Setting Up Public Holiday Entitlements, Pay Items and Pay Groups (NZ)

In support of the above legislative requirements, MYOB Acumatica — Payroll provides the ability to administer public holidays payments in bulk, supporting payments for both days worked and not worked. Public holidays are processed in the context of an employee’s work pattern and paid out using the employee’s RDP or ADP rate.

Public holiday pay items can be configured to include penal rates for days worked and be set to automatically accrue an alternative day off if required. Unused alternative holiday leave balance can be paid out to an employee together with any PH due to the employee because of unused annual leave. The latter is calculated in the context of the notional end date as determined by unused earned annual leave.

This document describes the setup steps required to enable public holiday management in MYOB Acumatica — Payroll, followed by a detailed overview of the steps taken by a payroll administrator to process public holiday payments.

Note: This document provides guidance on how to manage leave entitlements within our product. We recommend that you read the MBIE document “Holidays Act 2003: Guidance on annual holidays, domestic violence, leave, bereavement leave, alternative holidays, public holidays and sick leave” to understand how to meet your obligations as an employer under the Holidays Act 2003. If you have further questions or are in doubt, it is best to seek legal advice to ensure you are meeting your obligations.

Public Holiday Entitlements and Pay Items

MYOB Acumatica — Payroll includes the following public holiday entitlements and pay items be default, configured to transact the relevant payments and accruals.

Note: These default pay items only serve as templates and are by no means prescribed entitlement configuration. It is the responsibility of each employer to ensure that their entitlement accrual and payment settings suit their employment agreements and are compliant with legislation, seeking advice from eligible parties as required.


Entitlement: PUBHOL – Public Holiday	This is a non-accruing entitlement transacted in the unit of “Days” and valued according to the daily rate applicable to the employee. The exact rate method to use is set on the employee’s pay details (i.e. RDP/ADP). By default, the entitlement is set to be paid out on termination and associated with a default termination pay item, ensuring that the employee will receive payment for PH falling on an OWD within the period of earned annual leave taken immediately after the date on which their employment came to an end.
Pay item: PHNOTWORK – Public Holiday Not Worked	This pay item is used when paying an employee that is not required to work on a public holiday that would have been an OWD. Employees are not expected/required to enter a leave request for this payment. The pay item is of type “Entitlement Payment” and associated with the public holiday entitlement above.
Pay item: PHWORKED – Public Holiday Worked	This pay item is used when paying an employee for working on a public holiday, regardless of whether or not it is an OWD. The pay item is of type “Entitlement Payment” and associated with the public holiday entitlement above. A multiplier of 1.5 has been applied, to ensure that an employee is paid at least time and a half for working. This multiplier may be increased if necessary. The item is configured to automatically include an Alternative Holiday Accrual pay item when processed. When doing so, the units transacted for the days worked are applied to the Alternative Holiday accrual. For example, if the employee worked one public holiday within the pay period, then one day of Alternative Holiday is accrued. Employees contracted to work on public holidays are not entitled to an Alternative Day off when working on a public holiday. This item can be copied, and a separate pay item created for this purpose. The multiplier of 1.5 should be retained, but the automatic inclusion of an Alternative Day off can be disabled on this pay item.
Pay item: PHTERM – Public Holiday Termination	This pay item is used when paying an employee for relevant public holidays as determined by the employee’s notional termination date. The pay item is of type “Termination – Unused Leave” and associated with the public holiday entitlement above. Public Holiday payments made in accordance with the employee’s notional termination date are taxed as “Extra Pay” and are not exempt from ACC Earner Levy Payments.

Alternative Holiday Entitlements and Pay Items

MYOB Acumatica — Payroll includes the following public holiday entitlements and pay items be default, configured to transact the relevant payments and accruals.


