Payroll

Overview

Payroll turns approved shifts into pay. A payroll run covers a pay period and lists each worker’s hours, gross pay, super and any reimbursements. Cura does not work out tax. Tax is withheld in Xero Payroll AU. Administrators and Provider Admins use this screen. It is under Workers, then Payroll.

Common tasks

Approve shifts so they can be paid

Only approved shifts reach payroll. Approval happens on the weekly timesheet screen, not on the Payroll screen.

1. Open Timesheets for the week you want.
2. Shifts that match their schedule are counted under “Match the schedule”. Click Approve N matching shifts to approve them in one go.
3. Shifts that need a look are listed under “Needs review”. Each row says in plain words what is different, such as a late finish or no finish time.
4. Click a row to open it. You will see Worker paid and Client billed side by side. The worker is paid for actual hours. The client is billed for scheduled hours unless your organisation is set up to bill the overrun.
5. Choose Approve, Adjust and approve or Send back to worker. Sending back needs a reason, and the worker sees it.
6. When you approve, the worker’s pay and the client’s bill are both recorded.

Run payroll for a pay period

1. Open Payroll. You see past payroll runs and a Run payroll button.
2. Click Run payroll.
3. Enter the start and end dates of the pay period. The period must include at least one shift approved during it.
4. Click Preview. You see each worker who has unpaid shifts in the period, with shift count, hours and gross pay.
5. Check the list of shifts left out of the run. A shift is left out when Cura cannot find a pay rate for it. Fix the pay rate and run again.
6. Confirm the run. Cura creates the payroll run and links each shift’s pay to it.

If you run the same period again, Cura does not pay shifts twice and does not create a second run for them.

Read a payroll run

1. On Payroll, click a run in the list.
2. Each worker’s line shows shift count, hours, Gross pay, Super and Gross before tax.
3. If the worker had approved, receipted expenses, the line also shows Reimbursements. Reimbursements are not part of gross pay or super. They are only added into Gross before tax.
4. Hover over the info icon beside the totals at the top of the page. It explains that tax (PAYG) is withheld in Xero Payroll AU, not shown here. No take-home figure appears anywhere in Cura.
5. Click a worker’s row to expand it and see each shift with its date, service type, hours and gross pay.

Understand penalty rates on a shift

Shifts on a Saturday, Sunday, weekday evening, weekday night or public holiday are paid at a higher rate. Cura uses the time the shift was actually delivered, not just the time it was booked.

1. Open the worker’s expanded row on the payroll run.
2. Each shift shows the hourly rate it was paid at, written like “@ $X/hr”. For a penalty shift this is the higher rate.
3. If a shift was booked in one time band and delivered in another, the approval screen tells you the dollar difference before you approve.

A worker needs an award classification on file before you can approve a shift in a penalty band. Weekday daytime shifts do not need one. If it is missing, approval is refused. Add the classification to the worker’s profile, then approve again.

See expense reimbursements

Workers claim parking, tolls and public transport on their post-shift submission. You decide on each line when you approve the shift.

1. On the timesheet screen, open the shift and look at the travel and expenses section. Each line shows View receipt or No receipt.
2. Use Disallow on a line you will not pay. You must give a reason.
3. On the payroll run, expand the worker’s row. A paid expense appears as a line saying it is a reimbursement with no super, no PAYG and not reported to STP.
4. An allowed expense with no receipt is shown as “no receipt on file”, and it is not reimbursed. It never adds to any pay figure.

Whether the client is billed for an expense and whether the worker is reimbursed are separate decisions. A shift can do one, both or neither.

Check kilometre (vehicle) allowances

1. Expand a worker’s row on the payroll run.
2. If the worker recorded driven kilometres, a Vehicle allowance line shows the amount, the kilometres and the rate per kilometre.
3. The rate is the one that applied on that shift’s date. If the rate changes later, earlier shifts keep their old rate.
4. Unlike a reimbursement, the allowance is already included in gross pay and super.

To set your organisation’s per-kilometre rates for client travel, open Settings, then Pricing, then the Travel rates tab. There are two blocks, Standard and Modified for accessibility. A rate above the NDIS maximum is refused. When you save a new rate, the old one is kept as an archived version.

Paid travel time

A shift with paid travel time shows a “Travel paid” line under the shift’s main row, with the travel hours. The hours and rate on the shift plus any such lines add up to the line total.

Export or post to Xero

1. Open a payroll run.
2. Click Export for Xero at the top right. A CSV file downloads, ready to import into Xero Payroll AU.
3. Each receipted expense is a Reimbursement row. Each kilometre allowance is an Allowance row. Unreceipted expenses and zero lines are left out.
4. If you have connected Xero with payroll access, you may also see Post to Xero. See the Xero integration help for setup and what to expect.

Tips

• Approval is what writes pay. Running payroll only gathers what approval already recorded.
• A short-notice cancellation can be paid at the minimum engagement hours. Those hours show on the line, never 0.00 hrs beside a dollar amount.
• If the run’s totals do not match its itemised lines, an amber warning appears under the heading. Do not export until you have checked it.
• Export for Xero is greyed out when the run has no reimbursement or allowance lines.
• There is no worker-facing payslip page yet. The run detail page is the only place reimbursements are shown.
• The Payroll tab on a worker’s own profile shows the worker’s pay records from these same runs.

Troubleshooting

A shift is missing from the preview. It is probably in the list of excluded shifts because it has no pay rate on file. Add the rate, then run payroll again. Also check the shift has been approved.

“No loaded rate for this worker’s band” appears when approving. The shift fell in a penalty band and the worker has no award classification on file. Add the classification to the worker’s profile, then approve again.

Approve is missing and the figures say “Unavailable”. The shift has no finish time. Use Enter time, or Send completion link to ask the worker to submit.

An amber warning says the run’s totals do not match its itemised shift lines. Something has gone out of step. Do not export. Ask your Cura contact to look at the run.

I ran payroll again and nothing happened. That is correct. Shifts already paid are not paid twice.