Affinity Payroll glossary

A levy collected through PAYE that funds cover for non-work injuries under New Zealand's Accident Compensation scheme. It is deducted from employee earnings up to an annual maximum, and the rate is reviewed each tax year, so payroll systems must apply the correct figure from 1 April.

NZ tax year-end guide

Additional payments made on top of base pay for specific conditions or duties, such as tool, travel, meal or first-aid allowances. Many are set by modern awards or agreements and must be applied and taxed correctly, which is where automated award interpretation reduces manual error.

Award interpretation

An arrangement under a modern award where an employee is paid a set annual salary meant to absorb entitlements like overtime and penalty rates. It carries strict reconciliation and record-keeping obligations, and shortfalls must be identified and back-paid to avoid underpayment.

Annualised salaries under modern awards

An extra percentage paid on top of ordinary pay while an employee takes annual leave, commonly 17.5% where an award or agreement provides it. Whether it applies, and to whom, depends on the relevant instrument, so accurate award interpretation is needed.

Award interpretation

The process of applying the rules of a modern award or enterprise agreement – rates, penalties, loadings, allowances and overtime – to each employee's hours and circumstances. Getting it right at scale is a leading source of underpayment risk when done manually.

Award interpretation

Automating pay calculations that would otherwise be manual, such as multi-period averaging, threshold tests and organisation-specific pay codes. It removes spreadsheet workarounds and the checking effort that comes with them, keeping complex calculations consistent every pay run.

Calculation automation

An additional percentage paid to casual employees to compensate for entitlements permanent staff receive, such as paid leave. The rate and its interaction with penalties and overtime are set by the applicable award or agreement.

Award interpretation

Distributing an employee's labour cost across multiple cost centres, projects, roles or locations, often by percentage or from timesheet data. It gives finance accurate cost visibility but frequently exceeds what basic payroll systems can handle.

Cost centre splitting made easy|Costing

Allowing employees to draw a portion of pay they have already earned before the scheduled pay day, with employer controls, approvals and reporting in place. It aims to support financial wellbeing without disrupting the normal pay cycle.

Pay on demand

Secure online access that lets employees view payslips and leave balances, update details and submit requests without going through payroll. It reduces routine queries and admin while improving transparency for staff.

Self service

The tax applied to an employer's cash contributions to an employee's superannuation fund, including KiwiSaver, in New Zealand. The correct ESCT rate depends on the employee's total remuneration and is reviewed each tax year.

NZ tax year-end guide

A payment made when employment ends, such as certain redundancy amounts or payments in lieu of notice, taxed under specific rules and subject to annual caps. Correct treatment matters because thresholds and the genuine redundancy limit change each year.

Australian tax year-end update

Digitising payroll forms – new starter, leave, banking or tax detail changes – and routing them through configurable approval chains instead of paper or email. Automating forms and workflow removes manual data entry and rework, and keeps a complete audit trail of who approved what and when.

Forms & Workflow

A delivery model where a provider runs payroll end to end as an accountable partner, from processing and compliance to reporting, while the organisation retains oversight. It suits teams that want to hand over the operational load rather than run the system in-house.

Fully managed payroll|What is fully managed payroll?

The finance-ready file that maps payroll results to the accounting chart of accounts so labour costs post correctly to the general ledger. A well-structured export removes manual journal rework and keeps finance and payroll reconciled.

Intelligent GL export

Gross pay is total earnings before any deductions. Net pay, or take-home pay, is what remains after tax and other deductions are applied. Clear payslips help employees see how the two relate and reduce pay queries.

Self service

New Zealand's voluntary work-based retirement savings scheme, with compulsory minimum employee and matching employer contributions once an employee is enrolled. Minimum rates are legislated and change over time, so payroll must apply the current rate from the effective date.

KiwiSaver contribution changes

Tracking the cost of labour – scheduled, actual and budgeted – with the ability to drill down by cost element such as project, role or location. It gives finance and operations a real-time view rather than a lagging month-end number.

Costing

A paid leave entitlement earned after a long period of continuous service with an employer, governed by state and territory legislation as well as some awards. Accruals and eligibility rules vary by jurisdiction, so they must be calculated per employee.

Core payroll

A native mobile app that gives employees on-the-go access to payslips, leave balances and requests, and rosters, alongside the same self-service functions available on desktop. It suits frontline and distributed teams who are rarely at a desk, reducing calls and emails to payroll and HR.

Mobile App

Industry or occupation-based instruments that set minimum pay rates and conditions – penalties, loadings, allowances and overtime – for employees not covered by an enterprise agreement. Around a fifth of Australian employees are paid at award rates, making accurate interpretation essential.

