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Award Test

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Award Interpretation Test

As part of your payroll checks, or as you build out any new award positions, you may want to check how your pay rules are calculated and how this looks when paying your employees for hours worked. 

To do this, you're able to run an Awards Test, which will show a breakdown of the following items, depending on the scenario. Items include:

  • Ordinary hours
  • Overtime hours
  • Leave
  • Unpaid break times
  • Allowance details
  • Accruals

  If you are currently building a new award in your platform and need further information on how to address any items that have come up in your Award Test, please refer to our guide on how to Build or Update an Award or Agreement.

In this article, we will cover the following:

  • Navigating to the Award Test
  • How to create a scenario (Mock timesheets)
  • Test an employee's payslip or compare multiple employees' pay
  • Using the Award Test to check your Charge Rates
  • Test your roster before publishing shifts
  • Exporting results from Award Test
  • FAQs

  Want to experience a virtual walk-through of the Award Test page? Check it out below! Use the expand option on the top right side to view in full screen! You can click through at your own pace and navigate backwards if needed.


Before You Start

Navigating to the Award Test

The Award Test is a key function in your platform that can often be overlooked due to the lack of a clear understanding of its power! Using the Award Test can assist multiple teams within your organisation with making key decisions surrounding your employee's positions, shifts and payroll.

There are 3 key ways you can navigate to this page, this will depend on your organisational role and the permissions enabled within your User profile.

  Permission Reminder: All 3 navigation options will require 'Access Award Tests' and 'View Employee Pay Rates' enabled in User Permissions to access the Award Test feature. The second option will require further settings enabled, we will outline these below. 

  1. Payroll > Award Test
    • If the above permissions are enabled you can access the Award Test by hovering over the  Payroll tab across your top banner and selecting Award Test.

      From this page, you can use the Award Test to:
      • Create scenarios.
      • Check the wages on your roster.
      • Confirm charge rates attached to Operations.
      • Compare multiple employee timesheets.
      • Test an employee's position level against another.

  2. Awards & Agreements > Positions & Pay Rules
    • If your role comprises of building, editing or updating the Awards and Pay Rules in the platform, you can use the Award Test to check that your pay rules cover all scenarios worked within your industry.
      • To test specific positions in your Award, begin by navigating to the main menu > Awards & Agreements > select Positions & Pay Rules > locate the position you are testing and select Test to create a mock scenario.
      • To run a Test from the Award Positions & Pay Rules page, you will need to also have 'View Awards and Agreements' and 'Edit Awards and Agreements' enabled in your User Permissions.

  3. Payroll > Pay
    • As a payroll officer, you can run a test on your employees' payslips based on their timesheet data as part of your pre-payroll checks.
      • To do this, navigate to Payroll > select Pay. This will bring you directly to the Draft payslips page. Next, locate the employee whose payslip you want to check, and from the drop-down beside their payslip number, select Award Test.
      • To access the Award Test from your employee's draft payslips, you will need to also have 'Access Pay' enabled in your User Permissions.

Award Test Key Use Cases

Create a Scenario 

In an ideal world, the Award or EBA for employees would be clear, easy to understand, and simple to set up. However, for some industries, this may not be the case.

In the Award Test, you can Create a scenario, which allows you to check your interpretation of your Award, as well as other use cases such as:

    • Create mock timesheets.
    • Evaluate multiple awards to determine if your employee is better off from a new position or award.
    • Check what your employee's pay could potentially be if you increase your business's operational hours.
    • Compare the total pay for a casual or permanent employee on the same position. 

To Create a Scenario:

  1. Navigate to the Award Test page and select the Create a scenario option.
  2. Under the Timesheet section select the pay cycle you wish to test on, Weekly or Fortnightly.
  3. Select the + icon next to the day of the week. Input the:
    • Start time.
    • End time.
    • Break duration (Optional).
    • Break start time (Optional).
    • + Add another shift to the same day.
    • Copy a created shift to multiple days, by selecting the copy icon and choosing the days you want to add that shift to. Select the blue tick to save, you will then see the copied shifts displayed under the selected days of the week.
    • Use the checkbox to mark a day as a Public Holiday for the purpose of the scenario.

        Hot tip: At the bottom of the screen a summary of the days, shifts, breaks and total hours are displayed. All items highlighted in red, such as "Add Positions" below, must be entered before starting the analysis.
  4. In the Position section, select the desired Award and Position for your scenario.
    • Award based or Operation based.
      • Award based - The scenario will be run based on the Normal Rate set in the Award and calculated against the Rate Labels set in the Position & Pay Rules.
      • Operation based - In the Operation you have ability to override the pay rates associated with the Rate Labels. If you use overriden rates or charge rates in your operations and select the 'Operation based' option, the system will respect those rates when running your Award Test. You have the option to run your test as either
    • Casual Rate or Base Rate.
      • Casual Rate - Test as a casual employee. 
      • Base Rate - Test as a permanent employee. 
  5. + Add another position to compare multiple at a time (Optional).
  6. Select Begin analysis to run the Award Test and view the weekly or fortnightly summary of the details you have entered.

