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Build or update an Award or Agreement

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Build a new Award or update your existing Award in your platform

The Award engine is the central brain of the payroll component in foundU; without it, your employees cannot get paid. Because of this, your Awards and Positions must be set up and tested according to your interpretation. 

If you are new to foundU and your platform is currently in the implementation process, your Implementation Manager can assist you with setting up your Award based on your understanding of the pay rules.

If your platform is live, building and updating your Awards is the responsibility of your business. However, in saying that, there are still ways foundU can assist you.

If you want to learn how to build or update your award/s yourself, follow along in this guide as we cover:

  • What an Award is and how it works in foundU
  • The core building parts, Rate Labels, Classifications, Positions & Pay Rules
  • How to set up your Allowances or Pay items
  • Confirming and testing your Award Positions
  • Archiving or deleting an Award or Position
  • Next steps and useful reports

For the purpose of this guide and to keep things simple, we will be using the term Award throughout. However, all processes outlined can also be used to build out your Collective Agreements, EBAs, IFAs and any other agreed pay conditions. 

  Permission Reminder: To build an award, you must have 'Edit Awards and Agreements' and 'Manage Rates Book Template' enabled in your User Permissions.

Before you Begin

Understanding Awards 

A modern Award, as it is described by Fair Work, is a legal document that outlines the minimum wages an employer must pay their employees and the terms and conditions for work conducted within their industry. 

Some businesses might operate under a Collective or Enterprise Agreement rather than an Award. Even if no Award applies to the employees, the Fair Work National Employment Standards (NES) are still in effect. This means that the minimum wage and terms of employment must at least meet the standards outlined in the relevant industry Award.

Whether you pay under a government Award or an Agreement, both can be built into your platform using our flexible Award Builder.

If set up and tested correctly, besides being used to pay your employees, there are other key reasons for building your Award or Agreement into your platform.

With your award built, you can also:

    • See your potential labour costs,
    • Track allowances accrued and
    • Set up charge rates and invoice clients.

Building an Award

Create an Award or Agreement

Before building your award, you should have a general idea of how your employees will be paid. We recommend checking out the relevant breakdown of how your award applies its rules as it is laid out by Fair Work and downloading the current pay guide to have on hand.  

In this section, we will guide you through how to action the following 3 things:

    • Create the shell for your new award.
    • Create a No Pay award.
    • Copy an existing award.

Create a new Award

You will most likely only need to create a new Award from scratch in your platform when or if your business expands into other industries or you move from one Award to another.

To create a new Award:

  1. From the main menu, navigate to Awards & Agreements.
  2. Select New Award.



  3. Fill in the following details:
    • Title - This is the title of your Award or Agreement; it is used on the Awards page and in reports throughout your platform. We suggest you use the full title here.
      • For example, Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2010 [MA000009]. 
    • Short Title - This title is displayed on the position located on the employee profile and in some position search fields. We suggest it be a shorter version of the Award title as it keeps your positions clean and reduces length. 
      • For example, HIGA.

          Hot tip: You can use the same title as the above field if you feel acronyms or smaller titles may confuse your managers.  
    • No Pay Award - If this award is not meant to be paid, such as for volunteers, please select this checkbox. We will discuss No Pay Awards in more detail later in this section.
  4. Select Save to create the base of your new Award. 

To continue building your new award, see the next section below on Classifications.

Copy an existing Award

There may be times when you want to use an existing Award on your platform as a template for a new one. Instead of creating a new Award from scratch, you can simply copy an existing Award.

When you copy an existing Award, you will duplicate all aspects of its setup, including classifications, rate labels, and position pay rules.

  Please note: This will only copy the first position from the existing award. If additional positions are needed, you will have to set them up.

Key reasons for why you would copy an Award are:

    • To keep your casual and permanent positions separate by creating an award for each.
    • You have multiple clients on the same award, but they have slightly different pay rules.

To copy an existing Award:

  1. From the main menu, navigate to Awards & Agreements.
  2. To the right of the Award you'd like to copy, select the copy icon.



  3. Edit the Title and Short Title.
  4. Select Save to duplicate the Award. 

If you need to update or create new positions in your duplicate award, please see the section below on Positions & Pay Rules.

