Yes. Our previous website was pretty boring.

However, we needed a website to launch that could be easy to navigate, very intuitive, and provided basic information about Paycycle.

But now, after 3 months of development, we can have the type of website we were after.

The other dilemma we had was using visuals on the front page that were different to the normal people standing around in business suits, which really doesn’t do or say anything. They’re usually attractive people used in stock photography, so they’re not even relevant to anything. We made a fundamental decision: to avoid that at all costs.

Using some inspiration from a photographic technique called tilt shift, we chose some beautifully photographed locations and used those as inspirations; demonstrating that payroll could be finally done from somewhere other than your desk.

We also use large font throughout the website, keeping consistent with our vision for clear and concise usable software. We try hard to not clutter the website, yet still maintain that is easy to get to the most important places.

Finally, the greatest difference you’ll find is our Tour. We decided to take out of our website everything related to Support, and only leave there some of Paycycle’s key features and a short video that gives an overview of Pacycle. This was based on the fact that our customers needed a place where it would be easy to just input the question they had and the answer would pop up (instead of navigating through endless number of pages). And, on the other hand, people that were taking a look at Paycycle for the first time didn’t care about the detailed technicalities of how to run a payrun.

So now we have a funkier website, with all the info you need, but with far better looks, reinforcing that payroll shouldn't be boring, ugly or complicated.

Do you like it as much us we do?

Great changes included in Paycycle to answer some of your feature requests. These include:

Super Updates  

• Updated super fund catalog: some of you asked for some funds to be included in the Regulated Super Fund list. They are now there!
• Super not mandatory for employees under 18 or over 69: if some of your employees are younger than 18 or older than 69 years, Paycycle will automatically make super not mandatory.
• No super until minimum monthly earnings reached: a minimum of $450 earnings per month is necessary to allocate Super to an employee. From now on, Paycycle will automatically review how much each particular employee is being paid in a calendar month, and will only start adding super when the $450 threshold has been surpassed.

Employee Updates

• Telephone numbers for employees: we've added two new fields to employees details - telephone and mobile numbers.
• Extra fields added to employee details report

We hope you enjoy these new features. Thank you for your continuous support and feedback! They truly help us shape Paycycle as Australia's easiest online payroll system.

I was the typical corporate chic.

Used to the 9-5 environment. The "I cannot leave the office before my boss goes" philosophy. Used to feeling guilty about taking some days off because "work could not be done".

And, above all, used to the work inefficiencies that prevented me from some well deserved flexibility (like not being able to do much out of the office because everything was engraved in my desktop). 

That was 2 years ago, when I was still working for Unilever Argentina. Yes, I'm originally from over there, that's why the weird name no one can pronounce (or type) correctly! :)

Then life brought me to the land of Oz, and a year later I'm working with one of my Uni mates for a SaaS thing and entirely in the cloud... 

So how did the cloud change my life? Well, for starters, right now I'm writing this blogpost from Buenos Aires.

You must be saying... what? No way! You answered my support ticket yesterday!!! 

Funnily enough, for the past month I've been here in Argentina visiting family and friends... and yet I was able to answer all your questions.

With the team I talk everyday.We use skype, so we can talk or chat for a quick Q&A anytime we want. I sometimes think it's even better, because when I need to focus and have some "alone time", I can certainly do so and work with no interruptions.

I check my emails from anyplace. You might even get some answers to questions you popped at 11pm by 8am next day! I update the website from over here, I follow up on you guys, keep in touch....

Long story short, I'm here, on the other side of the world, been here for a month and staying a couple more weeks and I can still manage as if I was in the land of kangaroos. I can see my family, friends, kill some "saudades" and still work for Paycycle every day. 

I feel I have heaps more flexibility than I did before. And that's not just because I'm out of the corporate world.

It's because the cloud and all it's technological revolution changed the way we work, communicate and relate. It particularly gave me the tools to be able to take some time back home and, yet, feel close to my new Aussie home and work. 

That's how the cloud changed my life.

Has it changed yours?

Gday!

Today we are launching one of the most awaited releases.

