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Configuring Tanda's Organisational Settings

A guide to configuring organisational settings in Tanda.

Updated today

This help guide will discuss how to access and configure organisational settings in Tanda, allowing you to customise your experience and get the most out of Tanda.

1. Accessing and Editing Your Settings

You require admin-level permissions to configure, edit, and access your organisational settings. If you cannot access these settings, you likely have the incorrect permission level.

To access and edit your settings, first log in to Tanda using a web browser. Then, navigate to the settings wheel in the top right corner of the page and click on 'All Settings.'

Note: To reduce the risk of accidentally modifying a setting, your changes will only take effect after clicking the 'update settings' button at the bottom of each settings page.


2. General Settings

To access General Settings navigate to Settings > General

2.1 Public Holidays

Public Holiday Region


Select the country/state where your business is located to pre-fill State and Federal public holidays into your account.

If you're uncertain which dates will apply, click on 'Show Pre-Built Holidays' to see which holidays will apply if you select that option.


Public Holiday Dates

As well as pre-filling state and national public holidays, you can also manually configure the dates of any local public holidays (e.g. your local show day). Use this setting only if the public holiday isn't captured by the pre-fill above.

Note: If your organisation operates across multiple public holiday regions, you can select the holiday region for each of your locations under Workforce > Teams > Edit.

For more details, see our public holiday help guide.

2.2 Shift Feedback

Next, you have the option to enable the shift feedback feature. Tick this setting to turn it on or uncheck it to turn it off.

If enabled, staff will receive a short weekly feedback survey via the mobile app, allowing them to provide feedback on communication, management, morale, and more.

You can easily edit the categories employees can provide feedback on by clicking 'Edit Shift Feedback Categories.' For more details, see our shift feedback help guide.

2.3 Salaried Staff

There are three options for how you would like to calculate the per-shift costs of salaried staff.

  1. Split using an hourly rate: This method is calculated by dividing the employee's weekly salary by their contracted weekly hours. If contracted hours are not available, their rostered hours will be used instead.

  2. Split evenly by rostered days: This method is calculated by dividing the employee's weekly salary by the number of rostered days. This method will not have variances and works well for any kind of timesheet.

  3. Split salary evenly by days in year: This method is calculated by dividing the employee's yearly salary by the number of days in the year (365). This method will not have variances and works well for any kind of timesheet

2.4 Advanced Settings

Show Weekends on Timesheets and Rosters

If enabled, weekends will be shown on timesheets and rosters. If disabled, Saturdays and Sundays will not show up when viewing timesheets or rosters unless someone has clocked in on that day. This makes it easier to navigate Tanda if your business only operates on weekdays.

Session Inactivity Timeout (Days)

This will set the length of time (in days) before users on your account are logged out. For example, if this is set to 30 days, a user would be logged out of their account after 30 continuous days of inactivity in Tanda.

Enforce Two Factor Authentication

If you enable this setting, all employees with admin or manager-level permissions will be required to use two-factor authentication when logging in to Tanda. This will not apply to users with employee-level permissions.

For more details, see our help guide on managing two-factor authentication.


3. Permissions

To access permission settings, navigate to Settings > Permissions.

3.1 Manager Permissions

Allow team managers to see costs: This setting controls whether team managers can see staff costs on rosters, timesheets, and staff profiles. If enabled, managers will only be able to see costs for the staff they manage.

If you want to only allow certain managers to see staff costs, you can. To do so, leave this setting turned off. Instead, navigate directly to each manager's staff profile and check or uncheck 'can see staff costs' as appropriate.

Protect manager data (salaries, hourly rates & performance reviews): When enabled, this setting hides managers' wages from other managers even if they can view them on the roster. Managers can still view employee wages, and general managers can still see team managers' wages.

Keep manager costs visible in total roster costs: If ticked, team manager wages are included in total roster costs. Please be aware that managers may be able to determine other managers' wages by adding and removing shifts to a roster and watching the total costs change.

Allow team managers to edit/approve their own timesheets: When this setting is unticked, Managers can still view their Timesheets but cannot edit any times or approve their own timesheets. If enabled, managers can edit and approve their own timesheets.

