What's covered in this guide?
What is an allowance?
An allowance is an additional payment made on top of an employee’s regular wages.
Allowances generally apply when employees:
Work in certain conditions
Perform certain tasks
Have particular skills
Use their own equipment when working
Incur expenses while completing tasks
Each Industry Award prescribes specific allowances, while some businesses may choose to pay additional allowances based on agreements with their employees.
Common allowances include:
Uniforms and special clothing
Tools and equipment
Travel and fares
Car and phone
First aid
Laundry
Sleepover
On-call
Leading hand or supervisor
Industry of employment (for example building and construction).
View allowances
To view allowances, navigate to Time & Attendance > Compliance. Then, select Manage next to Allowances.
Each allowance has the following fields:
Name as it appears on the timesheet. Extra context may appear in the name, e.g. Vehicle Allowance - Car. Additional information can also be added via the Description field.
When the allowance will apply to a timesheet. This is only applicable for automatic allowances and takes into account settings such as times and days, how it will be paid per hour, and the hours or days the allowance will apply.
Who the allowance applies to. Only employees specified in this column, e.g., employees with forklift certifications, will have the allowance as an option on their timesheet. You can access a list of these applicable employees by clicking the blue text.
The rate that the allowance is paid at. This may be a specific cost per shift or hour, or a multiplier of an employee's hourly rate, e.g. $1.25 laundry allowance once per day.
The award template that the allowance is attached to. Only employees on the relevant award will be eligible for the allowance.
If an allowance is marked as Read only, it is attached to an award template and cannot be altered.
Allowances contained in managed award templates
When a Tanda-managed award template is enabled in your account, the related allowances are automatically created. These allowances become available to employees classified in Tanda under the relevant managed award template.
All allowances contained in managed award templates are read only. However, details such as who the allowance applies to can be edited for most of these allowances. The staff this allowance applies to can be found by clicking the blue text under the Who column.
For an overview of the allowances for some of our larger managed templates, see below:
Create an allowance
Additional allowances can be created to apply either manually or automatically. Manual allowances only apply when they are added manually to a timesheet, while automated allowances apply automatically whenever the conditions of the allowance are met.
Manual
To create a manual allowance, follow the below steps:
Navigate to Compliance > Allowances (Manage)
Click the + New Allowance button in the top right corner of the screen
Enter the allowance details:
Name and an optional description
In the Link to your payroll system section, enter an Export name, and the related Award Template
In the What type of allowance section, select Manual
Select whether it applies to All Staff or certain staff based on their Tags
Advanced options include staff within an age range, staff on probation, a date range to apply, or tags that it will not apply to
Enter either a Specific Cost to be paid, or a Multiplier of the base rate
Advanced options include the number of units to be paid each time the allowance applies, or shift padding to apply the minimum number of units
Click the Create Allowance button once finished
Automatic
To create an allowance that applies automatically, follow the below steps:
Navigate to the Allowances page from Compliance > Allowances (Manage)
Click the + New allowance button in the top right corner of the screen
Enter the allowance details:
Name and an optional Description
In the Link to your payroll system section, enter an Export name, and the related Award Template
In the What type of allowance section, select Automatic
Select whether it applies to All Staff or certain staff based on their Tags
Advanced options include staff within an age range, staff on probation, a date range to apply, or tags that it will not apply to
Select what Days it can apply
Select what Type of Hours the allowance will apply to from Ordinary Hours, Overtime Hours, or Both
Select whether the allowance applies for All Hours of the Shift or Specific Times
Select what types of shifts the allowance will apply to
Advanced options allow you to link allowances to shifts worked in a particular team, or shifts with a particular award/classification tag
Enter either a Specific Cost to be paid, or a Multiplier of the base rate
Advanced options include the number of units to be paid each time the allowance applies, or shift padding to apply the minimum number of units, or the maximum quantity to be applied each week
4. Click the Create Allowance button once finished
Apply allowances to timesheets manually
An allowance can be applied to a timesheet manually if all of the following conditions are met:
The employee has the relevant classification tags on their profile, or the allowance applies to All Staff, and;
If an award is specified in the Link to your payroll system section of the allowance settings, the employee is classified under that award template, and;
The allowance type is manual
To manually add an allowance to a timesheet:
Navigate to the timesheet of the relevant employee
Click the + Add Allowances button
Click the Select allowance option and choose the relevant option
Enter the number of Units to be applied
Click Save Allowances to save changes
Apply allowances with shift questions
Allowances can be automatically applied to timesheets based on responses provided by employees to shift questions. These shift questions either:
Create an allowance (number input)
Create an allowance (yes/no answer)
Set a shift tag
To learn more about shift questions, see creating a shift question.
