Assignar Pay Logo
Documentation

Payroll Processing Guide

End-to-end guide for the complete payroll workflow from document setup to rate application

Overview

This guide walks through the complete payroll processing workflow in Assignar Pay, from initial setup to applying rates to timesheets. It covers the end-to-end process and explains how the different components work together.

The Payroll Workflow

1. Upload Documents → 2. Configure Rules → 3. Link Cost Codes → 4. Set Up Workers → 5. Apply Rates → 6. Review & Export

Step 1: Upload Pay Rate Documents

Pay rate documents are the foundation of your payroll configuration. They contain the classifications, rates, and rules that govern how workers are paid.

  1. Go to Pay Rates → Pay Rate Documents tab
  2. Click "Upload Pay Rates" and select your award, EBA, or rate schedule
  3. The AI extracts rate information from the document automatically
  4. Review the extracted classifications and adjust as needed

Document Scoping:

  • Global documents apply to all workers and projects
  • Client-specific documents override global rates for a particular client's work
  • Project-specific documents override both global and client rates for a specific project

The system uses the most specific document available when matching timesheets.

See: Pay Rate Documents

Step 2: Configure Rate Rules

Within each document, configure the rules that modify base rates.

Rule Groups

Add rule groups to handle:

See: Rule Groups

Every rate component should map to a cost code for accurate project costing:

  • Classification rates (normal and overtime) → cost codes
  • Allowance payments → cost codes
  • Shift rule segments → cost codes
  • RDO accruals → cost codes (a specific code or the matched shift tree node)
  • Worked hours loading lines → their own loading pay item
  • Minimum engagement offsets → cost codes

AI suggestions help match rate components to the most appropriate cost codes.

See: Cost Code Linking

Step 4: Set Up Workers and Employment Types

Employment Types

  1. Go to Pay Rates → Employment Types tab
  2. Import from Assignar or create manually (Full-Time, Part-Time, Casual, Contractor)
  3. Employment types determine which tree template branches apply

See: Employment Types

Workers

  1. Go to Pay Rates → Workers tab
  2. Workers sync automatically from Assignar, or add manually
  3. Each worker is assigned an employment type
  4. Configure worker-specific pay items if needed

See: Workers

Step 5: Apply Pay Rates

This is where everything comes together:

  1. Go to Pay Rates → Pay Rates tab (Summary or Table view)
  2. Select the pay period using the date picker
  3. Review the timesheets for that period
  4. Click "Apply Pay Rates"

Pay Period Length

The pay period follows the account's payroll cycle — weekly, fortnightly, four weekly, monthly, or twice a month — configured under Settings → Billing & Payments → Payroll Settings. The date picker navigates period by period, and weekly overtime, weekly allowances, fortnightly allowances, and fortnightly overtime thresholds are all evaluated against the configured cycle. Monthly and twice-a-month periods can start and end mid-week; weekly totals carry across those boundaries so overtime and once-per-week allowances are not affected by where the boundary falls.

See: Payroll Cycles

What Happens During Rate Application

For each timesheet in the pay period:

  1. Document Selection: The system finds the most specific pay rate document (project > client > global)
  2. Tree Template Matching: The timesheet's attributes (role, employment type) are matched against the tree template to find the correct classification
  3. Higher Duty Re-coding (role-based documents): If higher duty is enabled and a higher duty role meets its daily hours threshold, every timesheet for that worker that day is re-coded against the higher duty role's tree node before rates are calculated
  4. Base Rate Calculation: The classification's base rate is applied (Regular Time, Overtime, Second Overtime)
  5. Rule Group Evaluation:
    • Shift rules check the shift start time and apply segment multipliers
    • Allowance rules check activity conditions and add payments
    • RDO rules check hours worked against the threshold and accrue Rostered Day Off entitlements
    • Minimum engagement rules check if actual hours meet the minimum
    • Consecutive shift rules check the worker's recent shift history
    • Shift spacing rules check the gap from the previous shift
    • Worked hours loading, if enabled, adds a parallel loading line on each worked hour (ordinary hours always; overtime hours when its overtime toggle is on)
  6. Fortnightly Overtime: After daily and weekly classification, any hours still classified as ordinary time past a rule group's fortnightly threshold are re-coded to Fortnightly Overtime (hours that already earned a premium are never touched)
  7. Cost Code Assignment: Each pay line item is linked to its configured cost code
  8. Results: Pay line items are created for the base rate plus any rule-generated adjustments

Reviewing Results

Summary View: Shows a weekly calendar with worker pay breakdowns, daily totals, and flagged issues.

