Payroll - Award Test

Award Interpretation Test

As part of your payroll checks, you may like to check why your employee is being paid the way they are.

To do this, you're able to run an Awards Test to see the following for an employee:

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

Here are some examples of how you can use the Award Test feature:

• Test new award interpretation in your platform
• Compare whether or not an employee is better off with a new position or award
• Compare the rate of multiple positions & employees
• Create mock scenarios
• Use as a pre-payroll check before processing pays
• Clearly see why an employee is being paid the way they are including how they will be paid on Public Holidays 
• See an estimate on an employee's leave accrual or your total charge-out amount for your clients

In this article we will cover:

• • Using the Award Test per employee or comparing employees
  • Using the Award Test for an Operation
  • Using the Award Test for a Roster
  • How to create a Scenario (Mock timesheets)

  Please note: The following permissions are required to view the Awards Test page. 'Access Award Tests' and 'View Employee Pay Rates'.

Award Test per employee (or compare employees)

You can view the Award results page for a specific payslip when in Pay > Draft Payslips

To view the award results for a specific payslip:

1. In Pay > Draft Payslips, find the payslip for which you would like to see the Award results.
2. Then select Action > View Breakdown.
   
   
3. This will then take you to the Award Test page for this specific employee.
4. Click on the Summary to see the breakdown in more detail and hover over the coloured tile to see additional details like the employee's Award, Position and Operation.
   
   

   

Comparing employees timesheets

You may want to compare an employee's timesheet with another employee. This might be to compare pay rates and make sure they are both on the same pay rate or award.

To test current timesheets by comparing employees:

1. Navigate to Payroll > Award Test.
2. Select the 'Employee/s' option and choose the relevant Employees, Office Code, Period of time and Period ending. If you would like to also include shifts that have not yet been approved in Approve Shifts, select the 'Include unapproved shifts' checkbox.
3. Select Begin Analysis.
   
   

   

4. You will then see the employee total wages, click on the employees to see the breakdown of wages.
   
   
5. You can also view the data by Ordinary hours, Overtime, Leave, Break, Allowances and leave accruals. These are all colour coded so that you can see the components. Hover over each coloured section to see more details. These options are selectable and can be selected/deselected to change the view of the breakdown of wages. 
   
   

  Tip: Select Total to see the total hours and wages instead of a breakdown. If you'd like to see only the total hours, rate or charge rate (relevant to those in labour hire) you can select these specifically. Please note: Viewing the total excludes accrued hours.

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.
• If 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. Select the 'Employee/s' option and choose the relevant Employees, Office Code, Period of time and Period ending. If you would 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. 
   
   In this example, Belinda is moving from the position of Cook - Level 3 to F&B Attendant. We have compared her current timesheet with her new position to see Belinda's new wage costs. 
   
   

Award Test for an Operation

Much like comparing timesheets between employees, you can compare timesheets for all employees linked to an Operation. 

To view current timesheets for employees in an Operation:

1. Navigate to Payroll > Award Test.
2. Select the 'An Operation' option and the relevant Operation, Period of time and Period ending. If you would like to also include shifts that have not yet been approved in Approve Shifts, select the 'Include unapproved shifts' checkbox.
3. Select Begin Analysis.
   
   

   

4. You will now see all the names of employees listed under this operation that have timesheets for your selected time period.
5. Select 'Summary' against the employee to view the breakdown of their wages. Hover over the components to see more details about their wages.
   
   In the example below you can see the breakdowns for Ordinary hours along with a tool allowance and leave accruals.
   
   

   

Award Test for a Roster

Using the Award Test for your roster will provide a multitude of benefits. Here are a few ideas.

• By including 'Unapproved shifts' in your Award Test - you may make better choices about how you roster certain employees and shifts depending on the outcome of their pay. You may also pick up any unpaid breaks that have been missed.
• Using the Award Test to view how employees will be paid on a public holiday - This will allow you to easily check if your managers have made the correct approval choices on public holidays.

To view current timesheets by comparing employees in a Roster:

1. Navigate to Payroll > Award Test.
2. Select the 'A Roster' option and the relevant Operation, Roster, period of time and Period ending. If you would like to also include shifts that have not yet been approved in Approve Shifts, select the 'Include unapproved shifts' checkbox.
3. Select Begin Analysis.
   
   
   
   In the example below, you can see the employees on the Caffeine Express Roster and their breakdown for Ordinary with unpaid break times and an allowance that is applied to Chloe.
   
   
   

Create a Scenario (Mock timesheets)

In the Award Test, you can use Real Timesheets or Create a Scenario (allowing you to create a mock timesheet scenario that you would like to test out).

Creating a scenario allows you to:

• See an employee's estimated pay for a week or a fortnight
• Compare multiple positions
• See an employee's potential leave accrual for a pay period

To Create a Scenario:

1. Navigate to Payroll > Award Test and select Create a scenario.
2. On the left side of the screen in the Timesheets section choose whether you want to create a scenario for a week or fortnight.
3. Select the relevant day of the week and input:
   • Roster input times including break duration and break start time (optional).
     
     
     
     
   •  You can add another shift to the same day (if needed).
     
     

     
     
     

   • You can also add multiple shifts to multiple days by copying the created shift and choosing the day of the week to copy to and the tick.
     
     
     
     
   • The copied shifts will then display under the selected days of the week.
     
     

     
     
     

   • You can even use the checkbox to mark if a particular day is a public holiday for the purpose of the scenario.
     
     
     
     
   • At the bottom of the screen a summary of the days, shifts, breaks and total hours are displayed.
     • Any items listed in red for example Add Positions as listed below, need to be entered in before you can begin the analysis.
       
       

       

4. On the right you can then select a specific Award and Position on the right and the timesheet information on the left. 
5. Then you'll need to choose your Analysis approach - Award based or Operation based. 
   • Award based - select an Award a position within a specific Award and run the scenario based on the Award.
   • Operation based - If you have the same position in the same Award but different Operation based information (due to different charge rates for your clients), you can also use the Operation based scenario approach. The below example image shows the selection for an Operation based scenario.
     
     

     

6. You can add another position at this stage (optional).
   
   
7. Once you have inputted the information for your mock scenario, click on the Begin Analysis button.
8. You'll then see a weekly summary of the position details based on your current week and pay period (but you can adjust these if needed.
   
   
   
   
   • Click on the Total to see a summary including charge rates.
     
     
     
     
   • Click on the items to view an expanded view, for example, you can see public holiday OTE (Ordinary) and (OT Overtime).
     
     
     
     

   •  You can also hover your mouse to see more details.
     
     

SCENARIO

We'll use the following example to look at how the different options for this setting will behave.

Below is a short example of a Boilermaker position in the Manufacturing Award for client Cup Co based in QLD.

• who works Monday to Thursday including overtime on a Monday,
• as well as public holiday rates for the Tuesday,
• and the resulting analysis with the charge rates summary.

  Please note this Screen Navigation has no sound, please watch and follow along for helpful tips on the Create a scenario feature.

Below is a longer navigation of the Boilermaker position in the Manufacturing Award for client Cup Co based in QLD who works Monday to Thursday including overtime on a Monday, as well as public holiday rates for Tuesday, and the resulting analysis with the charge rates summary.

  Please note this Screen Navigation has no sound, please watch and follow along for helpful tips on the Create a scenario feature.