SCENARIO

We will use the following example to demonstrate how the Create a scenario option can assist with payroll-related decisions. 

Casey owns two fast food burger shops in Brisbane: one in Milton and the other in West End. She pays the employees of both shops through the foundU platform, using the Fast Food Industry Award.

Each site has a full-time General Manager, the employee working this role at the West End site has negotiated to be paid a higher rate than the Award when working ordinary hours on a Sunday. Rather than creating a new position and working out the rate multipliers for this, Casey has opted instead to override the Sunday pay rate for the General Manager position within the West End Operation Rates Book. 

Casey changes the full-time rate for Sunday within that Operation from $41.88 to $45 and wants to use the Award Test to check that the overridden rate is coming through correctly. She would also like to see an estimate of her employee's Sunday wages.

Casey begins by creating a scenario and inputting the employee's standard Sunday shift hours. She uses the Award Based method to determine their original Sunday pay. 

  Please note: The screen navigations below have no sound.

Casey then selects the pencil icon to edit her scenario, changing it from Award based to Operation based while ensuring she has selected the West End site. She can see that the overridden rate she entered is reflected, and the total increased Sunday wage for the employee is accurate. 

Check employee draft payslips (or compare employees)

As part of your pre-payroll process, you may want to run a test on your employee's draft payslips to confirm that their pay is calculated correctly. This testing can be done individually or in bulk.

Some key cases for testing your payslips are:

    • To check shift-based allowances.
    • See the breakdown where overtime is being triggered.
    • Compare the pay of employees on the same position. 
    • See the potential cost of increased wages when moving employees to higher positions. 

To view the Award Test results for an individual employee payslip:

  1. Navigate to Payroll > Pay > Draft payslips, use the filters or search for the relevant employee you'd like to check.
  2. From the drop-down arrow next to the payslip ID select Award Test. A new page will open in your browser with your employee's Award Test breakdown. 
  3. Place your cursor anywhere along the Summary bar and select to open the breakdown to view more details. 

 

Comparing employees timesheets

You might want to compare one employee's timesheet with another employee's timesheet. This may be for comparing pay rates or investigating why their pays differ, among other reasons.


To compare and test multiple employee timesheets:

    1. Navigate to Payroll > Award Test.
    2. Ensure you Use real timesheets, and select the 'Employee/s' option.
    3. Select the relevant Employees, Office Code, Duration and Period ending.
    4. If you'd like to also include shifts that have not yet been approved, select the 'Include unapproved shifts' checkbox.
    5. Select Begin Analysis to see the employee's total wages.
    6. Place your cursor anywhere along the Summary bars and select to open the breakdown for more details.

SCENARIO

We will use the following example to demonstrate how the Award Test can assist in comparing employee timesheets during your pre-payroll checks.

Nikita needs to process her payroll for the week, however, while running her pre-payroll checks, she notices that 2 of her employee totals seem to be different. Sadie and Isabelle both worked 26.5 hours as Level 2 F&B Attendants on the same days, but their pay is different.

Nikita runs an Award Test to compare two employees and determine why their hours have been calculated differently.

  Please note: This screen navigation has no sound.

When Nikita runs the Award Test to compare the 2 employees' timesheets, she saw that though the total hours worked were the same, the pay rules for their positions were calculated differently due to the shift times worked.   

 

Compare against a position

You can also compare an employee's timesheet with a position. This might be useful for:

    • Seeing the difference between wages for position levels. For example, levels 1 - 5.
    • When an employee moves positions, to see the potential cost of increased wages.
    • Comparing the wages for a higher duties position. 

To compare a timesheet against a position:

  1. Under the Use real timesheets option, select 'Employee/s' and choose the relevant Employees, Office Code, Duration and Period ending. If you'd like to also include shifts that have not yet been approved in Approve Shifts, select the 'Include unapproved shifts' checkbox.
  2. Select 'Compare against position' and choose the relevant Award, Position and Rate (either award or operation-based). 
  3. Select Begin Analysis.
  4. You will then see the employee's total wages for their current timesheet along with the total wages for the Award, Position and Rate you have specified to compare to. 

      Please note: When comparing an employee's timesheet to another position, this test can only be done for a duration of 2 weeks at a time. 

SCENARIO

We will use the following example to compare an employee's timesheet with another position.

On Nick's upcoming birthday, he will transition from his junior Level 1 position to adult rates. His manager, Katie normally rosters and pays him for the same 3 shifts each week. Katie wants to see how much her wages will change when Nick moves to his new position.

