Banking staffing

This page explains the process, rules and responsibilities around banking staffing as well as guidance on how to process adjustments.

Boards are responsible for the financial management of their schools and need to understand how to manage their banking staffing.

About banking staffing

Within the banking staffing year, your board may choose to:

• anticipate up to 10% of your staffing entitlement – use it in advance (go into overdraft) 
• save up your staffing entitlement to use later in the year – under-use or ‘bank’ it
• operate your staffing usage on a full-year basis – no saving and no overdraft in each pay period.

• Rules for banking staffing
• The banking staffing year
• Calculating banking staffing
• Monitoring your use of banking staffing
• Banking staffing adjustments
• Recoveries and reimbursements

Rules for banking staffing

Make sure you understand and follow the rules for banking staffing.

• Your board must monitor your use of banking staffing and keep within your overall staffing entitlement for the banking staffing year (the balancing period).
• Your board can either anticipate up to 10% staffing above entitlement during the year or save up staffing entitlement to use later in the year.
• Your board needs to be aware that if at the end of the banking staffing year you have exceeded the 10% limit for staffing in advance, we can withhold permission for you to anticipate your staffing entitlement in the next banking staffing year.

Monitoring banking staffing overuse

From 1 July 2021, we will be working more closely with schools and kura that have a current banking staffing overuse greater than 10%.

Under current banking staffing rules, a school or kura can manage their staffing entitlement by anticipating up to 10% staffing above their entitlement during the year or saving up their staffing entitlement to use later in the year.

Banking staffing overuse can be an indicator that a school or kura may be facing financial difficulties or needs help with managing their staffing entitlement. We will be working more closely with those schools or kura that have banking staffing overuse greater than 10% to understand the reasons for the overuse.

Should the overuse represent a financial risk for the school or kura, we will work with the principal and management on a plan to reduce the staffing entitlement overuse position by the end of the balancing period (PP26). Other factors, such as financial reserves and other revenue streams, will also be considered when looking at banking staffing overuse.

If you have any questions on banking staffing, please contact your regional School Finance Adviser. Their details can be found on our website.

Managing school finances

The banking staffing year

When you need to balance your banking staffing usage

You should try to achieve a nil balance by pay period 22. Use the balancing period (pay periods 23 to 26) to help manage any outstanding under- or over-use.

Calculating banking staffing

There are two simple calculations that decide the charge applied.

The main calculation covers teachers employed either permanently or fixed term. The other calculation relates specifically for day relief teachers and additional hours worked by permanent or fixed-term teachers.

Main calculation

It's important to note that with this calculation teacher salaries and banking staffing is calculated on a 14-day calendar. You'll need to take this into account when calculating an employee’s usage. The easiest way to confirm the number of days paid is to check your Staff Usage and Expenditure (SUE) report.

[Days worked in a pay period] ÷ 14 × Employment %] = [Usage].

Note:

• if you're unsure what the employment percentage should be, check out the FTTE Conversion Table which can be downloaded below,
• if the teacher is in a full-time position you don't need to multiply by the employment percentage.

Examples

A full-time teacher (1.00 FTTE) is paid for 12 days in pay period 201610:

12 ÷ 14 × 1.00 = 0.86 FTTE.

A new 0.6 part-time teacher is paid for 7 days in pay period 201523:

7 ÷ 14 × 0.60 = 0.30 FTTE.

Short term relief/Additional hours calculation

For short-term relief and additional hours 0.1368 FTTE applies for 5 hours of work.

[Hours worked in a PP] ÷ 5 × 0.1368 = [Usage].

Examples

A short-term reliever works 13 hours in a pay period.

13 ÷ 5 × 0.1368 = 0.36 FTTE.

A part-time teacher works an additional 8 hours in a pay period:

8 ÷ 5 × 0.1368 = 0.22 FTTE.

Note: you should calculate additional hours and day relief separately.

FTTE Conversion Table [PDF, 101 KB]

Holiday pay capping

Permanent and fixed-term teachers are entitled to 30% holiday pay based on their service in the current school year (excluding holiday periods). In order to ensure that schools aren't disadvantaged by terminations during the year, holiday pay in the first 3 holiday periods is capped.

