During a sleepover shift, staff may be woken to provide care. In these cases, you can use allowances to ensure they are paid for the time they are awake. Please follow the steps below to get started.
How to Record the Awake Hours in a Shift
Step 1: Set Up Awake Hours Allowances
Before recording awake time, you need to create allowances in ShiftCare.
Set the Unit to One-off
Ensure the Code matches your payroll system (e.g. Xero or MYOB)
This allows the awake hours to be correctly transferred and processed in payroll.
Example for Xero. Notice the Xero Pay Item column.
Example for MYOB. Notice the Code column.
For more information, refer to the Setup Allowances article.
Step 2: How Staff Record Awake Hours
Staff can notify the office of awake time by adding a feedback note in the mobile app.
These notes appear on the timesheet as a speech bubble.
They provide visibility for admin teams to review and apply allowances
For more information about adding a feedback note, please refer to this article: Add Progress, Feedback, or Incident Notes from the Mobile App.
Step 3: Add Awake Time to the Shift
Using Advanced Edit:
Split the shift into:
The full sleepover duration
The awake hours period
Due to staff ratio changes, the shift may appear as pending (red)
Enable Ignore staff count in the Shift module to proceed
Step 4: Add Awake Allowance to the Shift
Still in Advanced Edit:
Locate the Allowance field
Select the sleepover and the appropriate awake hours allowance.
Save the shift
When saving, you may choose “This shift only” to avoid affecting future recurring shifts.
Step 5: Timesheet and Payroll
The allowance will automatically appear on the staff timesheet
Your payroll system will interpret this as a payable amount based on the configured earning rate
Billing the Client for Shifts with Awake Hours
For sleepover shifts:
The client is billed a fixed sleepover rate
Additional awake hours are billed separately
Important (NDIS guideline):
The first 2 hours of awake time are included in the fixed sleepover rate.
Only additional awake hours beyond the first 2 hours should be billed separately.
You can use the split shift feature in Advanced Edit to apply different pricing for awake hours.
