The Shift Costing feature allows you to see the real-time financial health of your roster. By pulling live pay data from your connected payroll integration, ShiftCare compares the exact wages you pay for a shift against the revenue you bill for it, giving you instant visibility into your margins.
This feature is currently only available to AU Premium plans that use Xero and is being rolled out progressively.
How Shift Costing Works
Shift Costing reads data directly from your payroll integration to calculate the exact cost of each shift. Cost is calculated per worker, per shift. If a shift has two carers, it has two cost lines that add up to the shift total.
For each shift, the system calculates:
Cost: The wages for the shift (hours × pay rate, plus any allowances). If you use Xero, this cost also automatically includes superannuation (SGC, 12% by default).
Revenue: What you charge for the shift (GST-exclusive), based on your assigned Price Books.
Margin %: The profit margin of the shift ((Revenue − Cost) ÷ Revenue × 100).
Profitability States: To help you spot issues at a glance, every shift is assigned a colour-coded profitability state based on your account's financial thresholds:
Profitable (Green): The margin is healthy and at or above your low-margin threshold.
Low Margin (Orange): The margin is below your ideal threshold, but not yet losing money.
Loss-Making (Red): The cost of the shift exceeds the revenue being brought in.
Account owners can adjust these threshold percentages in Account > Feature Settings > Invoicing & Financials to match their specific business goals. By default, low-margin states are triggered at 10% or below, and loss-making states are triggered at 5% or below.
Viewing Shift Costs
Once enabled and calculated, this financial data will appear across several areas of the platform:
On the Scheduler
Shift Tiles: A colour-coded profitability signal will appear directly on the shift block.
Margin Column: Visible when using the tabular/list view.
Per-Staff Row: A summary of costs on each worker's calendar row.
Shift Drawer (Financials Tab): Opening a shift will reveal a dedicated 'Financials' tab showing the full cost, revenue, and margin breakdown.
Aggregate KPI Band: A summary at the top of your screen showing the total cost, revenue, and margin for everything currently in your view, plus a count of any loss-making shifts.
In the Report Hub
The Reports > Report Hub > Shift Details Report page will now include dedicated columns for Cost, Revenue, Profit $, and Profit %.
Setting Up Shift Costing
To use this feature, your account must be connected to Xero. You must also ensure the following steps are complete before costs will appear:
Ensure your Xero integration is fully connected.
You must map your pay items/awards in Xero so each pay item lines up with a ShiftCare award.
You must link each staff member's ShiftCare profile to their Xero employee profile.
Activating the Costs
Once your setup is complete, the system needs to be "triggered" to calculate the costs.
If you create a new shift or edit and save an existing shift, the cost will be calculated and appear on the Scheduler near-instantly (or within a couple of hours on the Shift Details Report).
Visibility and Permissions
Because payroll cost is highly sensitive information, visibility is tightly controlled by user roles. You can configure these settings by navigating to Account > Roles. Please read this guide for more information.
Account Owner: Has full access to see exact dollar figures (cost, revenue, margin, profit) and aggregate KPIs.
Users with 'Shift Financials & Margin' Permission: These users operate in "Indicator Mode." They can see the red/orange/green profitability signals (so they know if a shift they are rostering is running at a loss), but they cannot see any dollar amounts or see what their colleagues are being paid.
Everyone Else: Users without specific permissions will not see the costing columns or tiles at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is a shift's profit or margin percentage blank?
Profit requires both a cost figure and a revenue figure. If either is missing (e.g., you haven't attached a billable Price Book yet, or the worker isn't correctly linked to your payroll software), the profit will stay blank.
I raised a pay rate in Xero, but my old shifts still show the old cost. Why?
Changes made purely on the payroll side do not automatically retroactively re-cost historical shifts in ShiftCare. To update an old shift, you must re-save it. If you need a massive bulk re-cost for a specific date range, please contact ShiftCare Support.
For further assistance with Scheduler Shift Costing, please contact our Support team using online chat when you're logged into ShiftCare or email our Support team at support@shiftcare.com.