ShiftCare's integration with Pay Cat simplifies your HR and payroll management by seamlessly syncing data between platforms. It allows you to effortlessly import staff, automate leave syncing, map dimensions, and export approved timesheets for accurate records.
Enable Pay Cat Integration
Navigate to Account > Integrations > Browse from the sidebar menu.
Click 'Enable' in the Pay Cat section.
Connect to Pay Cat
The first step will be to connect your ShiftCare and Pay Cat accounts.
1. From the sidebar menu, navigate to Account > Integrations > Pay Cat.
2. Click Connect Pay Cat and follow the prompts to connect ShiftCare.
3. When you return to ShiftCare, make sure the correct organisation is selected from the dropdown menu.
Sync Pay Groups/Allowances
Note: This integration uses Pay Groups to send timesheets over to Pay Cat - this will be different if you have previously used our existing integration. You may need to set up pay groups as needed.
It is suggested you rename your default pay group to "Employees Primary Pay Category" - This will be the pay group that you assign to all staff in their profile as their Pay group
Sync Pay Groups
Navigate to Integrations > Paycat
Click on the link under Pay Group
A pop-up will show the existing pay groups on ShiftCare in the drop-down, which will then allow you to match the Work Type from Pay Cat that you need to link with.
For Employees Primary Pay Category, it is normally suggested that each day of the week will link to the work type 'Ordinary Work'. If you are unsure, please contact Pay Cat for advice.
Sync Allowances
Navigate to Account > Integrations > Paycat.
Click on 'Set Now' under Allowance.
Your Awake allowances should all sync to 'Work during a sleepover'.
If you don't have these allowances, navigate to Account > Pay Items > Allowances. Read this guide for more in-depth instructions.
Create Allowances for each interval, ensuring the type is set to 'One Off' and the Value is set to the duration as well.
The Sleepover Allowance should be mapped to Sleepover.
The Mileage Allowance should be mapped to Kilometre Allowance.
Import Staff
IMPORTANT: This step CANNOT be skipped, even if your staff already exist in ShiftCare. It ensures the staff are linked between the two platforms.
ShiftCare will match employees based on their emails. If your staff have a different email in Pay Cat than the one used in ShiftCare, navigate to Staff > List > Click on Staff Member in ShiftCare and add the Pay Cat email to 'Payroll Email'.
Run Staff Import
This process will import ALL staff from Pay Cat. If their emails match, it will link them to existing profiles in ShiftCare. If their emails do not match, it will create new staff members in ShiftCare.
There is also an option to connect staff individually rather than importing them. See the 'Manage Staff' section below.
Navigate to Account > Integrations > Pay Cat.
Click on Import Staff.
If you are creating new staff in ShiftCare, you can toggle on 'Send account setup emails to newly created users' to save time.
Click 'Import Staff'.
Once clicked, a Refresh button appears at the bottom of the page. Click this after a few minutes to check the status.
Once complete, you will receive information on how many staff were created or how many were not imported. Use this information to confirm if the staff emails match as expected, and add any emails to the staff's Payroll email in their profile in ShiftCare if needed.
Manage Staff
Rather than importing your staff from Pay Cat, you can connect individual staff profiles in ShiftCare to staff in Pay Cat. It will look for their email address in Pay Cat and link them together if they match.
ShiftCare will match employees based on their emails. If your staff have a different email in Pay Cat than the one used in ShiftCare, navigate to Staff > List > Click on Staff Member in ShiftCare and add the Pay Cat email to 'Payroll Email'.
Navigate to Account > Integrations > Pay Cat.
Click on 'Manage Staff' (inside the Import Staff box).
For each staff member, click the 'Connect' button to link them to their profile in Pay Cat.
Export Timesheets To Pay Cat
Navigate to Account > Integrations > Pay Cat.
Select 'Export Timesheets'.
When exporting timesheets, you can use the Location dropdown menu to filter your export to a specific branch or site.
Enter the date range for your payroll period, then click Export Timesheets.
A refresh button will appear at the bottom of the page. Wait a minute, then click to check whether the process has run and view the report for information.
If your organisation operates across multiple time zones, the exported timesheets will automatically reflect the correct local time for where each shift took place, rather than defaulting to your head office's time zone.
Approving Timesheets in Pay Cat Once Imported
Having completed the timesheet export from ShiftCare into Pay Cat, please see their help article on how to approve timesheets.
Automatic Leave Sync
With the Automatic Leave Sync feature, ShiftCare will automatically pull staff leave from PayCat and block out their availability on the Scheduler in real time.
To enable Automatic Leave Sync:
Navigate to Account > Integrations > Pay Cat.
Click 'Import Leave'.
Toggle Enable Automatic Leave Sync on and confirm your choice.
The moment you toggle this feature on, ShiftCare will run a manual sync of all existing approved leaves currently in PayCat and bring them into ShiftCare.
To prevent rostering errors, ShiftCare will only sync leaves that have an Approved status in Pay Cat. Pending leave requests will not sync over until they are officially approved by management.
