Our Automated Payroll and Payment System

Introduction
As part of its Employment Service, workers.com.au (henceforth "WORKERS") uses an automated payroll and payment system. This system has been designed to achieve maximum efficiencies in the business processes of a labour-hire business. (Copycats beware: we have a patent application pending on our invention).

We have achieved these efficiencies mainly by tasking our contractors and Client companies with controlling and maintaining elements of the required business processes and information flows. Although our system is simple to use, it is important that both contractors and Client companies understand all their obligations, as detailed in our terms and conditions for contractors and for Client companies. In particular, they are obliged to use our Security Statement published on this site, to guide them through the security aspects of transacting their business with WORKERS.

Payroll and payment system from the point of view of contractors
In order to avail themselves to our Employment Service, contractors need to submit their personal payroll data.

Data to be submitted for our Employment Service needs to be absolutely true. Your data is used by us to send tax to the ATO, remit superannuation contributions to the trustee, make payments to you, and is secure from other users.

In addition to submitting your personal payroll data, you will need to fax to us your completed Tax File Declaration, as soon as a Client company of WORKERS agrees to use you. You should negotiate with the Client company directly and agree on an hourly base rate of pay, exclusive of Superannuation, before you commence any assignment. Your Tax File Declaration details need to reflect exactly what you have submitted to this site. The Declaration form can be downloaded from our Resources area. The base rate is defined as being inclusive of annual leave, sick leave and long service leave.

On starting an assignment with a Client company, you will advise the Client company your 6-digit Payroll ID that will have been issued to you by the system. The Client company needs your Payroll ID to pay you via the WORKERS payment system. They will only see your name and the suburb where you live when you are "linked" to them. Your ID is partly a random number to enable you to retain maximum confidentiality.

Very importantly, you are obliged to prevent the disclosure of your user name and password from any other individuals. You should also not disclose your Payroll ID number to anyone other than your Client company. WORKERS cannot be held responsible for any financial loss caused by your failure to keep secure your user name and password.

As part of our weekly payment process, you will complete a timesheet (download from the Resources section) for the hours you have worked, and have it endorsed by the Client company. Make a copy of the timesheet, and keep the original. The Client company will use the copy to submit your hours worked to this site. The needs to be done between Fridays and Mondays (AEST). You will be paid by the WORKERS payment system, via the banking details directly maintained by you via your secure logon. Our payment run for contractors usually commences around Wednesday or Thursday. You can access both your 'payslip' (your last weekly pay) and year-to-date pay details by clicking and viewing the respective pages. You will not get any paper records except when we send you your payment summary at the end of the financial year.

Payroll and payment system from the point of view of Client companies
The initial registration with WORKERS is for our contractor search service. For employers choosing to access our Employment Service, you will need to submit your bank details and also fax through your completed direct debit request. Our direct debit request form can be downloaded via our Resources section. As part of our business process, a credit reference check will be carried out before access is given.

Our payroll and payment system is simple to use but you should be mindful of your obligations to use this site securely, in a manner consistent with our Security Statement.

In using our Employment Service, you do not necessarily have to source your contractors through WORKERS. However, such contractors who are currently not registered for our Employment Service will have to do so. On registration, contractors will be issued with a 6-digit payroll ID.

Paying contractors using our 2-step Link and Pay system is simple. Having negotiated with the contractor directly and agreed on an hourly rate of pay, exclusive of Superannuation, before the commencement of an assignment, it is a simple matter of linking the contractor by keying in the contractor's 6-digit payroll ID.

Our payroll week begins on Monday and ends on Sunday. Once a week, contractors will complete a timesheet (download from our Resources section). You will need to endorse it, and submit hours worked electronically via this site. This has to be completed between Friday and Monday. If you only have, say half a dozen contractors, we expect this will take less than one minute. If you are capable of operating an ATM, then you will find our system just as easy.

The payroll calculations are simple. Let's say a contractor's rate is $25 and he/she has worked 40 hours. You will be charged the following: $1000 base dollars, plus 9% for Superannuation, 1% Workers Compensation Insurance cost, our 5% Service Charge and 6% payroll tax (based on the total of $1000 and the 9% Superannuation), The additional charges in our example totals $215.40 or 21.54% of our base $1,000. In addition, GST is at 10%. Adding the GST brings the total costs to 133.694% of base dollars. In our example, you will have $1,336.94 debited to your bank account. In managing your cash flow, you should always add 34% (rounded from 33.694%) to whatever base dollars that you need to pay to a contractor.

It is important to note that our service charge stands at $50 in our example. The rest are just costs that we have to pass on. As a Client Company, you need to ensure that you have adequate funds in your nominated account. As a lean business, WORKERS does not tolerate a slack financial approach by our Client companies. Unless we are satisfied that a problem caused by an inadequate level of funds in your account has been due to a genuine administrative error, the matter will be taken up by our lawyers and your Employment Service will be terminated.

After a timesheet has been submitted, you will still be able to make changes or drill into a detailed breakdown of the costs via the Timesheet Maintenance menu. Changes can be made until the end of Monday (AEST).

Our payroll run, which includes debiting our Client companies, is usually completed by Tuesday. You will then be able to access your latest week's historical transactions. You can also view and print the related tax invoices. As part of our terms and conditions, we will not print our invoices to you; it is much more efficient for you to do it yourself.