Create and apply allowances

How to create, edit, and apply allowances to employees and timesheets in Tanda.

Jye avatar
Written by Jye
Updated over a week ago

What is an allowance?

An allowance is an additional payment made on top of an employee’s regular wages.

These generally apply when employees:

  • Work in certain conditions

  • Perform certain tasks

  • Have particular skills or their own equipment they use when working

  • Incur expenses while completing tasks

Each Industry Award prescribes specific allowances, and 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

  • Leading hand or supervisor

  • Industry of employment (for example building and construction).


View allowances

To view allowances, navigate to the Compliance tab > Customise Your Setup and 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 within 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, days, how it will be paid per hour, as well as the hours or days the allowance will apply.

Who the allowance is applicable to. Only employees specified in this column will have the allowance as an option on their timesheet e.g. employees with forklift certifications. Access a list of these applicable employees by clicking the blue text.

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.

Award template that the allowance is attached to. Only employees on the relevant award will be eligible for the allowance.

If an allowance is 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 applied 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 of 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:

  1. Navigate to Compliance > Allowances (Manage)

  2. Click the + New allowance button in the top right corner of the screen

  3. Enter the allowance details:

    1. Name and an optional Description

    2. In the Link to your payroll system section, enter an Export name, and the related Award Template

    3. In the What type of allowance section, select Manual

    4. Select whether it applies to All Staff or certain staff based on their Tags

      1. Advanced options include staff within an age range, staff on probation, a date range to apply, or tags that it will not apply to

    5. Enter either a Specific Cost to be paid, or a Multiplier of the base rate

      1. 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

  4. Click the Create Allowance button once finished

Automatic

To create an allowance that applies automatically, follow the below steps:

  1. Navigate to the Allowances page from Compliance > Allowances (Manage)

  2. Click the + New allowance button in the top right corner of the screen

  3. Enter the allowance details:

    1. Name and an optional Description

    2. In the Link to your payroll system section, enter an Export name, and the related Award Template

    3. In the What type of allowance section, select Automatic

    4. Select whether it applies to All Staff or certain staff based on their Tags

      1. Advanced options include staff within an age range, staff on probation, a date range to apply, or tags that it will not apply to

    5. Select what Days it can apply

    6. Select what Type of Hours the allowance will apply to from Ordinary Hours, Overtime Hours, or Both

    7. Select whether the allowance applies for All Hours of the Shift or Specific Times

    8. Select what types of shifts the allowance will apply to

      1. Advanced options allow you to link allowances to shifts worked in a particular team, or shifts with a particular award/classification tag

    9. Enter either a Specific Cost to be paid, or a Multiplier of the base rate

      1. 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:

  1. Navigate to the timesheet of the relevant employee

  2. Click the + Add Allowances button

  3. Click the Select allowance option and choose the relevant option

  4. Enter the number of Units to be applied

  5. 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:

  1. Name: Shift Question: [As it appears in the shift question]

  2. 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)

  3. Manual allowance type (Note: keep this allowance as manual for this shift question)

  4. Applies to All Staff

  5. 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:

  1. Name: Shift Question: [As it appears in the shift question]

  2. 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)

  3. Manual allowance type (Note: keep this allowance as manual for this shift question)

  4. Applies to All Staff

  5. 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:

  1. An employee will clock in/out of their shift and select one of the preset responses

  2. Their response to the shift question will apply the corresponding shift tag

  3. 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

  1. Navigate to the Compliance tab and select Manage next to Classification tags

  2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and enter a name for the tag

  3. Click the green + button

Shift question

  1. Navigate to Settings > All Settings > Shift Questions

  2. Click the + New Question button and configure the question as required

  3. Select Set a shift tag for the ‘Then’ section of the shift question

  4. Enter Quick answer options and select the corresponding classification tags previously created

Automatic allowance

  1. Navigate to the Allowances page from Compliance > Allowances (Manage)

  2. Click the green + New allowance button in the top right corner of the screen

  3. Enter the allowance details as required, ensuring the Automatic option is selected

  4. Ensure the Type of shifts it will apply to field is linked to the relevant Classification tag you’ve created under the advanced options

  5. 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.

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