Welcome to KeyPay
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- Last Updated: Monday, 20 January 2020 17:15
KeyPay
Payroll Software for Business
KeyPay was developed in New Zealand primarily for SMEs (small medium enterprises) employing staff in New Zealand, although, it has in numerous cases more than adequately met the needs of much larger payrolls, with several hundred employees. Simplicity, ease of use and compliance of New Zealand regulations have been at the forefront of any considerations in it's development. This, backed up with our desire to provide our clients with a superior level of service and support, has been our driving force since we first entered this industry in 1985.
KeyPay software has provided practical payroll solutions to employers of 1 to several hundred staff. Client organisations which have utilised KeyPay software represent a wide range of industry and commerce, including manufacturing, retail, marketing, construction, telecommunications, tourism, hospitality, leisure, sport, health, agriculture and horticulture.
KeyPay is easily configured and customised to suit the individual needs of each client company. Whilst KeyPay is full of features and options, these can be selectively switched on or off making only those relevant to each client organisation visible to the user. This makes it simple and very fast to process each pay without any compromise in flexibility. Many employees can be paid with just 3 keystrokes.
KeyPay is developed to strictly meet NZ taxation and NZ Holidays Act requirements. While the Act is complicated, we believe that KeyPay is as compliant as possible, given that some areas are subject to interpretation and to decisions made by a human user whom are known to make the occasional mistake, we are determined that KeyPay should always minimise them. Considerable effort went into its design to ensure it does the right thing with regard to the law. For example, average rates are continuously updated, with the greater of it and ordinary rate always applied for leave.
KeyPay 5.051 available
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- Last Updated: Wednesday, 06 January 2021 09:06
KeyPay 5.051.0105
This January update contains tax tables for April 2021 and implements the IRD Ver 2 upload formats which includes the old KED return and the additional KiwiSaver states, plus some bug fixes and new features.
Changes to just the build number - a date as MMDD - will be considered optional to provide for quick bug fixes and any changes, such as those occurring frequently in the current time of Covid-19, that may or may not be relevant to your situation.
Registered users should be able to download and install this update automatically from within KeyPay. On the main menu, select configuration and installation and then choose check for updates. If an update is available, i.e your version number is lower, you will be offered the option to download and install it when leaving KeyPay using the F to Finish option. Closing the window itself will not trigger the download.
PAYE Calculator
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- Last Updated: Wednesday, 06 January 2021 09:13
Tax Calculator 3.22
New version for Tax years 2020-2022 now available for free under Downloads Calculators.
Includes the new 39% rate on both the M and a new secondary SA tax code that apply from 1st April 2021.
IR Updates 2021
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- Last Updated: Sunday, 20 December 2020 13:45
Changes from April 2021
A.C.C Earners Levy
No Changes.
Student Loans
Earnings Threshold increases to $390.
The previous Compulsory and Voluntary payment codes SLCIR and SLBOR are dropped and any amounts for these are now in columns on the EI return.
KiwiSaver
More options for pay-day returns and joining eligibility and status on the ED return. The Status for a new employee is normally set to Auto Enrol or Exempt, depending on Tax code and residency. Now there are options for a new employee to immediately Opt-in, Already be a member, and provision for Temporary employees with a new code. Nothing about being on a contribution holiday though. Joining codes are: AE (Auto), AK A member, OK Opt-In, CT Casual Temp, and NK Not eligible. These states can also be applied to existing employees who can Auto Enrol or Join.
For an Opt-out, information of bank a/c, date out, and provision for a late out with reason codes are all now part of the ED return file.
Pay-Day Filing
From 1st April 2021 the new format of the EI and ED returns become mandatory.
Instead of multiple lines for compulsory and voluntary student loan codes for extra payments plus, new fields (columns) are being added to include these.
The ED return has significant changes with 13 new columns. Most due to Kiwi Saver KED return being merged into it with some different codes and the separation of Joining and Opting out, plus provision for temporary employees. Phone and Address formatting has been widened and simplified.
Tax Changes
New threshold for M code of 39% for income over $180,000.
New Secondary Tax Code SA with a flat rate of 39%. This also affects the top ESCT threshold and options for Tax on an Extra Pay.
Windows 7 End-of-Support
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- Last Updated: Sunday, 05 July 2020 18:08
Reports of My Death are greatly Exaggerated
On January 15th 2020 Microsoft provided the final security updates for Windows 7 and discontinued further support. What does this mean?
Most users will notice nothing, other than a notice from Microsoft that support has ended, that the sky is falling and they should immediately upgrade to Windows 10, or buy a new Microsoft Surface Book for $3000 odd. Otherwise it will continue to work the same as it always has and there is absolutely no need for panic. You also won't be alone in that about 25% of all computers running MS Windows are still on version 7. (Estimated at 300 million.)
In fact, Microsoft is still providing security updates to Windows 7 but only by subscription for corporate clients, and then only to the professional and enterprise versions. Users of the Home version are not supported. Various sources have put the cost of the subscription as starting from as low as $25 per machine per year, with this doubling each further year for the next three years. We doubt anyone will get this rate and expect it to be more like $100 P.A and for small businesses its unlikely you can subscribe at all.
What are the risks of not upgrading?