Receive qualification update alerts: Use this setting to determine which permission levels receive an alert if a qualification is due to expire. Team Managers and General Managers will only receive alerts for teams they manage, while Admins and Payroll officers will receive alerts for all expiring qualifications.

3.2 Employee Permissions

Allow staff to add times to their own time sheets: When ticked, this setting allows employees to log into Tanda and fill in empty timesheet entries. Employees won't be able to edit existing times, only fill in blank ones. As such, this setting can be used for employees to enter times if they forget to clock in/out.

Allow staff to make changes to all timesheet fields: This setting lets employees add allowances and edit award tags on their timesheets. Any changes made must still be approved by a manager. This is useful if you require further information from employees, such as if you want employees to enter their own travel allowance so they can enter their kilometres travelled.

Allow staff to view their Timesheet Export Summary: This setting allows staff to see their Timesheet Export Summary. The summary shows a visual breakdown of how their gross pay was calculated for a timesheet. The main benefit of displaying the summary is that employees can see when certain pay rates were applied and why.

Allow staff to clock breaks: When ticked, this setting enables a break button on the time clock or mobile app, allowing employees to record break times during their shifts.

Allow staff to see their own estimated wages: When this is ticked, staff will see estimated gross wages for their rostered shifts in their app. These wages are clearly marked as estimated based on the roster to ensure staff understand these might not accurately reflect what they will earn, especially if they work different hours to what they were originally rostered.

Allow staff to view the full roster: This setting allows staff to view the full roster. That way, they know who is working each day and who their manager is for that day. You can select if you would like staff to see the full roster for only the teams they work in or the entire location they work in.

Allow staff to enter leave requests: When ticked, this allows employees to enter their own Leave requests via the mobile app or web browser. When it's unticked, staff won't see the Leave option and will need a manager to manually create a leave request on their behalf. To learn more about submitting leave requests, see our help guide.

Allow staff to view the full leave calendar: If enabled, this setting allows staff to view the full leave calendar for either the teams they work in or the entire location they work in. That way, they can see who else is taking leave and plan accordingly.

Employees can enter unavailability: This setting allows employees to enter their own unavailability requests. To learn more about unavailability, see our help guide.

Allow staff to update qualifications: If enabled, employees can update expiry dates, effective dates, and documents for any qualifications that apply to them. Submissions require manager approval.

3.3 Advanced

Default Passcode Length

Use this setting to define the default passcode length used when clocking in via a time clock. This is useful for large organisations that will quickly exhaust all possible 4-digit combinations, or if your organisation already has a numerical code of a different length that employees need to remember.

Customise Access & Roles

Use this setting to customise access and roles. On this page, you can edit the access and permission settings in granular detail for each default role type: Manager, Employee, General Manager, and Payroll Officer. Or, you can create and configure a new role type.

If you're ever unable to access something in Tanda and you're unsure why (or you want to restrict someone else's access), your first source of troubleshooting should be to navigate to this page (Settings > Permissions > Show Advanced Settings > Customise Access & Roles Here) and cross-reference the permission settings with the action you were trying to perform.


4. Shift Breaks

4.1 Configure Break Rules

When ticked, this setting allows you to configure break rules to help with scheduling and compliance.

Specifically, you can require staff to nominate which break they're taking, enforce minimum break durations, and stipulate whether paid meal breaks count as time worked.

Additionally, you can configure specific break rules, nominating the shift duration, break length, whether it is a paid break, and whether a clock in is required.

For more details on configuring this setting, see our dedicated help guide.

4.2 Common Use Cases

Use Case 1: Clock Lunch Break & Show Unpaid Breaks

Many customers want their employees to clock their lunch break but would prefer to simply show records on the timesheet for shorter paid rest breaks.

In this example, the system is set up for one unclocked paid break after 4 hours, a clocked unpaid break after 5 hours, and second unclocked paid break after 7 hours.

Employees can still clock in and out of the paid break if they want to. The system will match the rule if they do.

Note: If you have automatic breaks turned on and an employee clocks a break, any unpaid automatic breaks will no longer apply to the timesheet.

