Payroll Settings - Pay Schedule (Australia)

Management > Payroll > Payroll Settings > Pay Schedule

Pay schedules are used to set up pay runs. The settings defined here are used each pay run to calculate how much to pay employees.

There is no limit to the number of pay schedules you can create. Pay schedules can be configured for any combination of pay frequencies, so you can have multiple weekly, fortnightly and monthly pay schedules all running at the same time.

Add a new pay schedule

To add a pay schedule, click on the Add button located on the top right hand side. You will then be required to configure your pay schedule settings as follows:

• Name: Add a name for the pay run here. This should be easy to identify and understand by the staff who are completing the pay run.
• Frequency: This dictates the calculation of the employees' PAYG so ensure you select the correct frequency.
  • Weekly: Pay period covers a 7 day period and period start/end day are always the same each pay run. Employees get paid 52 (or sometimes 53) times each tax year. 
  • Fortnightly: Pay period covers a 14 day period and period start/end day are always the same each pay run. Employees get paid 26 (or sometimes 27) times each tax year. 
  • Half monthly: Employee is paid twice each calendar month (24 times per tax year). The first pay of the month starts on the 1st and covers a 15 day period. The second pay of the month starts on the 16th and ends on the last day of the month.    
  • Monthly: Pay period covers a month period, with the period start date always being the same each month. Employees get paid 12 times each tax year.
• If you choose Monthly above, the Monthly payment mode field will appear.
  The purpose of this setting is to calculate an average number of hours per month for employees with advanced standard work hours setup in their profile, as opposed to paying the specific hours per month based on the number of days in the month (thereby calculating/paying different hours each month). This setting will follow the same principal as basic standard hours, for eg if an employee is set to work 19 hours per week, the monthly calculation of hours will be 19 x 4.33333 and this amount will not vary each month.
  If this setting is not selected, the calculation used to determine the employee's monthly hours will be dependant on the days the employee works and how many of those days are contained in the specific month, thereby the employee's monthly hours could vary from pay period to pay period. 
  
• Includes employees: Here you can select which groups of employees the pay run will apply to.
  • None: Choose this option for ad-hoc pay runs, such as to process back pay or bonuses/commissions. 
  • Employees with this pay schedule as their default: This is the most common setting. Use this for regular pay runs, to pay all associated employees. This gives you the flexibility to set up, say, a fortnightly pay run for rostered employees, and a monthly pay run for salaried employees, across all locations.
  • Employees with timesheets in the following locations: Choose this option to pay according to location. If an employee works in more than one location and this setting is chosen, the employee could potentially be processed in more than one pay run at the same time, which means that tax, superannuation and other benefits may need to be manually adjusted. If you select this option, you must then enter the specific location/s for this pay run.
• Pay slip message: Add a note here to appear on employees' pay slips for this particular pay run.
• Pay run warnings: By default, all triggered system warnings will be displayed in the pay run. If you do not wish to show all warning, you can configure them here. Uncheck any pay warnings that you do not want to appear for this pay run.
• Pay PAYG via payment file to a nominated bank account: Select this option if you want the ABA file for that pay run to include the PAYG amount to be transmitted to the ATO at the time of the pay run. If you select this option, you will need be required to enter the relevant ATO bank details and reference number. 
• Pay run automation: This setting allows you to choose what components of a pay run you want  to be automated, and what components are to be processed manually. If the pay run is to be processed manually from start to end then no setting needs to change as manual processing is the default setting. For details, see this article on pay run automation and this article on how automation interacts with leave requests and expense claims.
• Pay run approval: Set up any approvals required for the pay run here.

Edit an existing pay schedule 

To edit a pay schedule, simply click on the name of the pay schedule. This will expand the details of the pay schedule where you can then make the appropriate changes. 

Delete a pay schedule 

To delete a pay schedule, click on the trash icon next to the pay schedule.

Clicking on the red cross will trigger a delete confirmation. Click Delete to confirm.