Banking staffing

Introduction

Banking Staffing gives boards some flexibility in timing the use of staffing entitlement. Schools can in one year choose to:

• Anticipate up to 10% of their staffing entitlement - using it in advance or going into overdraft.
• Save up staffing to use later in the year - under-using or banking.
• Operate Staffing usage on a full year basis - no saving and no overdraft in each pay period.

Conditions

The following conditions apply:

• The board is responsible for monitoring usage and for keeping within its overall staffing entitlement for the banking staffing year, using the time period for balancing the staffing usage from the previous year end position as necessary.
• A board can either anticipate up to 10% staffing above entitlement during the year or save staffing entitlement to use later in the year.
• Staffing used in advance of entitlement must be made up or `repaid' within the same banking staffing year or within the time period for balancing the staffing usage from the previous year end position. Overuse remaining at the end of the time period will be recovered by the Ministry out of the board's operational funding. This is currently based on the rate of $50,000 and may be subject to change.
• Any unused staffing entitlement remaining at the end of the time period for balancing the staffing usage from the previous year end position will be lost.
• The time period for balancing the staffing usage is pay periods [y]23 to [y]26 in respect of the banking staffing year ended [y]22.
• If , at the end of the banking staffing year, a board has exceeded the 10% limit for using staffing in advance, permission to anticipate staffing entitlement the next year may be withheld by the Ministry.

Essential Information:

• Make sure all instructions to Payroll are accurate. It is important to correctly identify the salary source for teachers (Teachers Salaries or Bulk Grant) if any benefits of 'banking' are to be maximised;
• Check that every Ministry banking staffing report (issued fortnightly) is correct;
• Make sure all decisions on banking staffing as agreed by the board are minuted;
• Inform Payroll immediately if adjustments are required to fix errors or if there is a change to the salary source of any teacher;
• Holiday pay and ACC can cause variations to the staffing balance. Check with the Ministry/Payroll when these are noted. Also check out the Banking Staffing Holiday Pay website;
• Banking staffing information is financial information. It will be audited. The documentation must be kept for seven years for Income Tax requirements;
• Use the modelling spreadsheet (download) to explore possible banking options;
• Seriously consider whether trying to use small amounts of banked staffing is worth the bother;
• Be proactive. Follow up anomalies quickly with Payroll. Adjustments can take time to get sorted;
• Log phone calls and file all correspondence on banking staffing so that a "history" of communications can be traced if necessary;
• Seek advice from the Payroll manager, Ministry Resourcing help desk, principal's networks.

Links

The following links and downloads are provided to help you resolve any banking staffing problems you may have.

Resourcing Handbook

Holiday Pay Explanation & Graph