NZPPA Inaugural Payroll Compliance Congress 2026, Auckland, 19 November 2026 (In-Person)
- News Update: Conference programme released — click here.
- Speaker Update: Speakers are now being announced, with more speaker profiles to be added as they are confirmed.
Prefer to attend via live stream? A live streaming option is also available for the Congress. click here.
Compliance has always been at the heart of NZPPA’s work and is one of the most important responsibilities carried by payroll professionals. Payroll operates at the intersection of employment law, taxation, employee entitlements, organisational policy, technology and financial management. Even a small compliance error can have significant consequences, including employee underpayments or overpayments, financial penalties, remediation costs, damaged employee trust and reputational risk.
To bring the importance of payroll compliance to the forefront, NZPPA has launched a new annual event: the NZPPA Inaugural Payroll Compliance Congress. This dedicated event will provide a national forum for payroll practitioners, industry specialists, government representatives and compliance experts to examine the legislation, risks and practical challenges that affect payroll.
The Congress aims to bring together payroll and industry experts to share their knowledge, experience and practical insights. By learning from real-world situations, emerging compliance issues and proven approaches, attendees will gain practical insights they can use to strengthen payroll processes, improve internal controls, identify risks and support accurate and lawful payroll outcomes.
Payroll compliance is not simply about meeting legislative requirements. It is about protecting employees, safeguarding organisations and maintaining confidence in the payroll function. Through this new annual Congress, NZPPA is reinforcing its commitment to supporting payroll professionals and helping organisations build a proactive, informed and sustainable approach to compliance.
As with the Payroll Leaders’ Summit, the Congress will move to a different city each year.
Theme Statement
- Payroll Compliance: Protecting People, Pay and the Organisation
Conference Tagline
- Get it right. Reduce the risk. Protect every pay.
Theme Overview
Payroll compliance is about much more than calculating and paying wages. Every pay cycle brings together tax obligations, employment law, leave entitlements, employment agreements, deductions, record-keeping, privacy, systems, approvals and reporting.
When payroll compliance fails, the consequences can be significant: employees may be underpaid or overpaid, tax and statutory obligations may be breached, remediation costs can escalate, valuable time can be lost, and the organisation’s reputation and employee trust can be damaged.
The Payroll Compliance Conference will bring together the legislation, practical processes and professional knowledge payroll practitioners need to manage compliance confidently. It will focus on how payroll can identify risk early, strengthen controls, reduce errors and ensure employees are paid correctly, on time and in accordance with New Zealand law.
The Three Central Conference Pillars
Risk
Payroll practitioners must understand where compliance risks arise and how to manage them before they become costly problems.
This includes:
- incorrect interpretation of tax and employment legislation
- underpayments and overpayments
- incorrect leave and holiday pay calculations
- unlawful or incorrectly processed deductions
- payroll fraud and unauthorised changes
- privacy and security breaches
- poor system configuration
- inadequate checking and approval processes
- insufficient documentation and record-keeping
- reliance on key individuals without effective backup arrangements
Money
Payroll compliance failures can create substantial financial consequences for employees and employers.
These may include:
- employee arrears and remediation payments
- tax shortfalls, penalties and interest
- incorrect KiwiSaver, student loan and child support deductions
- backpay and holiday pay liabilities
- penalties for breaches of employment legislation
- professional, legal and consulting costs
- system correction and implementation costs
- duplicate or unauthorised payments
- damage to budgets, cash flow and financial reporting
Time
Compliance problems rarely remain confined to one pay cycle. Resolving historical errors can consume considerable payroll and organisational resources.
Time can be lost through:
- investigating historical payroll records
- recalculating employee entitlements
- correcting system settings and employee data
- responding to employee complaints and enquiries
- managing audits and regulator investigations
- completing remediation projects
- correcting payday filing and statutory reporting
- rebuilding processes, controls and documentation
- explaining issues to leadership, employees, unions and other stakeholders
Wider Areas Payroll Must Consider
Alongside risk, money and time, effective payroll compliance protects:
- Employees — ensuring people receive their correct pay and entitlements.
