How to Automate Public Holiday Pay with Rule Sets

You'll first need to set your pay categories up. To do this, go to the 'Payroll settings > Pay categories' page and click on the 'Permanent ordinary hours' pay category. If there is not one already, you'll need to add a linked pay category called 'Permanent - Public holiday (not worked)'. This will be a flat rate that we will pay the employee. It will accrue leave and super. 

Next, add another linked pay category, this time called 'Public holiday'. It will still accrue leave and super, but will have a penalty loading (for example, 150%). 

More information about pay categories can be found here

The next part of the process is setting up the required work types. You'll need to:

1. Create a work type which can be used by the employee to show that they did not work on the Public holiday.
2. Call it 'Public holiday not worked' (this will only be applicable for full-time and part-time employees)
3. Link it to the 'Permanent - Public holiday (not worked)' pay category that you created earlier. 
4. Click 'Save'
   
   

More information about work types can be found here

You can apply tags to specific employees, and then use them in rule sets as a way of specifying individual or groups of employees in which a specific rule should apply. For example, in the case of public holidays, we can use a tag to decide whether an employee gets a penalty rate, or gets paid a base rate and applicable amount of leave instead. 

You'll need to go to the 'Payroll settings' > 'Tags' page and add a tag that says something like "AL instead of penalty". Once you add the tag, you'll be able to apply it to the required employees by ticking the box alongside their name

More information about tags can be found here 

If your employees are already attached to a rule set, you will need to add the rules in addition to the existing rule set so that they are still linked to the other existing rules. To do this, go to the 'Payroll settings' > 'Rule sets' page and click on the existing rule set. If they are attached to an award, you'll need to select the award first from the drop-down box. 

If your employee is not already attached to a rule set, and you don't want these rules to be part of any existing rule set, you can create a new one for this purpose. To do that, go to the 'Payroll settings' > 'Rule sets' page, and click the 'Add' button to the right of the page. 

One thing to note about rule sets before going further is that rule sets work in order of evaluation from top to bottom, meaning the processing of the rules at the bottom happens last. In most cases, you want something that pays the employees more to happen at the bottom, and this is true for public holidays. 

Employee paid a penalty rate for working public holiday

Create a rule called 'Penalty rate on a public holiday' and configure it following the below steps: 

1. WHEN 'Time worked' in a 'Shift period'
2. WHERE (you'll need to click the cog icon on the right to see this option) 'Public holiday' is 'Any Public holiday' - In regards to selecting Public holidays in the rule set, you can choose between any (all) Public holiday, a specific Public Holiday, NOT a Public holiday or NOT one of the following. These selections give you the flexibility to use Public holiday parameters in a wide range of scenarios. 
3. 'Match entire shifts if it starts or ends on a Public holiday' - This is quite important because here we are saying that anytime between midnight and midnight on a public holiday is included. You can however, change it to be one of the following to suit your business needs:
    - Match entire shifts if it starts or ends on a public holiday
    - Only match shifts if it start on a public holiday
    - Only match shifts if it end on a public holiday
    - Match entire shift if the majority lies on a public holiday
4. Click the 'Add condition' button 
5. Select 'Work type' is NOT 'Public holiday not worked'
6. Click the 'Add condition' button
7. 'Tag' does NOT have 'AL instead of penalty'
8. Is 'Greater than' '0' hours (meaning it will trigger as soon as the shift starts)
9. THEN 'Apply pay category' of 'Permanent Public holiday'
10. Click 'Save'

When you are finished, the rule should look like the below:

Remember to re-order the rule to move it to the bottom so that it overrides anything that happens before. 

Employee paid a flat rate as well as a day of annual leave for working a public holiday

Create a rule called 'AL instead of Penalty rate on a public holiday' and configure it following the below steps:

1. WHEN 'Time worked' in a 'Shift period'
2. WHERE (you'll need to click the cog icon on the right to see this option) 'Public holiday' is 'Any Public holiday' - In regards to selecting Public holidays in the rule set, you can choose between any (all) Public holiday, a specific Public Holiday, NOT a Public holiday or NOT one of the following. These selections give you the flexibility to use Public holiday parameters in a wide range of scenarios. 
3. 'Match entire shifts if it starts or ends on a Public holiday' (remember to choose the scenario that works for your business - this is quite important because here we are saying that anytime between midnight and midnight on a public holiday is included. You can however change it to be one of the following:
    - Match entire shifts if it starts or ends on a public holiday
    - Only match shifts if it start on a public holiday
    - Only match shifts if it end on a public holiday
    - Match entire shift if the majority lies on a public holiday
4. Click the 'Add condition' button 
5. Select 'Work type' is NOT one of 'Public holiday not worked'
6. Click the 'Add condition' button
7. 'Tag' has 'AL instead of penalty'
8. Is 'Greater than' '0' hours (meaning it will trigger as soon as the shift starts)
9. THEN 'Multiple actions' 
10. 'Apply pay category' of 'Permanent Public holiday'
11. Click the 'Add action' button
12. AND 'Set rate multiplier' to 0.40. What we are saying here is that a Public holiday usually pays double time and a half, but in this case we only want to pay the flat rate. 
13. Click the 'Add action' button
14. 'Add leave accrual' of 1 unit of 'Annual leave' 'Per hour worked'
15. Click 'Save'

