Changing EXO Payroll to use a company anniversary date (New Zealand)
MYOB Exo Payroll has an option to use a "Company Anniversary Date" - this effectively enforces the same Annual Leave Anniversary Date (and entitlement year) for all Employees in that Payroll Company.
In New Zealand, this is used by employers in certain industries that have a "regular or customary annual closedown":
- Effectively, the Employer nominates a date on which employees become entitled to annual holidays.
- New employees have a “Short” first entitlement year (for example, six months if they start mid-June and the closedown is mid-December).
- After the first entitlement date has been reached, Annual Leave is accrued in a normal 12-month cycle.
Outside of the above circumstances, an employer should not nominate a particular date and in most cases an Employee’s entitlement date will be based on their Start Date.
To read an article on annual closedowns by the New Zealand government's Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), click here.
There is a "Company Anniversary Date" setting within the Payroll Setup "Leave Management" screen (access via the Utilities menu):
- This is normally used only when setting up a new company within a few industries with recognised close down periods.
- Changing this setting in an existing company will impact on present and future employees. There is an option to automatically apply the Company date to present employees.
MYOB does not recommend changing to a Company Anniversary Date from your existing settings for the following reasons:
- Leave entitlements are generally based on employee Start Dates.
- Changing to a "Company Anniversary Date" would work for new employees but it will cause existing Employees' current year accrual to recalculate based on the new date. The leave balance will alter and will require manual adjustment in each employee record to compensate.
When changing employee's from using the Anniversary of their Start Date to using a Company Anniversary Date, below is an example of what changes need to be done for the employee:
- Picture an employee in September, entitled to 20 days leave, with an Anniversary date of 20 June (ie next year).
- By 20 September, they have accrued 5 days (so 25% of entitlement, for 3 months from 20 June to 20 September). They also have 5 days Outstanding (“carried over”) from a previous year. Their Annual Leave balance is therefore 10 days.
- Now, a Company Anniversary Date of 20 December (this year) is applied.
- The employee’s accrual now becomes 15 days (so 75% of entitlement for 9 months 20 December to 20 September). Still have 5 days Outstanding, so their balance has changed from 10 to 20 days.
- To restore balance back to 10 days, the only option is to remove the 5 days Outstanding and add 5 days Advanced (together with an estimated dollar value).
Removing an existing company anniversary date
Moving from “Company Date” to “based on employee start date” is far easier than the reverse, provided the following points are observed:
- As this is a significant change, we recommend first making a backup, and printing reports that show current leave entitlements.
- Un-check the "Company Anniversary Date" setting within the Payroll Setup “Leave Management” option (access via the Utilities menu) and save the change.
- For new employee’s added after the change, annual leave entitlement will be based on their start date.
- For existing employees, maintain their existing settings (including the “old” Company Anniversary date). Their leave accrual has worked, and will continue to work, perfectly well.
- Changing existing Anniversary dates will lead to a similar situation as described above when changing to Company Anniversary Date and require manual adjustment for each person.
Need more help? You can open the online help by pressing F1 on your keyboard while in your software.
You can also find more help resources on the MYOB Exo Employer Services Education Centre for Australia or New Zealand.