- Trust — maintaining employee confidence in payroll and the employer.
- Reputation — protecting the organisation from public and industry criticism.
- Governance — giving leaders confidence that payroll risks are understood and controlled.
- Privacy — protecting sensitive employee, pay, tax, banking and leave information.
- Business continuity — ensuring payroll can continue during staff absences, system failures or emergencies.
- Data integrity — ensuring payroll information is complete, accurate, authorised and secure.
- Professional accountability — recognising payroll as a specialist function requiring current knowledge and ongoing development.
- Employee wellbeing — understanding that incorrect or delayed pay can cause genuine financial and personal hardship.
NZPPA Inaugural Payroll Compliance Programme
- The Congress programme has now been released. click here.
- Congress will run from 9 am to 4.30 pm.
Speakers
Chris Mar
Senior Principal Consultant – Datacom Payroll
Chris Mar has been with Datacom for over two decades and was the driving force behind the successful construction and implementation of Datacom’s Enterprise Payroll product DataPay as well as Smartly specifically designed for the SME market.
Chris now works on our product and strategy and, in particular, the legislative compliance of our payroll products and services. Chris has been on several government working groups related to tax calculations and employment law in Australia and New Zealand.
Ange Grylls
NZPPA Certification Manager, Senior Payroll Masterclass Facilitator, Online e-Learning Tutor & Payroll Projects Manager
Ange Grylls has over a decade of experience with NZPPA and more than twenty years in payroll. She delivers expert training as NZPPA Certification Manager, Senior Payroll Masterclass Facilitator, and Online e-Learning Tutor, while also leading a skilled team of consultants as Payroll Projects Manager.
Ange and her team conduct payroll audits, manage projects and implementations, and carry out remediation activities.
Her experience across payroll systems, businesses, and industries gives her valuable insights to share with colleagues and clients. Her expertise covers compliance, legislation, and payroll software implementation and optimisation. Through mentoring, education, and leadership, she helps others succeed and advances payroll practice across NZPPA and the wider industry.
Melissa Tembo
Payroll Systems and Compliance Lead, Fletcher Building, New Zealand
Melissa Tembo is a payroll and finance professional with 8 years’ experience in NZ and Australian Payroll. She holds a Bachelor of Business (Accounting) and a Bachelor of Law degree from AUT University. She is a Level 4 NZPPA Certified Payroll Consultant.
Melissa has held various roles in payroll including payroll processing, payroll finance, payroll compliance, Payroll Divisional Lead and most recently led the Holidays Act Remediation Project to completion. She is currently managing the Payroll Systems team and Compliance for NZ and Australia at Fletcher Building.
Melissa is passionate about delivering accurate and compliant payroll services while putting people at the heart of every process.
Kirsten Wilson
Group Payroll Manager, Fulton Hogan
Kirsten Wilson is the Group Payroll Manager at Fulton Hogan, leading payroll operations across Australia and New Zealand. With more than 20 years of payroll experience, she specialises in payroll compliance, governance, transformation, systems, and shared services leadership.
Since joining Fulton Hogan in 2014, Kirsten has contributed to major initiatives including payroll transformation, Holidays Act remediation, system implementations, acquisitions, and compliance programmes. She is passionate about developing people, building high-performing teams, and creating a culture where learning, continuous improvement, and strong compliance practices go hand in hand.
Heidi Gibbs
Technical Specialist, Inland Revenue
Heidi Gibbs is a Technical Specialist with Inland Revenue, specialising in Payments & Assessments. With over 21 years’ experience at Inland Revenue, Heidi has extensive knowledge of tax debt and compliance, including complex PAYE debt matters. She is passionate about making complex tax issues easy to understand and providing practical guidance to help businesses manage their tax obligations.
Kallia McFarland
BEd (Tchg), Licensed Private Investigator
Executive Director | Serpenti Investigations Ltd
Kallia McFarland is the Executive Director of Serpenti Investigations Ltd, an Auckland-based private investigation agency providing investigative services to businesses, insurers, legal professionals and private clients throughout New Zealand.