No Pay Award

No Pay Awards are typically used in businesses that have contractors or volunteers. Setting up this type of Award still allows you to apply a position to those profiles, and roster them without any payroll data forming. 

To set up a No Pay Award, please see the steps outlined in our guide on adding a new position to an Award or Rates Book.

Once you have set up your No Pay Award and positions, you will need action the following things:

    • Enable to use Contractors in your platform.
    • Add your new positions to your Operation/s.
    • Add positions to profiles. 
  Check out our guide on Contractors to learn more about how to utilise them in your platform. 
Classifications

Now that you have created the shell of your Award, it is time to start filling in the pieces that contribute to your employee pay calculations.

In Fair Work, a Classification is usually the description of a role and the requirements an employee needs to meet to work under that Award. The Classification also sets the employee's minimum pay rate.

In this section, we will guide you through the following:

    • Things to consider before you begin.
    • Adding in new classifications.
    • Managing & editing existing classifications.

Before you begin

Before adding Classifications to your Award, we want you to consider a few items beforehand. Please take the time to read the following, as they could significantly impact the amount of work you need to do going forward.

Classifications are used in conjunction with your Pay Rules to create Positions and can appear in some reporting. 

    • Casual Loading - Casual Loading is the percentage used to calculate your casual employee's pay rates from the Base Rate. Across most modern Awards, 25% is the standard loading. If your award uses a different percentage, this can be updated in the Award Settings.

        Hot tip: Our system automatically calculates your casual rates for you by multiplying your Classification base rate by the loading you have set here. Meaning, you don't need to worry about adding these in, we do the hard work (maths) for you! 

    • Naming convention - It's important to remain consistent with how you title your Classifications. This will assist you in setting up the Award, keeping your platform tidy, and for future Award management.
      Your classification can be used in multiple positions, so please keep that in mind. 
      • An example of a simple classification title could be something like:
        • Adult - Level 1
        • 18 years - Level 1
        • Apprentice - Year 1
    • Keep it clean - Before adding in your Classifications, think about your business and what type of employees you are hiring. We don't recommend adding every single Classification in an Award to your platform. 

      Some key things to consider:
      • There is no need to add junior or apprentice Classifications if your business does not hire them.
      • If your business only pays up to a certain level, say Level 5, you do not need to add in any higher-level Classifications.
      • If you expect to use some Classifications in the future, it's worth adding them now.
        • For example, if you hire a 17 year in a junior position, you should create Classifications for 18 years too.
        • Likewise with apprentices, if you have a 1st year apprentice, you should create all of the apprentice Classifications.

  Hot tip: Download your Awards current pay guide from Fair Work and have it either printed out in front of you or on your second screen to refer to!

Adding Classifications

Once you know what classifications to add to your Award, navigate to Awards & Agreements and locate the Award you are working on. 

To add in classifications:

  1. Open the Award and select Classifications from the list below the title.

    • If you have any existing classifications, they will be displayed here and can be edited by selecting the Edit icon to the right of the classification.



        Please note: The delete icon will only appear next to classifications that are not currently used in any positions. 

  2. Select Add and fill in the fields:
    • Name - This field will display in the Awards menu when setting up your positions. 
    • Short Name - This field will be displayed in some reports throughout the system. This does not need to be different to the name field above; however, if you want to keep the titles short for your report exports, you can use a shortened title.
    • Base Rate - The base rate for this Classification is the rate used for permanent employees. 
    • Casual Rate - The casual rate will be calculated automatically using the base rate entered above and the loading amount you specified in Settings.

        Please note: If the casual rate is low by 1 cent, you can increase it by using a third decimal place in the base rate. Only two decimal places are used for rates within the system, so the base rate will not be affected. 
  3. Select Save to add your new classification, and repeat the steps until all requirements are entered. 
Rate Labels & Loading

Before you begin adding in your Rate Labels, it is important that you understand what they are and how they work.

Rate Labels are used with your Classification rates, Casual Loading and penalty rate loading rules to calculate how much your employees will get paid per hour for specific shifts and overtime. 

In this section, we will guide you through the following:

    • Things to consider before you begin.
    • Adding in new Rate Labels.
    • Managing, editing and deleting existing Rate Labels. 