Firstly, we are launching our Partner Program for all the accountants and bookkeepers that want to manage all their clients from one place. Simple and convenient.

If you are an accountant or bookkeeper and you want to learn how to be part of this program, drop us an email at support@paycycle.com.au.

We hope you enjoy this great release, and stay tuned for upcoming news! :)

Some goods news popped up last week: we are part of Anthill's SMART 100 2010 companies! Yay!

That means that some cool people think we are one of Australia's 100 most innovative companies. And we are very proud of that!

Now we have to wait for two things:

1. How do we rank: Now that we are part of the SMART 100, a group of maven judges will decide how do we rank amongst them. If we are SMART #1, #20 or #100 is up to them.

2. Win the People's Choice Index: this one you can help us win! :) If you like Paycycle, we would really, really really like it if you said so. In that way, we could win the People's Choice Index, which is very important for us, considering that we are here doing business not (only) to win prizes, but to make your life easier, even if it only means helping you run your payroll faster, smoother and in an easier way!

To help us, go to Paycycle's page in Anthill and do one or all of the following:

1. Like us: if you have a facebook account, just click on the "Like" icon.

2. Vote for us: if you are subscriber to AnthillOnline, simple click on Vote.

3. Leave a comment: at the end of the page, you will find a box where you can leave your comments, thoughts or statements on why you like Paycycle.

Each of those ways to express your love for Paycycle gives us votes. Also, you can tweet anything you'd like including the following link: http://bit.ly/9u21i2, and that will give us votes too!

You have time till Thursday 8th, so go vote, and help us be part of your SMART 100!

In 2008, Anthill launched the SMART 100 Index to identify Australia's most innovative companies. And now Paycycle is runner up to become one of Australia's 2010 SMART 100 businesses! Besides the judges, Antill has the Reader Choice's Index, which gives a chance to readers to vote for what they think is the most innovative company.

You can help us be part of this great ranking. To do so, go to Anthill's webpage dedicated to Paycycle.

You can leave a comment at the bottom of the page, "like" on facebook (link at the top), tweet the page's link (the shortcut is http://bit.ly/9u21i2) or vote (under "tweets").
 
If you leave a comment (with a name) we get 3 votes, if you like on facebook or tweet we get 2 for each, and if you vote we get 1. If you do all of them, you would be giving us 8 VOTES! And that would be AWESOME!

Many thanks!

So, to steal a line from Foxtel advertising is not very original, but relevant nonetheless. Time flies doesn't it?

The end of financial year is upon us again, and this is the end of our first financial year, so I thought I'd run you through a few steps to get organised and compliant with Paycycle.

If you're using Xero, there are 5 things that you should do on, or shortly after, the 1st of July.

1) Reconcile Total Earnings.

Within Paycycle, you need to print a Payroll Activity Summary for the last financial year. You can do this on Reports, in the Dashboard.

Then, under Payroll Reports, you will find the "Payroll Activity Summary last financial year". Then, compare the figures with those in Xero. For instance, your Total Earnings in Paycycle's report should match the total of the Wages Expense account in Xero.

2) Reconcile Total Tax.

This time, the Total Tax in the Payroll Activity Summary (from within Paycycle) should match the Total Credit entries within the PAYG Withholdings Payable Transactions in Xero.

One way of finding this report is by going to the Balance Sheet under Reports. You will find the PAYG Withholdings Payable under Liabilities. Click on one of the total figures which will take you to the corresponding transaction report. Make sure that the dates at the top of the page are for the full year.

You don't need to worry about Net Pay. That wouldn't be a very good use of your time!

3) Reconcile Superannuation.

If you haven't lost interest or had too much wine by this point, great. We're getting there.

So the Super is similar to your Total Earnings, in that the Total Super in Paycycle should match the total Super Expense account in Xero. Make sure you look at the Expense account, not the Super Liability account because your payments will alter the balance of this account. You probably don't need to over complicate it by doing this.We're all about keeping it simple.

