1. Log on to the Payroll classic platform.
2. Click on Payroll Settings.
3. Click Pay Categories page.
4. 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.
5. Click Add linked category, and call it 'Public Holiday' (for example). Set this linked category to accrue leave and super, but will have a penalty loading (for example 150%). 

Here, you can create a work type which can be used by the employee to indicate that they did not work on the public holiday. You can call it 'Public holiday not worked' (for example) and link it to the 'Permanent - Public holiday (not worked)' pay category.

1. Log on to the Payroll classic platform.
2. Navigate to the payroll dashboard.
3. Click Payroll Settings tab.
4. Navigate to Pay Conditions.
5. Click Work Types.
6. Click Add.
7. Enter the following fields:
   • Name (of the work type is required);
   • External ID: If an external ID is used that has been used before, you will not be able to save it if the 'unique external Id' setting is switched on. This setting is located on the Payroll Settings > Advanced Settings page. 
   • Automatically enabled for (select the employee types you would like to auto-enable the work type for).
   • Work Maps to:
     • Employee's Primary Pay Category.
     • Pay Category (select relevant pay category).
     • Leave Category (select relevant leave category) *** Apply to pay run as leave accrual, when this setting is enabled, timesheets entered using this work type will accrue leave rather than take leave.
     • None (Shift Condition): see here for more information on shift conditions.
8. Click Save.

You can apply tags to specific employees. These are used in rule sets as a way of specifying individuals or groups of employees to which a specific rule should apply.  

1. Log on to the Payroll classic platform.
2. Navigate to Payroll Settings.
3. Click Tags
4. Click Add
5. Enter the name of the tag
6. Click Save

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.

1. Log on to the Payroll classic platform
2. Navigate to Payroll Settings
3. Click Rule sets
4. 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.

1. Log on to the Payroll classic platform
2. Navigate to Payroll Settings
3. Click Rule sets
4. Click the Add button to the right of the page.

Create a rule called 'Penalty rate on a public holiday' and configure it:

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 shift if it starts on a Public holiday
   • Only match shift if it ends on a Public holiday
   • Match entire shift if the majority lies on a Public holiday
4. Click Add condition button
5. Select Work type is NOT Public holiday not worked 
6. Click Add condition button
   • Tag does NOT have AL instead of penalty
   • Is Greater than '0' hours (meaning it will trigger as soon as the shift starts)
7. THEN Apply pay category of Permanent Public holiday
8. Click Save

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 though, 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:
   1. Match entire shifts if it starts or ends on a Public holiday
   2. Only match shift if it starts on a Public holiday
   3. Only match shift if it ends on a Public holiday
   4. Match entire shift if the majority lies on a Public holiday
4. Click Add condition button
5. Select Work type is NOT one of Public holiday not worked
6. Click Add condition button
   • Tag has AL instead of penalty
   • Is Greater than '0' hours (meaning it will trigger as soon as the shift starts)
7. THEN Multiple actions
8. Apply pay category of Permanent Public holiday
9. Click Add action button
10. 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.
11. Click Add action button 
12. Add leave accrual of 1 unit of Annual leave, Per hour worked 
13. Click Save

To automate public holidays for salaried (autopaid) employees, follow these steps:

• Enable Automation: In Advanced Settings, check the box for Apply public holiday automation for all employees with default earnings.
• Employee Eligibility: Ensure the employee is set to Pay these earnings by default in a pay run within their Pay Run Defaults screen.
• Pay Categories: The system uses specific pay categories like Salary - Public Holiday not Worked or Permanent - Public Holiday not Worked to ensure the base rate applies automatically.

Timesheet employees not working on a public holiday

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 or,

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 in order for you to enter the details (remembering to use the 'Public holiday not worked' work type) on behalf of 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

   Important

   You'll 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 system. You'll find more information here

Check what's happening for each shift by using the rules tester...

1. Log on to the Payroll classic platform
2. Navigate Payroll Settings
3. Click Rule Sets
4. Select the Award from the drop-down menu at the top of the page
5. Select the rule set you want to check
6. Click Test Rules button
   • Check the current period dates (the pay run period dates should match exactly to the current period or a previous period)
7. Click on the Import button
8. Select the employee whose shifts you want to test
9. 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, eg... ​​ 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.