Allowances enable you to add specific pay rules or reimbursements to a shift. This is useful for compensating staff for special qualifications (like a First Aid certificate), out-of-pocket expenses (like meals), or specific scenarios (like sleepovers or travel mileage).
Creating a New Allowance
To set up a new allowance for your team:
Navigate to Pay Items > Allowances from the sidebar menu.
Click 'New Allowance' and fill out the following details:
Name: Give the allowance a clear, descriptive name so it is easy to identify when rostering.
Type: Choose from the options, including a one-off item, a cost to be applied to each shift, or a payment based on the distance travelled (see the detailed breakdown below).
Category: Select the appropriate unit category from the dropdown menu.
Value: This tells your payroll system the default multiplier for the allowance (how many of these allowances to pay).
External ID: Enter the payroll code that matches your payroll system. For KeyPay, this should align with the 'Shift Type ID'.
External ID: Enter the relevant ID number to map this allowance.
Click 'Create' to save the allowance.
Understanding Allowance Types
When creating an allowance, you must select a Type. This dictates how the system treats the allowance:
Expense: Typically used to reimburse specific staff expenses.
Mileage/Travel: Used for mileage allowances. Attach this to a shift if you want to reimburse staff for travel distance. Read this complete guide on our Mileage Tracking feature for more information.
Override payitems: Allows you to override the standard pay item that the system would normally calculate based on the staff member's assigned pay group.
Override hours: Replaces the shift's actual duration with a fixed value.
One-off: Used for standard flat-rate payments. This will be included as a separate line item on the timesheet, regardless of shift hours.
Permanent: Allowances that are automatically included in the timesheet. Add this directly to a staff member's profile rather than attaching it to specific shifts (read this guide to learn how).
Sleepover: Used for sleepover shifts. Please read this complete guide on rostering sleepover shifts for more information.
Viewing Allowances on Timesheets
Once an allowance is attached to a shift, it will automatically appear as a separate line item in the staff member's Timesheet Report.
You can view this by navigating to Staff > Name of Staff Member > Timesheet from the sidebar menu.
To learn how to connect pay groups and allowances to your Xero account, please read this guide.
To learn how to set up and manage allowances from KeyPay, please read this guide.
For further assistance with Setting Up Allowances, please contact our Support team using online chat when you're logged into ShiftCare or email our Support team at support@shiftcare.com.