorities. When using parallel testing, it's crucial not to submit real or live data, including Single Touch Payroll (STP) submissions. STP submissions involve sending sensitive payroll and employee information to the tax office, and these should only be done once your system is fully configured, tested, and ready for production use. Avoid submitting STP reports during parallel testing to prevent any unintended consequences or discrepancies in your records.
• Ensure payslips are not published during testing to prevent sending incorrect data to employees.