i) Important Notes
ii) Explanation of Terms
2) Open the Award
3) Update the payroll category multipliers / hourly rates
4) Update position base hourly rates
5) Update custom rates / user rates
6) Process award changes
🔍 RELATED ARTICLES
Award | Management
Award | Triggers
Award | Role rates
1) Overview
The award payroll category in Easy Employer (EE) dictates the rate of pay that a user receives as part of their employment contract. Award payroll categories and position hourly rates may need to be updated when there is a FairWork change. If you are unsure of what the change is, please speak to FairWork or your association.
This guide explains how to update payroll category multipliers (e.g. due to transitions) or position base hourly rates (e.g. due to yearly rate increase).
This would typically be used to apply new financial year updates. However users should wait until the first full pay period has started before making changes to payroll categories. This will ensure that users are not paid the new rate prematurely.
i) Important Notes:
- When changes are applied to the payroll categories, this has an immediate effect on the related pay groups in the current payroll period.
- For new financial year updates, these changes need to be applied to the first full pay period.
- Therefore, please wait until the first full pay period has started before making changes to payroll categories
- Award changes can be tricky and fluctuate based on your award transition requirements for the state/region.
- Depending on the payroll application in use by your organisation, changes made to payroll categories and position rates may also need to be updated within your payroll application. Please review this information within your payroll application after making any changes to ensure that the payroll categories and position rates match.
- If you require assistance, please contact EE at support@easyemployer.com.
ii) Explanation of Terms:
- Base Award Pay Group - Casual, Part Time or Full Time used through all award positions.
- Position - the award position the user is on, e.g. Retail Employee, Pharmacy Assistant.
- Payroll Category - the payroll category is assigned to an interpretation period for the award, e.g. Saturday, and matches the payroll programs payroll category, e.g. the MYOB payroll category.
2) Award updates
Follow these steps to open the award to make changes to it:
- Click Organisation.
- Click Awards.
- Click the award you want to update.
3) Update payroll category multipliers / hourly rates
- Open the Award (see steps above).
- Scroll down to the Payroll categories section.
- Click the more actions (three-dots) icon in line with the payroll category that needs updating.
- Click Edit.
- If the award payroll category is currently being used in an award pay group (most likely scenario) you will be prompted to confirm the edit.
Click Confirm to continue. - The payroll category can now be edited.
- Enter the new multiplier / hourly rate in the corresponding field, and click save.
The multiplier / hourly rate will now be updated in all pay groups that it is used in.
4) Update position base hourly rates
- Once you have the award open, click the position you want to update in the Positions section.
- The Rate Table for this position will be shown at the bottom under the Defined Rates heading.
- Click on the three-dots icon in the rate group that should be updated and select Edit.
- If the rate group is currently being used by a user, you will be prompted to confirm the edit. Click Confirm to continue.
- Update the rates in the Base Hourly Rate column corresponding the the correct Identifier and once completed, click Save.
- The base hourly rates have now been updated and applied to any users already assigned to the particular identifier.
5) Update custom rates / user rates
Custom Rates or User Rates are also stored in Positions. The User Rates section is located above the Defined Rates section.
- Once you have the award open, click the position that should be updated in the Positions section. If multiple positions exist, the position holding the User Rate to be updated should be selected.
- Click on the three-dots icon in line with the user rate that should be updated and select Edit.
- If the a user has been assigned to the user rate group, a popup will be displayed. Click Confirm to edit the group.
- Update the rates in the Base Hourly Rate column as required. Once completed, click Save.
- The base hourly rate has been updated and applied to users already assigned to the particular identifier.
6) Process award changes
Once the award updates/changes have been made, the award will need to be processed to ensure future rosters and timesheets costs are using the updated configuration.
- Open the award.
- Click the process button in the Award updated section.
- Repeat for the next award.
- Go back to the home page and ensure there are no to-do items about an award update, e.g.
- If there is a to-do item, click the to-do item and process.