Quantity column on pay slip incorrect

Sandra_10124565

For our payroll, we record our employees' hours against Customer:Job and Class, and use these hours to create the pay run.

STP2 is forcing us to disaggregate all-purpose allowances paid to our employees, which means that I now have to split these allowances off and list them as additions instead of including them combined with the hourly wages. I've set up new Payroll Items for these allowances, and checked the box "Track Expenses by Job".

I have created a "dummy" employee and done a dummy pay run to check this works, so that the now-'allowances' will continue to get matched against the applicable job and class.

But the Quantity column is giving the incorrect number (see this sample payslip; the quantities should read 38 / 2 / 5 / 12 / 38 / 38. The actual amounts are correct. This is hopeless for our employees; they (and I) will get confused. If I don't use "Track Expenses by Job", the quantities are correct.

From looking on this forum I see that this is a bug in Reckon, and that the quantity column only seems to work in the Standard payslip template (but that as soon as that standard payslip is modified the bug returns). The other suggestion which John made regarding having multiple allowances with slightly different names (eg for Project A/Project B) is not an option - we could end up with more than a hundred different instances of each allowance.

Does anyone know of any other workarounds which can make the quantity column work? And if not, how do we get Reckon to fix this known bug as a priority? Now the STP2 requirements are forcing employers to use the additions section it is vital that this works; otherwise the functionality of being able to track expenses by job is lost. That is; unless there is another workaround, then we have a choice of complying with ATO STP2 requirements and providing accurate payslips to employees OR being able to track expenses by job. Not both. Given that it might only be a bug fix that is needed and not a new feature, can we get this fixed?

Acctd4

Hi Sandra

Have you tried setting them up as "Neither" (with the specific amounts in the employee records) rather than to calculate by Qty or Hrs ? :

Just an interesting note on the disaggregation .... we have been advised by our bookkeeping industry top people (who are on the board with the ATO for STP2) that the disaggregation is not required IF the contract states an inclusive rate eg if an employee's contract states they are paid "$ 26.41 p/hr inclusive of an all-purpose allowance for XYZ". In this case, as the separate amounts are not stated, they would be unable to be separated. NOTE: This is a VERY specific exception though that only applies if the contract is specifically worded this way!

Sandra_10124565

Thanks for the reply Shaz.

Can't set them up as "Neither" because they are quantity based, and often change weekly. This would require an extra calculation in an external spreadsheet, plus still not achieve a clear payslip. The actual amount paid IS calculating correctly; it's only the Qty column that is frustratingly showing an incorrect amount.

We definitely have to disaggregate these allowances; Building Award MA000020 Industry and Tool allowances. The amounts are stated.

Acctd4

That’s a shame 😬 (I was assuming because the quantities were incorrect, they weren’t based on that )

Can you not use one of the default pay slip templates ?

Yes, the disaggregation will be required with that one then 😢