Before you begin

Before you add your Rate Labels to your Award, we want you to consider a few items beforehand. Please take the time to read the following, as they could greatly impact the amount of work you need to do going forward.

    • Naming Convention - Consider how you'll name the Rate Labels and remain consistent across them. Consistency and accuracy are important because the rate labels will be visible on employee payslips and in various reports. 
      • Some examples of popular naming conventions are as follows:
        • Normal (Ordinary), Time and a Half (Overtime)
        • Normal (OTE), Time and a Half (OT)
    • Using the same rate for multiple time frames - You cannot create multiples of the same Rate Label with different naming conventions. Because of this, consider naming your rates something descriptive that can be used for multiple time frames.
      • For example, if both Friday night shifts and Saturday ordinary hours are paid at 1.5 x, you will not be able to have a Rate Label for:
        • Friday Night Shift (OTE), and
        • Saturday (OTE)
      • Instead, you would label it as Time and a Half (OTE) 

          Hot tip: You can override the Rate Label on the position when setting up the pay rules so that it makes more sense on the employee payslip.
    • Know how to work out your Casual Loading dollar value - There may come a time when you need to know the dollar value of your Casual Loading.
      • To work this value out, you will take your Base Rate and multiply it by the percentage you have set in your Award.
      • The difference between your Base Rate and that final figure will be your dollar value.
        • For example, if the Casual Loading is 25% and the Base Rate is $10, to find the Casual Loading, this will look like:
          • $10 x 1.25 = $12.50
          • $12.50 - $10 = $2.50 (This is your casual loading in dollar value).
    • Know what Penalty Rate Loading Rule you should use - This rule dictates the calculation method for your casual employee pay rates.

      Each rule will give you a different total for your calculation. Below, we will walk through what those calculations look like by using $10 as your Classification Base Rate and 1.5 x as your Rate Label.
      • Base Rate (excluding casual loading) multiplied by rate label (1.5,2,2.5) plus casual loading
        • ($10 x 1.5 = $15.00) + $2.50 = $17.50 
      • Base Rate (inclusive of casual loading) multiplied by rate label
        • ($10 + $2.50 = $12.50) x 1.5 = $18.75
      • Base Rate (exclusive of casual loading) multiplied by rate label (1.5,2,2.5) Normal only with loading
        • Casual Loading will only be applied to Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE) and not to Overtime rates (OT).
      • Base Rate (exclusive of casual loading) multiplied by rate label (1.5,2,2.5) Normal no loading, overtime plus loading
          • Casual Loading will only be applied to Overtime rates (OT) and not to Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE).

 

Add a Rate Label

Once you know what naming conventions, rates, and loading rules you are to use, navigate to Awards & Agreements and locate the Award you are working on. 

  1. Open the Award and select Rate Labels from the list below the title.

  2. To add a new label, select Add Rate Label.

  3. Complete the following fields:

    • Rate – This multiplier is used with the base rate for a position. 
      • For example, a rate of 1 is your Normal ordinary time. A rate of 1.5 would be used for Time & a Half.
    • Ordinary Hours Label - This label will display for Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE) at this rate. It appears on payslips and in some reports.
    • Overtime Label - This label will display for Overtime (OT) at this rate. It appears on payslips and in some reports.
    • Exclude Casual Loading - When selected, this checkbox displays the (No Casual Loading) fields for either the OTE or OT label. This can be used for rates where casual loading does not apply to casual employees.
      • An example of how this label will look on payslips is as Normal (OTE) (x1-NCL)

          Please note: A rate can have labels for both casual loading & no casual loading. To do this, you would have a label in both fields with the checkbox selected, as seen in the images below.

  4. Select Save and repeat the steps until all the required labels are built into your Award. 



Edit or delete a Rate Label

If you have mislabeled or accidentally created the wrong rate label, you can easily manage these from the same page you use to add new labels. 

To edit an existing rate label:

  1. Select the pencil (edit) icon to the right of your label.
    • If you previously set up the label only for OTE or OT, you can amend the name or add additional information.
    • If you need to edit the rate field, the correct process is to add a new rate and update the positions accordingly. 

