ACC First Week - NZ

About

This article concerns how to make ACC payments for the first week that an employee is entitled to ACC in New Zealand.

How to use

Set up a Global Pay Code for ACC First Week

The simplest method is to add a Pay Code Item and call it ACC First Week. Then add a Global Pay Code and call it ACC First Week.

From here edit the Global Pay Code and add the Pay Code Item - ACC first week to it - setting the pay and charge rates to $0.00

Calculating the ACC Pay Amount

In New Zealand the first week's ACC compensation is paid directly by the Employer and it is calculated at 80% of what the employee earned during the 7 days immediately before the day on which the incapacity commenced (note that this is not necessarily be the day of the accident).

Earnings include:

• Ordinary time;
• Overtime;
• Taxable allowances;
• Taxable bonuses; and
• Income from other employment.

The employer must then pay the employee 80% of the earnings they lost during the 7 days immediately before the incapacity commenced.

Note that 80% of the lost earnings will not necessarily be the same as 80% of the total earnings in the 7 days before incapacity. For example, if the injury only caused the employee to be unable to work for 2 or 3 days, and they were able to work for the rest of the week, they would have earned at least a portion of their income from the previous week.