Success story:
Mount St Benedict College

Mount St. Benedict College has a rich history dating back to 1857. The college itself was founded in February 1966 with 65 students. The first students sat for their Leaving Examinations in 1971. Mount St Benedict College was incorporated in 1987 as a company with a Board of Directors, like other Good Samaritan Schools. In 1994, the first lay Principal was appointed.

The Catholic girl’s college has approximately 1200 students and 200 teachers and staff consisting of full-time, part-time, and casual. Payroll processing was very manual at the college, and in 2022, the school investigated a new solution but discovered it didn’t meet leave, workday, and award rate requirements.

There was much manual work involved in payroll processing. The school was implementing an updated payroll solution in late 2022 but found the solution to be clunky and unsuitable for schools during implementation and unsuitable for their requirements.

Payroll is the first feature of Access Definitiv that Mount St Benedict College uses, and they have a phased approach to utilising more features, including Leave Management and Timesheets and Onboarding for new staff.

There are 200 full-time, part-time, and casual staff members at Mount St Benedict College, including teaching and non-teaching staff. Payroll for the college is challenging as it entails navigating teachers’ and non-teacher awards and understanding Enterprise Agreements. As most teachers are expected to be at college during term time and cannot always take leave during the term, teaching and support staff salaries are averaged out for the year. The averaging of salaries is complex. As the averaging of salaries for payroll and compliance and the correct pay is a time-consuming, complicated, and manual process, it is one of the most challenging aspects of payroll processing.

Additionally, there is long service leave, leave management, timesheets, and interpretation of role-specific awards.

School staff often change roles when there is an opportunity to perform a higher-grade role, so schools must accommodate constant role changes. For example, a deputy will fill in as an acting principal when a principal is on sabbatical. The deputy’s role is filled by another teacher, which is also a role change. As a result, payroll must be adjusted for all acting roles for a specific period. It must then be rolled back to its original state as staff return to their original positions. The role changes need to be tracked and require manual adjustments, which are administration heavy when you simultaneously have many on the go.

Managing leave and absences is challenging as the online self-serve option requires staff to log in from a laptop. This is not always readily available as often they are not in front of a computer.

Mount St Benedict College needed to:

• Manage Award interpretation and average salary requirements.
• Reduce manual data entry and streamline payroll processing.
• Provide remote access to staff to view payslips, manage their personal data and have an audit trail in place for cross-checking, accuracy, and security.
• Provide real-time reporting from a single data source.

Ultimately the solution had to fit the college’s requirements and be flexible enough to manage teachers, support and operational staff and casuals, as well as manage the complex structures of awards, roles changes, time and attendance, leave management and offer self-serve for all staff.

Mount St Benedict College sought an alternative payroll solution as manual adjustments were time-consuming. MicrOpay looked like it was an ideal fit for the school but after failed implementation it was no longer a viable option. Access Definitiv was discussed with The Access Group sales team as an alternative. After a demonstration of Access Definitiv, it was clear that Access Definitiv was the best fit for the college. The Access Group understood the complexity of managing payroll in schools.

Access Definitiv is the right solution for the college as it has streamlined payroll processing and made Award Interpretation easier. Phase 2 will include time and attendance and leave and absence management. Access Definitiv meets the needs of the colleges’ payroll processing, reporting, security, and employee selfservice requirements.

Since moving to Access Definitiv, Mount St. Benedict College has:

• Reduced payroll administration with Award Interpretation, Long Service Leave and average salary calculation requiring fewer manual adjustments.
• Time-based automation and calculations make role-based changes more manageable and easier to process.
• With the roles feature, departments can be split up so that reporting and analysis can be conducted more effectively.
• Increased employee engagement with self-service via mobile app.
• Manage personal information risk as the employee updates it and an audit report check.
• Comprehensive real-time reporting.
• A phased approach to utilising additional features to streamline the processing of leave, time, attendance, and onboarding new employees.

Access Definitiv automates payroll processing, reporting, security, and employee self-service for the college to reduce administration.

Automation of payroll processing has significantly reduced administration and improved reporting. Payslips and personal data are easily accessible by employees and self-service is improving every day.

Access has delivered immense value to the college. The phased approach will improve staff engagement and streamline payroll processing.

• The award interpretation process and salary calculation have reduced payroll administration.
• Time-based automation and calculations have streamlined role-based changes making this tedious task easier and more accurate.
• With the roles feature, departments can be split up so that reporting and analysis can be conducted more effectively.
• Employee engagement has increased with self-service via mobile app.
• As employees update their personal information, and an audit report confirms it, personal information is no longer a risk.
• Comprehensive real-time reporting from one data source.
• A phased approach to utilising additional features to streamline leave, time, and attendance processing and onboarding for new employees.

It took more effort than anticipated to implement Access Definitiv. However, the payroll process has been transformed and the administration reduced and streamlined. Phase 2 will further streamline the process and free up more time for analytics and business outcomes.