To delete a Rate Label:

  1. Select the bin icon to the right of your label.
    • Only rate labels that are not currently in use on a position may be deleted. 

        Hot tip: If the bin icon is highlighted blue, it is not currently used on any position and can be deleted.

Positions & Pay Rules

With Classifications and Rate Labels set up, Positions can now be built. To understand a position, consider it a house, with the Classification, Rate Labels, and Pay Rules used as the pillars, beams, and insulation that hold it all together. 

In this section, we will guide you through the following:

    • Things to consider before you begin.
    • Creating positions in a new or existing award.
    • Configuring the Pay Rules in your position.
    • Using the Award Test feature to check your Pay Rules.
    • How to update or apply changes to multiple positions at a time. 

Before you begin

Before you add your positions and configure your Pay Rules, we want you to consider a few items beforehand. Please take the time to read the following, as they could greatly impact the amount of work you need to do going forward.

    • Naming convention -  Descriptiveness and consistency in your naming will help you manage the positions in your platform going forward. Some recommendations for position naming would be:
      • Level 1 - Food & Beverage Attendant
      • 17 years - Level 1 - Food & Beverage Attendant

      • L1 - F&B
      • 17 Yrs - L1 - F&B

      • F&B (Level 1)
      • F&B - 17 Years (Level 1)

          Hot tip: If your permanent and casual positions have different pay rules, we highly recommend labelling them with (Perm), (Casual), or, if necessary, (FT) and (PT) to make maintaining your positions and assigning them to employees easier.
    • Have everything you need ready - Make sure to have the Award or Agreement you're setting up or editing on hand. A list of all Awards can be found here.

Create a new position

There are 2 ways you can create a new position in an Award. 

    • From scratch - This means that your Award either has no current positions or you need to create a position with Pay Rules that differ from existing ones. 
    • Copy an existing position - If your Award has existing positions set up, and you simply need to add another using the same Pay Rules, you can copy from an existing one. 

To set up the first position in your Award, you will need to create and configure the position and pay rules. Navigate to the Award you are building then select Positions & Pay Rules and guide yourself through the tabs below to learn how to do this.

Add your new Position Rule Conditions Position Settings Override Calc. Rates Test your Position

To add your new position:

  1. From Positions & Pay rules, select Add Position and fill in the details listed below.

    • New Position - The title of the position can be seen throughout the platform (employee profile, payslips, rosters, reports).
    • Classification - The rate at which the position will be paid. When selecting this, it will show the casual rate; however, once saved, you will be able to see the base rate also. 
    • Max Ordinary Hours a Day - The maximum number of hours an employee can work in a day without attracting overtime.
    • Max Ordinary Hours a Week - The maximum number of hours an employee can work in a week without attracting overtime. 

        Hot tip: If you average overtime over a fortnight, you must still add the weekly maximum for this field. Your platform will automatically calculate this on a fortnightly basis.

      For example, if set at 38 hours, the position will apply overtime every fortnight after 76 hours (38 hrs x 2).
    • Min Hours for Break - The minimum number of hours an employee must work in a shift before a break is clocked. When set, employees will not have the option to clock for a break and will only have the option to clock out for their shifts. Breaks can still be rostered and approved regardless of this value.
  2. Once filled in, Save the details to move on to the pay rules configuration. 

 

Copy an existing position

If you're adding a new position to an existing Award, there should be no need to set this up from scratch. 

To copy a position:

  1. Locate a position with the correct rules (or similar if you intend to make edits), then select Copy to the right of that position.

  2. Fill in the details on the menu that appears.

    • New Position - The title of the position. Seen throughout the platform (employee profile, payslips, rosters, reports).
    • Classification - The rate at which the position will be paid. When selecting this, it will show the casual rate; however, once saved, you will be able to see the base rate also.

  3. Repeat until you have added all the positions needed for your award.

 

Apply changes to multiple positions

If you have tested your position and need to change Pay Rules, you can select the Edit (pencil) icon to the right. If you have already created your other positions, you can easily manage and update these with those changes without stress. 

To update all your positions with changes:

  1. Locate the position you have already updated with those changes, and from the far right, select Apply.

  2. Select the Apply to Positions field and individually select those to which you'd like to apply the changes. You can type in this field to help narrow down the selection of positions available.