With a professional background spanning the Royal New Zealand Air Force, education and private investigations, Kallia brings a practical, evidence-led approach to investigating suspected theft, fraud, dishonesty and workplace misconduct.
Her investigative experience includes insurance investigations, suspected fraudulent activity, witness interviews, background enquiries and evidence gathering. Her work also extends to workplace and employment-related matters, where recognising warning signs, identifying inconsistencies, assessing evidence and ensuring procedural fairness are critical.
Kallia was recognised as Highly Commended at the Women in Security Aotearoa Awards 2023–2024. She is passionate about helping organisations recognise potential risks, understand the warning signs of fraud and misconduct, strengthen internal accountability and respond appropriately when concerns arise.
Her approach is grounded in integrity, discretion and the importance of establishing facts before drawing conclusions.
Dawn Grant
Service Delivery Manager, Managed Payroll Services, Alxemy
Dawn Grant is the Service Delivery Manager for Managed Payroll Services at Alxemy, where she leads the delivery of payroll services and helps organisations strengthen their payroll operations through practical expertise and a strong focus on compliance.
A NZPPA Certified Payroll Consultant with more than 20 years of end-to-end payroll experience, Dawn has extensive knowledge of New Zealand payroll legislation, payroll processing, and operational best practice. She is passionate about helping organisations improve their payroll systems and processes, ensuring payroll is accurate, efficient, and aligned with legislative requirements while minimising disruption to the business.
Known for her collaborative approach, Dawn enjoys working across teams to solve complex payroll challenges and deliver outcomes that support both compliance and wider organisational goals.
Chris Baldock
Partner, PwC Legal, PwC New Zealand
Chris Baldock is a Partner at PwC Legal and leads the national employment law practice. Taking a highly commercial approach, Chris helps his clients navigate the nuances and challenges of New Zealand’s unique and evolving labour law regime. During his 20-year career, he has worked with some of New Zealand’s largest organisations in both the private and public sectors.
Chris provides strategic advice on all manner of workplace legal issues, including statutory compliance, complex restructuring and change processes, M&A, health and safety, collective bargaining and industrial action, litigation and disputes, and regulatory investigations and prosecutions. Chris and his team regularly assist large organisations with complex compliance and remediation projects, including in relation to the Holidays Act and other payroll matters.
More speakers and speaker profiles will be announced as confirmed.
Conference Venue
The Parnell Hotel & Conference Centre
- 10-20 Gladstone Road, Parnell, Auckland
The Parnell Hotel & Conference Centre provides a professional and welcoming environment for the inaugural NZPPA Payroll Compliance Congress 2026, conveniently located in Parnell, Auckland.
In line with NZPPA’s support for charities, The Parnell Hotel & Conference Centre is unique in being a venue that gives back to the community. As a registered charity, the conference venue allows them to make significant contributions to community, health and research organisations throughout New Zealand.
Getting to the venue is easy, with free on-site parking and nearby Auckland public transport options.
Exhibitors
Alxemy is a trusted New Zealand consultancy specialising in payroll, HRIS, workforce management, and payroll compliance. We help organisations across the public and private sectors strengthen compliance, improve payroll accuracy, and optimise their people systems, regardless of the platform they use.
Alxemy is an implementation partner for Dayforce, MYOB PayGlobal, and Employment Hero, with deep functional and technical capability across each platform. We also work directly for clients as a client-side project, compliance, and remediation partner, regardless of the system in use. From payroll compliance health checks and remediation through to system optimisation, implementation, integrations, managed payroll services, project assurance, and strategic advisory, we deliver practical solutions that reduce risk and build long-term confidence.
With experienced payroll specialists, project leaders, functional consultants, and technical experts, we support organisations through legislative change, complex payroll challenges, and business transformation. Whether you’re preparing for upcoming Employment Leave Bill changes, addressing compliance risks, or looking to improve payroll operations, we work alongside your team to deliver accurate, sustainable outcomes.
At Alxemy, we help organisations turn payroll compliance from a business risk into a business strength.