When you are finished, the rule should look like the below:

Remember to re-order the rule to move it to the bottom so that it overrides anything that happened before. 

Employee public holiday day off

Rule sets are not needed for this scenario, however, the important thing to remember about this is that the system cannot automatically pay a public holiday for timesheet employees without a timesheet being submitted. If they do not submit a timesheet, they will not get paid (at all) for the day. Salary employees, however, who are paid their hours by default in the pay run, will be paid their usual hours regardless of a public holiday. 

So, in the case of timesheet employees not working on a public holiday, you have a couple of options. 

1. Ask the employee to create a timesheet, and they can use the 'Public holiday not worked' work type. This work type links to the base rate and so will show up as 'Public holiday not worked' and pay their normal rate.
2. If you do not want employees to have to enter a timesheet for the Public holiday not worked, the workaround is to export a timesheet template for you to enter the details (remembering to use the 'Public holiday not worked' work type) for the employees before importing them. You could use one of the following timesheet templates:
   
   Example 1:
   This timesheet format uses datetime data in the start/end/break start/break end columns
   timesheet-import-format-A.xlsx
   
   Example 2:
   This timesheet format uses a date column with separate start time/end time columns
   timesheet-import-format-B.xlsx
   
   Example 3:
   This timesheet format uses a date column and a units column to represent the hours worked
   timesheet-import-format-C.xlsx

All of these timesheets are very simple however they can be expanded upon due to the timesheet importer's flexibility.

Note: You​ will need to do a few things behind the scenes to be able to import timesheets. This includes adding an external ID to each employee, work type, and location so that the import file can match the data in the platform. You​ will find more information here 

You can check what is happening for each shift by using the rules tester...

• Go to the Rule Sets page (under the pay conditions heading on the payroll settings tab)
• Select the Award from the drop-down menu at the top of the page (if necessary)
• Select the rule set you want to check
• Click the Test Rules button
• Check the current period dates (the pay run period dates should match exactly to the current period or a previous period)
• Click on the Import button
• Select the employee whose shifts you want to test
• Scroll down and hit Run Test

Once each day's earnings are displayed, you can expand the day you want to check and click on the question mark to show you the list of rules that have been triggered by that shift.
​​
Then you can go check each rule that was triggered and see how/why it has been applied to that shift - keep in mind that rules are applied in order from top to bottom so a rule that's triggered may be overridden by another rule further down the list.

1. Log into your payroll platform.
2. In Settings, click on Payroll Settings on the left-hand side menu.
3. Click on Rule Sets under the Business Management subheading.
4. Click on Salary Public Holiday.
5. Click on the Edit Rules button.
6. Click on the Add Rule button. 

7. Type Public Holiday Not Worked - Salary Employees. 

8. Under WHEN, select Always from the drop-down menu. 
9. Next, select Time worked from the same drop-down menu.
   
10. From the next drop-down menu, select In a shift.
    
11. Underneath this drop-down menu, select Is greater than, and add 0 hours.
    
12. Click on the cog icon.
    
13. Click on Add Where.
    
14. Select Public holiday from the drop-down menu.
    
15. Click on the green Add Condition button.
    
16. Select Work type from the drop-down menu.
    
17. Type in Public holiday not worked and select this option from the drop-down menu.
    
18. Under THEN, select Apply pay category from the drop-down menu.
    
19. From the same drop-down menu, select Multiple actions.
    
20. Continuing under the THEN subheading, click on Public holiday not worked from this drop-down menu.
    
21. Click on Add action.
    
22. In the highlighted drop-down menu, click on Add allowance.
    
23. In the highlighted units text box, type -1.
    
24. Select Salary from the highlighted drop-down menu.
    
25. Select Per shift from the highlighted drop-down menu.
    
26. On the same drop-down menu, select Per hour worked.
    
27. Back up in the units field, type in 7.6.
    
28. In the With rate multiplier field, type in 1.
    
29. Select No minimum from the next drop-down menu. 
30. Select Maximum of in the next drop-down menu.
    
31. In the units field, type -7.6.
    
32. Click on the Save button.