This guide details how to create custom award rules in Tanda. Custom award rules are used when:
(a) an employee is not covered by a Tanda modern award template, or;
(b) an employee is covered by a Tanda modern award template, but has additional or slightly different conditions to those contained in the award template

Tanda knows which award rule to apply at any point in time by applying the rule that contains the most specific conditions to the relevant point in time.

For example, if you created two award rules: one that applies at all times every day of the week, while the other applies only on Saturdays.

Technically, both rules could apply on a Saturday, but the rule that only applies on Saturdays would be the most specific at this point in time, so it would apply when the employee works on a Saturday.

If you then added a third award rule which applied only after 4 pm on Saturdays, technically, all three rules could apply at this point in time, but the rule that only applies after 4 pm would be the most specific at this point in time and would apply when the employee works after 4 pm on a Saturday.

The Staging platform (https://staging.tanda.co/) serves as a sandbox account.

This environment allows for experimentation without impacting your primary account. Additionally, any modifications made in the Staging platform automatically reset every morning, ensuring a fresh start for testing purposes.

If the same rate of pay can apply to a few different scenarios, it often makes sense to break these down into multiple rules to ensure in each scenario, the rule is the most specific at that point in time, meaning it will apply over other rules.

For example, if Overtime x1.5 applies when an employee works past 7pm, or when working more than 8 hours in a day, or when working more than 38 hours in a week.

Each scenario should be built as its own rule to ensure the most specific overtime rule applies in each scenario.

If you pay different rates on different days of the week, create separate rules for each day. For example:

If you require a long list of rules, it can be easier to organise them with a numbering system at the beginning of each rule name.

For example, you could use:

When creating rules, you'll see there is the option to use multipliers or flat hourly rates. We recommend using multipliers where possible.

This is because multipliers tend to remain consistent across employee classifications and over time, whereas rates change more frequently (ie EOFY, birthdays, promotions). Multipliers typically won't require as much updating, and from a payroll perspective, this means fewer pay items are required in your payroll software.

If you need to bulk manage rules, doing this via csv may be the easier and more efficient option.

Ordinary hours are an employee's normal and regular hours of work, which do not attract overtime rates.

When entering this information into Tanda as custom rules, the best practice is to create generic rules for Ordinary hours that do not specify any times or hours. This way, you can build the rest of your rules, knowing that any time a more specific rule does not apply, Tanda will always fall back to this ordinary hours rule.

In the example above, a set of rules has been created for Full Time employees. Apart from breaking down the rules by day and applying the 'Full Time' tag, the only information on these rules is that they are considered ordinary hours.

By building generic rules for our ordinary hours, we've created a foundation we can then build our overtime rules on top of.

Overtime rules can be set to apply after a number of hours per day or pay period.
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For example: "Hours worked in excess of the 38 hours per week are to be paid at time and a half for the first three hours and double time thereafter".

This example requires two rules to be created:

To build the first overtime rule:

To create the second rule:

In this specific example, we looked at overtime (1.5) after 38 hours and overtime (2.0) after 3 hours of overtime. However, you can change the conditions to suit your specific arrangement.

Below is an explanation for each section of a custom award rule.

2. Click on the green + New allowance button in the top right corner:

3. First, set a Name and optionally a Description for the Allowance and link this to your Payroll System/a Tanda Payroll Earnings Rate.

This is also where you can configure how the allowance should be treated in terms of how it should be paid/what type of payment the allowance should be. The above screenshot is the options with Tanda Payroll enabled.

4. Next, select what type of allowance it is - Manual, Automatic or All Purpose:

Manual allowances require detail on who it will apply to and the rate to be paid. This will only apply when you manually add it to the timesheet. A common example is the travel allowance, where the distance traveled (i.e., kilometers) is manually entered on the timesheet.

Automatic allowances apply whenever the conditions specified on the form are met, including factors such as the day, time and type of shift. For example, an employee can receive a laundry allowance for every shift they work.

5. Set whether you want all staff to be eligible for the allowance or whether this will only apply to specific staff with specific tags (ie, Part Time/ Casual, a specific grade of pay, etc). Under Advanced Options, you can also configure it to apply to a specific age range, during probation, or for a certain date range.

6. Then, choose what days it should apply to, the type of hours it will apply to (ordinary/overtime), the specific times it should apply, and which shifts it can apply to.

7. If the allowance is Automatic, choose how it will be paid during the shift, as either an exact amount per hour, a rounded amount per hour, once per day, or once per rostered shift.

8. Then, under ‘What rate is it paid at?’, select either the ‘multiplier’ option or the ‘specific cost’ option.

Both manual and automatic allowances require a rate to be specified, which can be either a specific cost (e.g., a dollar amount) or a multiplier (calculated from the employee's base hourly rate).