The table below details when holiday pay is capped and the maximum usage that can apply

If you believe that holiday pay has not been capped correctly you'll need to notify the Ministry by completing the following application form.

Request for Banking Staffing Adjustments application form [XLSX, 61 KB]

Monitoring your use of banking staffing

Banking staffing, and staff usage and expenditure reports

Each fortnight, we produce your banking staffing report along with a staff usage and expenditure report to help you monitor your staffing usage. Read these reports alongside each other.

If you're an authorised user, you can download the reports from Novopay Online. To become an authorised user download and complete the NOVO5 form.

NOVO5 forms – Novopay website(external link)

What you’ll see on your banking staffing report

For each pay period, your banking staffing report lists:

• the names of any teachers who were paid from teachers’ salaries (TS) 
• how many full-time teacher equivalents (FTTEs) each teacher has used.

This information is drawn directly from the teachers’ payroll system.

Banking staffing modelling spreadsheet

Use our modelling spreadsheet to project your banking staffing usage for the year and to model various scenarios.

Banking staffing modelling spreadsheet [XLS, 93 KB]

Banking staffing adjustments

Ministry adjustments

Ministry adjustments are manually entered changes to your banking staffing usage. Ministry adjustments will be processed in situations where usage has been incorrectly applied such as:

• overpayments and stop pays
• salary arrears wrongly generating usage
• holiday pay capping issues
• total usage for a position is greater than 26 FTTE

To apply for a ministry adjustment submit:

1. a Request for Banking Staffing Adjustments, and
2. copies of any relevant documentation, for example, copies of first overpayment letters.

Request for Banking Staffing Adjustments [XLSX, 61 KB]

We can't change the values displaying on the report at an individual employee level. Therefore, if approved, the adjustment will show in the “Ministry Adjustment for Period” row on the summary page of your banking staffing report.

Funding Code Changes (Costing Adjustments)

Schools wishing to change the funding code of a teacher can by either:

• Sending a NOVO21 application to the Novopay Service Centre(external link)
• Making the change directly through Novopay Online.

To charge a relieving teacher to a study/sabbatical award code you will need to submit a NOVO21 application and a copy of the coding notice.

There are no limits on current or future-dated changes, however, the following limits apply for any retrospective changes:

• A payroll office made an error interpreting a board’s instruction
• A board identifies an error and requests an adjustment by the second pay period following the error.
• The change relates to a study award or sabbatical.

If you're having an issue with processing a costing adjustment, submit:

• a Request for Banking Staffing Adjustments form, and
• supporting documents, for example, coding notice or NOVO21.

Request for Banking Staffing Adjustments form [XLSX, 61 KB]

Note: Retrospective adjustments won't be processed during the balancing period as this affects the compilation of your board’s annual accounts.

All requests to the Ministry must be received no later than 1 December. Claims and adjustments received after 1 December can't be processed. Boards may continue to request changes via the Novopay Service Centre directly until the end of PP 22.

Recoveries and reimbursements

Recovery – Overused

If your school remains in an overuse position at the end of the balancing period the overused staffing is recovered from your operational funding. The value associated is calculated at the banking staffing recovery rate. 

Boards will be advised in writing of any required repayment and when the deduction from a future operation funding instalment/s will be actioned.

Reimbursement – Underused

If your school remains in an underuse position at the end of the balancing period the underused staffing is paid to you in the July instalment of your operational funding. The maximum that can be reimbursed is 10% of your annual staffing entitlement and the value associated is calculated at the cash reimbursement for unused staffing rate.

Boards in receipt of special reasons staffing will have the balance of any underused staffing offset by the special reasons staffing before any reimbursement is made.

Rates

The banking staffing rates are used to calculate the dollar value of your banking staffing balance at the end of the year. The recovery rate applies to staffing usage that exceeds staffing entitlement. The reimbursement rate applies to staffing usage that is less than staffing entitlement. 

Banking Staffing Guide

For a quick overview of what banking staffing is about, how the balancing period works, and what your report is showing you, download Your easy guide to banking staffing [PDF, 270 KB]

Last reviewed: 02 February 2023 Has this been useful? Give us your feedback