Entitlement: ALTHOL – Alternative Holiday	This is a non-accruing entitlement transacted in the unit of “Days” and valued according to the daily rate applicable to the employee. The exact rate method to use is set on the employee’s pay details (i.e. RDP/ADP). By default, the entitlement is set to be paid out on termination and associated with a default termination pay item, ensuring that the employee will receive payment for PH falling on an OWD within the period of earned annual leave taken immediately after the date on which their employment came to an end.
Pay item: PHNOTWORK – Public Holiday Not Worked	This pay item is used when paying an employee that is not required to work on a public holiday that would have been an OWD. Employees are not expected/required to enter a leave request for this payment. The pay item is of type “Entitlement Payment” and associated with the public holiday entitlement above.
Pay item: PHWORKED – Public Holiday Worked	This pay item is used when paying an employee for working on a public holiday, regardless of whether or not it is an OWD. The pay item is of type “Entitlement Payment” and associated with the public holiday entitlement above. A multiplier of 1.5 has been applied, to ensure that an employee is paid at least time and a half for working. This multiplier may be increased if necessary. The item is configured to automatically include an Alternative Holiday Accrual pay item when processed. When doing so, the units transacted for the days worked are applied to the Alternative Holiday accrual. For example, if the employee worked one public holiday within the pay period, then one day of Alternative Holiday is accrued. Employees contracted to work on public holidays are not entitled to an Alternative Day off when working on a public holiday. This item can be copied, and a separate pay item created for this purpose. The multiplier of 1.5 should be retained, but the automatic inclusion of an Alternative Day off can be disabled on this pay item.
Pay item: PHTERM – Public Holiday Termination	This pay item is used when paying an employee for relevant public holidays as determined by the employee’s notional termination date. The pay item is of type “Termination – Unused Leave” and associated with the public holiday entitlement above. Public Holiday payments made in accordance with the employee’s notional termination date are taxed as “Extra Pay” and are not exempt from ACC Earner Levy Payments.

Alternative Holiday Entitlements and Pay Items

MYOB Acumatica — Payroll includes the following alternative holiday entitlements and pay items be default, configured to transact the relevant payments and accruals.


Entitlement: ALTHOL – Alternative Holiday	This is an accruing entitlement transacted in the unit of “Days” and valued according to the daily rate applicable to the employee. The exact rate method to use is set on the employee’s pay details (i.e. RDP/ADP). Entitlement accrual is transacted at runtime when processing payment for a public holiday worked. As such, no explicit accrual rules need be specified for this entitlement. Alternative Holiday accrual is valued at the employee’s standard rate. Enabling the Auto adjust provisioned entitlement amount option on the Valuation tab of the entitlement will ensure the entitlement liability is adjusted correctly to match payments made at the employee’s FBAPS rate (i.e. RDP/ADP).
Pay item: ALTHOL – Alternative Holiday Accrual	This pay item is used to apply the payment for an employee who is required to work on a public holiday that is an OWD. It provides the employee with a “credit” for leave to be taken at another date, i.e. it is accruing an alternative holiday for a PH worked. The pay item is of type “Entitlement Accrual” and associated with the Alternative Holiday entitlement above. Alternative Holiday liability is not typically tracked. However, if you choose to do so, the Include Accrual in GL option on the Additional Info tab of the Pay Item window (MPPP should be enabled.
Pay item: PHTERM – ALTHOLTAKE – Alternative Leave Taken	Used to apply the payment for an employee that has asked to use some of their accrued Alternative Holiday Days, i.e. tracks what Alternative Leave Days were taken. The pay item is of type “Entitlement Payment” and associated with the Alternative Holiday entitlement above.
Pay item: PHTERM – ALTHOLTAKE – Alternative Leave Taken	Used when paying an employee for unused Alternative Holiday leave during termination. The pay item is of type “Termination – Unused Leave” and associated with the Alternative Holiday entitlement above.

Work Calendar

MYOB Acumatica includes a default New Zealand calendar on the Work Calendar screen (CS209000), prepopulated to contain statutory holidays but excluding regional holidays. This default calendar can be duplicated and modified to suit the requirements of each region, including adding region-specific public holidays. Different work calendars can also be created for different working patterns. Calendars are associated with employees using the Employee Pay Groups screen (MPPP2250).

