13th

We have introduced a new suite of configurations for Salaried Employment Agreements to allow the employers to manage the salaried employees, who are under Individual flexibility arrangements, directly within the award instead of having to remove them.

This introduction, which is an enhancement rather than a legislative update requirement, includes the items below if they do not already exist within an award:

• Pay Categories (Salary and Salary - Public Holiday Not Worked).
• Leave Allowance Templates for “No loading” and “With loading”.
• Rule Set to disregard timesheets.
• Pay Rate Templates.
• Employment Agreements for all employee types (full-time, part-time, and casual).

For detailed information on the changes, please refer to our guide here.

18th

We've updated the rulesets with the following changes:

• Added an automatic meal break rule in line with clause 12.2.
• Updated the rule "12.2(c) Work during a recognised meal break" so that payment now applies from the start of the missed break until it is taken.
  • Marked the duplicate work type (“Work during a meal break”) with asterisk (*) as inactive.

Broadacre Farming and Livestock Operations rulesets

• Introduced a new rule "12.2(c) Work during a recognised meal break – overtime" to ensure payment during overtime in these cases. 
  • Created and enabled new pay categories in pay rate templates:
    • Permanent – Delayed meal break overtime
    • Casual – Delayed meal break overtime

Also, we have added the rates for the following pay categories to the Permanent and Casual Level 2 station cooks Pay Rate Templates as per the legislative update effective April 1, 2025.

• Overtime - station cooks - works on 6 full day
• Overtime - station cooks - works on 6.5 day
• Overtime - station cooks - works on 7 full days

1st

We have updated the award to reflect the Fair Work Commission's National Minimum Wage increase detailed in the Annual Wage Review 2024-25 decision and also includes updates to expense-related allowances. You can find more information on the Determinations here and here.

These changes come into effect from the first full pay period on or after the 1st July 2025. Please install these updates after you have finalised your last pay run before the first full pay period beginning on or after the 1st July 2025.

14th

We've renamed all leave allowance templates by adding the award code as a prefix. This ensures each template can be accurately associated with its respective award, particularly in cases where template names are identical.

10th

We have updated the backend rounding method impacting the calculation of the minimum base rate. "Farm and Livestock Hand Level 1", "Farm and Livestock Hand Level 2" and "Farm and Livestock Hand Level 4" have been updated to reflect the minimum rate in the pay guide. 

1st

We have updated the award to reflect the Fair Work Commission's National Minimum Wage increase detailed in the Annual Wage Review 2023-24 decision and also includes updates to expense-related allowances. You can find more information on the Determinations here and here.

These changes come into effect from the first full pay period on or after the 1st July 2024. Please install these updates after you have finalised your last pay run before the first full pay period beginning on or after the 1st July 2024.

All rule sets has been updated to include a rule for Paid Family Domestic Violence Leave.

15th

The First Aid Allowance pay category has been updated, so it does not accrue leave. 

1st

From 1 August, all employees are entitled to 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave each year. The (Unpaid) Family and Domestic Violence Leave configuration settings under Awards have been updated - the leave category is disabled from award leave allowance templates, and the work type is not enabled automatically for all employees. Please ensure that employees no longer use the unpaid leave category or work type.

1st

We have updated the award to reflect the Fair Work Commission’s national minimum wage increase detailed in the Annual Wage Review 2022-23 decision and includes updates to expense-related allowances. You can find information on the determinations here and here. These changes come into effect from the first full pay period on or after the 1st July 2023. Please install these updates after you have finalised your last pay run before the first full pay period beginning on or after the 1st of July 2023.

We have also updated the Community Service Leave category to ensure it pays at base rate.

We have updated the pay conditions rules for Permanent - Station Cooks, Casual - Station Cooks, Permanent - Broadacre Farming and Livestock Operations, and Casual - Broadacre Farming and Livestock Operations to make sure that the First Aid and Leading Hand all-purpose allowances apply correctly. We have updated the following employment agreements to reflect the correct pay conditions:

• Station cook - Part Time
• Station cook - Casual
• Station cook's offsider - Part Time

We have updated the award to reflect changes made as part of the Fair Work Commission decision regarding Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave. Further information on what changes have been applied to the platform and what you should be aware of can be found within this article.

We have created the following new categories:

• New leave category: Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave.
• New pay category: Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave.
• New work type: Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave taken.

We have updated the leave allowance templates to disable the existing unpaid Family and Domestic Violence Leave and we have enabled the new paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave. We also updated any impacted rule conditions.

As part of the Fair Work Commission ruling, an employee must be paid their full pay rate; this includes their base rate plus any incentive-based payments and bonuses, loadings, monetary allowances, overtime or penalty rates, and any other separately identifiable amount.

The award has been updated to reflect the Fair Work Commission’s national minimum wage increase, as detailed in the Annual Wage Review 2021-22 decision. This also includes updates to expense-related allowances. Information on the determinations can be found here and here. These changes come into effect from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2022. Please install these updates AFTER you have finalised your last pay run prior to the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 July 2022.

