The Pay Rules Engine helps automatically assign payroll codes to timesheet entries based on rules you set up. In simple terms, it reduces manual payroll coding by checking an employee’s hours, shifts, and employment details, then applying the right pay outcome for each situation.
What it does
At a high level, the Pay Rules Engine can help organisations:
automatically apply the correct pay type to worked time
support more complex scenarios such as overtime, weekend rates, and public holidays
take employee details into account, such as contract, role, and hours worked
apply limits so certain pay types do not exceed agreed thresholds
How it works
The engine works in three main parts:
Pay rule: decides who the rule applies to.
Conditions: define the criteria that must be met, such as employee type, hours worked, or day worked.
Pay calculations: decide what payroll code should be assigned and how much time should be allocated to it.
When timesheets are processed, the engine checks whether an employee matches a pay rule, then runs the relevant calculations in order and applies any caps or limits that are in place.
What types of rules are supported?
The engine supports a wide range of rule types. At a high level, rules can be based on:
hours worked
day worked, such as Saturday or Sunday
time of day worked, such as overnight hours
employee type, contract type, or contracted hours
position, classification, or award code
age or start date
skills or shift-worker status
Rules can also use comparison logic such as equals, greater than, less than, between, and in a list, and they can combine conditions using AND/OR logic.
Examples of how it works
Example 1: weekly overtime
If an employee works 45 hours in a week and their contract is for 38 hours, the engine can assign the first 38 hours to standard pay and the remaining 7 hours to overtime automatically.
Example 2: weekend penalties
A rule can be set up so that hours worked on Saturday are assigned one payroll code, while hours worked on Sunday are assigned a different one.
Example 3: public holiday pay
The engine can identify public holiday hours and apply a public holiday payroll code to those shifts.
Example 4: night shift loading
A rule can target only hours worked between 10:00 PM and 6:00 AM, allowing a night loading to be applied only to that part of the shift.
Example 5: employee-specific rules
The engine can apply different outcomes based on employee attributes, such as casual employees receiving a casual loading or younger employees receiving junior rates.
Other supported capabilities
The Pay Rules Engine also supports several advanced controls that help manage more complex payroll setups:
Caps and limits to control how many hours can be allocated at payroll code, weekly, daily, or per-shift level.
Targeting specific shifts by day, time, shift start or end time, location, task, or leave type.
Shared allowances to help prevent the same worked time from being paid twice where rules overlap, such as daily and weekly overtime.
Time-anchored allocation to control which part of a shift is consumed by a calculation and to help avoid double-counting when multiple rules interact.
Important to know
The engine applies calculations in a set order, which matters because earlier calculations can consume hours before later ones run. If an employee matches multiple pay rules, they are matched to the first applicable pay rule, so rule design and ordering are important.
Getting started
Because pay rules can range from simple overtime setups to more complex award-based requirements, we recommend a discovery session with your Customer Success Manager before using the Pay Rules Engine. This helps us understand your organisation’s requirements and confirm whether the needed rule scenarios can be supported.