  3. To update all those positions to have the same Pay Rules, select Save.
Pay Items & Allowances

Most Awards have various allowances or pay items that employees are entitled to, depending on certain conditions and standards.

These can be built within your Awards and set to either occur automatically or be manually applied. 

To set these up in your platform:

  1. Navigate to Awards & Agreements and locate the Award you are working on.

  2. Open the Award and select Pay Items & Allowances from the list below the title.



  3. Select Add, then fill in the required details.

  4. Please Save when you're finished.

  To see a full guide on all these details, please visit our complete guide on adding and editing Pay Items & Allowances.

Award Settings

To configure the rest of your Award Settings, you can go back to the Awards & Agreements menu, find your Award, and then select Settings. 



The below settings are some of the most commonly used:

    • Casual Loading (%) - The loading applied to a base rate when paid to a casual employee
    • Leave Loading (%) - The default loading on paid leave types. For more information on leave loading can be found here.
    • At what point in the shift should an unpaid break be applied? - This setting determines where an unpaid break will be taken from in a shift. Clocked break times or setting the break start time in Approve Shifts will override this default value. More information on this setting can be found here. 
    • Are leave hours included in overtime calculations? - This setting determines whether paid and unpaid leave hours are included when calculating overtime. More information on this setting can be found here. 
    • For fortnightly employees, are max. ordinary hours calculated per week or per fortnight? - This setting applies to fortnightly paying platforms. It will determine if ordinary time is averaged over the fortnight, which can then impact the overtime an employee is paid.

  A detailed look at all the settings with examples can be found in the Award Settings article. 

Managing Your Awards

Award Test

After creating or editing your Award, you will want to test the interpretation to ensure it behaves as expected. To do so, you should use the Award Test feature.

From the Awards & Agreements page, you can test the position you have set or are working on.

If you are struggling to think of items to check off that you have covered, see our list below. We have provided a list to give you an idea. 

    • Check that overtime is triggering accordingly (daily, weekly, fortnightly).
    • Check casual loading is correct for all rates. 
    • Check that shift penalties & weekend rates are correct.
    • Check that shift rates are correct.
      • This is important to look at if you have multiple pay rules per day (morning shift, afternoon shift etc). 
    • Check that your Carry over rules are set correctly. 
      • For example, if a shift spans from 9 pm Friday to 2 am Saturday, should the employee be paid weekday rates for the entire shift? Or should they be paid 3 hours at the weekday rate and 2 hours at the Saturday rate?
    • Check for any gaps in your pay rules.
      • Look for hours of the day when no rules are being applied. Any hours not covered will appear as No Rule Applied, resulting in the employee not getting paid. 

To test your position:

  1. Locate your position, and to the right of it, select Test.

  2. This will take you to the Award Test- Create A Scenario page. On this page, you will create a multitude of different scenarios to test your award's setup and make sure it aligns with your interpretation.

  3. Your position and award will be pre-filled; you can then add shift details to the days on the left and then select Begin Analysis to test the Award interpretation.

  Please refer to the Award Test guide for a more detailed explanation of its use. 
Archive an Award or Position

As your business needs change, you may no longer need an award or position. If this is the case, you have the option to archive your award. Archiving an award will prevent any positions built under that award from being set up on employee profiles. 

  Please note: Existing employees with positions assigned from the archived Award will still operate as normal.
 

Archive an Award

Use cases for why you might archive an Award:

    • You no longer use this Award.
    • It was created in error.
    • New employees are not to be assigned to this award, but existing employees will continue to be paid under this Award.

To archive an award: 

  1. From the main menu, navigate to Awards & Agreements.
  2. Select the Archive option against the award you wish to archive. 

    Award_archive_option.png
  3. You will then be advised if there are any active positions against any employees.
    • You can export the list of employees if required to update their positions.
    • Select Archive once you are ready.

  4. The award will now be moved to the Archived tab.

       Hot tip: If your award is unused, you can delete it instead of archiving it.

Restore an archived Award

You can choose to restore an archived Award at any time. 

To restore an archived Award: 

  1. From the main menu, navigate to Awards & Agreements.
  2. Navigate to the Archived tab. 
  3. Select the restore option against the award you would like to restore. 



