When you classify a staff member under a Tanda Modern Award template, Tanda uses the classification and age to calculate the base hourly rate according to the relevant modern award.

If you pay a staff member a higher rate than the award rate, enter a higher base hourly rate into the base hourly rate field on the payroll tab of the employee profile as shown below:

Wages will now be calculated using this new base rate, including all penalties and overtime. 

Should the base rate including Casual Loading?

For templates, casuals have a base rate that does not have loading. Casual loading is added in through award/earnings rules (e.g Casual Weekday rule has a multiplier of 1.25). So when entering a higher base, you would want to exclude casual loading from this figure or loading will be added twice; once in the base rate and once by the rule.

Can I choose when the higher base rate applies (e.g only on weekdays)?

The way templates work is off a base rate and multipliers. If you enter a higher base rate, all multiplier rules will work off this new base rate. So if the higher base rate only applies to certain times, you will need to create custom rules to achieve this. 

Will this manually entered base rate update with template updates?

If you have entered a base rate to override the template, this field will not be automatically updated with template updates. However, if the rate you have entered falls below the templated base rates, you will see a warning on the employee's profile.