Novopay Still Well Below the Standard

Media Release          19 August 2013

Novopay Still Well Below the Standard   

The New Zealand Principals' Federation (NZPF) President Philip Harding says that with the anniversary of the introduction of Novopay looming this week, there remains a lot of work to do.

“Despite the efforts of the Ministry over the last few months, principals remain unconvinced that Novopay will ever be “fit to purpose”, with 67% of respondents still lacking confidence in the software. While there is clearly some improvement evident, many school payroll staff continue to struggle, and concern is building already about the End of Year and Start of Year processes that were such a nightmare last year.”

58% of responding schools state that annual leave balances and sick leave are the most troublesome single issue at present, closely followed by difficulties getting answers from Novopay staff, and the general usability of the software itself.

Schools are once again crying out for financial assistance to cover the new work that Novopay has brought to the school office, with 67% of principals expecting extra resourcing in the operations grant for 2014. This is assistance which the Ministry has so far ruled out.
“August and September are relatively calm pay cycles in schools,” said Harding, “but the periods between now and Christmas will start to get busy, and the Ministry needs to be ready for that increasing complexity, to avoid a repeat of last year’s chaos. It should also reconsider the impact of this new workload on all schools, and fund schools sufficiently to cover it.”

ENDS

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