News

MacBusiness Payroll is not compatible with macOS 10.14 (Mojave)

Mon, 15 Oct 2018 14:10:18 +1300

MacBusiness Payroll is not compatible with macOS 10.14 (Mojave).

As we are not releasing any further upgrades to MacBusiness Payroll before it is retired at the end of March 2019, we recommend you do not upgrade your computer to Mojave before you migrate to an alternative payroll system.

If it is not possible for you to delay upgrading to Mojave please contact us to discuss possible alternatives.

Rate increase

Wed, 07 Mar 2018 16:20:40 +1300

We take great pride in providing you with high quality customer support and software development, at competitive market rates.

We have held our charge-out rate at the same level for four years, but regret that we now find it necessary to make an adjustment.

Effective from 1 April 2018, our new rate for these services will be $150 (+ GST), an increase of 3.4%.

We look forward to being able to continue to offer you the high standard of customer support and software development that we have in the past.

IRD no longer accepting computer generated (printed) monthly returns (EMS/IR348)

Wed, 28 Feb 2018 14:23:12 +1300

Inland Revenue has advised us they will no longer accept computer generated (printed) monthly returns (EMS/IR348) from 1 April 2018.

If you don't use ir-File, this means you must either: manually enter the details on their website via MyIR, or manually fill out and post their preprinted form IR348 each month

This is not the first time Inland Revenue have made this announcement, they did the same two years ago, but it does sound like they mean it this time.

MacBusiness Payroll - the end of an era

Tue, 13 Feb 2018 16:16:20 +1300

After 20 years of service, we have decided it is time to retire MacBusiness Payroll.

There are major changes coming up next year as a result of Inland Revenue’s Business Transformation Project. Faced with a hefty software development cost versus the number of customers using MacBusiness Payroll, sadly it is no longer economic to continue.

If tax legislation currently before parliament is passed in March this year (as expected) MacBusiness Payroll will cease to be compliant from 1 April 2019.

Our payroll will continue to be compliant right up until the end of March 2019. However, it will not be updated and therefore is unlikely to meet the requirements of the new legislation after that date.

MacBusiness Software Limited will continue to operate without MacBusiness Payroll, but focussed more on custom database development.

We will continue to communicate with you and support Payroll for the duration, and thank you for being loyal payroll customers throughout the years. We have enjoyed our contact with you, and wish you great success in the future.

Payroll Changes for 1 April 2018

Tue, 13 Feb 2018 16:13:25 +1300

Tax rate changes for MacBusiness Payroll for 1 April 2018 have been announced:

The maximum ACC earnings threshold increases from $124,053 to $126,286 per annum. The ACC levy rate will remain at $1.39.
The earnings threshold for Student Loan deductions increases from $19,136 per annum to $19,448.

From next month (March) you can go to Setup, click the "Tax/ACC/KiwiSaver tab", and click "Update Tax Rates" to load these new rates. The new tax rates won't be applied until you load a pay with a payment date in April. Alternatively, you can wait till you get a prompt from Payroll to update them automatically when you load your first pay with a payment date in April.

macOS High Sierra (10.13) compatibility

Wed, 15 Nov 2017 09:49:47 +1300

Our testing of MacBusiness Payroll v4.29 has not revealed any issues with macOS High Sierra (10.13)

PAYROLL: tax changes for 1 April 2017

Tue, 14 Mar 2017 04:15:51 +1300

Tax rate changes for MacBusiness Payroll for 1 April 2017 have been released:

The maximum ACC earnings threshold increases from $122,063 to $124,053 per annum
The earnings threshold for Student Loan deductions increases from $19,084 to $19,136 per annum

You can go to Setup, click the "Tax/ACC/KiwiSaver tab", and click "Update Tax Rates" to load these new rates any time from now. The new tax rates won't be applied until you load a pay with a payment date in April.

Alternatively, you will get a prompt from Payroll to update them automatically when you load your first pay with a payment date in April.

Payroll v4 - support expiring

Wed, 23 Nov 2016 10:49:47 +1300

MacBusiness Payroll version 3, is no longer compliant with New Zealand Tax legislation, uses obsolete technology that is incompatible with current computer operating systems and is increasingly difficult for us to access.

