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Set Up Pay Groups and Employees in Astalty

Overview

A worker's employment contract selects the award and employment basis used by Astalty's interpreter. Their pay group maps the resulting pay categories and allowance quantities to payroll items. It does not change their award or the base rate used for Astalty costing.

Assigning a pay group and creating or changing employment details need access to those employees' HR details.

Which System Calculates Pay?

Payroll pathWhat Astalty sendsWhat you must configure
Xero API or Xero-formatted ExcelInterpreted pay categories, hours and allowance quantitiesMatching award and employment basis, Xero pay items, employee base rates and allowance rates
Employment Hero, PayCat or QuickBooks PayrollTimesheet records and work typesThe award or agreement, penalties, overtime and minimum payments in that payroll system
SCHADS interpreted ExcelAstalty's interpretation for each worker's contract award, despite the legacy export nameCheck the result against the applicable award and payroll setup
Raw shift dataShift recordsYour payroll process must determine pay

The interpretation supports SCHADS, Nurses, Aged Care and Health Professionals. Each award page lists implemented rules and manual checks. Rostering alerts, estimated costs and a successful export do not certify a pay run.

Check an End-to-End Pay Run

  1. Confirm award coverage, classification and employment basis. Record these in Staff Contracted Hours.
  2. Set the correct pay period and public holidays.
  3. Assign a pay group for the same award and the appropriate casual/permanent rates. Map every category the worker can earn, including overtime, sleepovers and enabled allowances.
  4. Approve shifts, travel, breaks and active overnight work. Resolve or investigate award alerts.
  5. Review the Award Pay Report for the full period, including excluded employees and interpretation traces. Check manual entitlements and work crossing a pay-period boundary.
  6. Export or send the timesheet batch, then compare the resulting payroll amounts with the expected award rates before posting the pay run.

Create a Pay Group

Create a separate pay group for each combination of award and payroll mapping. The award must match the workers assigned to it.

Create a Pay Group

  1. Open Settings > Integrations, then select View Details for Xero.
  1. Select Pay Groups from the sub-menu.
  1. Click Add Pay Group.
  1. Enter a Pay Group Name, choose the matching Award, and click Create Pay Group.
  1. Click the three dots next to the Pay Group and select Edit Pay Item Mapping.
  1. Map every Astalty pay category and allowance that workers in this group can earn to the corresponding Xero Pay Item. Select the appropriate Pay Classification or Employment Basis, such as Casual or Permanent. Unused mappings may remain empty, but export validation blocks a batch when an interpreted line needs a missing mapping.

Set Up Employees

Once your Pay Groups have been created, you will need to link employees between Astalty and Xero, assign them to the correct Pay Group, and ensure each employee has Employment Details configured.

Link Employees to Xero

  1. Open Settings > Integrations, then select View Details for Xero.
  2. Select Employees from the sub-menu.
  1. In the Xero Employee filter, select Not Linked.
  2. Click Bulk Actions and select Bulk Link Employees.
  1. For each Astalty employee, select the corresponding Xero employee from the dropdown menu.
  2. Once all employees have been matched, click Link Employees.

Each Xero employee can be linked to only one Astalty employee. Resolve any duplicate link before continuing.

Assign Pay Groups

After linking employees, you will need to assign them to the correct Pay Group.

  1. Change the Xero Employee filter to Linked.
  2. Click Bulk Actions and select Bulk Update Pay Groups.

To assign the same Pay Group to multiple employees:

  1. Select the Pay Group from the dropdown menu at the top of the page.
  2. Tick the checkbox next to the Name header to select all employees.
  3. Click Apply to Selected.

If an employee requires a different Pay Group, you can select the Pay Group dropdown next to their name and choose the appropriate group from the list.

Once all Pay Groups have been assigned, click Update Pay Groups.

Create Employment Details

Each employee must have Employment Details configured in Astalty.

To create employment details:

  1. In the Linked Employees list, open the action menu next to the employee's name.
  2. Select Add Employment Details.
  1. Enter the relevant Start Date and select the employee's Employment Basis.
  2. If required, enter the employee's Weekly Hours.
  3. Select the Award and classification. Check the Base Hourly Rate before saving. For SCHADS, set the overtime stream and agreed ordinary-hours cap.
  4. Enable allowance entitlements only where they apply; first aid training alone does not establish the SCHADS allowance entitlement.
  5. Click Create to save. See Staff Contracted Hours for award-specific fields and rate maintenance.

For employees who already have contract information in Xero, select Prefill from Xero in the Employment Details form. Where Xero supplies them, Astalty prefills the start date, end date, employment basis and weekly hours.

Repeat this process for all employees.

Setting Up Pay Groups and Employees Video Walk-Throughs

Rate Per Unit Method

Create Pay Groups and set up employees using the Rate Per Unit method.

Multiplier Method

Create Pay Groups and set up employees using the Multiplier method.

Next Steps

Once all employees have been linked, assigned to the correct Pay Groups, and have Employment Details in place, follow Process Timesheet Batches for Xero to prepare the first batch.