So, basically, all those numbers should match. But what if they don't? Panic! There are probably all kinds of reasons, and it'd be much easier if you just finish off that wine and call your accountant in the morning. At least you won't have to stuff around with sending them your MYOB file! Which version was that again? They'll be able to help you sort it out quickly. If you're still having troubles, feel free to get in touch.

4) Print your Payment Summaries.

Within Pacycyle, go to Payruns, Payment Summaries. For each employee, you need to check that the Gross Pay, Allowances and Reportable Fringe Benefits are correct. Your Gross Pay should match the Earnings for each staff member. Allowances should be reported as those that you've recorded within your pays.

If you think you have Reportable Fringe Benefits then the best thing to do is talk to your accountant about this as they can be extremely complex. You can blame Paul Keating for that. However, if you're having trouble sleeping here is a lot more information. As a rule of thumb, if you did an FBT return as at 31 March, you should have the details to complete this section.

Reportable Employer Superannuation Contributions are those above the legislated amount. Generally, this would be those contributions above the 9% superannuation guarantee and where an employee has directed the employer to paymore superannuation on their behalf. More information can be found here.

Once you've completed the above for all employees we provide a nice neat PDF for you to print, and you can do that by hitting the Print Payment Summaries under the Actions menu on the right.

5) Provide Payment Summaries to the ATO.

You might have heard of the ATO's prefilled report for employees. The information that you supply to the ATO based on the payment summaries is what provides them with this data. The other thing is that the law says you need to provide the ATO with your payment summaries before the 14 July.

The easiest way to do this is via the Export Annual Report. This gives you what is known as an EMPDUPE file. Using ECI is defiietly the easiest way to send these reports. I'd highly recommend it.

The other way is to fill in the paper version of the PAYG payment summary - individual non-business from the ATO. You need to order a printed copy, from the ATO which includes a copy of the instructions by phoning 13 28 66 and ask for the necessary stationery for reporting 2009-10 PAYG withholding obligations. After you've done all that, I'll personally send you a congratulations in the mail because that's as likely as the Socceroos winning the World Cup.

Ok, so that's it. If you are scared, overwhelmed, or confused, contact us.

Happy EOFY!

Was it annoying to drop us an email every time you got locked out? Or to type your username everytime you opened Paycycle?

From now on, you will be able to tell Paycycle to remember you. And, if you forget your password, you mistype it, or you simply need a reset, you no longer need to email us!

You'll see a new login page, where you can tick the "Remember my email address" box if you are the one that usually access Paycycle from that machine.

"Forgot your password?", then simply click on the link under it and after you include your email, we'll send you your new password to it.

More updates will be coming up shortly.

Stay tuned!

In this day and age, it's amazing the interest that the iPad generated amongst us mere mortals.

In my mind, I cannot but make a paralellism with "Lord of the Rings". This "magical product" has been forged in the realms of Apple Inc. and everyone who touches it considers it her precious! Not surprisingly, pre-orders are through the roof, so the preciousness of the item is increasing like mad!

But guess who pre-ordered it a couple of days ago!? Yes, Xero and Paycycle will be giving away one of the desired techy devices in the next couple of days.

The drill is fairly simple: come visit Xero & Paycycle´s stand at CeBIT Australia. Today and tomorrow Stuart will be there, and on Wednesday John and I will be joining Xero's team at Pod 5 in the Webciety pavillion. At our stand, you'll find the message you need to tweet in order to participate. For each tweet you make, you get a chance to win.

Come say hello, learn about our latest and upcoming updates, and get a chance to win an iPad! Can it get any better?

Let the games begin!

 ...the day you started using Paycycle. Hence, your Opening Balance day!

Considering that if you are using Paycycle means you changed payroll system in the middle of the financial year, you need to record the Opening Balances. In other words, you need to input Closing Balances that you are carrying over from your old system so that when June 30th arrives, you have all the info consolidated in Paycycle.

If you have any doubts, there is a nice and detailed tutorial available!

We are starting to lock all the features you need to face the end of the financial year nice and smoothly.

In the next couple of weeks, Leave Entitlements will be up and running, and by mid June, Payment Summaries will be available for you.

Stay tuned!