Dear Parish Treasurer/Secretary
As you are probably aware there have been a number of staff changes at the Anglican Administration Centre in Napier. Both Debbie Wooten and Alice Taylor left in the 3rd quarter last year and while we have transferred the work and redefined the roles the new team and I have gone through a difficult transition. We apologise for any late reports or slow payments you may have experienced during this transition.
I have been appointed as Finance Manager replacing Debbie (see the latest edition of the Waiapu News for more details). Megan Hopson continues her role in accounts payable and assistant accountant for the Board and the Diocese. Delwyn Dacre joined the team in late January and has replaced Alice as assistant accountant for the Parishes.
Since starting my time here as the new Finance Manager for the Parish Accounting scheme it has become clear that you are all interfacing with our finance team here in slightly different ways using all manner of paperwork. And while in the past this has worked, with both Debbie and Alice departing the scene it is time to relook at our house keeping and try to standardize what we do. This will have the benefit of making it easier for our new staff to process your work because it will all arrive in the same format, and easier for you because I am streamlining and lessening the paperwork I expect from you.
With all that in mind, from the 1st of April can you all please use the new forms attached to this letter (copies are also available for download along with a copy of this letter at http://www.waiapu.com/index.php?page=accounts-for-payment-form). Below is an explanation of how they are work:
Deposits into the Parish Accounting Scheme Bank Account
When making a deposit into the main Parish Accounting Scheme Bank Account (01-0685-0240866-000) can you please use the special deposit books supplied. They have a couple of extra reference codes built into the account number which identifies which Parish the deposit is from. You can imagine how much of our resource is wasted every time we get an unidentified deposit and have to ring around Parishes until we find the person who made the deposit to identify where it came from and what it was for.
Once a deposit has been made have you please complete the “Bank Deposit Details” form and either email it to delwyn@waiapu.com or fax it to (06)835-0680 so we can process the entry on the bank statement when it appears. This needs to be done in a timely manner as we process our bank statements daily. As you can imagine by the time we have transactions for nearly 40 Parishes going through this account we get several pages of bank statements a day and cannot afford to wait until the end of the month for information if we are to have reports available in time for your vestry meetings.
Payment of Creditors (monthly invoices)
No real change here. Each month please send in your invoices for payment along with the “Accounts for Payment” form completed and signed by an authorized person showing that the invoices have been approved for payment. Could these be sent in for payment as soon as they are available. Again we pay the creditors for nearly 40 Parishes and we get quite a bottle neck of work around the 20th of the month so it is good to get as many as we can out of the way early.
Imprest Accounts
This is the area that causes us the most problems, so we are going to simplify things.
The old “Re-imbursement of Imprest Account” is to no longer be used. It is replaced by a much simpler “Imprest Funds Transfer” form which simply asks for a top up to be paid to your imprest account or alternatively advises us that you have transferred excess money into the Parish Accounting Scheme Bank Account and the amount transferred. These transfers are to be coded to 1024. No breakdown of how the amount required was derived is required.
Each month when the bank statement is received simply code the statement (as in the example statement supplied with this letter), attached all invoices/remittance advices relating to the bank statement to the bank statement and post to us for processing. This change means that your imprest account balance in the monthly vestry report will fluctuate up and down depending on the balance you were holding at the end of the month.
Please note if you do not attach invoices relating to the payments made through the bank statement we will not claim the GST back on your behalf and your Parish will be poorer for it. We have to insist on this rule to comply with IRD regulations in case of a GST audit. No tax invoice = no GST refund.
Adjusting Journals
For those of you who use the existing “adjusting journal” form, this has been replaced by the attached “general journal” form. You must enter the debits and credits separately (unlike the previous form) and you must ensure that the total of the debit column equals the total of the total of the credit column. Any unbalanced journals will not be processed.
Parish Payroll
New Employees
To comply with NZ employment law every employee (full time, part time, and temporary) must have an employment contract. Churches are no exception.
Every new employee must complete a number of IRD forms:
1. IR330 (copy attached) which declares what their tax code is
2. KS10 (copy Attached) if the employee wishes to opt out of kiwisaver
3. KS2 (copy attached) if the employee wishes to opt into kiwisaver
For us to add a new employee onto our Parish Payroll we must be supplied a copy of their contract signed by the Diocesan Registrar, copies of the IRD documents from above, and a preprinted bank deposit slip showing the account the wages should be paid into. If any of this is missing we will not pay them until it is supplied.
Changes in Hours / Pay Rate / Termination
If an employee has a change in their conditions such as rate of pay, or hours to be worked, or they have resigned the “Change to Pay Rate / Hours / Termination Date” form must be completed, signed, and supplied to us before we will action such a change.
If the termination date field is completed we will action a final pay for the employee.
Timesheet
Unless your employee has standard hours (ie works the same number of hours every week) then the attached “Timesheet” form must be completed and signed to verify the number of hours they are to be paid.
Leave Request Forms
All employees are entitled four weeks paid annual leave per year (unless their employment contract states otherwise). This leave needs to be recorded as taken by our payroll software, as untaken leave will be paid out to the employee upon termination. If your employee takes leave and we are not advised, we will pay this leave out a second time upon termination and your Parish will incur extra costs that could have been avoided.
Please ensure that your employees complete the “Leave Request” form before going on leave (or as soon as they return in the case of sick leave). Send us a copy of the completed form including the authorized signature and we will make the appropriate payroll adjustments and keep a running tally of leave taken to ensure that the employee isn’t paid the leave again upon termination.
If you have any questions about any of the above, or any questions in general about the Parish Accounting Scheme please give me a call on (06)834-0373 and I will happily discuss your issues/concerns with you.
Kind regards
Brent Chamberlain
Finance Manager