Use Case 2: Clock all breaks paid and unpaid

Compliance-focused customers sometimes prefer to have employees clock all paid and unpaid breaks. This provides strong evidence that the break was taken if there is ever a dispute.

To set this up, simply select the 'clock in required' on each break rule. This will prevent the break from appearing on the timesheet unless it's physically clocked.

Use Case 3: Employee's don't clock any breaks

Finally, some organisations don't require their employees to clock in or out for any break. In this case, they can simply ensure they have not selected the 'clock in required' box and Tanda will automatically apply the break rule to the timesheet.

Adjusting the Break Thresholds

Default Rules

If everyone at your company follows the same break rules, you can simply adjust the default break rules to suit your requirements.

Award rules and regulations will typically define how long an employee can work before they're entitled to a break. You can add each break that your employees are entitled to by creating or editing a break rule.


Custom Rules

As well as default rules, you can click + New to add a custom rule set. This can be used for staff who follow particular break rules that are different to the default. To do so, simply select who the rule applies to (based on award templates or staff tags), then enter the shift duration and break length, and specify whether it is a paid break or a clock-in is required.

Multiple Rules

You can also create multiple rules within a single rule set when different break lengths apply to different shift lengths. Please note that only one unpaid break will apply, but all relevant paid breaks will apply.

See the below example, where the break lengths increase as the shift length increases. For an 8-hour shift, the employee will receive one unpaid 30-minute break and two paid 10-minute breaks:

Notes

  • When two or more custom rule sets all apply to a given employee, you will see a notice similar to the one below. All of the rules under each rule set will apply. If the rules conflict for a given shift length, the longest break length will be applied.

  • A custom rule will override the default rule for any employees it applies to.
    For example, if the default rule set specifies a break after 5.5 hours, and a Custom Rule specifies that full-time workers will get a break after 7 hours, full-time workers will not receive an automatic break until they have worked for 7 hours. In other words, if one or more custom rule sets apply to a given employee, the default rule set is ignored. You can use this to effectively disable automatic breaks for certain employees.



5. Rosters

5.1 Shift Replacements And Swapping

These settings control the following features:

  • Enable shift replacements: When ticked, staff can use the mobile app to request a replacement when they can't work a scheduled shift.

  • Recipients of shift replacements chosen by staff: If enabled, staff can choose who on their team they want to replace their shift.

  • Allow staff to initiate one-to-one swaps: If enabled, staff can send requests to directly swap shifts with another team member.

  • Shift replacements and swaps require manager approval: This setting applies to both shift replacements and shift swaps. If ticked, a manager must approve a shift replacement/swap.

To learn more about shift replacements, see our help guide.

5.2 Shift Acknowledgement

When ticked, the Enable Shift Acknowledgement feature helps better manage staff attendance by asking employees to acknowledge their shifts once a roster is published.

To learn more, see our help guide.

5.3 Vacant Shift Claiming

These settings control the following features:

  • Enable Vacant Shift Claiming: When turned on, this feature allows you to create and publish vacant shifts that employees can claim via the mobile app.

  • Vacant Shift claiming requires Manager Approval: If ticked, a manager must authorise a vacant shift claim before it is assigned to an employee.

  • Secondary Teams: When ticked, this feature allows staff to be secondary team members who can pick up vacant shifts in case the primary team members are unable to work. Learn more here.

To learn more about the vacant shift claiming feature, see our help guide.

5.4 Predictive Scheduling

When enabled, the 'automatically build optimal rosters based on your staffing requirements' feature is enabled, and users can automatically build and fill rosters with the "Build Empty Schedule" and "Assign Staff to Shifts" buttons.

To learn more, see our help guide.

5.5 Labour Budgets

When ticked, the Enable Labour Budgets feature allows you to see budgets for your labour costs by team or location.

To learn more, see our help guide.

5.6 Validations

Roster validations are coloured warnings that appear on rostered shifts to alert managers that a roster rule or limit has been broken. For example:

You can create roster validation rules that apply to all staff or create a custom rule for specific employees or groups of staff (filtered by tags, locations, ages, etc).

You can set each roster validation to be either enabled or blocking. If enabled is ticked, you will receive a warning that you are violating that roster validation rule. If blocking is ticked, you will receive a warning and be blocked from publishing that roster until the error is resolved.

