Cost code threshold rules

A cost code threshold rule changes the cost code on a worker's hours once they pass a number of hours in the pay period, for example ordinary hours on one code up to 38 hours and on another code after that. What the worker is paid doesn't change, only how the hours are coded.

Cost code threshold rules belong to a rule group: open the pay rate document, select the Rule Groups tab, and find Cost Code Threshold Rules.

Add a cost code threshold rule

1. Under Cost Code Threshold Rules, select Add Rule.
2. Enter a Name, such as "Recode after 38 hours".
3. Leave Enable this rule on. Turned off, the rule keeps its settings but doesn't change any hours.
4. Enter the Threshold (hours per period).
5. Under Consumption order, keep the hour types that count toward the threshold and put them in order with the arrows. Remove a type with its cross, or add one back with its button, such as Public Holiday.
6. Turn on Count only beside a type whose hours should count toward the threshold but never change cost code. At least one type other than Leave must stay without it.
7. Under Post-threshold cost codes (rule default), choose the cost code each hour type moves to after the threshold, or leave Keep original cost code. A type set to Count only has no cost code to choose.
8. Select Save.

Each rule in the list has a switch to turn it off and a pencil to edit it.

How the threshold is counted

• The threshold covers the whole pay period of your payroll cycle: a week, fortnight, four weeks, month or half month. It doesn't restart each week of a longer period.
• Hours count in the Consumption order, top to bottom. The hour type being counted when the threshold is reached, and every type below it, change cost code from that point.
• The hour types are Leave, Regular, Overtime 1, Overtime 2, Public Holiday, Saturday and Sunday.
• Regular includes ordinary hours paid at a loaded rate by a shift rule or time-of-day rate.
• Overtime 1 and Overtime 2 include overtime from daily, weekly and fortnightly thresholds. Saturday and Sunday day-rule hours count as Overtime 1 for the first hours and Overtime 2 for the rest, unless the rule lists Saturday or Sunday.
• Saturday and Sunday take every hour worked on that day out of Regular, Overtime 1 and Overtime 2 for this rule: day-rule hours at either rate, daily, weekly and fortnightly overtime, and ordinary hours. That day then has its own cost code after the threshold, and weekday overtime keeps its own. Public holiday hours stay under Public Holiday. Hours paid by a shift spacing or consecutive shift rule stay under Overtime 1: they count and change cost code there only if the rule lists Overtime 1.
• On a timesheet with no activity entries, a Saturday or Sunday is paid as ordinary hours plus a Weekend Penalty line. When those ordinary hours change to the day's cost code, the same share of the Weekend Penalty moves with them.
• A shift that runs past midnight into the next day counts each side on its own day when it's paid at each day's rate, such as Sunday night into Monday morning. A Saturday night shift into Sunday is paid as Saturday, so it counts as Saturday. A shift paid at its start day's rate throughout counts on that day, and so does one that also has public holiday hours.
• Loading lines that only mirror hours already counted, such as a casual loading on the same hours, aren't counted again. Nor are RDO, minimum engagement and custom activity lines.
• Timesheets that are manually coded or under review count toward the threshold, but their cost codes aren't changed.
• Leave can count toward the threshold but never changes cost code, so it has no cost code to choose. It counts only the leave whose leave rule counts toward the cost code threshold. Leave that matches no leave rule counts when Count leave that matches no rule toward overtime threshold is on.

Change only Sunday hours after 38 hours

For example, Sunday double time is coded with super while the week is under 38 ordinary hours, and to a code exempt from super after that. Paid leave and public holidays count toward the 38.

1. Set the Threshold (hours per period) to 38, on a weekly payroll cycle.
2. Put the Consumption order as Leave, Regular, Public Holiday, Sunday, and remove the other types.
3. Turn on Count only for Regular and Public Holiday.
4. Choose the exempt cost code for Sunday.
5. On each paid leave rule that should count, make sure it counts toward the cost code threshold.

Sunday hours stay on their usual code until leave, ordinary hours, public holidays and earlier Sunday hours reach 38, and change code from there. Weekday overtime doesn't count and doesn't change code. Saturday hours paid by a Saturday day rule don't either. If the rule group has no Saturday day rule, Saturday hours are ordinary hours, so they count under Regular but don't change code.

Hours calculated before a rule could count Saturday or Sunday keep counting under Overtime 1, Overtime 2 or Regular. Apply pay rates again for the whole pay period to count them by day.

A cost code can't be set for a type the rule doesn't list, or for one set to Count only: the rule never changes those hours. Turning on Count only for a type, or removing it from the order, also clears that type's cost codes on each classification.

Give each classification its own cost code

On the Rate Tree tab, each classification has a Cost code thresholds section with a Primary (before threshold) and a Secondary (after threshold) code for each hour type the rule changes. Saturday and Sunday show on the classification's Saturday and Sunday rates when the rule lists them; a type set to Count only isn't shown. Primary is the classification's existing code and isn't changed there. Set Secondary to override the rule's default for that classification. With neither set, hours after the threshold keep the primary cost code.

After you apply pay rates, check the cost codes on the pay lines for the period.