RansomWare 2020
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- Last Updated: Sunday, 05 July 2020 18:08
Ransomware in 2020
It was the biggest internet threat in 2017, up by a further 11% in 2018 and even more in 2019.
Recent reports are showing a preference for targeting larger businesses and organisations rather than individual users, probably because they are easier to manage and owners place a much higher value on their data so the rewards are much greater. Also the cost of downtime and effort to recover from backup can be more than just paying up for a quick fix.
It has been estimated that victims of ransomware paid over 1 Billion US dollars in 2016 to recover their data and in future it's expected to be much greater. Are you prepared?
Checkout our page about it and how to avoid becoming a victim and if the worst happens to recover without paying up!
Covid-19 - Summary
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- Last Updated: Sunday, 25 October 2020 10:02
Why is Coronavirus so Deadly?
Reproduced from article by James Gallagher,
BBC Health and science correspondent
A simple virus has brought life as we know it to a screeching halt. We have faced viral threats before, including pandemics, yet the world does not shut down for every new infection or flu season. So what is it about this coronavirus? What are the quirks of its biology that pose a unique threat to our bodies and our lives?
Master of deception
In the early stages of an infection the virus is able to deceive the body. Coronavirus can be running rampant in our lungs and airways and yet our immune system thinks everything is a-ok.
"This virus is brilliant, it allows you to have a viral factory in your nose and feel completely well," says Prof Paul Lehner from the University of Cambridge. Our body's cells start releasing chemicals - called interferons - once they are being hijacked by a virus and this is a warning signal to the rest of the body and the immune system.
But the coronavirus has an "amazing capability" of switching off this chemical warning, Prof Lehner says, "it does it so well you don't even know you're ill". When you look at infected cells in the laboratory you cannot tell they have been infected and yet tests show they are "screaming with virus" and this is just one of the "joker cards" the virus can play.
It behaves like a 'hit and run' killer
The amount of virus in our body begins to peak the day before we begin to get sick. But it takes at least a week before Covid progresses to the point where people need hospital treatment.
This is a really brilliant evolutionary tactic - you don't go to bed, you go out and have a good time," says Prof Lehner.
So the virus is like a dangerous driver fleeing the scene - the virus has moved on to the next victim long before we either recover or die. In stark terms, "the virus doesn't care" if you die, says Prof Lehner, "this is a hit and run virus".
This is a massive contrast with the original Sars-coronavirus, back in 2002. It was most infectious days after people became ill, so they were easy to isolate.
It's new, so our bodies are unprepared
Remember the last pandemic? In 2009 there were huge fears about H1N1, aka swine flu. However, it turned out to be no way near as deadly as anticipated because older people already had some protection. The new strain was similar enough to some that had been encountered in the past.
There are four other human coronaviruses, which cause common cold symptoms.
Prof Tracy Hussell from the University of Manchester, said: "This is a new one, so we don't think there's much prior immunity there." The newness of Sars-CoV-2, to give it the official name, she says, can be "quite a shock to your immune system". This lack of prior-protection is comparable to when Europeans took smallpox with them to the New World, with deadly consequences.
Building an immune defence from scratch is a real problem for older people, as their immune system is slow off the mark. Learning to fight a new infection involves a lot of trial and error from the immune system. But in older age we produce a less diverse pool of T-cells - a core component of the immune system - so it is harder to find ones that can defend against Coronavirus.
It does peculiar and unexpected things to the body
Covid starts off as a lung disease (even there it does strange and unusual things) and can affect the whole body.
Prof Mauro Giacca, from King's College London, says many aspects of Covid are "unique" to the disease, indeed "it is different from any other common viral disease". He says the virus does more than simply kill lung cells, it corrupts them too. Cells have been seen fusing together into massive and malfunctioning cells - called syncytia - that seem to stick around.
Prof Giacca also says you can have "complete regeneration" of the lungs after severe flu, but "this does not happen" with Covid. "It is quite a peculiar infection," he said.
Blood clotting also goes strangely awry in Covid, with stories of doctors unable to get a line into a patient because it is immediately blocked with clotted blood. Clotting chemicals in the blood are "200 percent, 300 percent, 400 percent higher" than normal in some Covid patients, says Prof Beverly Hunt from King's College London.
She told Inside Health: "Quite honestly, in a very long career, I've never seen any group of patients with such sticky blood." These whole-body effects could be due to the cellular doorway the virus strolls through to infect our cells - called the ACE2 receptor. It is found throughout the body including in blood vessels, the liver and kidneys, as well as the lungs. The virus can cause runaway inflammation in some patients, making the immune system go into overdrive, with damaging consequences for the rest of the body.
And we're fatter than we should be
Covid is worse if you are obese, as a generous waistline increases the risk of needing intensive care, or death. This is unusual.
"Its very strong association with obesity is something we haven't seen with other viral infections. With other lung injuries, obese people often do better rather than worse," said Prof Sir Stephen O'Rahilly, from the University of Cambridge. "It looks pretty specific [to Covid] it probably happens in pandemic flu, but not regular flu."
Fat deposited throughout the body, in organs like the liver, causes a metabolic disturbance which seems to combine badly with coronavirus. Obese patients are more likely to have higher levels of inflammation in the body and proteins that can lead to clotting.
- BBC