Unpaid Pandemic Leave has been disabled as this entitlement has now expired within this award. Additional information can be found on the Fair Work Commission website.

The Unpaid Pandemic Leave pay category has been updated and counts as service for entitlements under awards and the National Employment Standards.

If any staff have used this category previously, please adjust their Annual, Personal, and Long Service Leave balances for any period of unpaid pandemic leave previously taken.

To identify affected employees and enter the leave accrual see: Calculating Missing Leave Accrual for Unpaid Pandemic Leave Taken. 

The Award has been updated in line with the ATO's requirements for STP Phase 2 reporting. The reporting of gross earnings is now being disaggregated into distinguishable categories. The pay category payment classifications have been updated in line with the ATO specification categories found here. For further information please see our STP support article.

The pay categories Leading hand allowance - in charge of 11-20 employees, Leading hand allowance - in charge of 2-6 employees, Leading hand allowance - in charge of 2-6 employees, and Leading hand allowance - in charge of 2-6 employees have been updated to exclude leave from being accrued specifically from the allowance. 

The pay rate for pay category Vehicle allowance - above ATO-approved limit has been updated to 0.08c per unit.

The award has been updated to reflect the Fair Work Commission’s national minimum wage increase of 2.5% detailed in the Annual Wage Review 2020-21 decision. This also includes updates to expense-related allowances. Information on the determinations can be found here and here.

These changes come into effect from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2021. Please install these updates after you have finalised your last pay run prior to the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 July 2021.

Updates have also been made to the leave category Family & Domestic Violence Leave, so that the balance is displayed in days instead of hours in line with the National Employment Standards.

Once the update is installed, all employees' FDV leave balances will be displayed in days, not hours. This will mean that an employee’s balance may now show as 38 days. For further instruction on how to correct the balance, please see How to Fix Family & Domestic Violence Leave Balance Data.

This update is to ensure that any new installs of this award conducted since 1 July are now captured with the SG increase from 9.5% to 10% for all pay categories. If you have installed this award between 1 July 2021 to 8 July 2021 for the first time, please ensure you select "NO" to preserve custom pay categories. If you were using this award prior to 1 July 2021, then you do not need to select "NO." Further information can be found in Incorrect SG rate used in pay runs article here.

The award has been updated as part of the Fair Work Commission decision on allowances. The determination can be found here. Also, changes have been made to some junior pay rate corrections. The pay conditions rule set for Permanent - Broadacre Farming and Livestock Operations, Casual - Broadacre Farming and Livestock Operations, Permanent - Station Cooks, and Casual - Station Cooks have been updated to reflect the changes made around how employees working "with keep" are to be paid. There is no longer a need to select a tag for "with keep," if an employee is provided with keep then a deduction can be set up in the Pay Run Inclusions page of an employee's personnel details. The employee will receive their full wages, there will be no longer separate pay categories for "with keep" or "without keep." The rule changes are around Ordinary Hours, Working during a meal break, and Public Holidays. The allowance rates updated include: Horse Allowance, Meal Allowance, Saddle Allowance, and Vehicle Allowance.

The allowance rate changes are effective from the first pay period on or after 30 November 2020.

The award has been updated as part of the Fair Work Commission's 4-year modern award review. The determination can be found here. All pay condition rule sets have been updated in line with the 2020 version of the award.

The award, as part of Group 2 Awards, has been updated to reflect the Fair Work Commission’s national minimum wage increase of 1.75% detailed in the Annual Wage Review 2019-20 decision. This also includes updates to expense-related allowances. Information on the determinations can be found here and here.

These changes come into effect from the first full pay period on or after 1 November 2020. Please install these updates after you have finalised your last pay run prior to the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 November 2020.

The award has been updated to reflect the High Court of Australia's decision on the accrual of personal/carer's leave, which overturns the decision made by the Full Federal Court of Australia, with personal/carer's leave being calculated on working days, not hours. Information on the decision can be found here. As such, we have removed the Personal/Carer's (10 days) Leave Allowance templates and updated associated employment agreements. Please note, this update will not remove any of the above from a business where the award was already installed prior to 25 August 2020. However, any new award installs from 25 August 2020 will not display personal/carer's (10 days) leave details.

For further information on migrating from daily personal/carers leave accruals to hourly, please refer here.

The award pay rate templates have been updated to reflect the Australian Taxation Office's decision to increase the cents per kilometre rate for work-related car expense deductions to 72 cents per kilometre. The new rate applies from the first paid date in the 2020-21 financial year.

The award has been updated to reflect the changes made as part of the Fair Work Commission's determination around Clause 26C - Annualised Wage Arrangements. A new employment agreement for annualised wage employees has been created which can be assigned to an employee who is paid under the provisions of clause 26C. Further information on the employee setup can be found here.

