Payroll AutoPilot

With the AutoPilot feature it's easier than ever to process each pay run. Your pays can be processed, payslips sent to employees and the payday filing details submitted to Inland Revenue without even logging into PayHero.

AutoPilot will automatically email you when it's time to run your pays, and can be used from your PC, tablet or even your smartphone.

Activating AutoPilot

To turn on AutoPilot in PayHero, first navigate to Manage > Settings > Payroll Settings. Select the option(s) you wish to activate.

AutoPilot Pays - A guided payroll process via email each pay day. See the 'AutoPilot - Pays' section below for more detail.

AutoPilot Tax Summary - A monthly email with a summary of the previous tax month. See the 'AutoPilot - Tax Summary' section below for more detail.

Both AutoPilot options can be active simultaneously, or if you'd prefer, only one can be made active. 

Receiving Emails

AutoPilot guides you through each pay via email. These emails will be sent to the Contact Email set under Manage > Settings > Company.

Ensure your chosen Contact Email is one you wish to receive Autopilot's emails.

Important: Keep in mind these emails will contain detailed payroll information, including payment amounts for each employee.

AutoPilot - Pays

If the AutoPilot Pays option is active, a draft pay will automatically be created on the morning of pay day for you. There are three steps to this AutoPilot process, which are as follows:

Creating & Sending the Draft Pay

Please note, if there are any actions required which prevent the draft pay from being created, your first AutoPilot email will alert you to this. See the 'AutoPilot Pays - Actions Required' section below for further info.

The Pay Date used by AutoPilot will be the one set on your Pay Cycle so it's important to have your pay cycle(s) set up as you require beforehand. You can view your next upcoming pay date from the Manage > Pay Cycles section of PayHero.

PayHero will create the draft pay and send you an email at 9am on pay day. 

Attached to this email will be a PDF copy of the Pay Summary Report, which you can review and ensure the pay looks as you'd expect.

The draft pay email you received will contain the following two options to choose from:

View Pay - Clicking View Pay will prompt you to log in to PayHero and immediately load the Payroll > Draft screen. Use this option if any adjustments to the pay are required and you wish to take over. You can then continue to process the payroll as you would normally.

Send Pay - If you're happy the pay is correct and are ready to send the pay, clicking Send Pay will take you to an AutoPilot pay overview in your web browser:

Here you can see some general details for the pay cycle being sent, such as the pay period and total payroll amount. Click Send Pay here to confirm sending the pay.

Upon sending, the same actions which would occur in your usual pay run will still apply. Depending on your company setup, this can include:

• Submitting the pay to IRD for Payday Filing
• Emailing Payslips to staff
• Sending Invoices to Xero

You will be taken to another screen to confirm the pay has been sent, and will receive a follow-up confirmation email.

Paying your Staff 

After sending the pay, PayHero will send you an email as confirmation. 

Attached to this email will be a PDF copy of the Bank Payment Summary, with the payment amounts to use when paying your staff. 

This email will also contain a button to View Pay. Clicking this will take you directly to the Payroll > Sent section of PayHero. If you use Bank Batch Files to pay your staff, you can download the Bank Batch File for the pay, and our support article: Making Payments via Bank Batch Files shows how. 

Alternatively, if you use Direct Debits, Bank Transfers, Akahu, or POLi to pay your employees, the email will also contain a Pay Now button, which you can click to pay your employees. 

AutoPilot Pays - Actions Required

In some cases, AutoPilot may not be able to create the draft pay, due to outstanding actions that need to occur in PayHero first. If this occurs, you will receive an email from AutoPilot to let you know what actions are still required.

Clicking on an outstanding action from the list of Things to Do will direct you to log in, then take you to the relevant section of PayHero.

The actions that may be outstanding include approving expense requests submitted by your employees, approving leave requests submitted by your employees, or approving timesheets if your company requires time approval. 

You will need to approve or decline any outstanding requests or timesheets, as shown in the following support articles:

• Expenses
• Leave Requests
• Timesheet Approval

Once you've actioned any outstanding approvals, you can manually run the pay in PayHero, or wait for the AutoPilot process to re-engage.

Every hour, AutoPilot will attempt to create the draft pay again. If there are still any outstanding requests, AutoPilot will try again an hour later. If you've actioned the required changes, the pay will be created, and you'll receive an email letting you know. You're now ready to send the pay and can follow the process outlined under the 'AutoPilot - Pays' section above.

If after 24 hours there are still any pending approvals, the AutoPilot process will end and an email will be sent confirming the pay was unable to be created.

You will then need to manually send your pay from within PayHero. Selecting the Review Pay button will bring you to the Payroll > Review section of PayHero for you to take over.

AutoPilot - Tax Summary

If the AutoPilot Tax Summary option is active in your PayHero company, you will receive an email from PayHero at the beginning of each month.

Attached to this email will be a PDF copy of the Tax Summary Report for the tax month prior. For more information on the details included in this report, please see our support article: Tax Summary Report.

Note that if you have the Include Tax in Payments ticked in your Payroll Settings, you'll already be paying your tax totals to IRD each payday.