How Rates Are Selected

A Charge Item Set usually holds a Charge Item for each part of the week — weekday daytime, weekday evening, weekday night, Saturday, Sunday and public holidays. This page explains which one Astalty picks for a given support.

Overview

When a support uses automatic charging, Astalty resolves the whole support to one rate and creates one hourly charge line from the Charge Item Set.

That is the part most worth knowing, because it is easy to assume otherwise.

A Support Produces One Charge Line

Astalty does not automatically split a support across rate bands. A support that runs from 6:00pm to 10:00pm does not become two lines at the daytime and evening rates, and a support that runs past midnight does not become two lines on two dates.

The whole span resolves to a single rate, and that rate is driven mainly by the support's end time.

There are only two things that create more than one hourly line on a single support:

• a Sleepover Window, which splits the support into the active time before, the sleepover, and the active time after
• Support Time Segments, which are windows you enter yourself

How the Rate Is Chosen

Astalty works through the following in order and stops at the first match.

1. Sleepover

A sleepover support bills the flat night-time sleepover item for the whole span.

This is checked before the public holiday rule, so a sleepover on a public holiday still bills the night-time sleepover item rather than the public holiday one.

2. Public Holiday

If any part of the support falls on a public holiday for the state of the support's address, the whole support bills at the public holiday rate — including the hours that fall outside the holiday itself.

The support's address determines the state, so a support at an address in a state that does not observe a given holiday is unaffected by it.

3. Day and Time

Otherwise the rate comes from the day and time of the support, worked out from its end time:

A few boundaries are worth being exact about:

• 8:00pm is daytime. A support ending at exactly 8:00pm resolves to weekday daytime. One ending at 8:01pm resolves to weekday evening.
• 6:00am is not "before 6am". A support starting at exactly 6:00am does not count as starting before 6:00am.
• "Started on an earlier date" is a calendar-date comparison, not a length. A weekday support running 8:00pm to 1:00am is weekday night because it ends on a different date, even though it is only five hours long.
• The night rule is checked before the evening rule, so a support that both crosses a date boundary and ends late resolves to weekday night.

Not Every Set Has Evening and Night Rates

The rules above apply in full only to Charge Item Sets whose Charge Rate Pattern is Variable weekday.

So on a Fixed weekday set, a weekday support bills the weekday daytime item whatever time of day it runs. See Reading the Charge Rate Pattern for which presets use which.

Splitting a Support Across Two Rates

Because Astalty never splits a support across rate bands on its own, splitting one is a planner action. Add a Support Time Segment starting at the boundary you want.

Each segment resolves its own rate against its own end time, and dates its charge line by its own start. That is what makes the split work — and it is why a segment is allowed to use the same Charge Item Set as the rest of the support. Segmenting alone changes the result, even with no change of set.

Worked Example: Saturday Into Sunday

A support runs Saturday 8:00pm to Sunday 2:00am — six hours — on a Charge Item Set with a Variable weekday pattern.

Without a segment, the support ends on a Sunday, so all six hours bill at the Sunday rate on a single line dated Saturday:

With a segment starting at 12:00am — set to the support's own Charge Item Set — the support bills as two lines:

The first window now ends at exactly midnight on the Sunday, which is rated as Saturday under the midnight rule above. The segment is rated by its own end time of 2:00am on the Sunday, so it takes the Sunday rate and is dated Sunday.

Things to Keep in Mind

• Travel and centre capital costs are rated against the whole support span on its primary Charge Item Set, even where segments are in use.
• Approved clock times, not the rostered times, are what billing is calculated against once a shift has them. A support rostered to end at 7:59pm but approved to 8:30pm resolves to the evening rate.
• Rate selection is a billing question only. It does not affect what a Support Worker is paid — see Staff Payment Settings.