Glossary of
payroll jargon

Accrued Leave is a type of leave which the employee spends their anniversary year accruing 4 or 5 weeks of annual leave. Throughout the year when they request day(s) off, the hours requested come from this type.

Annual Leave is the yearly entitlement employees receive, allowing them to take time off for rest and recreation. This is usually 4 or 5 weeks of leave. Annual Leave is given on their anniversary after each year of employment.

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Once they have worked for you for 6 months continuously, employees affected by a bereavement, miscarriage or stillbirth are entitled to up to three days of leave. Any more days are at the discretion of the employer.

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A Day in Lieu is an alternate holiday - meaning a day off that can be taken at another time.

Payroll deductions are amounts withheld from an employee's gross pay for various purposes, including taxes, insurance premiums, child support, student loans and KiwiSaver contributions.

Entitled Leave is any leave rolled over from the previous year(s). Where the employee has accrued their 4 weeks, any unused leave at their anniversary rolls over and becomes entitled.

ESCT is the Employer Superannuation Contribution Tax. It's the tax you take off the cash contributions you make to employees' superannuation accounts, including KiwiSaver.

Once they have worked for you for 6 months continuously, employees affected by domestic abuse can take up to 10 days of paid family violence leave.

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A Fixed-Term Employee is only employed for a set period of time, to be acknowledged in their contract.

A Full-Time Employee is employed consistently, usually around 35-40 hours a week.

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Gross pay is the total amount earned by an employee before any deductions, such as taxes and benefits.

An employee's Holiday Pay is 8% of their gross earnings since their last anniversary (or since their start date, if they’re still in the first year of employment), represented as a dollar figure.

Integrations are the alliance between our payroll software and various tools and software applications, like your bank or accounting software.

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An invoice is a list of goods sent or services provided, with a statement of how much is owed.

IR330 is a tax code declaration form. Upon getting this back from your employee, the right amount of tax can then be deducted from their income.

IRD, or the Inland Revenue Department, are responsible for collecting the tax revenue that the government needs to keep the country running.

KiwiSaver is a voluntary, work-based retirement savings scheme that employees can contribute to. It comes directly from their pay, and employees can select a percentage rate at which they choose how much goes into their KiwiSaver, depending on how aggressive they wish to be while saving.

The Living Wage is a voluntary, independently calculated hourly rate designed to ensure workers earn enough to live with dignity and participate actively in society. This is separate from the Minimum Wage.

The legal baseline salary employers must pay their workers for their labour. This is for anyone aged 16 and over.

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Net pay is the amount an employee takes home after all relevant deductions have been made.

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Parental Leave is the time parents and caregivers take off work to care for children or a new baby. Parental leave is a tricky field to navigate, so read more about it in our blogs page!

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A pay cycle, or pay period, is a regularly scheduled timeframe during which employees work and earn wages, typically ranging from weekly to monthly. It's separate from the payday, which is the day employees receive their paychecks.

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The best day for the employees, and the easiest day for employers (if you use PaySauce that is). Payday is the nominated day you choose to release payments to your employees. Payday varies in frequency depending on the workplace. It could be once a week, once a fortnight, once a month or a one off!

Payday Filing means you have to file the employment information every time you pay your employees with Inland Revenue Department (IRD). This is based on the date you pay employees (payday) and may be weekly, fortnightly, monthly or more often if you have multiple paydays. You only need to file employment information for an employee when you pay them. On the PaySauce Standard and Premium plans, we can do that all for you!

PAYE, or Pay as you Earn, are the deductions employers are required to make from their employees earning a wage, salary or schedular payments. PaySauce calculates that all for you!

You’ll open and start a pay run whenever you want to pay your employees. These are usually at a set frequency - see Pay Period / Pay Cycle

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A Payslip is a document given to employee(s) each payday. It shows their total amount earned and their deductions for things such as tax or KiwiSaver.

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A Public Holiday is a day(s) of significance in which many businesses are closed. When a public holiday falls on a day your employee would usually work, they’re entitled to a paid day off, no matter how long they’ve been working for you. If they choose to work, you must pay them at least time and a half, and give them an alternative holiday, also called a Day in Lieu.

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A fixed annual amount that your employee will receive which is divided equally by the number of pay periods.

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Once they've worked for you for 6 months consistently, employees are entitled to at least 10 days of paid sick leave each year to care for themselves, their partners, children and other dependants.

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Refers to the end of your employee’s time at your business, and the final pay they receive when their employment ends. 

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Timesheets are where work hours, leave, deductions and bonuses are recorded and calculated for each employee.

The Training Wage applies if the employee is 20 years old or over, and their employment agreement states that they have to do at least 60 credits a year of an industry training programme to become qualified in the area they are working in. This usually applies to apprentices.

Employees can apply for unpaid leave for any reason — but it’s totally up to you whether or not to agree to grant it. This agreement should be recorded in writing.

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Wages are payments based on an hourly rate. This is for an employee that gets paid just for the hours that they work