Create a shift question allowance (number input)
When a shift question is configured to create an allowance (number input), employees are prompted to enter a number when clocking in or out of their shift.
Once the shift question has been created, an allowance is automatically created containing the same allowance name as the shift question being asked. :
The allowance is pre-filled with the following default values:
Name: Shift Question: [As it appears in the shift question]
Export name: Shift Question: [As it appears in the shift question] and applicable to the Custom Payroll Setup template (Note: this value will likely have to be updated to the name of a pay item in your payroll)
Manual allowance type (Note: keep this allowance manual for this shift question)
Applies to All Staff
Paid at a specific cost of $1.00
We recommend reviewing the allowance and adjusting any relevant fields as soon as possible after the shift question is created
Once configured, the number of allowance units applied will be based on the employees’ responses to the shift question.
Create a shift question allowance (yes/no answer)
When a shift question is configured to create an allowance (yes/no answer), employees are prompted to respond with yes or no when clocking in or out of their shift.
Once the shift question has been created, an allowance will be created with the following default values:
Name: Shift Question: [As it appears in the shift question]
Export name: Shift Question: [As it appears in the shift question] and applicable to the Custom Payroll Setup template (Note: this value will likely have to be updated to the name of a pay item in your payroll)
Manual allowance type (Note: keep this allowance as manual for this shift question)
Applies to All Staff
Paid at a specific cost of $1.00
We recommend reviewing the allowance and adjusting any relevant fields as soon as possible after the shift question is created.
Once configured, the allowance will only apply if the employee responds ‘No’ to the question.
Create a shift question that applies a timesheet tag
When a shift question is configured to set a shift tag, an employee’s response will determine the allowance that applies.
To use this workflow, a classification tag, shift question, and allowance must be created. The steps to create these are outlined below.
With this configuration:
An employee will clock in/out of their shift and select one of the preset responses
Their response to the shift question will apply the corresponding shift tag
The shift tag will apply the corresponding allowance
Ensure the setting to Show an extra dropdown to adjust shift cost (Award Tag) is also enabled through Settings > All Settings > Timesheets.
This will add an additional field under the team selection on timesheets.
Classification tag
Navigate to the Compliance tab and select Manage next to Classification tags
Scroll to the bottom of the page and enter a name for the tag
Click the green + button
Shift question
Navigate to Settings > All Settings > Shift Questions
Click the + New Question button and configure the question as required
Select Set a shift tag for the ‘Then’ section of the shift question
Enter Quick answer options and select the corresponding classification tags previously created
Automatic allowance
Navigate to the Allowances page from Compliance > Allowances (Manage)
Click the green + New allowance button in the top right corner of the screen
Enter the allowance details as required, ensuring the Automatic option is selected
Ensure the Type of shifts it will apply to field is linked to the relevant Classification tag you’ve created under the advanced options
Click the green Create Allowance button once relevant details have been entered
FAQs and troubleshooting
Why can’t I add an allowance to an employee's timesheet?
Ensure you have the required permission to add an allowance, and that the employee meets the relevant conditions of the allowance:
The employee has the relevant classification tags on their profile or the allowance applies to All Staff
The employee is configured to the same award chosen in the Link to your payroll system section of the allowance
The allowance type is manual
Can employees apply allowances on their own timesheets?
Employees can only apply their own allowances if the Allow staff to make changes to all timesheet fields setting is enabled as shown below. This setting is located under Settings > All settings > View all permission settings > Employee permissions.
Allowances are added by logging into Tanda in a web browser, so employees also require the Enable Tanda Login permission enabled on their employee profile.