# Public Holidays

Source: https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/scheduling/setup/public-holidays

> How Astalty applies state public holidays automatically, plus how to add local ones.

Scheduling add-on - This feature requires the Scheduling add-on, which is available on Astalty Premium. See How to enable Scheduling.

> **Approaching a public holiday?**
>
> Use the [Public Holiday Supports Report](https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/reports/public-holiday-report) to review every support that falls on a public holiday and confirm the ones that need checking with Participants.

## Overview

Astalty combines imported state holidays with local holidays you create. For support charging, the state comes from the support address, and Public Holiday Groups determine which Participants the holiday applies to. Check the support address and group assignments before relying on a holiday rate.

## Accessing the Public Holidays Page

To access the **Public Holidays** page:

- From the left-hand side menu, go to **Settings**.
- Select **Scheduling**.
- Choose **Public Holidays** from the submenu on the left.

Alternatively, you can go directly to the page here: [Public Holidays Settings](https://app.astalty.com.au/settings/scheduling/public-holidays). You can also press **CMD + K** (**CTRL + K** on Windows) and type **public holidays** to jump straight there - see the [Quick Action Menu](https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/navigating-astalty/quick-action-menu).

## Adding Public Holidays

In the event that you would like to add public holidays to certain Participants, you may first need to consider that your organisation could be working across multiple locations. For example, you might have Participants in **Sydney** as well as Participants in **Brisbane**, each with different local holidays. To manage this effectively, you can use **Public Holiday Groups**.

Adding, changing or removing a holiday queues charge synchronisation for affected supports. Eligible automatic charges are recalculated; this does not promise to rewrite invoices or manual charges. Review the resulting charges after the background update.

## Public Holiday Groups

Public Holiday Groups allow you to assign specific holidays only to the Participants who are affected. This ensures that each Participant's schedule reflects the correct public holidays for their region.

### How to Create a Public Holiday Group

- Select **Actions > Public Holiday Groups**.

![The Public Holidays list filtered to dates from 30 Oct 2026 to 30 Apr 2027, showing holidays by Date, State and Description, with the Actions menu open and an arrow pointing to Public Holiday Groups.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/image1-1757913258.png)

- Click **Create Group**.

![The Public Holiday Groups panel listing groups such as Adelaide Hills & Surrounds and Albury-Wodonga Cross-Border, with an arrow pointing to the Create Group button.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/image3-1757913279.png)

- Give the group a clear name (e.g., Sydney Participants, Brisbane Participants).

Once a group is created, you can assign holidays to it.

> **Group names must be unique**
>
> Each Public Holiday Group in your organisation needs its own name. If you enter a name another group already uses, Astalty shows "A public holiday group with this name already exists." against **Group Name** and the group isn't saved.

### Renaming a Public Holiday Group

If a group was created with the wrong name, you can rename it instead of creating a replacement.

1. Select **Actions > Public Holiday Groups**.
2. Select the ellipsis next to the group you want to rename, then choose **Edit**.

![The Public Holiday Groups panel with the menu open on Gold Coast Corridor, showing Edit (highlighted, with an arrow) and Make Default](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/public-holiday-group-edit-menu-guide.png)

3. Enter the new **Group Name**.
4. Select **Update**.

![The Edit Public Holiday Group panel with the Group Name field, holding Gold Coast Corridor, highlighted with an arrow](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/public-holiday-group-edit-drawer.png)

Renaming changes the name only. The Participants assigned to the group, the public holidays linked to it, and whether it is the default group all stay as they are, so charge rates and employee pay are unaffected. Any group can be renamed, including the one currently set as default.

Group names must be unique, so renaming a group to a name another group already uses shows the same message as creating a duplicate.

### Adding a Public Holiday

If a public holiday is missing from the system, you can add it manually and link it to the relevant group. For example, if you need to add the Sydney Show holiday for Participants in Sydney:

- Select Add Public Holiday.

![The Public Holidays list with the Add Public Holiday button highlighted at the top right, next to the Actions menu.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/image5.png)

- Enter the following details:
  - Holiday Name (e.g., Sydney Show)
  - Date
  - State
- Assign the holiday to the relevant Public Holiday Group (e.g., Sydney Region).

If the public holiday you're adding is already in the system, a notification will appear when you attempt to create it. This helps prevent duplicate entries.

![The Add Public Holiday panel for Christmas Day on 25/12/2026 in SA with the Adelaide Hills & Surrounds group, and an arrow pointing to the red error under Date saying a public holiday with this date and state already exists.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/public-holiday-duplication-1.png)

### Excluding a State Holiday for a Group

State public holidays are imported automatically and can't be edited or deleted, but you can stop one applying to specific Public Holiday Groups - for example, excluding Greater Geelong from Melbourne Cup Day while it still applies to the rest of Victoria.

1. On the **Public Holidays** list, select the ellipsis next to the state holiday, then choose **Exclude Groups**.

![The Public Holidays list with the ellipsis menu open on Melbourne Cup, showing the Exclude Groups action highlighted with an arrow](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/public-holiday-exclude-groups-action-guide.png)

2. In **Excluded Groups**, add each Public Holiday Group the holiday should stop applying to.
3. Select **Save**.

![The Exclude Groups from Melbourne Cup panel for the VIC holiday on 03/11/2026, with Greater Geelong added to the highlighted Excluded Groups field and a note that it applies to 03/11/2026 and later years](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/public-holiday-exclude-groups-drawer-guide.png)

Participants in an excluded group are not charged public holiday rates that day, and a shift that only supports excluded Participants is not paid at public holiday rates. Astalty resyncs the affected Charge Item rates automatically. The **Public Holidays** list marks an excluded holiday with an **Excluded for** chip.