  Please note: This screen navigation has no sound.

Operation Charge Rates

Much like comparing your employee timesheets for payroll purposes, you may also want to compare the timesheets in your Operation. 

Testing your Operation timesheets allows you to:

    • View the breakdown of shifts and pay for all employees working under that Operation. 
    • Check the Charge rates set up on that Operation.
    • See ahead of time your estimated invoice totals for clients. 

To test the timesheets for employees and charge rates for clients in an Operation:

  1. Navigate to Payroll > Award Test.
  2. Ensure you Use Real Timesheets and select 'An Operation'.
  3. Select the relevant Operation, Duration and Period ending. If you'd like to also include shifts that have not yet been approved, select the 'Include unapproved shifts' checkbox.
  4. Begin Analysis to see all the employees listed under this operation that have timesheets for your selected period. 
  5. To show your hourly, daily and weekly Charge rate per employee timesheet, select the 'Charge rate' check box at the top of your summary page.

Roster

As part of your rostering process, you may want to use the Award Test to do some final checks before publishing. 

Testing your roster can be helpful to:

    • Make better choices about how you roster certain employees or shifts depending on the outcome of their pay.
    • Identify any unpaid breaks that may have been missed.
    • View how employees will be paid on a public holiday. 

To test your Roster, both pre and post-publishing:

  1. Navigate to Payroll > Award Test.
  2. Ensure you Use Real Timesheets and select 'A Roster'.
  3. Select the relevant Operation, Roster, Duration and Period ending. 
  4. If you have not yet published your roster, or have and your shifts are worked but unapproved, select the 'Include unapproved shifts' checkbox.
  5. Begin Analysis to see the totals and breakdown of your employee's shifts. 

      Hot tip: Change the view from 'Weekly' to 'Totals', to better view the results of your roster test.

Exporting & FAQs

Export the Award Test *NEW

If you are an Excel or Numbers wizard, or even if you aren't (let's be real, most of us aren't), you may find it easier to view the results of your Award Test in a spreadsheet.  

Exporting your Award Test from the platform has a lot of benefits and can be helpful to:

    • Easily view multiple employee breakdowns on one page. 
    • Conduct side-by-side payroll comparisons.
    • Run a Better Off Overall Test (BOOT) for your employees. 
    • Review employee leave taken over an extended period of time.

  Please note: If you are using employee data, all of the items in the Award Test Export will be pulled from the employee's shift or timesheet in whichever state it's currently in; rostered and pending, rostered and approved, or paid.

To run this export you will want to start by navigating to the Award Test page, from one of the navigation points highlighted above.

To run the Award Test export:

  1. Select or input the data you need to run the test. 
  2. From the top right of the page select the Export button. This will open the Export CSV drawer.
  3. By default, all items will be selected. To customise your export you can choose the required items by selecting:
    • Deselect All - This will deselect all items.
    • Heading - This will select/deselect all items under the heading. E.g. General Information will select Employee Name, Employee ID, Employment Type, Period Ending Date.
    • Items - Selecting items individually; this may be preferred if you are exporting only a few items.

        Hot tip: If there is an export you intend to run consistently, after making your field selections, toggle on Save as template and name your template to use in the future.  
  4. Select Export CSV.

FAQs

Why is it showing as No rule applied (No rate) on my Award Test breakdown?

There may be an instance where approved shifts are not included in an employee's payslip, these may show as no rule applied (no rate) in the Award test. This usually occurs if no pay rules have been applied for the specific hours of work (timeframes) of the position/shift in question.

Please check your Pay Rules for the position in question to ensure the relevant span of hours is covered.
 

Why is the Award Test showing different to what is on the Draft Payslip if I haven't made any manual edits to it?

The Award Test is live, if there is an existing draft payslip for an employee, and changes are made to their Position pay rules or the rates in your Operation Rates Book, you will need to reprocess the employee's Payslip for it to reflect and match the Award Test. See our guide on Reprocessing draft payslips for more information. 

Can I run a comparison for multiple employees over an extended period of time?

Yes you can, depending on the period ending date that you have selected, you can run an Award Test to compare employees for up to the following durations:

  • 1 Week
  • 2 Weeks
  • 3 Months
  • 6 Months
  • 12 Months
  • This Financial Year
  • Last Financial Year

Why can't I see the charge rate for items when I run the Award Test?

If you are creating a scenario to check your charge rates, you will need to make sure you have 2 things selected correctly when setting up your scenario:

  • Ensure you have selected Operation based and not Award based - As charge rates are set per Operation, selecting to run your Scenario by Award will not pull through those rates.
  • If you have multiple Operations, make sure to select the correct Operation that you want to run the test on. 

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