The award has been updated to reflect changes made as part of the Fair Work Commission decision around flexibility during coronavirus. The new schedule allows employees to take up to two (2) weeks of unpaid pandemic leave. A new pay category (Unpaid Pandemic Leave Taken), leave category and work type (Unpaid Pandemic Leave) have been created. Also, the rule sets have been updated, where necessary, to include/exclude the work type and leave category to some pay conditions. ‌Further, the leave allowance templates have been updated to ensure this new leave category is enabled and is now accessible for employees to take this leave when required.

Further, under this new schedule employees can take up to twice as much annual leave at a proportionally reduced rate if their employer agrees. The employee's pay rate and leave balance will need to be manually adjusted to half in each pay run for the period of leave.

Refresh to Award to capture all previous updates.

Due to recent changes to the interpretation of personal/carer's leave accrual under the National Employment Standards, updates have been made to the setup of the award. Further information can be found here. 

A new leave category called Personal/Carer's (10 days) Leave has been created. Also, new leave allowance templates (LATs) have been created specific to 10 days accrual per year for each state, and the LATs have been attached to the current employment agreements for selection options for an employee's LAT in their Employee Default Pay Run screen. Any rules impacted by Personal/Carer's Leave have also been updated with the new leave category. 

Instructions on converting the accruals to the 10-day method can be found here.

The award has been updated to reflect the Fair Work Commission’s national minimum wage increase of 3% from its Annual Wage Review 2018-19 decision. This also includes updates to expense-related allowances. Information on the determinations can be found here and here.

These changes come into effect from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2019. Please install these updates after you have finalised your last pay run prior to the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 July 2019.

The setup of the Payroll Tax Exempt field in Payroll Settings>Pay Categories was replicating the PAYG Exempt field rather than creating a unique identity; when installed into the business settings. An audit has been carried out across the platform and the issue has now been resolved with this update.

The award has been updated to reflect changes made as part of the Fair Work Commission decision 4-year review of modern awards. The determination for the new clause in the modern award allowing employees to take unpaid leave to deal with family and domestic violence can be found here. Family and Domestic Violence Leave applies from the first full pay period on or after 1 August 2018. Further information can be found at the Fair Work Commission website.

Employees, including part-time and casual employees, are entitled to 5 days of unpaid family and domestic violence leave each year of their employment. The five days renew each 12 months of their employment, but does not accumulate if the leave is not used.

A new leave category has been created (Family and Domestic Violence Leave) and a new work type (Family and Domestic Violence Leave taken). ‌The leave allowance templates and any impacted rule conditions have also been updated.

The award has been updated to reflect the Fair Work Commission’s national minimum wage increase of 3.5% from its Annual Wage Review 2017-18 decision. This also includes updates to expense-related allowances.

These changes come into effect from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2018. Please install these updates AFTER you have finalised your last pay run prior to the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 July 2018.

Additionally, the following changes have been made as part of this update:

1. The payment classification settings for allowance-based pay categories have been updated as per STP requirements.
2. We have created a new rule - 10.3(g) Apply Overtime - Over Advanced Standard Hours - Part-Time. This rule reflects the following provisions of clause 10.3(g):
• the hours worked each day;
• which days of the week the employee will work;
• the actual starting and finishing times of each day.

Previously, we could only assess the number of hours worked per week for overtime purposes using the existing Apply Overtime - Over Standard Hours - Part Time rule. Now, however, we can assess the Advanced Standard Work Hours as set up within the employee's Pay Run Defaults screen.

For example, if an employee's Advanced Standard Work Hours were as follows:

The rule will assess hours as follows:

1. Any time worked on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday will be deemed overtime;
2. Any time worked before the start times on Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Sunday will be deemed overtime; and
3. Any time worked after the end times on Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Sunday will be deemed overtime.

N.B:

(a) This rule only works where Advanced Standard Work Hours have been set up using start and finish times, NOT hours only;

(b) If no Advanced Standard Work Hours have been set up for a part-time employee, then all hours will be deemed overtime.

Updated all casual employment agreements to use casual pay rate templates. This ensures the primary pay category has been set to Casual - Ordinary Hours which is correct for reporting purposes.

The award has been updated to reflect changes made as part of the Fair Work Commision decision 4-year review of modern awards. The changes add the requirement in paragraph 10(f) to provide a part time employee who is a full time secondary school student and is a dairy operator and is under 18 to receive a minimum 2-hour shift rather than a 3-hour shift which was previously the case for all part time workers.

These changes are reflected in the Permanent - Broadacre Farming and Livestock Operations rule set and also give rise to two new employee tags:

• Full time secondary student
• Dairy operator

You will need to apply these tags to any employees who meet the above criteria. These tags have been added to this help guide below.

Please note that the changes come into effect on the first full pay period on or after 1 January 2018. This means that you should only install these updates once you've completed the last pay period that pays shifts worked during December 2017.