![The Public Holidays list showing a highlighted Excluded for Greater Geelong chip next to Melbourne Cup, with an arrow pointing to it](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/public-holiday-excluded-chip-guide.png)

> **Only state holidays can be excluded**
>
> **Exclude Groups** only appears for state-imported holidays. A local holiday you added manually is edited or deleted instead, and is scoped to a Public Holiday Group at creation rather than excluded from one.

> **Applies to this year and later years**
>
> Adding or removing an excluded group also changes the same holiday in later years, including years Astalty hasn't imported yet.

### Assigning a Public Holiday Group to a Participant

- Open the Participant's Profile.
- Scroll down and click More.

![A Participant's Profile page, with an arrow pointing to More at the bottom of the left-hand menu, below Preferences and Risks.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/image4-1757913492.png)

- Go to Scheduling Settings.
- Select Edit.

![The More page of a Participant's profile, with an arrow pointing to Edit on the Scheduling Settings card, described as configuring scheduling settings including public holiday groups. Reminder Settings and Audit Trail cards sit below it.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/scheduling-settnigs-participant.png)

- Apply the relevant Public Holiday Group.

![The Participant Scheduling Settings panel with the Public Holiday Groups dropdown open, listing groups such as Adelaide Hills & Surrounds, Albury-Wodonga Cross-Border and Brisbane Area below a search box.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/image2-1757913538.png)

- Save the updated Scheduling Settings.

This ensures that each Participant's schedule correctly reflects the public holidays relevant to their location.

> **Checking assignments across all Participants at once**
>
> The [Public Holiday Group Assignments Report](https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/reports/public-holiday-group-assignments-report) lists every Participant with the groups they belong to, and lets you change those groups without opening each profile. Filter it to **Not assigned** to find Participants who are not in any group.

### Setting a Default Public Holiday Group

You can assign or change a default Public Holiday Group that will automatically apply to all new Participants.

- Go to Settings.
- Select Scheduling.

![The Settings page, with Settings in the main menu highlighted and numbered 1, and Scheduling in the settings menu highlighted and numbered 2.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/ph-default-1.png)

- Choose **Public Holidays** from the submenu.
- Select **Actions > Public Holiday Groups**.

![The Public Holidays list with the Actions menu open and the Public Holiday Groups option highlighted with an arrow, next to Add Public Holiday.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/ph-default-2-v2.png)

- Select the ellipsis next to the group you want to set as the default, then choose **Make Default**.

![The Public Holiday Groups panel with Brisbane Area tagged Default, and the highlighted ellipsis menu on Melbourne Metro open to show Edit and Make Default, with an arrow pointing to Make Default.](https://docs.astalty.com.au/assets/ph-default-3.png)

The selected group will now be the default Public Holiday Group for all new Participants. You can view this in each Participant's Scheduling Settings.

To change a worker's coverage, remove the default group from their settings and choose another group, or add more Public Holiday Groups.

## How Public Holidays Affect Charging and Pay

Public holidays flow through to both sides of a support:

- **Participant charging** - applicable holidays affect automatic Charge Item selection. Holiday changes queue a recalculation; invoiced and manually managed charges need separate review.
- **Employee pay** - award interpretation (used by the [Award Pay Report](https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/reports/schads-pay-report), interpreted exports and Xero push) uses public holiday pay categories when the shift falls on a public holiday that applies to a Participant on that shift.

Which Participants a holiday applies to follows the same rules everywhere:

- A holiday must match the state of the support or shift context being checked. Without assigned Public Holiday Groups, it applies to all Participants in that state context.
- A holiday assigned to Public Holiday Groups applies only to **Participants in those groups**. For a group support, the holiday applies when **any** Participant on the group support is in one of the holiday's groups - and the whole shift is then paid at public holiday rates.
- A state holiday with [Excluded Groups](#excluding-a-state-holiday-for-a-group) never applies to Participants in those groups, regardless of the rules above.

This means a local holiday such as a regional show day, added manually and scoped to a Public Holiday Group, affects both the charge rates for the assigned Participants and the pay rates of the employees working their supports on that day - no additional employee-side setup is required.

An internal shift has no Participant or support address. For award interpretation, Astalty uses the internal shift's **Site** address state when one is set, then your organisation's address state, then the worker's address state. Assign a Site to an internal shift when that location's public holidays should determine the worker's pay rate.

> **Get reminded before the day**
>
> Set up a [Public Holiday Notification](https://docs.astalty.com.au/guide/notifications/public-holiday-notifications) to remind your team ahead of each public holiday, so scheduled supports and manual charges get checked in time.

> **Review shifts that overlap a public holiday**
>
> An ordinary support that overlaps an applicable public holiday is marked as a public holiday for interpretation. Splitting it at midnight does not remove that flag from the other portion. Explicit sleepover windows check the active segments separately. Review overnight pay lines against the award, rather than assuming only the hours after midnight attract the holiday rate.
>
> Public holiday substitution, payment for an unworked holiday and leave entitlements require separate payroll handling. Employment Hero, PayCat and QuickBooks Payroll apply their own rules to the exported timesheet records.

## Video Overview

The following video provides an overview of Public Holidays settings.

Video walkthrough: public holiday settings.