Website: https://alxemy.co.nz/
Frontier Software, established in 1983, is a leading provider of human capital management and payroll solutions. Our flagship product, ichris (International Comprehensive Human Resource Integrated Solution), offers a modular and flexible approach to HR and payroll management, catering to diverse business requirements. With a presence in multiple countries, including New Zealand, we serve a wide range of industries, ensuring compliance with local regulations and delivering exceptional customer support.
Website: https://nz.frontiersoftware.com/
Datacom is Australasia’s largest homegrown tech company, bringing together a broad range of technology, insight and expertise to deliver innovative and sustainable technology solutions to corporate and government customers throughout New Zealand and Australia.
Datapay, powered by Datacom, is a modern cloud-based payroll solution developed specifically for medium to large enterprises. Tailored to meet the unique needs of payroll leaders, Datapay empowers them to modernise payroll through precise configuration, seamless system integration, and ongoing high-touch support from local payroll experts.
Datapay has a track record of success, and 1 out of 6 employees in New Zealand has their pay processed by Datacom.
Website: https://datacom.com/nz/en/products/datapay
Ramco Systems is a global provider of enterprise cloud software, specialising in next-generation Global Payroll, HR, Logistics, and ERP solutions. Operating in New Zealand since 2020, Ramco delivers advanced payroll software featuring AI-driven automation, facial recognition, and voice interaction designed to meet complex compliance and regulatory requirements.
Website: https://www.ramco.com/en-au/
At Fusion5, we empower organisations across New Zealand and Australia to transform payroll and HR through smart, scalable HCM solutions. Our solutions include Jemini, Jade Star, EmpowerHR, Timecloud, TimeFiler, MyWorkplace, and Org Chart, designed to streamline payroll, HR, and workforce management.
With local New Zealand expertise, we support organisations through payroll compliance, system integration, and workforce optimisation.
Website: https://www.fusion5.co.nz/
CleverTime is a New Zealand-based workforce management solutions provider with over 17 years of industry experience. We deliver flexible and customisable time and attendance solutions designed for complex workforce environments, with capabilities including advanced rostering, job costing and mobile employee self-service.
With strong API integration capabilities across leading payroll, HRIS and ERP platforms, CleverTime helps organisations streamline workforce management, improve payroll accuracy and reduce administration.
Website: www.clevertime.com
TimeFiler is a workforce management solution trusted by 800+ medium to large businesses across Australia and New Zealand. Built to handle complex attendance environments, it ensures every hour worked is captured at the source, giving managers and employees clear visibility and control over attendance, leave planning, and workforce data.
TimeFiler Payroll extends this foundation, offering a NZ-native solution that tightens the link between timesheets and payroll. Accurate time, leave, and roster data flows seamlessly from capture through to payroll processing, reducing manual effort, minimising errors, and creating a single, reliable source of truth for your workforce.
Automated rules and real-time validation mean employees and managers can see exactly how hours worked translate into pay, right away. That transparency reduces rework, builds confidence, and keeps you compliant with NZ’s complex payroll requirements, including overtime, leave entitlements, and public holidays.
With deep knowledge of local legislation and regulatory standards, TimeFiler Payroll stays current as NZ requirements evolve, so your payroll always remains accurate and up to date.
Your people are your business and paying them correctly, on time, every time is non-negotiable. By connecting timesheets directly to payroll, TimeFiler Payroll reduces risk and gives you confidence in every pay run. The solution scales with your business, so you can stay focused on performance.
TimeFiler Payroll integrates with leading finance systems. To implement TimeFiler Payroll, businesses must be on TimeFiler’s time and attendance platform.
Website: https://www.timefiler.com/payroll
More to be added soon…
Congress Cost
In-person Attendance
- Early Bird
- NZPPA member: $475.00 + GST
- NZPPA non-member: $675.00 + GST
- Standard Rates
- NZPPA member: $575.00 + GST
- NZPPA non-member: $775.00 + GST
If you are bringing a group of two or more attendees, a 15% group booking discount is available. For larger groups, contact us.
Email for bookings: training@nzppa.co.nz
Non-member Price: NZ$675.00 + GST
If you are an NZPPA Member, logon to get member pricing
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