To learn more, see our help guide.

5.7 Advanced Settings

Rosters start on changes the start day of your roster. Note that this change will take some time to process, so we recommend making the change at the end of your day.

Similarly, Use a consistent roster cycle start date for all users means that all users in your organisation will have the same roster cycle start day. This will affect the order in which regular hours of work are displayed on the employee profile but will not change existing regular hours of work patterns.


6. Timesheets

6.1 Shift Auto-Approval

When enabled, this setting means that shifts will be automatically approved when they meet certain criteria. Managers will not have to approve these shifts. You can specify the following auto-approval criteria:

  • Start and Finish Time: Shifts will be auto-approved if an employee's start and finish times match their rostered schedule.

  • Cost Variance: Shifts will be auto-approved if the cost of the shift matches the scheduled cost.

  • Shift Length: Shifts will be auto-approved if the shift length matches the scheduled length.

  • GPS Data: Shifts will be auto-approved if clock-in GPS coordinates match your worksite.

You can select more than one of these criteria for auto-approval.

Below this, you can also enable Shift Variance Approval. When selected, this setting will require employees to leave a comment if there is a variance between their shift time and their scheduled shift.

6.2 Remote Clock-ins

This setting determines whether staff can clock-in remotely via the mobile app. You can enable this for all teams, or select only specific teams who can clock in remotely.

To learn more, see our help guide.

6.3 Clock-in/out Rounding

Time Clock rounding is used to automatically round times recorded on the Time Clock or Mobile App.

You can use this setting to specify the rounding time for clock-ins/clock-outs. For example, if you set this to 5 minutes, a clock-in time of 8:57 am will round up to 9:00 am. Similarly, a clock-out time of 5:02 pm will be rounded down to 5:00 pm.

You can also specify whether you want clock-in and clock-out times to use smart rounding. Smart rounding sets the direction of rounding to be one-way, rounding the clock-in/clock-out time towards the shift. For example, let's say an employee is rostered to start at 9 am. If they clock in at 8:56 am, their time will be rounded up to 9:00 am. However, if they clock in at 9:02, this will not round back to 9:00 am—unless you have ticked 'round clock-ins to rostered times'. If so, clock-ins/outs will round back to the rostered time in both directions as long as it is within your specified margin.

Timesheet rounding is optional. To apply no rounding to timesheets, simply leave these fields blank.

In this section, you can also configure clock-out rounding for any automatic breaks you have configured that specify "clock-in required."

6.4 Advanced Settings

Click 'Show Advanced Settings' to configure the following settings:

  • Enable team switching: If enabled, this setting allows users to clock out of their current shift and directly into their next shift on a different team.

  • Show an extra dropdown to adjust shift costs (award tag): Tick this setting if you want an additional dropdown menu to appear on timesheets with a list of award tags to apply to an employee. For example:

  • Maximum shift length (hours): Define the maximum shift length that employees can work, as dictated by your award. By default, this is set to 14 hours. If the maximum shift length duration is exceeded, Tanda automatically changes the employee's shift status to "clocked out." As such, the next time the employee uses the time clock, they are prompted to clock in rather than clock out. This ensures that if an employee forgets to clock out, Tanda doesn't create an unreasonably long shift the next time they clock in.

  • Minimum duration between shifts (hours): Define the minimum time between shifts as dictated by your award. By default, this is set to 8 hours.

  • Overtime averaging period (weeks): Define your overtime averaging period in weeks. This can be different from your timesheet lengths.
    ​​
    For example, you could have bi-weekly timesheets (you run payroll every second week) but calculate overtime weekly. In this example, if overtime is applied after 40 hours each week, and and an employee worked 42 hours in Week 1 of a timesheet and 30 hours in Week 2, they would get overtime for Week 1 since they exceed 40 hours/week.

    Alternatively, you might have weekly timesheets (you run payroll every week) but calculate overtime over a 4-week period. Typically, staff would incur overtime if they worked more than 152 hours over 4 weeks (assuming a standard 38-hour work week). In most cases, this would only show up on every fourth timesheet.

