Making Payments: Pay Now via POLi

Pay Now via POLi is one of the ways you can pay your employees with PayHero. Learn more about Pay Now via POLi below, or for more information on the options available, see our article: How do I pay my employees?

Pay Now via POLi provides a fast and convenient way for you to pay your staff as well as paying the Tax/PAYE to Inland Revenue at the same time a pay is sent through PayHero. With Pay Now active, these payments can be made via an online Account-to-Account POLi payment.

Please note, there will be an associated $5 bank fee per pay run paid via Pay Now and this feature is only available to use for payroll transactions of up to $30,000.

Activating Pay Now

Under Manage > Settings > Payroll Settings in PayHero, ensure you've ticked the Pay Now option. Our Payroll Settings support article has more information on finding this and activating Pay Now.

About Pay Now & POLi Payments

POLi is an online payment option you can use to make payment for your pay run directly from your bank account, all while still being logged into PayHero. 

When you pay with POLi the transaction is completed in a pop-up window, within the security of your bank's online banking services and at no time are your personal banking login details disclosed to FlexiTime Ltd (PayHero). For further information, please read the POLi privacy policy.

Transaction Times

At this stage, Pay Now payments are processed through the bank at 8:45pm on the same date the payment is made via Pay Now and will be within the recipient bank accounts by around 10:30pm that same day.

Please note, you will need to have the pay sent and processed through Pay Now in PayHero prior to 7:00pm on any given date in order to be included in that days Pay Now process. Pays that are sent after 7pm will be included in the following days Pay Now batch.

Supported Banks

Depending on which bank you use, POLi Payments may be referred to under a different name. You can read more about the supported banks and requirements for POLi via their website here: POLi - FAQs.

PayHero's Pay Now feature can be used with the following supported banks:

• ANZ - ANZ & POLi
• ASB (personal banking only)
• BNZ 
• Kiwibank 
• The Co-operative Bank - Co-operative Bank & POLi
• TSB Bank
• Westpac 

Please note: POLi is unable to support accounts that require separate authorisation by multiple signatories. Please retry your POLi payment using a different account or personal Internet banking profile in these cases instead.

Paying Wages

After Processing a Pay Run, the same actions which would occur in your usual pay run will still apply. You will then be prompted with a pop-up screen to complete the POLi payment process. 

Note that if you're paying your employees with Pay Now and have Include Tax in Bank Batch ticked in your Payroll Settings, your Tax/PAYE totals owing to IRD will also be included in your Pay Now payment amounts processed each pay run.

Pay Now will be populated with the details from the sent pay. The bank Particulars, Code, and Reference for each employee will be based on the pay date and your PayHero company name. It's vital to ensure that the Bank Account details entered under your employees - Employment Tab as well as any pay items with associated bank account numbers are set accurately.

You're always able to cancel out of the POLi payment portal at any time if you change your mind or wish to process the payment later. You'll be able to choose to restart the Pay Now payment from the Payroll > Sent section at a later time.

Alternatively, if you'd prefer not to use Pay Now at all for a particular pay run you could instead use the bank batch files if you'd prefer. You can learn more about this functionality in PayHero through our support article: Making Payments with Bank Batch Files.

Paying Tax

By default, PayHero will include the Tax/PAYE payments owed to the IRD through a Pay Now payment at the same time you process payment for your staff.

If you would prefer to make your payments to the IRD manually by the 20th, this setting will need to be turned off. Under your Payroll Settings page simply untick the checkbox alongside Include Tax in Bank Batch and click Save to disable that setting.

For pays which have been sent without the Include Tax in Bank Batch setting, you'll find the tax totals owing under Tax > Unpaid. You can then manually pay the amount to IRD, or download a bank batch file for making payment through online banking. Remember to Mark as Paid from the  button once you've processed a tax payment.

Pay Now Payment Status

Once a pay has been processed using Pay Now you're able to track the status of the payment transactions from the Payroll > Sent section of PayHero via the Payments tab.

There are several stages of a Pay Now transaction and a single pay can reflect any combination of the statuses below for each recipient. These Pay Now stages each indicate the following and are reflected by the associated icon:

Awaiting Payment - The pay has been sent through PayHero but the Pay Now function was not used.

This status would reflect a pay in which the Pay Now option was cancelled at the time of sending. This pay could then be processed through Pay Now at a later time if desired following the steps under Paying Wages above.

Payment Made - Pay Now was used for this pay and funds have been received but not yet paid into the recipient bank accounts.

Payment Sent - Payment has been transferred to the recipient bank accounts.

Payment Received - Payment has been received in the recipient bank account.