Consecutive shift rules

A consecutive shift rule pays a higher rate once a worker has worked a number of days in a row, for example time and a half from the sixth day. Only worked timesheets count toward the run; leave doesn't.

Consecutive shift rules belong to a rule group: open the pay rate document, select the Rule Groups tab, and find Consecutive Shift Rules.

Add a consecutive shift rule

1. Under Consecutive Shift Rules, select Add Consecutive Shift Rule.
2. Leave Enabled on at the top of the dialog.
3. Enter a Rule Name and optionally a Description.
4. Choose a Cost Code for the premium line (see Cost code).
5. Enter the Consecutive Days after which the premium starts. With 5, the sixth day in a row is the first one paid at the higher rate.
6. Optionally set the rest of the threshold, the conditions and the rate modifiers (below).
7. Under Rate Modification, choose the Rate Type, Multiplier or Fixed Rate, and enter the value, such as a Multiplier Value of 1.5.
8. Select Save.

To change or remove a rule, open its menu and select Edit or Delete.

Which days count

• Min. Hours Per Day: the hours a day needs to count, so a one-hour call-out doesn't. Leave it at Any to count every day worked.
• Reset Behavior: what a day below that minimum does. Reset counter starts the run again; Skip day (keep streak) ignores the day and carries on.
• Applicable Days: All days (Mon-Sun) or Weekdays only (Mon-Fri).
• Require Same Client and Require Same Project: days only count while the worker stays on the same client or project.
• Shift Start Time Filter: Any time (no filter), Shifts starting before or Shifts starting after a time. A day with no shift in the window doesn't count and breaks the run (unlike a short day under Skip day (keep streak), which leaves it intact), so a "night shifts after 18:00" rule counts nights only: five day shifts then a night shift is day 1, not day 6. A day with no recorded start time doesn't count either, and the rate details say how many days were left out for that. Days the rule never counts, such as weekends under Weekdays only (Mon-Fri), don't break the run.

Caps and rolling windows

• Maximum Consecutive Days Cap: once the run passes this many days, the premium stops and ordinary rates apply until the threshold is reached again. Leave it at No cap for no limit. The cap counts the same days the rule counts, so with a Shift Start Time Filter only qualifying shifts move the count toward it.
• Use Rolling Window: adds a Rolling Window Period and Minimum Days Worked in Window, such as 12 days worked in any 14. The rule then also needs that many days worked in the window before it pays.

Rate modifiers

• Use Graduated Multiplier: pay rising multipliers the longer the run goes, with a row per step (From Day, To Day, Multiplier). Days count from the threshold: the first day paid at the higher rate is day 1. Leave To Day empty for "and beyond".
• Capped Hours Per Day: only this many hours a day get the higher rate. Leave it at No cap for every hour.
• Overtime Hours Threshold: only hours after this many in the day get the higher rate. Leave it at All hours for every hour.

A Fixed Rate replaces the multiplier.

Cost code

The cost code doesn't change the amount, only how the premium line is coded in exports. With no cost code, the line is exported with none (shown as -), not with the classification's overtime code. In the weekly summary and calendar it still carries the rule's name. In an export, turn on the Shift Rule column (off by default) to tell these premium lines apart from other lines with no pay item.

Timesheets processed before this worked differently may show the overtime code on these lines until they are processed again. If your payroll system maps lines by cost code, give the rule a cost code before you re-apply pay rates.

Example

A rule with Consecutive Days 5 and a Multiplier Value of 1.5. A worker works Monday to Saturday. Monday to Friday (days 1 to 5) are paid normally. Saturday, day 6, is paid at 1.5 times the base rate.

Repay every shift in the run

Some agreements pay a run of shifts differently once it reaches a length, every shift of it, not only the ones after the threshold. In the rule's Whole run section, set Apply to to Every shift in the run once it qualifies. A run then qualifies on its last required shift: with Consecutive Days 5, the fifth shift in a row qualifies the run, and shifts 1 to 5 are all repaid, as is every later shift until the run breaks.

A run can cross pay periods. When you apply pay rates to a period, every week the run reaches is re-priced with the weeks you asked for, in both directions, up to six weeks either side, so a run that starts in one pay period and qualifies in the next is repaid in both. A longer run is re-priced only that far, and its timesheets warn that the weeks beyond were not. Timesheets that are manually priced or under review, and shifts priced under another pay rate document, keep their pay; the timesheets of the run warn about those, so you can check them before you export.

An approved timesheet from a pay period you did not ask for is never changed. It keeps the pay it was approved with and shows a Run adjustment badge with the difference re-pricing it makes, which includes any other change since it was approved, such as an edited rate, in the pay status on the Pay Rates table and in its pay details. Pay or recover that difference in your next pay run, or apply pay rates to that period again: it is then re-priced and the badge goes away.

