Processing Public Holidays (NZ)

Once the required configuration steps have been completed, public holiday pay items can be processed in pay runs. The first step to doing so is to create a Public Holiday Processing batch containing the pay items relevant to each of the employees in a particular pay group.

Preparing Public Holiday Batches

The Public Holiday Processing screen (MPPP3110) allows a user to create a batch of public holiday transactions that can be added to employees’ pays. Public holidays are taken from the selected Work Calendar and an entry is created for each employee in the specified Pay Group. The public holiday pay item associated with each entry depends on how the relevant Work Calendar has been configured. If the public holiday has been marked as a “work day” then the employee is awarded the default “Public Holiday Worked” pay item as specified on the pay group. If not, the employee is awarded the default “Public Holiday Not Worked” pay item.

Tip: The selected Work Calendar should match the calendar specified on the employee’s default pay group.

Once imported, entries are validated in the context of the employee’s work pattern (as specified in the employee pay details). Should the day not fall on an employee’s OWD, a warning is raised promoting the user to remove the entry prior to taking it off “Hold”. The user can filter the record set by using standard grid filters to identify and address all records with warnings.

Note: Once a public holiday processing batch has been imported, in part or whole, into a pay, the entire batch is locked down. As such no more changes or corrections can be made to the batch. Only once the public holiday import has been undone (only possible on Open pays), can the batch be moved to “Hold” and can corrections be made. As such we recommend preparing smaller batches, aligning with the requirements of the next scheduled pay of the particular pay group.

Paying Public Holidays

Relevant public holiday transactions created using the Public Holiday Processing screen can be imported by selecting Import Public Holidays from the Actions menu on the Pay Run Details screen (MPPP3120). The import process scans all public holiday transaction batches for transactions that fall within the pay period of this pay run. Importing public holidays adds pay items to the pays of all affected employees, rate the pay item using the employee’s chosen FBAPS rate and populate the Days Taken window with details of the Public Holiday(s).

If a “Public Holiday Worked” pay item is imported, and the pay item is configured to automatically accrue an “Alternative Holiday”, then an accrual pay item will automatically be added and the quantity set to the number of public holidays worked within the period.

Reviewing Public Holiday Payments

The Employee Leave Summary screen (MPPP4045) allows payroll administrators to review all Annual and FBAPS leave captured in a pay run, prior to completing the pay run. Each line item describes the leave period and relevant valuation rate applied. To compare rates, the user is also provided with other possible rates that might apply. The user can choose to override the applied rate method, or to even override the Payment Amount itself. Doing so will re-evaluate the calculated amount in the pay run. If the user has not applied the highest possible rate to the pay item a warning is shown in the Status column. The user may choose to ignore the warning message if required.

Paying public holidays on termination

Employees are entitled to receive payment for public holidays that fall after their employment ends, if the holiday falls on an OWD and the employee has some remaining earned annual leave balance.

For example, an employee who works Monday – Friday resigns and their last day of employment was Friday 20th Dec 2019. As at that date they have two weeks AL “earned” to be paid out. Had the employee not resigned, and instead taken the two weeks as AL, then this period would have covered Xmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s and Day after New Year’s. This would make the employee’s notional termination date the Thu 9 Jan 2020. The employee is therefore required to be paid for those four public holidays as part of their final (aka termination) pay, in accordance with Section 40 of the Holidays Act 2003.

The termination wizard, launched by clicking the Termination button on the Employee’s Current Pay screen (MPPP31010), automatically calculates the notional end date according to the employee’s last day of work, their unused earned Annual Leave balance, and any eligible public holidays falling within this period. Public Holidays payable are listed on the Public Holidays tab of the termination wizard, rated according to the RPD/ADP rate applicable to the particular day on which the public holiday falls.

Before starting the termination wizard, the payroll administrator must ensure that:

  • All annual leave taken prior to the employee’s last day of work is captured. This will ensure that the latest earned balances are used when calculating the employee’s notional end date.
  • The employee schedule contains the required future date entries, allowing the solution to determine if a PH falls on a OWD for an employee, and to derive the schedule hours for RDP calculation, if based on the employee’s standard hourly rate.

Upon saving and closing the termination wizard the relevant Public Holiday current pay entries are added to the employee for payment.