For Automatic Allowances, under Advanced Options, you can also configure how many units of this allowance will apply, a minimum number of units per shift, and a maximum quantity of units per week.

For Manual Allowances, under Advanced Options, you can configure the allowance to be based on a period of time. This means that when you enter the allowance in the timesheet, you add the allowance in terms of hours and minutes. 1 hour is 1 unit, and 1 minute is 1/60th of a unit.

8. When you're finished, click Create Allowance at the bottom to save.

9. If the allowance was automatic, it should apply to the corresponding timesheet automatically, should the required conditions be met. If the allowance was manual, head to the necessary timesheet and select the allowance from the blue ‘+Add’ option next to ‘No Allowances Applying’. Then, select the allowance you’ve just created from the list, enter the required number of units, and click 'Save Allowances'.

The minimum engagement is the minimum amount of time an employee can be paid for when engaged to work a shift.

For example, if the modern award states 'The minimum daily engagement of a casual is three hours', the employee is entitled to be paid for 3 hours even if they work less than 3 hours.

If you're using a Tanda Managed Award Template, this will likely be pre-configured for you. If you need to build this rule into your account, navigate to Compliance > Custom rules > New rule.

Under Conditions, tick Minimum Shift Length and specify (a) Minimum shift length employees should be paid for.

After creating this rule, eligible staff will receive payment for 3 hours on shifts that are less than 3 hours. For example, the employee below worked 3:30-5:30pm (two hours) and this is reflected in the start and finish times. However, they are paid as if they had worked 3:30pm-6:30pm (three hours).

Some awards and agreements allow for an employee and an employer to agree for time off to be taken instead of being paid overtime pay. This is known as 'time in lieu', 'time off in lieu', or 'TOIL'.

When TOIL can apply and how it is calculated will depend on the award or agreement. To learn more about TOIL in Tanda, as well as configuring TOIL rules, please see This Guide.

One scenario where an employee may be entitled to overtime is when they work hours outside of their rostered hours.

Using the example picture above, an employee who works beyond their rostered hours is entitled to Overtime at 1.5x for the first three hours and Overtime 2.0x after that. Two rules need to be created under Compliance > Rules to cater for this.

Under Conditions, select 'After number of hours worked'. Specify here that the rule will kick in After ordinary hours have elapsed and Rostered hours.

For the second rule, under Conditions select 'After number of hours worked' again. This time, specify After overtime hours have been elapsed, Rostered hours, and enter how many overtime hours need to have passed. For the above example, we'd enter 3.

Then, on timesheets, hours worked will be compared to the roster. Hours outside the rostered hours will be paid according to the rules above.

One scenario where an employee may be entitled to overtime is when they work hours outside of the hours specified in their contract. These contracted hours typically include a start and finish time per day. These are set in the regular hours of work tab on an employee profile. See this article for more information.

Using the example picture above, an employee who works beyond their contracted times is entitled to the relevant overtime rate for the day the hours are worked.

Under Conditions, select 'After number of hours worked'. Specify here that the rule will kick in After ordinary hours have elapsed and Contracted hours.

For the second rule, under Conditions select 'After number of hours worked' again. This time, specify After overtime hours have been elapsed, Contracted hours, and enter how many overtime hours need to have passed. For the above example, we'd enter 3.

Then, on timesheets, hours worked will be compared to the regular hours entered into the employee's profile. Hours outside the regular hours will be paid according to the rules above.

Worked hours elapse the number of scheduled/rostered hours

An additional scenario is where an employee works hours outside of a scheduled shift, but only receives overtime when total worked hours elapse the number of scheduled/rostered hours.

Example 1

Scheduled hours: 9am - 5pm (8 hours)

Worked hours: 8am - 5pm (9 hours)

Total OT = 1 hour

Example 2

Scheduled hours: 9am - 5pm (8 hours)

Worked hours: 8am - 3pm (7 hours)

OT not applied as total hours worked is less than scheduled hours

To apply this setting, select 'Scheduled Hours' > 'Worked hours outside of rostered times' on Condition 3.a:

You can create rules that apply to specific public holidays only. For example, the Restaurant Industry Award 2010 specifies that a 225% penalty rather than 250% penalty should apply when Christmas Day falls on a weekend.

Please note that if you are on a Managed Template in Tanda, double-check if this condition has been built in with Tanda's support team.

1. Start to create your award rule using our award rules page

You will need to:

See this article for guidance on creating award rules.

2. Go to 'specific day(s)' under the conditions section of the award rules page

3. Select the public holiday option

4. Specify the public holiday by starting to type the name of the public holiday

You will need to create it with the exact wording specified in your Tanda accounts pre-built holidays. You can find the exact name to tag the public holiday under General Settings.

4. Finish creating your award rule

5. Check the award rules summary page

On the award rules summary page, you should see Specific Public Holidays show up under the Applies On column.