Annualised salaries under modern awards|Award interpretation

The earnings base used to calculate compulsory superannuation, broadly an employee’s ordinary hours of work plus certain loadings and allowances, but excluding most overtime. Because OTE drives the super calculation, misclassifying a pay element can cause under- or over-payment of super.

Payday super and STP July 2026

New Zealand's system for deducting income tax and the ACC earners' levy from employee wages each pay and remitting them to Inland Revenue. Correct PAYE relies on the right tax code and current rates for the tax year.

NZ tax year-end guide

Pay as you go withholding is the Australian system for deducting income tax from employee payments and remitting it to the ATO. Amounts are set by tax tables that are updated periodically, so payroll must apply the current tables.

Australian tax year-end update

The reform requiring employers to pay superannuation at the same time as salary and wages, rather than quarterly, from 1 July 2026. Contributions must reach the employee’s fund within a set number of days of each pay day, changing cash-flow and process timing.

Payday super: what changes and how to prepare|Payday super readiness

Affinity's configurable payroll assistant, also known as myPA. It watches payroll data for triggers an organisation defines – new starters, timesheet submissions, masterfile changes – and automatically delivers alerts, reports or files to the right person, reducing manual monitoring and follow-up work.

myPA

Meeting the legal and regulatory obligations that govern paying people – tax, superannuation or KiwiSaver, awards, leave and reporting – across every jurisdiction an organisation operates in. In AU and NZ this spans multiple bodies and frequent legislative change.

How to get payroll compliance right in AU and NZ

Connecting payroll with the systems around it – HRIS, ERP, finance and time-and-attendance – so data flows once rather than being keyed twice. Good integration removes double-handling and the reconciliation errors that come with it.

Integrations

Affinity's intelligence layer that automatically checks pay runs for anomalies, variances and award-interpretation issues before a pay run is finalised. It explains what changed and why, so payroll teams can catch and fix problems before payslips are issued rather than after.

Payroll IQ

Engaging an external specialist to run some or all of the payroll function. Models range from supported (the team keeps control with expert backup) to fully managed (the provider runs it end to end). It is distinct from employer-of-record or PEO arrangements.

The definitive guide to outsourcing payroll|Fully managed payroll

Producing trusted labour-cost data, exports and audit-ready reports from payroll. Reliable reporting underpins finance decisions, statutory obligations and audit, and depends on clean underlying data.

Reporting and data

The system that calculates pay, applies tax, super or KiwiSaver, awards and entitlements, and produces payslips, payments and reports. Enterprise payroll software is built to handle scale and complexity – multiple entities, roles, awards and jurisdictions – with controls and audit trails.

Core payroll|Platform overview

A state and territory tax on wages paid by employers above a threshold, with different rates, thresholds and grouping rules in each jurisdiction. The difficulty is less understanding the rules than getting the payroll system to apply the right ones for multi-state employers.

Managing multi-state payroll tax in Australia

The record given to an employee each pay showing earnings, deductions, allowances, tax and leave balances. Clear, accessible payslips reduce pay queries and support transparency and compliance with pay-record obligations.

Self service

Higher rates of pay for work at particular times – weekends, public holidays, evenings or overtime – set by the applicable modern award or agreement. Applying the right penalty to the right hours is a core award-interpretation task.

Award interpretation

Managing salary reviews, pay adjustments and remuneration structures with the right controls and approvals, then flowing approved changes into pay. Centralising this reduces manual rework and keeps changes compliant and auditable.

Remuneration management

A cloud-delivered model where the organisation runs payroll in-house on the provider's software, with automation handling pay runs, approvals and award interpretation. It suits teams that want control and configurability without managing infrastructure.

SaaS payroll

The ATO reporting framework under which employers report payroll information – salaries, tax withheld and super – at each pay event. From 1 July 2026, payday super changes what must be reported through STP at every pay day.

Payday super and STP July 2026

The compulsory minimum superannuation an employer must contribute for eligible employees, calculated on ordinary time earnings at a legislated rate. The rate and the maximum contribution base are set by legislation and change over time.

Payday super: what changes and how to prepare

SuperStream is the standard for sending super contributions and data electronically. Employers commonly submit through a clearing house that distributes payments to each employee's fund. Under payday super, the speed and accuracy of this process becomes more important.

Payday super readiness

A delivery model where the organisation keeps day-to-day control of payroll but has onshore expert backup to reduce rework and risk. It sits between running payroll entirely in-house and fully outsourcing it.

Supported payroll|Managed vs supported vs in-house

Capturing time, rosters and approvals cleanly and feeding accurate hours into payroll. Reliable time-and-attendance data reduces rework and improves controls, because errors caught here never reach the pay run.

Workforce management