Award Setup Overview: Creating a New Award in Easy Employer

Updated 2026-01-22 01:01:56 UTC Created 2026-01-22 00:49:11 UTC

Summary

This guide explains how to create and configure a new Award in Easy Employer, including the key configuration areas you typically need to complete so costs, warnings, and payroll outputs behave as expected. It also outlines when to use an Easy Employer templated Award, and when to engage Professional Services for a structured Award implementation.

TIP: If your organisation is implementing a modern Award or Enterprise Agreement for the first time, consider doing the configuration in a dedicated UAT environment, then validating outputs using your own test cases before it is created in production.

Contents

Before you start

Before creating a new Award, confirm the items below so your setup aligns to payroll and compliance requirements.

What to confirm Why it matters
Which Award or Enterprise Agreement applies Your interpretation rules must reflect the conditions you intend to apply.
Classifications, pay points, and base rates These drive hourly rates and multipliers used across rosters, timesheets, and payroll outputs.
Penalty rules and triggers you want applied Many conditions are configured through pay groups, triggers, and interpretation periods.
Your payroll coding structure Payroll categories and codes should match what your payroll system expects.
Public holiday handling requirements Correct setup is required to generate worked and non-worked public holiday outcomes correctly.
NOTE: Access to view and change Awards depends on your permissions. If you cannot see the Awards area or editing controls, speak to your Easy Employer account owner or administrator to review your access.

Using templated Awards

Easy Employer has templated Awards that cover a base level of interpretation, including commonly applied conditions and a standard payroll coding structure.

If you want to load a templated Award, or you are unsure if a template exists for the Award you require, contact the Easy Employer Support Team to discuss your options.

Professional Services for Award implementation

Easy Employer can assist organisations to implement a new Award through Professional Services. This is commonly used when the Award or Agreement is complex, when you need support defining payroll outputs, or when you want a structured test and validation approach before go-live.

A typical Professional Services engagement can include:

  • Analysing the Award or Agreement and key clauses
  • Confirming how your organisation wants clauses interpreted in practice
  • Configuring the Award in UAT
  • Validating outputs using your test cases with expected outcomes
  • Moving employees from the old award to the new award
  • Implementing this on production

Reach out to the Easy Employer Support Team to discuss options.

Create the new Award

Create the Award from the Organisation Awards area. Depending on your permissions, you may have options to add or create new Award configurations, or to duplicate an existing Award and adjust it.

TIP: If you are not starting from a template, duplicating a similar existing Award can be faster than starting from scratch, then you can adjust only what differs. Reach out to the Easy Employer Support Team to discuss duplicating the award, this can only be done by Easy Employer.

Configure the Award

After the Award is created, configure the key components below. This article is a hub and overview. Use the linked articles to complete detailed configuration for each section.

Configure positions and rate groups

Positions hold the rate tables, either with defined rates that match the award level and pay point structure, and age structure or user defined rates for custom rates for individual users.

Configure payroll codes and payroll categories

Payroll categories and payroll codes determine how time is paid and exported, for example ordinary time, leave, overtime, and penalties.

Configure employment types

Employment types represent contract types used in your organisation, for example full time, part time, and casual.

Configure role rates if required

Role rates allow different rates to apply based on the role worked, without permanently changing a user’s base rate.

Configure break types

Break types support unpaid and paid breaks and related handling in interpretation.

Configure interpretation periods

Interpretation periods support rules that depend on the period type, and can assist where employees may be paid from multiple Awards within the same payroll period.

Configure Award triggers if required

Award triggers provide options to apply codes or interpretations based on criteria such as per hour, per shift, per day, or per interpretation period.

Configure entitlements and leave

Entitlements, leave types, and leave shift lengths must be configured so leave requests and leave costing behave as expected.

Configure public holidays

Public holiday configuration is required so worked and non-worked public holidays are interpreted correctly. If you operate across multiple regions, you may also need public holiday regions.

Configure pay groups

Pay groups organise users and determine the rates and conditions that apply. 

Test and validate in UAT or sandbox

Before go-live, validate the Award configuration using test cases that reflect real scenarios in your organisation. Where possible, define the expected outcome before testing so it is clear whether interpretation is correct.

Test case type Examples
Ordinary shifts Weekday day shifts, evening shifts, weekend shifts
Penalties and overtime Long shifts, back-to-back shifts, weekly threshold scenarios
Public holidays Worked public holiday, non-worked public holiday (if applicable)
Leave Leave taken on ordinary days, leave taken on irregular patterns, leave loading scenarios (if applicable)
TIP: If outcomes look unexpected, check the user’s assigned pay group and role rates first, then review the related Award configuration sections.

Process Award updates

After making Award configuration changes, you may see a message that an Award update needs to be processed. This means your configuration changes have not yet been processed.

NOTE: Processing Award updates can recalculate costs for users on that Award. Where possible, plan to do this after business hours.

Use: Award Update Needs to Be Processed

Go-live checklist

  • Users are assigned to the correct Award pay groups and positions
  • Rates, multipliers, payroll categories, and payroll codes align to your payroll requirements
  • Public holiday configuration and regions are correct (if used)
  • Leave types, entitlements, and leave shift lengths are configured as intended
  • Award updates are processed after configuration changes are finalised
  • UAT or sandbox test cases have been validated and signed off internally

Troubleshooting and common fixes

If interpretation results seem incorrect, start with the specific shift or timesheet outcome you are checking, then trace back to the Award component that controls it. Easy Employer is highly configurable, so troubleshooting is usually a matter of confirming rules, mappings, and assignments.