    If you change this setting, ensure your earnings rules match it. For example, if you set a two-week overtime averaging period, the overtime field on the rules should be set to 80 hours (not 40).


7. Leave

7.1 Unavailability

An email is received daily at 8am with any new or updated unavailability entries.

You can also specify the minimum number of days notice required for unavailability. This means that staff will not be able to enter availability within x days of the current date. By default this is set to 4 but can be changed by entering a new number in the field and clicking Update Settings

7.2 Default Leave Behaviour

When an employee applies for leave the request will be sent to the manager, from there they will be able to either accept or decline the request. This will then notify the employee and action the request in Tanda (both App and my.tanda.co)

  • Cost leave on weekends

By default, Tanda assumes that staff generally only take leave on weekdays. If your business runs 7 days a week, you’ll need to enable this option so the leave is calculated and exported if it's on a weekend.

  • Default leave length

When a leave application is being entered into Tanda, you'll notice the total hours auto-populates. This information is pulled from the setting Default leave request length (hours).

By default, this is set as 7.6 hours as this is generally what most businesses use for a standard day. To update this just enter the new number in the field. This will then update the total hours field when staff or Managers record leave.

  • Notification setting

Here you can set the setting for time off notifications. Note this also includes time off reports. You can choose between Admin, Manager of the Team and Admin and Manager to receive the notifications.

  • Autofill leave requests

Here you're able to create autofill leave strategies in how different employee's leave cost breakdown is autofilled. Choose Who it applies to, this is via Award Tag and you can create many or just one autofill leave strategy.

Then choose how the leave requests are autofilled. Whether that be due to Regular Hours of Work, Published Rostered Shifts or Unpublished Rostered Shifts.

7.3 Leave Autofill


8. Attendance

8.1 Clock-in/out Punctuality

Use these fields to define your punctuality leeway for clock-ins and clock-outs, as well as outliers that should be excluded.

For example, if set to 5 minutes, a clock-out at 4:58 pm for a 5:00 pm finish time would be considered on time. Likewise, a 9:03 am clock-in for a 9:00 am start time would be considered on time.

You can also set punctuality outliers. For example, if an employee showed up at 10:09 am for a 9:00 am start time, their clock-in will not be counted, as they are so far outside their rostered time.

8.2 Point System

With the above rules set, you can also implement a points-based attendance system. Points-based attendance has become increasingly popular across hourly workforces, and Tanda's new points-based attendance feature makes it easy for admins/managers to track these statistics and delegate appropriate levels of discipline.

For a detailed breakdown, please see our points-based attendance help guide.


9. Shift Questions

You can set up the shift questions feature to ask staff questions when certain criteria are met, such as clocking in too early. Employees will be asked these questions when clocking in or out using either the Time Clock or Mobile App.

To configure this feature, navigate to Settings > All Settings > Shift Questions and click + New Question to configure your first question. From here, you will need to enter the following information:

  • For: Select whether the question is intended for the Time Clock, Mobile App, or both.

  • When: Nominate whether the question asked when an employee Clocks In, Clocks Out, at their Break Start, or Break Finish.

  • Only If: Select the criteria under which the question should be asked e.g. 'Earlier than scheduled.'

  • Lenience (minutes): Set the lenience for which clock-ins/outs are considered early or late.

  • Determine An Action (ask a question or prevent a clock-in): Select what happens when someone tries to clock in/out outside of your nominated lenience.

  • Ask: Enter the question you want to ask when these criteria are met, e.g., "Why have you clocked out late?"

  • Then: Nominate what happens after an employee has answered your question e.g. "Add a timesheet comment."

  • Is Required: Tick this to make the question mandatory, or leave it unticked to make answering the question optional.

  • Add Quick Responses (Optional): Use this to add quick, common responses that employees can select. For example, is the question is "Why have you clocked out late?" you might add a common response "My manager asked me to stay back." If you leave this field blank, employees will simply see a free text box.


​To learn more, see our shift questions help guide.

FAQs

Can I include a free text field for the employee to type an answer?

Yes. To do so, simply leave Section 2. 'Add Quick Responses (Optional)' blank and ensure that you have selected 'Add a timesheet comment.'

How can I view answers to shift questions?