      Please note: When restoring an archived award, always ensure you check that your pay rates are up to date with the current financial year. 

 

Archive a position

If you no longer need an individual position under an award, you can archive it. Archiving a position will prevent it from being set up on employees. 

  Please note: Existing employees assigned to this position will operate normally. 

Use cases for why you might archive a position:

    • You no longer use this position
    • New employees are not to be assigned to this position, but existing employees will continue to be paid against it.

To archive a position: 

  1. From the Awards & Agreements menu, navigate to the Award, then select Positions & Pay Rules.
  2. Select Edit against the position you would like to archive. 

  3. Select Archive. 

      Hot tip: You will see the option to delete the position if it has not been assigned to any employees and is not sitting in any rate books. In this case, if the position is not needed, you can delete it. 

  4. You will then be advised if any active employees are against this position.
    • You can export the list of employees if required to update their positions.
    • Select Archive once you are ready.

  5. The position will be moved to the Archived tab.

 

Restore an archived position

You can restore an archived position at any time. 

To restore an archived position:

  1. From the Awards & Agreements menu, navigate to the Award, then select Positions & Pay Rules.
  2. Select the Archive Tab. 
  3. Select the restore option against the position you would like to restore. 



      Please note: When restoring an archived position, always ensure you check that your pay rates are up to date with the current financial year. 
What to do next

Now that you have created a new Award or new positions within an Award, there are additional steps to take. These steps will need to be done before you can start rostering and paying your employees. 

The steps are as follows: 

  1. Add the positions to the relevant position groups. This step is optional as it depends on whether you use position groups in your platform. 
  2. Add the positions to the rates book templates. This step is optional as it depends on whether you use rates book templates in your platform. 
  3. Add the positions to the operation rates books. 
  4. Assign the positions to the relevant employee profiles.

  These steps are detailed further in our guide on adding new positions to an Award or Rates Book.

Useful reports

Once your Awards and Agreements have been set up in your platform, you likely won't need to look at them unless in the following circumstances:

    • To fix up your pay rule configurations.
    • To add a new position to an existing award.
    • To conduct a Rate Rise for the new financial year.
    • To delete or archive an award or position that is no longer in use.

Because of this, you may want to use a report or export to quickly look at the items you have set up in your award.

Below, we will go through the following tools you can use to help refresh your mind without going through each award individually. 

    • Rate Label Report 
    • Pay Item and Allowance Schedule
    • Operation Rates Book Export 

Rate Label Report

With this report, you can get a full export of all Rate Labels set up in your Award/s, along with the multipliers and variables assigned to them. 

To run this report:

  1. Navigate to Reports > Financial.
  2. Under Payroll Reports, select Rate Labels.
  3. The report will load immediately. To filter down by specific awards, select Filter by and select from the drop-down. 
  4. Submit to load your filtered report.
  5. Select Export CSV to download the report into a file to view externally.



Pay Item and Allowance Schedule

Using this report will allow you to see the complete configuration of all the pay items and allowances currently built into your platform. 

With this report, you can export the following details:

    • Label - The name of the Pay Item or Allowance. 
    • Award - The Award or Agreement the item is linked to. 
    • Type - This will outline whether this Allowance is built into the Award or an individual Position.
    • PAYG - The type of tax applied, if applicable. 
    • STP - Single Touch Payroll category, if applicable. 
    • Super Guarantee - If assigned, yes or no.
    • Payroll Tax - If assigned, yes or no.
    • Work Cover - If assigned, yes or no.
    • Public Liability - If assigned, yes or no.

  Check out our complete guide on the Pay Item and Allowance Schedule for the steps to use this report. 

Operation Rates Book Export

If you are looking for a complete export of all the line items in your positions and their corresponding rates, you can view this information from your Operations Rates Book. 

  Please note: Your Rates Book may not house all the positions built in your Award. If a position is unused, it may be left out of the Rates Book.

With this export, you can view the:

    • Permanent pay rate
    • Permanent charge rate - For labour hire platforms only.
    • Casual pay rate
    • Casual charge rate - For labour hire platforms only.

  For steps to export your rates, please review our Exporting/Importing Operation Rates Book guide.

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