A good example of this would be to create a separate working calendar for employees expected to work on public holidays. In such a case, public holidays in the Exception list may be indicated as a “Work Day”. Doing so will ensure that “Public Holiday Worked” pay items are processed when preparing a public holiday payment batch.

Some public holidays which fall on a Saturday or Sunday, are eligible for Mondayisation/Tuesdayisation. In such a case the public holiday, originally falling on, for example, a Saturday is observed on the following Monday (or following Tuesday, should the Monday already be a PH). The application of this rule must be evaluated per employee, considering their working schedule. For example, if an employee was scheduled to work on an original day, the public holiday is not Mondayised for that employee. To reduce the administrative burden of managing such cases, the default calendar exceptions include, where applicable, the original an observed public holiday dates. See the Public Holiday Processing section for more detail on how such cases are processed in practice.

Pay Item Liabilities

The Pay Item Liabilities screen (MPPP1025) allows payroll administrators to manage, in bulk, the pay items to be considered when valuing holidays and leave payments. Liable pay items are valued based on the employee’s pay and their pay history.

Public Holidays, for instance, must be paid at no less than the employee’s Relevant Daily Pay (RDP), or Average Daily Pay (ADP) rate (only if RDP calculation is not practical). Using the Pay Item Liability screen, the payroll administrator can indicate the pay items to be used when determining these rates. Following an example of how these items are used when calculating Public Holiday payment rates per employee.


Relevant daily pay	The RDP rate is calculated as follows: Retrieve all Pay items flagged as Liable for RDP Identify which of the liable items are in the employee’s standard pay for the relevant pay group Determine the RDP rate as per the RDP definition for each identified standard pay item. (To see the RDP definition for a pay item, click the View Definition link next to the pay item in an employee’s standard pay.)
Average daily pay	The ADP rate is calculated as follows: Retrieve all pay items flagged as Liable for ADP Retrieve 52 weeks pay history for the employee Evaluate the 52 weeks pay history in the context of the liable pay items to determine the gross liable income to be used in the ADP valuation. Divide by the ADP divisor, which is calculated as follows: Retrieve the employee’s work schedule for the past 52 weeks and determine the number of whole or part days worked in this period. Whether the employee has worked on a day is determined by the Working Day flag on the Employee Work Schedule. If historic pays have been imported, retrieve the work days for those separately. The divisor is the sum of the two.

Note: Items liable for ADP are defined by Section 14 (Gross pay) of the Holidays Act. Section 14 also applies to Annual Leave (aka Holiday Pay). Therefore Pay Items with “Liable for ADP” ticked are also expected have “Liable for Holiday Pay” ticked and vice versa. The only reason to have difference would be where the employer has obtained specific legal advice to do so.

Pay Group Configuration

Using the Pay Groups screen (MPPP2710), the payroll administrator maintains the groups that employees are paid in, specifying the default pay items to be used when processing Public Holiday worked/not worked payments. Each public holiday batch applies to a single pay group, and therefore all employees who are members of that group. Employees are assigned either of the default pay items according to the working pattern and work calendar configuration.

Employee termination also depends on the default pay items being set. Using the default item the Payroll module derives the underlying entitlement and its associated termination pay item to be used for payments.

The Employee Pay Groups screen (MPPP2250) describes an employee’s membership to one or more pay groups and is used to specify pay rate details. The following are of particular importance to public holiday processing:

Calendar ID: The calendar defaults from the Employee profile when the pay group association is first made and used as a source for public holidays processing. This calendar is also used to pre-fill the employee schedule when a new pay run is opened and the employee Work Pattern Source is set to Work Calendar. This entry can be changed as required.
Standard Rate: The rate used for leave valuation if the FBAPS Rate on the employee profile is set to RDP - Standard Rate.