You can navigate directly to the Shift Comments Report via the Reports tab.

In what order are shift questions asked if there are multiple?

Shift questions will be asked in alphabetical order. Therefore, to change the order, you can add a number in front of each question.


10. On-Cost Config

If you want to view on-costs, such as payroll tax and superannuation, in your roster cost, you can do so by configuring the setting through Settings > All Settings > On-cost Config.

Note: On-costs configured in Tanda serve as an estimate only. They are not exported or paid through Tanda.

When your account is created, three on-costs are automatically set up: Workcover, Cost of Leave Accrued, and Superannuation.

How are Workcover, Cost of Leave Accrued, and Superannuation on-costs calculated?

These on-costs are calculated as percentages of the wage cost independent of one another. So, these on-costs are calculated as:

Workcover on-cost = wage cost x workcover multiplier
Leave on-cost = wage cost x leave multiplier
Superannuation on-cost = wage cost x super multiplier

Total wages including on-cost = workcover oncost + leave oncost + super oncost + wage cost

Example:

An employee's wages for the week total $100, excluding on-costs.

The Workcover on-cost is set to 10%.

The Leave on-cost is set to 19%.

The Super on-cost is set to 10.5%.

Total wages including on-cost = ($100 x 0.1) + ($100 x 0.19) + ($100 x 0.105) + $100.

Therefore, the total for this employee, including on-costs, is $139.50.


Edit and Create New On-cost Configurations

You cannot directly edit pre-configured on-costs. To make any changes to these pre-set fields:

  1. Create a + New config using the blue button.

  2. Copy details from the existing on-cost into the new configuration.

  3. Make the required changes to the new configuration and click 'Create on-cost config'.

  4. Navigate to the old on-cost configuration and use the red Delete on-cost config button to remove it.

To create a new on-cost field:

  1. Click the blue + New config button.

  2. Name the configuration. This is important if you want to set up multiple on-costs for different costs.

  3. Select the staff that the on-cost applies to based on the classification tags in their profiles.

  4. Select the location(s) that the on-cost applies to. This is particularly useful for payroll tax where businesses set different rates for operations in different states.

  5. Enter the value (%) that applies.

  6. Select whether on-costs should only apply to ordinary hours, or all worked hours

  7. Select whether the on-cost is for superannuation.

  8. Click the green Create on-cost config button when your details are finalised.

Viewing On-Costs on the Roster

To view the total cost of your roster including on-costs, navigate to the Rosters page.

Then, click on the arrow as shown above to expand the view of your roster stats. From here, select 'Total Cost with On-Costs' from one of the drop down menus.

Viewing On-Costs in Cost Reports

To view on-costs as part of our Reports, navigate to Reports > Cost Reports and select the relevant report.

From here, use the toggles as shown below to include or exclude on-costs in each report.

A more specific breakdown of the on-costs can be found in the Real Wage Cost report.

You can learn more about cost reports in our help guide.

11. Organisation Notifications

11.1 Notifications & Tasks

Use the notifications & tasks page to configure your organisational notification settings. On this page, you can choose who receives notifications and under which criteria. For example, you can select who receives notifications if an employee is late to work or an overtime risk. For each notification type, you can select whether the employee, manager, or account admin is notified—or all of the above.

You can also schedule tasks on this page, such as emailing an employee if their timesheet is incomplete.

This page manages your organisational notification settings. To manage your personal notification settings, navigate to your notification preferences, as shown below.

11.2 SMS Log

The SMS log provides a log of all SMS' sent from your account, including the recipient and delivered status. This can be useful to prove an SMS was delivered.

12. Communications

Use this page to configure Tanda's live chat and communication settings.

Tick the 'Enable Live Chat' box to enable this feature. When turned on, this enables direct chats between employees and group chats for teams or locations. If this setting is turned off, you'll still be able to share announcements.

You can then configure who employees and managers can start chats with. Select between:

  • Can't start chats

  • Staff in teams they work in

  • Staff in locations they work in

  • Anyone

Below this, you can also configure your push notification settings. Choose when people receive notifications if chats or announcements are posted, and whether they will receive push notifications while on leave.

To learn more, see our communications help guide.

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