Stats NZ uses 30 hours as a threshold to classify employees as part- or full-time. 

• Full-time: If the employee’s pay run default hours per week is ≥ 30 hours, then the employee will be classified as full-time.

• Part-time: If the employee’s pay run default hours per week < 30 hours, then the employee will be classified as part-time.

Data requirements for regular employees

Regular employees are on a standard or advanced work week.

Before running the Stats QES report, you should ensure that all regular employees have the accurate hours per week value under their pay run defaults.

To review employees’ hours per week in bulk, you can use the payroll settings > employee data extract (note that only active employees feature in this report) or use the employee details report with the default hours (per week) field.

Data requirement for irregular employees

At least two weeks of data must be processed for irregular employees as per the Irregular employment best practice. 

• Full-time: If the irregular employee’s irregular value of a week as at the start date of the specified pay run ≥ 30 hours, then the employee will be classified as full time.
• Part-time: If the irregular employee’s irregular value of a week as at the start date of the specified pay run < 30 hours, then the employee will be classified as part-time.

Note:

• When the specified pay run contains irregular employees whose start date is in the specified pay run, then the irregular value of a week will not be available for this employee as there will be insufficient payroll data for the system to calculate the irregular value of a week
• If the irregular employee’s irregular value of week is zero due to insufficient payroll data as at the first day of the specified pay run, the employee will be classified as part time.
• For the purposes of the Stats NZ QES, you can untick the irregular employment feature under the employee’s pay run defaults and enter a value in the hours per week that will reflect best estimate.

Casual employees

If the employee’s employment type under employee > tax code declaration is casual, then the employee will be classified as part-time.

Independent contractors

Where the “employee’s” employment status is independent contractor, the “employee” and his/her earnings/hours will not be counted in the Stats NZ QES reports.

You should check your pay categories are correctly classified for the Stats NZ QES report. You can check pay categories by going to:

1. Go to Payroll settings
2. Click Pay run settings
3. Click Pay categories
4. Click Pay classifications
   
   

The available classifications are:

• Default (Not reported to Stats NZ)

• Ordinary time

• Overtime

• Bonuses and commissions

• Other payments

Note: Pay categories can be classified independently from their parent pay category.

To check classifications, download the Pay Categories Data Extract from Payroll Settings > Business Management. The PaymentSummaryCategory column will show the classification within the spreadsheet.

Note: Bulk upload of payment classifications is currently not available.

1. Log into your Payroll platform.
2. Click the   Reports menu.
3. Click the Stats NZ QES report button.
   
4. Use the filters at the top of the page to filter. See Filtering options below for more information.
5. Click Run Report.
   
6. You can now view the report on-screen. 
7. To download the data, click Download. The report can be downloaded in the following formats:

   • Excel: Recommended for easy data manipulation. Copy and paste the data into the Stats NZ QES template.

   • PDF: For a frozen, uneditable reference copy.

   • CSV: For importing into other systems.

8. Click your chosen format. Your file will download.
9. You can now copy and paste the information from this report into the Stats NZ QES template form.

1. As at date: This is the date specified by Stats NZ and will be one of the following:

   • March quarter - 20 February
   • June quarter - 20 May
   • September quarter - 20 August
   • December quarter - 20 November

   According to Stats NZ’s requirement, the pay run ending on or immediately before the specified As at date must be reported on.

   Note: The As at date cannot be in the future from the date on which you are running the report. E.g. if running the report on 13/12/2024, then you can only run the report as at 13/12/24 and into the past but not as at 14/12/24.

2. Pay schedule filtering options
   When you:
   

   • Enter an As at date
   • Select a pay schedule
   • Do not select a pay run
   • Click run report

   The system reports on the pay run ending on or immediately before the As at date for the selected pay schedule.
   When you:

   • Enter an As at date
   • Select a pay schedule
   • Click the Pay Run drop-down list

   The system will display all pay runs for that specific pay schedule ending on or before the As at date. The pay run to be reported on will be the first pay run in the drop-down list, and you can choose to manually select the pay run from the list.

