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How to Manage Pay Rate Documents

Guide to uploading and managing pay rate documents for payroll processing and compliance

What This Feature Does

Pay Rate Documents allow you to upload, store, and manage official documents that define pay rates for your organization. This includes award rate schedules, enterprise bargaining agreements (EBAs), contracts, rate sheets, and other reference documents that govern worker compensation. Having these documents centrally stored ensures compliance, provides audit trails, and makes rate information easily accessible.

Day-to-Day Usage

Accessing the Pay Rate Documents Interface

  1. Go to "Pay Rates" in the left sidebar (under "Project Management")
  2. Click on the "Pay Rate Documents" tab
  3. The interface displays:
    • Upload Pay Rates button: Add new documents (may be disabled in demo mode)
    • Empty state: If no documents exist, shows "No pay rate documents uploaded" message
    • Document list: Shows all uploaded documents once they exist

How to Add Pay Rate Documents

The "Add Pay Rates" wizard guides you through a 4-step process:

Step 1 — Document Details:

  1. On the Pay Rate Documents tab, click "Upload Pay Rates" button
  2. Fill in the document details:
    • Name: Descriptive title (e.g., "Building Award 2024")
    • Scope: Global, Client-specific, or Project-specific. The upload wizard sets a single initial scope; to apply the document to multiple clients/projects or to client/project tags, edit it afterwards (see Document Scoping).
    • Effective Date: When these rates become active
    • Status: Draft, Active, or Archived
  3. Click "Next"

Step 2 — Template:

  1. Choose how your EBA document should be structured for pay rate matching:
    • Create New Structure: Define a custom tree structure for this document. This opens the "Create Tree Template" wizard (3 sub-steps):
      • Step 1 — Template Info: Enter a template name and optional description
      • Step 2 — Tree Structure: Add levels to define how pay rates are organized (e.g., Employment Type → Role → Rates). Each level has a node type, entity linking toggle, and optional flag. The last level always contains the actual rates.
      • Step 3 — Fallback: Choose what happens when a timesheet cannot be matched to a specific rate:
        • Use Highest Available Rate: Conservative approach to avoid underpayment
        • Use Lowest Available Rate: Use minimum rate, may require manual adjustment
        • Flag for Review: Do not calculate; require manual classification
      • Optionally toggle "Save as reusable template" to reuse with other documents
    • Select Existing Template: Choose a previously saved template
  2. Click "Create and Upload" to proceed

Step 3 — Upload:

  1. Drag and drop or click to select your EBA file (PDF files preferred, max 10MB)
  2. The selected file name and size will appear below the upload area
  3. Click "Upload File" to upload the document

Step 4 — Complete: The wizard shows "Upload Complete" confirming the document has been created successfully.

How to View Pay Rate Documents

  1. Browse the list of uploaded documents
  2. Click on any document to view details
  3. Preview documents directly in the browser (for supported formats)
  4. Download documents to your computer if needed
  5. Search for documents by name or type

How to Update or Replace Documents

  1. When rates change, upload the new document
  2. Keep the old document in the system for historical reference
  3. Set expiry date on the old document
  4. Set effective date on the new document
  5. Add notes explaining what changed between versions

AI-Powered Document Processing

Automatic Rate Extraction

When you upload pay rate documents, the system can:

  1. Automatically extract rate information from the document
  2. Identify different rate types (ordinary, overtime, penalties)
  3. Recognize rate categories and classifications
  4. Suggest pay rate entries based on extracted data
  5. Save time by pre-populating rate forms

Document Chat with Milo

  1. Upload your pay rate documents
  2. Use the "Ask Milo" feature to query documents
  3. Ask questions like:
    • "What's the overtime rate for electricians?"
    • "What rates apply on public holidays?"
    • "Show me the rates for Level 3 carpenters"
  4. Get instant answers backed by your uploaded documents
  5. Milo cites specific sections and pages for verification

Document Structure

Each pay rate document contains several configurable sections:

Classifications

Rate tiers that define base pay amounts for different worker types and rate categories (Regular Time, Overtime, Second Overtime). Classifications are matched to timesheets via the Tree Template.

Rule Groups

Collections of payroll rules that modify the base classification rate. See Rule Groups for details on:

Tree Template

Hierarchical matching logic that determines which classification applies to each timesheet based on employment type, activity, role, and other criteria. See the Tree Template section above.

Cost Code Linking

Each rate component (classification, allowance, shift segment) maps to a cost code for project costing. See Cost Code Linking.

Document Scoping

A document's scope controls which timesheets it applies to during rate processing. You can scope a document to any combination of:

  • Specific clients — one or more clients (multi-select).
  • Specific projects — one or more projects (multi-select).
  • Client tags — applies to any client that carries one of the chosen tags.
  • Project tags — applies to any project that carries one of the chosen tags.

Scoping is a union: a document applies to a timesheet if the timesheet's client/project is in the selected clients/projects or the client/project carries one of the selected tags. Tags are a convenient way to cover a whole group of clients/projects without listing each one — and any client/project later given the tag is picked up automatically.

Leave all of these empty to make the document global (applies to all workers across all clients and projects).

When more than one document could apply to a timesheet, the system picks the most specific match, in this order:

  1. A specific project match
  2. A specific client match
  3. A project-tag match
  4. A client-tag match
  5. The worker's assigned default document
  6. A global document

If two documents tie at the same level, the one with the most recent effective date wins.

Document Operations

Duplicating a Document

  1. Click the actions menu on a document row
  2. Select "Duplicate"
  3. The duplicated document copies all classifications, rules, and tree template
  4. Modify the copy as needed (e.g., for a new client or updated award)

Setting which clients and projects a document applies to

  1. On the Pay Rate Documents tab, open the actions menu on a document row and choose Edit.
  2. In the Applies To section, use the multi-selects to choose any combination of:
    • Clients and Projects — pick one or more specific clients/projects.
    • Client Tags and Project Tags — apply to every client/project carrying the chosen tag.
  3. Leave all four empty to keep the document global.
  4. Click Update Pay Rates to save. This determines which timesheets the document applies to during rate processing (see Document Scoping for how matches are prioritised).

What's Next

After uploading pay rate documents, you may want to:

  • Configure Rule Groups within documents for shift rules, allowances, and more
  • Review the Tree Template section within documents for automatic rate matching
  • Link rate components to Cost Codes for project costing
  • Set up Employment Types that align with award classifications
  • Add Workers and assign them to employment types
  • Follow the complete Payroll Processing Guide for the end-to-end workflow
  • Train team members on using the Chat with Milo feature to query documents