Choose the Outcome:

• Premium rate: every shift of the run is paid at the rule's multiplier, fixed rate or graduated tiers. A graduated tier counts the shift's place in the run, so shift 1 is day 1. The rate applies even when standard rates would pay more.
• Don't apply shift rules: the shift rules you pick under Shift rules not applied don't apply to any shift of the run, so their loadings and codes are dropped. Code ordinary hours to moves the run's ordinary hours to a cost code, such as the pay item your payroll system treats as night shift ordinary time. Ordinary hours rate optionally pays those hours at a multiplier or a fixed rate instead of the ordinary rate. Overtime keeps its own codes and rates, and is raised to that rate when it would otherwise pay less.
• Use a different shift rule: wherever the first shift rule you pick would add its loading to a shift of the run, the second one's loading is added instead, at its rate and on its loading cost code. Both must be loading shift rules that apply to the same shifts in the same way: the same rate application method, window, days, rate segments and their cost codes, activities, roles, majority settings and overtime settings. If they differ, the form names the settings to change. Give the second a higher Priority number than the first so it never applies on its own. The ordinary lines don't change and keep the first rule's name, and the second loading applies even when it pays less.

Shift window counts only shifts that start inside it, such as 13:00 to 04:30, and can cross midnight. Set it to Ending to count shifts by when they finish instead: the finish is the latest end of the shift's work, so a 22:00 to 06:00 night finishes at 06:00 and still counts on the day it started. It works for a rule that pays shifts after its threshold too. The start is included and the end is not, so a shift starting (or, with Ending, finishing) at 04:30 doesn't count. A window replaces the Shift Start Time Filter. A shift belongs to the day it starts on, so a roster of night shifts starting Sunday to Thursday needs All days (Mon-Sun) to count all five; under Weekdays only (Mon-Fri) the Sunday night doesn't count and the run reaches four.

What breaks a run: a day the rule counts with no qualifying shift, including leave, a public holiday not worked and a day shift outside the window. This holds in an earlier or later pay period too, including leave recognised only by the worker's role. A worked public holiday, or a weekend day with a day rule, counts toward the run but keeps its own public holiday or weekend pricing.

A rule group can have one rule that repays the whole run. If the group also has a rule that pays shifts after a threshold, that rule is skipped on the shifts of a qualifying run and still applies outside one. Turn it off if the new rule replaces it.

Count within the payroll week

Some agreements judge the run one payroll week at a time: a shift pattern qualifies only when enough consecutive shifts fall inside the same week. Set Count consecutive shifts to Within the payroll week, and choose the day the week starts, or leave Payroll week start to use your account's payroll week. A run never carries across the start of a week, so three nights from Thursday to Saturday followed by three from Sunday are two runs of three in a Sunday-to-Saturday week.

The week qualifies when any run inside it reaches Consecutive Days, and every counted shift of that week then gets If the week qualifies. Choose Pay as usual to keep the week's standard pricing, including any rule in the group that pays shifts after a threshold. In a week that doesn't qualify, that rule is skipped.

Turn on If the week doesn't qualify to set what the week's counted shifts get when no run reached the threshold:

• Ordinary hours rate: a multiplier, such as 2 for double time, or a fixed rate. Overtime keeps its own codes and is raised to that rate when it would otherwise pay less.
• Code ordinary hours to: the pay item those hours are exported on.
• Shift rules not applied and Allowances not applied: the shift rules and allowances the agreement drops for a week that doesn't qualify, such as a shift differential or a night meal allowance. Allowances you don't pick, such as travel, are paid as usual.

A worked public holiday, or a weekend day with a day rule, keeps its own pricing either way. A rule whose Consecutive Days can't be read never puts a week on this rate; the rule shows a warning instead.

When auto-apply pay rates is on, deleting or restoring a timesheet re-applies pay rates for that worker's pay period, including when a timesheet deleted in Assignar Operations is removed by the next import. When a rule repays the whole run, the worker's pay periods either side are re-applied too, because a run or a week can reach into them. If auto-apply can't be started, you're asked to apply pay rates again. So deleting one night of a qualifying week re-prices the other nights of that week, and restoring it re-prices them back. With auto-apply off, apply pay rates to that period again after a delete or restore.

Example: three nights within the week

A rule with Consecutive Days 3, Weekdays only (Mon-Fri), a Shift window matching the night shift rule, Within the payroll week starting Sunday, Pay as usual if the week qualifies, and, if it doesn't, a Multiplier of 2 on a double-time pay item with the night shift differential under Shift rules not applied. A worker works Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights: all three are paid as usual, with the differential. If Wednesday's timesheet is deleted, Monday and Tuesday are re-priced at double time on the double-time pay item, with no differential. A Sunday or a public holiday worked in that week keeps its own pricing.

Example: night shifts paid as ordinary time

A rule with Consecutive Days 5, a Shift window of 13:00 to 04:30 and Don't apply shift rules for the night shift rule, coded to a night shift ordinary-time pay item. A worker works five nights in a row: all five are paid at the ordinary rate on that pay item, with no night shift loading, and any overtime stays on the overtime codes. A worker who works four nights then has a night off keeps night shift pricing on all four.

Example: a lower night loading on a long run

Two loading shift rules with the same night window and rate segments: "Night Loading 50%" at Priority 1 and "Night Loading 30%" at Priority 2, on its own loading cost code. A rule with Consecutive Days 5, the same Shift window, and Use a different shift rule from "Night Loading 50%" to "Night Loading 30%". A worker works four nights in a row: each gets the 50% loading line on top of ordinary time. When the fifth night is processed, all five nights get the 30% loading line on its cost code instead, and a sixth night in the run gets it too. The ordinary-time lines stay the same.

Example: a premium on the whole run

A rule with Consecutive Days 4 and a Multiplier Value of 1.25, set to Premium rate. A worker works four days in a row: all four are paid at 1.25 times the base rate. Three days in a row are paid normally.