Department codes

A department code is like an accounting code or journal function that further breaks down employees’ funding.

Ministry-approved department codes have a unique five-digit code.

• You don't need to use department codes
• Use one department for each support staff employment contract
  • Examples of what you can do
  • Examples of what you can't do
• Use your accounting software for more than one department code

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You don't need to use department codes

It’s entirely up to your school if you use department codes - but if you do - we recommend you use Ministry-approved department codes.

View Ministry-approved department codes

Use one department for each support staff employment contract

You must only use one department code for each support staff member's employment contract. If your support staff member has multiple actual jobs (and an employment contract for each of these jobs), you can code each job to a separate department.

Examples of what you can do

1. Mary holds two jobs at a school and has an employment contract for each job. She is employed as a:

   • finance manager for 24 hours a week at $20.75 an hour
   • administration assistant for 10 hours a week at $15.50 an hour.

   You can use a department code for each of these actual jobs.

2. John holds two jobs at a school and has an employment contract for each job. He is employed as a:

   • permanent caretaker at $15.50 an hour
   • fixed-term cleaner until 1 December 2008 at $15.50 an hour.

   You can use a department code for each of these actual jobs.

Examples of what you can't do

1. Janet holds one job at a school and has one employment contract for that job.

You cannot create two jobs for this one actual job just to split into two department codes.

2. You appoint Cushla as an administrative assistant for 20 hours a week. You want to pay her $17 an hour. You want to allocate two department codes to her one actual job, so you give her two employment contracts: one for $16.99 an hour for 10 hours a week, and one for $17.01 for 10 hours a week.

You cannot give employees more than one employment contract just to create an extra job for splitting department codes.

As soon as you create an additional job in either of these circumstances, your employee's leave entitlements in the payroll become incorrect. As a result, your employee will receive less holiday pay.

Use your accounting software for more than one department code

If you want to use more than one department for each support staff member's employment contract, use your accounting software to do this. Get your staff usage and expenditure report and .csv file by email, upload this into your accounting software, then journal the entries from one job.