Process Lump Sum Payments, Bonuses or Leave in Advance

You are able to process Lump Sum payments directly in the Pay Run.  The feature is within the 'Actions' button within the employee's pay run details. 

After creating a new pay run and an employee is owed a lump sum payment in the form of a commission, back pay or similar payment, you can now do this from within the employee's earnings details by following these steps:

Select the 'Actions' button in the bottom right hand corner of the employee's earning details, see below:

Select 'Add lump sum payments' from the pop up menu.  An 'Other earnings' line will be added, see below.  You then need to select the pay category you are wanting to pay the lump sum against.

In this example, see below, 228 hours of backpay are owing as a lump sum. The rate will be determined by the pay category selected.  However, the rate can be overridden (as it has been in this screenshot). Then hit the save button that appears.

The pay will now include the lump sum payment and with the correct PAYE calculated.

Paying Leave "in advance" using Lump Sum Payments

Use this if you are wanting to pay leave in advance.  For example, say you want to pay your employee for last week's wages but they've taken this week and next week off on annual leave, and want to be paid up front, i.e. you'll be paying them for 3 weeks: last week (when they worked) and this and next week's leave.  Follow these steps:

1. Pay the 'ordinary' earnings as usual then use the 'Add Lump Sum Payment' option on the 'Actions' button within the employee record in the pay run, select the 'Leave Taken' pay category (in this case Annual Holidays Taken) and enter the total leave hours to be paid.  
2. Paying leave this way does NOT reduce the employee's leave balance so you'll need to use the Adjust leave option from the Actions button within the employee record, select the type of leave and enter a negative adjustment to reduce the leave balance by the number of hours being taken (be careful NOT to apply any earnings rules).
3. Paying leave this way does NOT accrue leave on the leave hours taken so you'll also have to adjust the leave accrual rate in the pay run (if they are set to accrue hours per pay run)  - click on the little pencil next to the accrual figure and overtype with the correct amount of leave that should accrue.

Processing a Bonus

If you are wanting to pay a bonus simply follow these steps:

1. Create a new pay run and use the 'Add lump sum payment' option on the 'Actions' button within the employee record in the pay run and select the 'Bonus' pay category to pay it.  

PAYE on the lump sum

For the PAYE calculation on the lump sum please see this article

If you have any questions or feedback, please let us know via support@nzpayroll.co.nz