Therefore, we regret that as of 1 April 2017, we will no longer be providing support for MacBusiness Payroll version 3.

We encourage you to upgrade to MacBusiness Payroll version 4.

MacBusiness Payroll version 4 was released in 2012, is compliant with New Zealand Tax legislation, and can run on the latest computer operating systems. Learn more about it on our website, www.macbusiness.co.nz/payroll. We can upgrade your data to this version, at a cost of $299 + GST.

If you are interested in the upgrade, please contact us.

Sierra Compatibility

Fri, 30 Sep 2016 09:00:00 +1300

There are problems with MacBusiness Payroll 4.26 and macOS Sierra (10.12). Please contact us for a free upgrade to Payroll 4.28.

Our testing of MacBusiness Job Tracking 6 has not revealed any issues with macOS Sierra.

MacBusiness Payroll and Mac OS 10.11, El Capitan

Wed, 03 Aug 2016 03:26:38 +1200

Some users have reported that MacBusiness Payroll crashes, randomly, when they are running on Mac OS 10.11 (El Capitan).

There is a free upgrade of MacBusiness Payroll now available to prevent these crashes from occurring.

We will be contacting all of our Mac customers to offer you the free upgrade, but if you are experiencing crashes with Payroll, call us to arrange an early installation.

The minimum system required is Mac OS 10.9 (Mavericks) and we need to access your computer remotely for about 20 minutes to do the install.

Holiday's Act and MacBusiness Payroll

Tue, 05 Apr 2016 08:49:30 +1200

There has been much publicity in the press recently about holiday pay, some of it of dubious value in our opinion.

Reading between the lines, however, the issue seems to be about leave payments for employees with irregular work patterns and additional payments.

MBIE released a statement last Thursday which suggests the employers they have investigated were not accurately recording fluctuating hours and additional payments, and consequently did not apply the appropriate rules when paying leave for those employees.

You can read MBIE's statement in full at:

http://www.mbie.govt.nz/about/whats-happening/news/2016/labour-inspectorate-investigates-employers-for-holiday2019s-act-breaches

In MacBusiness Payroll we provide guidelines for dealing with employees in this situation via the View Leave button on the pay run window.

We are confident if you are entering employee's hours correctly, have their leave settings configured correctly, and are following the guidelines on the View Leave window you are complying with the Holidays Act.

The rules for paying leave are complicated and in some cases open to interpretation. Business groups and the New Zealand Payroll Practitioners Association have been requesting simplification and clarification of the Holidays Act for years without any progress to date. We can only hope this latest incident will result in some action.

PAYROLL: changes for 1 April 2016

Tue, 15 Mar 2016 04:36:45 +1300

An update for MacBusiness Payroll, v4.26, has been released and includes the following three significant changes:

ACC rate changes for 1 April 2016: the maximum ACC earnings threshold has increased to $122,063 per annum, and the ACC levy rate has decreased to $1.39.

Final pay: clicking the "final pay" button in pay window now creates a separate pay transaction to allow it to be taxed as an ‘Extra Payment’ to meet IRD’s recent publication Commissioner’s operational position on calculating PAYE on holiday pay.

Email payslips: there are now two options for sending payslips from MacBusiness Payroll. As well as emailing payslips directly from Payroll, you can choose to email your payslips via your normal email programme (Mail & Outlook 2011 for Mac, or Outlook 32-bit for Windows), to enable you to have more control over the sending of payslips.

You can see a full list of changes on our FAQ page.

Windows 10 Compatibility

Tue, 01 Mar 2016 02:06:30 +1300

MacBusiness PAYROLL version 4 is supported on Windows 10.

NEW version Job Tracking 6 now available!

Sun, 26 May 2013 04:44:28 +1200

A totally new version of MacBusiness Job Tracking is now available, with a new look, and host of new features including:

• New modern interface, including spotlight search, dynamic picklists, expanding windows

• drag & drop integrated file storage for documents or images

• Runs on iPad, access all your Job Tracking information remotely

Go to our Job Tracking page to see the new interface, and system requirements.