Payroll Rate Details

From Polygon Back Office,

Access the Payroll Rates File by selecting Payroll from the main menu, then selecting Payroll Rates,

Click the New button to create a new Payroll Rate, or,

Highlight an existing Payroll Rate which you wish to edit and click the Change button.

Rate Name

Enter a name of the rate into the Name box. e.g. 1st  year Apprentice. If you have employees who have rates which are specific to them it is a good idea to use their surname as the name of the rate.

Default Ledger Account - Use the browse button to chose the Default Ledger Account that expenses resulting from hours worked under this rate will be charged to if you wish to utilise the Post Timesheets using Payroll Rates Ledger Accounts function.  To turn this feature on, go to Polygon Payroll System Settings > General and change the "Post Timesheets using GL accounts from" setting to "Payroll rates".  

Note: If you choose not to activate the Post Timesheets using Employee Rates Ledger Accounts function, the ledger accounts affected will be determined by the ledger account chosen when setting up each employee.  

Exclude This Rate From Higher Duties Computations

Polygon Payroll enables staff working on mixed duties to be paid at a the higher rate if they work a minimum number of hours at the higher rate.  To exclude this Payroll rate from these higher duties computations place a tick in the Exclude This Rate from Higher Duties Computations tick box.  See section Payroll Award Details Form for more information about configuring Higher Rates for Mixed Duties.  

Ordinary Hourly Rate

Ordinary Hourly Rate is the minimum rate for a full time employee of that this type, it is exclusive of any casual or late hour loading.  

OT1 Starts After

These settings allow you to specify how many hours in a shift, or, how many hours in a day an employee must work before overtime 1 rates are earned. To enter how many hours a shift must be worked before overtime 1 is applied, enter the number of hours in the first text box (circled in green below). To enter how many hours must be worked in a day before overtime 1 applied, enter the number of hours into the second text box (circled in blue below).  

Note: You may enter one option or neither option, but not both.  

If default overtime rules have been entered from Polygon Payroll Application Settings > General > Payroll Award Details Form, overtime rules are automatically entered when creating a new Payroll Rate.  Each payroll rate can have their own overtime rules if they are entered from this Payroll Details form.

Overtime 1 (OT1) - OT1 starts after ‘x’ hours worked per shift or ‘x’ hours worked per day or ‘x’ hours for the week.  For example, the first level of overtime may start after 7.6 hours per day have been worked or after 38 hours have been worked in a week.

Overtime 2 (OT2) - OT2 starts after ‘x’ consecutive hours of OT1 and can be applied to excess hours over OT1 only or to the full hours worked in shift.

Note: When setting your overtime rules to be ‘per shift’, please ensure that you also go to the System Settings section and entered the standard duration for a meal break. If you enter 30 minutes for the meal break, the system will assess the elapsed time between each Stop time and the next Start time when calculating overtime. If the break between each stop and start time is 30 minutes or less both sections will be considered as the same shift. If the elapsed time is greater than 30 minutes, the system will consider them to be two separate split shifts.  Meal break durations are set from Polygon Payroll Application Settings > General > Payroll Award Details Form.

Weekly OT starts after

If your overtime is applied on a weekly basis, enter the number of hours per week to be worked at the base rate before overtime applies.

Note: Overtime Rules are applied to excess hours worked only.

Note that there are four tabs - Mon-Fri, Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays.  

•Enter the rate details for each of the above tabs in accordance with the award rate or enterprise bargaining agreements.  It is recommended that you use the levels to cover a complete 24 hour period.

•Enter the initial times (using 24 hour clock) in the Start fields.

•Enter the final times (using 24 hour clock) in the Stop fields.

•Enter standard per hour pay rates in Rate/Hr fields.

•Enter the subsequent OT1 and OT2 pay rates.

•To apply the highest rate found to all hours worked in the shift select Apply highest rate.

•To pay according to the hours worked at each rate select Factor each rate found.

•When all the rates and overtime details have been entered, press the OK button.