What is Paid Parental Leave?

The Paid Parental Leave (PPL) scheme is an entitlement for working parents of children born or adopted from 1 January 2011.

The scheme provides government funded Parental Leave Pay at the National Minimum Wage for a maximum period of 18 weeks. Parental Leave Pay is taxable.  All working parents, including full-time, part-time, self-employed, casual, contract and seasonal employees, will be entitled to Parental Leave Pay, if they meet the eligibility criteria.  Currently Paid Parental Leave paid is the minimum wage of $570 per week before tax (this is based on the hourly rate of the National Minimum Wage x 38 hours).

When does Paid Parental Leave start?

The scheme was introduced on 1 January 2011 and payments are administered by Centrelink until 30 June 2011 as a transitional period to give aussie business time to get set up.

From 1 July 2011 Australian employers will generally be required to provide Paid Parental Leave Pay to their eligible employees.

Whats in this Guide?

A Bookkeepers (thats me!) Guide to Paid Parental Leave is a concise and handy 21 page E-Guide providing:

• Essential information on Paid Parental Leave for business owners, bookkeepers and payroll officers
• A setup guide for preparing your payroll and accounting systems in MYOB^® for 1 July and applying the principles to other accounting packaging
• Screenshots of
  • Setting up employees
  • Setting up payroll categories
  • Setting up chart of accounts
  • processing a PPL Pay
  • Receiving funds correctly from Centrelink
  • Accounting for PPL funds as accessible income for PAYG-I

TOC – Bookkeepers Guide To Paid Parental Leave

Why did I write this Guide?

For Business Owners

Two months ago a small business client in the beauty industry called me; she was totally frustrated having spent a considerable amount of time trying to get her business ready for the introduction of Paid Parental Leave.  She had registered for Centrelink Online Business Services, she hadn’t registered for an Auskey so could not provide the all the required details to Centrelink to finalise her registration.  Her technology was older, still running Windows 98 her computer skills are beginner.  Even though she had done a lot of research regarding the introduction of Paid Parental Leave she was still very confused, she had an employee going on maternity leave during the month of May and was concerned she wouldn’t be meeting all of the obligations required.

Within a couple of days I had solved her problems and had a happy client – a great result! I was able to answer all her questions, provide her with more information to read, I had registered her business for an Auskey, linked the Auskey to the Centrelink Online Business Services registration, provided the final details necessary to complete her registration and updated the MYOB^® data file to cater for Paid Parental Leave in her payroll system.

I also spoke with a number of TNG clients about the scheme and many pleaded ignorance; some knew about the Scheme but had not done anything about it; I even had one client who has a staff member expecting a baby in September who were blissfully unaware!

During this time I came to realise that although information was freely available on the subject, many business owners may face similar problems or concerns that my clients are facing:

• Don’t possess the necessary technical skills or technology for the online services;
• Have limited time available to research and implement; and
• Aren’t sure the payroll system is set up correctly

If you’ve been nodding your head while reading this then this simple guide will help you to solve these problems

Isn’t your time worth more than this?

A small price to pay for peace of mind!

Special Limited Offer for Business owners

Until 31 December 2011 purchase this

handy guide for just $19.95 (inc.GST)

and I’ll include the download of the Centrelink Toolkit to save you even more time

For Bookkeepers and Payroll Officers

I was starting to hear the same issues from other bookkeepers. They were telling me they didn’t have time to do their own research.  They were telling me there wasn’t a clear resource for setting up Paid Parental Leave in accounting software

I started seeing questions appearing on bookkeeping forums about how to set up and pay Paid Parental Leave

I started getting calls from bookkeepers asking for guidance and MYOB^® setup information

I edit and write MYOB^® training material and at this time I was also updating MYOB^® payroll resources for Software Publications Pty Ltd – the leading supplier of MYOB^® resources to TAFE and Private Colleges around Australia delivering MYOB^® training courses and Certificates III & IV in Financial Services (Bookkeeping & Accounting)

Want a handy guide that gives you all the essential information on Paid Parental Leave for you and your clients?

Do you have time to do all the research yourself?

Are you sure about how to implement PPL into accounting software?

Special Limited Offer for Bookkeepers

and Payroll Officers

Until 31 December 2011 purchase this

handy guide for just $19.95 (inc.GST)

and I’ll include the download of the Centrelink Toolkit to save you even more time

So there it is A Bookkeepers (that me) Guide to Paid Parental Leave.  I hope you find this resource useful; I hope it saves you time and assists you to implement Paid Parental Leave into your accounting software.  Although all the screenshots and setup are using MYOB, it should be simple to translate the procedure to other accounting packages.

Love Your Work!

Leanne

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