InstaPay Eligibility - HR FAQ

Jameson Nixon

Updated 22 March 2023 05:44

Overview

There are five conditions that affect whether an employee qualifies for InstaPay.

Availability

HR Plan:	Free	Standard	Premium	Platinum
Payroll Plan:	Standard		Premium

The five conditions

Condition	Explanation
Must be paid in Arrears	See scenarios.
Number of Pay cycles	You must have been paid a minimum of 3 times consecutively.
Leave	You must not have taken leave for the period you wish to claim InstaPay for.
Termination	If you have an upcoming termination date you will be ineligible for InstaPay
Age	Must be over 16 years old.

Additional circumstances that affect your eligibility

Available funds - InstaPay funds are only available on wages paid in arrears. If your entire pay check is paid in arrears, funds will be available for the duration of your pay cycle. If only part of your pay check is paid in arrears (i.e two weeks in arrears, two months in advance), InstaPay will only be available for two weeks of your pay cycle you have been paid in arrears.
InstaPay is not available while a pay run is in progress. A pay run is the action your payroll admin takes to process pay for all employees, and it is typical for a pay run to take two to three days, i.e if you are normally paid on the 15th, your payroll admin may commence the pay run on the 13th.
If paid based off timesheets these must be approved and paid in arrears

Scenarios based on pay frequency

Monthly Pay Cycle

Employee A is paid monthly in advance - Employee A will never be eligible for InstaPay.
Employee B is paid monthly half in arrears and half in advance - Employee B will be eligible for InstaPay for the 2 weeks in the month that they are paid in arrears and they will not be eligible for the two weeks it is in advance.

Fortnightly Pay Cycle

Employee C is paid fortnightly in arrears - they will be eligible for InstaPay during their pay cycle after the first day of work in the cycle is completed.
Employee D is paid fortnightly half in arrears and half in advance - they will only be eligible for InstaPay for the arrears portion.

Weekly Pay Cycle

Employee E is paid weekly in arrears - they could be eligible.

Scenarios - Salaried employee vs timesheet employee

Employee A is paid monthly and is salaried - they will be eligible for InstaPay for the period they are paid in arrears.
Employee B is paid fortnightly based on timesheets they submit - they will be eligible for InstaPay based on the approved timesheets they have for their next pay run.

Glossary of terms

Arrears - this refers to being paid for the time you have worked after you have worked.
Advance - this refers to being paid before you have completed work.
Salary - You can be a salary employee and not be full time.
Pay run - the process undertaken by your payroll admins to pay all employees of your organisation.
Pay cycle - the time period over which you are paid (e.g. weekly, fortnightly, monthly).

Important

If you qualify for InstaPay by satisfying the above conditions, it will take 1-2 business days for InstaPay to process and to appear in your account.

Author recommended

What employers need to know about InstaPay | Money: If your organisation and employees qualify to use InstaPay, your employees can access part of their already-earned wages without needing to wait for pay day and without credit, interest or stress.

What is InstaPay? | FAQ - Money: InstaPay allows you to access your money as you earn it and make your money work for you and your needs. InstaPay is available to employees of an organisation that uses the Employment Hero Payroll platform, and accessed by employees via the Employment Hero app only.