Set Up Your Pay Rules
This is step 7 of Quick Start. It sets up the rules for your award's loadings and penalties. Each employee's base rate is the hourly rate on their profile, which you entered in Add Your Staff.
If you don't pay under an award, the hourly rate on each employee's profile is enough. Skip to Run Your First Pay Run.
By the end of this step you'll have:
- Shift Rules for your award's loadings and penalties.
- Checked them on your first pay run's payslips, before anyone is paid.
Before you set up your pay rules
You'll need the award your staff are paid under, its penalty rates and loadings, and each employee's employment type.
How Microkeeper's pay rules fit together
Each type of rule pays one part of the award. They're under Menu > Settings > Payroll Rules.
| Rule | What it pays |
|---|---|
| Shift Rules | Casual loading, weekend rates, daily overtime, late night penalties and worked public holidays. |
| Weekly Rules | Overtime once ordinary hours pass a weekly limit, such as 38 hours. |
| Extra Rules | Allowances, such as tool, laundry and meal allowances. |
| Break Rules | Breaks applied to shifts automatically. |
| Rate Rules | Optional: a base rate for each award level, used instead of the rate on each profile. |
This step covers Shift Rules, which most awards need. Add the others when your award calls for them. To set up every clause of your award as a pay rule, see Set Up Your Own Pay Agreement.
Add Shift Rules for loadings and penalties
Navigate to Menu > Settings > Payroll Rules > Shift Rules.
- On the Normal Rules tab, click Add Normal Rule.
- To start from a common rule, click one under Example Rules, such as Casual 25% loading. It fills in the form for you to change.
- Enter a Title, which is shown on the payslip, for example "Casual Weekday".
- Leave Group/Employee on ALL, so the rule applies to all your staff. Choose the Employment Type and Day.
- Enter the times and the Multiplier, for example "1.25" for a 25% casual loading.
- In Priority, choose where the rule goes in the list: Bottom, or before the rule it should come ahead of.
- Click Add Shift Rule.
Shift Rules apply from the top down, and the first rule that matches pays those hours. Add casual rules before the rules for everyone else. To move a rule later, drag it in the list. Worked public holiday rates go on the Worked PH tab. For every option, see Shift Rules.
Check your pay rules on your first pay run
Once your staff's first week of timesheets is approved, start the pay run and check the payslips. Nobody is paid until you complete the pay run.
- Navigate to Menu > Payroll > Payruns. On the Upcoming Payruns tab, click Start on the pay cycle.
- Check the Year and Run are the week your staff worked, then click Payrun.
- On the Processed tab, click View on the pay run, then click an employee.
- Check each line under Payments. It shows the rule that paid it, with the Rate, Hours, Multiplier and Earnings.
Check a casual's weekday, Saturday and Sunday shifts against your award. If a line is wrong, fix the pay rule, then click Bulk Actions > Reprocess to recalculate the pay run. See Run Your First Pay Run.
When you'll need Rate Rules or Groups
You don't need either to finish Quick Start. Add them later if your business needs them:
- Rate Rules: with many staff on the same award level, give each level one rate and put staff on it. When award rates rise, you update each level once instead of every profile, and junior rates follow each employee's age. See Rate Rules.
- Groups: if some staff are paid under different conditions, such as a second award, put them in a Group and choose it in a rule's Group/Employee. See Groups.
Next step: run your first pay run
Continue with Run Your First Pay Run to check every payslip and pay your staff for the hours they worked.