   When you:
   • Enter an As at date
   • Do not select a pay schedule
   • Click the Pay Run drop-down list

   The system will display all pay runs for all pay schedules ending on or before the As at date, i.e., all pay runs since the start of the business on the platform up to the pay period ending immediately before the As at date.

For each payroll (e.g. weekly, fortnightly, monthly), the following data points (DP) split by gender (female, male, other) will be available:

• Number of part-/full-time employees
• Gross pay
• Ordinary time pay
• Ordinary time hours
• Overtime pay
• Overtime hours
• Bonuses and commissions
• Other payments (e.g.: backpay, redundancy, retirement)

You can then copy this data and paste it into the NZ Stats QES template. To see where each data point goes in the form, see the Understand the data being reported section of this article.

Number of employees

• Total number of employees.
  

Gender Classification

• Employees are classified as female, male, or unspecified based on the gender specified in Employee Details > Gender.
  
  

Part-Time and Full-Time Classification

• Based on 30 hours per week, as per Stats NZ guidelines.
• Classification considers the employee’s regular hours rather than hours worked in a specific pay run.
  
  

Standard and Advanced Work Week Employees

• Full-Time: Default hours per week ≥ 30.
• Part-Time: Default hours per week < 30.

Irregular Employees

• Full-time: If the irregular employee’s irregular value of a week as at the start date of the specified pay run ≥ 30 hours, then the employee will be classified as full time.
• Part-time: If the irregular employee’s irregular value of a week as at the start date of the specified pay run < 30 hours, then the employee will be classified as part-time.

Casual Employees

• Always classified as part-time.

Independent Contractors

• Independent contractors are excluded from Stats NZ QES reports. You can check if an employee is an independent contractor by going to:
  1. Employee list
  2. Click the employee you want to check
  3. Tax code declaration
  4. Under Employment type, the employee will be listed as an Independent contractor, if they are one.
     

Gross Pay

• The sum gross earnings for all employees in the specified pay run, excluding payments classified as Default.
• Can be reconciled with the pay run audit report.
  

Ordinary Time Pay by Gender

• The sum of gross earnings from pay categories classified as ordinary time for the specified pay run.
  

Ordinary Time Hours by Gender

• The sum units of time from pay categories classified as ordinary time for the specified pay run.
  

Overtime Pay by Gender

• The sum of gross earnings from pay categories classified as overtime for the specified pay run.
  

Overtime Hours by Gender

• The sum units of time from pay categories classified as overtime for the specified pay run.
  

Bonuses and Commissions

• The sum gross earnings from pay categories classified as bonuses and commissions for the specified pay run.
  

Other Payments

• The sum gross earnings from pay categories classified as other payments for the specified pay run.
  

• Notes

  Pay runs must be finalised for their data to be included in the Stats NZ QES report data.

  Pay schedules are reported individually. Therefore, to gather data for a main pay schedule (e.g. weekly) including associated one-off pay runs (e.g. weekly ad hoc/one off pay runs), the report can be run for both pay schedules and the data added.

  e.g. if:

  A specified fortnightly pay run ends on 19/11/24 and a fortnightly one off pay run ending 19/11/204 was processed and the date specified by Stats NZ is 20/11

  Then the Stats NZ QES report can be issued for both Fortnightly and Fortnightly One off pay schedules and data points values added.

Employee locations

• Stats NZ also requires that employee numbers are specified by business location as at the specified date (note that there is no requirement to split this data point by gender or part-/full-time).

  If the business locations in Payroll platform correspond to its geographic locations e.g.:

  

  Then the employees’ primary location field can be used from the data extract > employee data report or from the employee details report, to report the number of employees by locations.

  If the business’s locations in the Payroll platform correspond to its cost centres, the employee’s residential address can be used from the data extract > employee data report or from the employee details report, to report the number of employees by locations.