Table View: Shows individual pay line items with configurable columns. Use this to:

  • Sort by AI confidence to find low-confidence matches
  • Filter by cost code, worker, or activity
  • Export data for your external payroll system

Handling Errors

Uncoded Time: Timesheets that couldn't match a tree template node appear as uncoded time errors. Click the error to see:

  • Which matching criteria failed
  • The timesheet's activity, role, and other attributes
  • Suggested fixes (update tree template, check employment type, etc.)

Missing Timesheets: The Summary View highlights days where expected timesheets are missing.

Auto-Apply Pay Rates (Automatic Processing)

Instead of clicking "Apply Pay Rates" every pay period, you can have Assignar Pay run pay rate processing automatically in the background. Turn on Auto-apply pay rates under Settings → Billing & Payments → Payroll Settings. It is off by default, so existing accounts keep the manual flow until they opt in.

Auto-apply overwrites previously calculated pay rates and cannot be undone. Each run recalculates the affected worker's timesheets for that payroll cycle, replacing any existing calculated lines (reviewed and manually-edited timesheets are the only ones protected — see below). Read the behaviour here before turning it on.

When it runs

When the setting is on, processing runs automatically — scoped to the affected worker and the single payroll cycle the timesheet falls into — after any of these events:

  • A timesheet is imported from Assignar Ops, on both create and update (including the scheduled auto-sync)
  • A timesheet is imported from CSV
  • A timesheet is created from a form response (e.g. My Shifts)
  • A timesheet is updated from a versioned form response
  • A timesheet is edited — activity start/end times, role override (set or clear), leave hours (edit or revert), or the pay rate document override

A bulk import that touches many timesheets for the same worker and cycle collapses into a single run per worker × cycle rather than one run per timesheet.

What is (and isn't) re-processed

  • Only the affected worker's timesheets within the triggering timesheet's payroll cycle are re-processed — never other workers, never other cycles. The cycle window is derived from the timesheet's submitted date and your configured payroll cycle.
  • Timesheets whose pay rates have already been reviewed or manually edited are skipped and left exactly as they are. Only clean (automatically calculated) timesheets are recalculated, using their current activity times, role, and matched document.

What changes in the interface

  • The per-edit "you may need to re-run payroll" prompts inside a timesheet's Rate Calculation Details — activity, leave-hours, role, and the "Action Required: re-run pay rates" document-override prompt — are hidden and reworded to say processing is happening automatically.
  • The "Auto-run Pay Rates" checkbox in the Ops import dialog is hidden for the same reason.
  • The bulk "Apply Pay Rates" button in the Summary and Table views stays visible — it remains available as a manual fallback (for example, to re-run a review/manually-edited timesheet the automatic run intentionally skips, or to recover if a background run fails).
  • A "Applying pay rates in the background…" message appears when a run starts, and the Summary and Table views (and the open Rate Calculation Details panel) refresh automatically when the run completes — no manual page refresh is needed.

When the setting is off, behaviour is unchanged: every manual control stays visible and you apply rates yourself.

Step 6: Review and Export

  1. Review all applied rates in Summary or Table view
  2. Mark timesheets as reviewed using the bulk action
  3. Use saved views to quickly access your preferred column configuration
  4. Export rate data for your external payroll system

Ongoing Workflow

Once initial setup is complete, the recurring payroll workflow is:

  1. Timesheets flow in from Assignar (or are imported via CSV)
  2. Navigate to Pay Rates and select the current pay period
  3. Click "Apply Pay Rates" to process all timesheets — or, with Auto-apply pay rates turned on, skip this step entirely: rates are processed automatically as timesheets arrive and are edited
  4. Review results in Summary and Table views
  5. Resolve any uncoded time errors
  6. Export for payroll processing

Repeat each pay period — weekly, fortnightly, four weekly, monthly, or twice a month, depending on your payroll cycle.

Tips for Efficient Processing

  • Process every pay period: Apply rates at the end of each period as defined by your payroll cycle
  • Check uncoded time first: Resolve matching errors before reviewing rates
  • Use AI confidence: Low-confidence matches in Table View may need manual review
  • Keep documents current: Update pay rate documents when awards change (usually July 1st in Australia)

What's Next