Once enabled, the sync works continuously in the background. Any changes made in PayCat will instantly reflect on the ShiftCare Scheduler:
Approving Leave: Once a pending request is approved in PayCat, the leave is automatically created in ShiftCare.
Updating Leave: If a staff member changes their approved leave dates (e.g., moving time off from the 19th to the 26th), the unavailability block on the ShiftCare Scheduler will automatically move to the new dates.
Deleting Leave: If an approved leave is cancelled or deleted in PayCat, the leave block is instantly removed from ShiftCare, freeing the staff member up to be rostered again.
Click 'View Imported Leaves' to see a list of leaves that have been imported, as well as any errors.
Dimensions Mapping
ShiftCare now supports Pay Cat Dimensions Mapping, giving you more flexibility and accuracy when reporting.
Setting up Dimensions in ShiftCare
Navigate to Account > Integrations > Pay Cat from the sidebar menu.
Click 'Set Now' in the Dimensions section. A setup page will appear with dropdown menus for configuration.
Click on the 'Mapping Item' dropdown menus in the Timesheet section and select the correct options from Client, Pricebook, Shift Type, Facility, and Location. Click on 'Dimension' and select the correct option from the dropdown menu (the options are pulled directly from your Pay Cat account).
Click 'Save'.
Configuring Mapped Items to Dimension Categories
After saving your initial setup, you’ll need to map each line item to the correct dimension category option.
Click 'Configure' beside the item you want to map.
Use the dropdown menus to match each line with the appropriate option from Pay Cat.
Click 'Save' to apply your changes.
Repeat this process for all items until everything is mapped.
Note: Clicking 'Edit' will bring you back to the setup page.
Dimension Report
Please note that Pay Cat does not display Dimension breakdowns directly on the Pay Run dashboard. To view the cost breakdown by Dimension:
Complete the Pay Run in Pay Cat.
Select Pay Run Actions > Export Pay Run.
Open the downloaded CSV/Excel file.
The Dimension data will appear in specific columns within the spreadsheet. You can then use filters or Pivot Tables in Excel to report on these costs.
Location Mapping
Similar to Dimensions, the Location Mapping feature allows you to track payroll spending in Pay Cat based on specific dimensions in ShiftCare (Client, Pricebook, Shift Type, Facility, or Location). However, unlike Dimensions, you can only set up one Location mapping at a time.
Syncing Locations to Pay Cat
Navigate to Account > Integrations > Pay Cat from the sidebar menu.
Click 'Set Now' in the Dimensions section.
Select the parent location and the mapping item you want to track (e.g., Facility or Shift Type).
Click 'Sync Locations' and confirm the action. ShiftCare will automatically push these items to Pay Cat and create them as Locations. (Note: If a location already exists in Pay Cat, the system will not create a duplicate).
You can click 'Refresh' to see how many items have been successfully synced in real-time.
Exporting Timesheets with Location Tracking
Once your locations are synced, you can include this data when running your payroll export.
Navigate to Account > Integrations > Pay Cat.
Select Export Timesheets.
Enter the date range of your payroll period and tick the checkbox to 'Enable Client or Location Tracking'.
Click 'Export Timesheets'.
When you enable client/location tracking, the ShiftCare client ID is sent as the location for the timesheet. Please ensure the client ID is set up as an external ID in Pay Cat's locations. Otherwise, the timesheet will not be sent over.
When the timesheets arrive in Pay Cat, the location data will be attached to each shift, allowing you to run detailed payroll spending reports based on your chosen category.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
I was unable to export timesheets to Paycat and received the error message: “Timesheet from [date] to [date] not exported due to failure caused by another timesheet error.” How can I resolve this?
This error usually occurs when one or more items in the timesheet, such as allowances, are not properly synced with Paycat.
To resolve this:
Review the affected timesheets
Check if any allowances are applied (e.g. Mileage, Sleepover).
Verify allowance mapping in Paycat integration
Navigate to Account > Integrations > Paycat.
Click on 'Set Now' under Allowance.
Ensure all relevant allowances are correctly synced with Paycat.
Sync missing or mismatched allowances
If any allowances are not synced (e.g. Mileage or Sleepover), update and sync them first.
Re-export the timesheets
Once all allowances are properly synced, try exporting the timesheets again.
If the issue persists after completing these steps, please contact support for further assistance.
Why am I getting the error “Timesheet from [Start Time] to [End Time] Pay Item already exists” when exporting to Paycat?
This error usually means that a timesheet for the same shift already exists in Paycat.
How to resolve it
Log in to Paycat
Go to Approve Timesheets
Filter by:
Employee, and
Date range of the shift
Set the status filter to “Any”
Check if the timesheet for that shift already exists
What to do next
If the timesheet exists, you can review, edit, or delete it in Paycat before attempting to export again
If it doesn’t exist, double-check for duplicate or partially imported entries
For further assistance with Getting Started with Pay Cat Integration, please contact our Support team using online chat when you're logged into ShiftCare, or email our Support team at support@shiftcare.com.