The process of applying pay agreements to timesheet data in order to generate pay data is a two stage process that consists of a primary interpretation stage and a secondary interpretation stage.

Primary interpretation is the process of priming timesheet data so that it can be used to generate pay data. That is, primary interpretation prepares the timesheet data for secondary interpretation.

Primary interpretation is itself a multi-stage process, which is summarised in the diagram below.

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Each of the stages shown in the diagram are described in detail below. Note that an option can be enabled on a pay agreement to compare the job schedule, as defined on a job order, to the timesheet that is processed. If this option is enabled on the pay agreement, the job schedule also runs through the primary interpretation process and the results of interpreting the timesheet and the job schedule can be compared. For more information, see Timesheet and Schedule Comparison below.

Each pay agreement configured in Rates and Rules can include multiple primary interpretation headers, with each header grouping a set of rules that determine the parameters for the primary interpretation process. Each primary interpretation header belonging to a pay agreement has a validity period that defines the period during which that specific set of primary interpretation rules is valid. Only one primary interpretation header can be valid for a pay agreement at any given time.

Applying Time Rounding

If the time keyed in against a shift on a timesheet does not correspond to a whole unit of pay, time rounding rules can be applied to round the time up or down. For example, a payee is paid on an hourly basis but has keyed a start time of 9:00 and an end time of 12:45 against a shift on a timesheet. In this case, the interpretation process must determine how the payee will be paid for the last 45 minutes of the shift. That is, the 45 minutes could be paid as a whole hour, as part of an hour or it may not be paid at all.

A rounding rule determines if the time keyed on a timesheet is rounded up or down and by what factor the time is rounded. The time rounding rules do not alter the actual timesheet; they alter the time used for pay calculation only.
One time rounding rule can be defined for each primary interpretation header belonging to a pay agreement. It is not mandatory to define a time rounding rule and no time rounding is applied by default.

If the option to compare the timesheet to the job schedule is enabled on a pay agreement, only the time that falls within the job schedule is altered by the time rounding rules. A separate hour rounding rule can be applied to determine how time, which falls outside the job schedule, is to be rounded for the purposes of pay calculation. For more information, see Timesheet_bookmark4and Schedule_bookmark4Comparison_bookmark4below.

Day Type Determination

Day type determination is the process of determining the day and date on which a shift on a timesheet occurred. This allows the primary interpretation process to reference a holiday calendar and therefore to determine the day type(s) that correspond to the shift. For example, if the date of a shift happens to fall on a Sunday, the pay rate for the shift may be different to a shift that falls on a weekday or a Saturday.

Additionally, the date may correspond to a specific holiday that may attract an additional pay loading. The holiday calendar is defined by configuring holiday types and holiday rules.

Applying Midnight Boundaries

A shift may start and end on different days. For example, a shift that begins at 23:00 and ends at 05:00 crosses the midnight boundary between two dates. Because different dates can have different day types, midnight boundary rules are used to determine how a shift that crosses the midnight boundary will be treated when the interpretation process determines the applicable day types.
A midnight boundary rule determines, for the purposes of calculating pay based on the applicable day type, which of the following conditions apply to a shift that crosses the midnight boundary:
the shift occurred on the day on the shift start date the shift occurred on the shift end date
the shift occurred on the day on which most hours were worked
the shift is considered as two separate shifts, each occurring on two different dates.

Applying Unpaid Breaks

A break is a paid or unpaid period during which work ceases. The primary interpretation process factors in unpaid breaks to split up the time on a timesheet into blocks of time that is paid, and must therefore be factored into the pay calculation, and time that is unpaid.

A pay agreement can define that a payee is eligible for an unpaid break after a specific amount of time worked or at specific times of day. Therefore, one or more unpaid break rules can be configured under each primary interpretation header belonging to a pay agreement.

The primary interpretation process compares the unpaid break rules defined within a pay agreement to any unpaid breaks keyed against a timesheet. If the timesheet includes unpaid breaks that differ to those defined in the pay agreement, the process checks the variance value in the applicable unpaid break rule. If the difference between the timesheet break and the pay agreement falls within the variance value of the rule, the breaks are considered to be clashing and the break defined in the pay agreement rule is ignored. If the difference between the timesheet break and that defined in the pay agreement rule falls outside the variance value defined by the unpaid break rule, the breaks are not considered to be clashing and both breaks are applied.

Project Code Split and Time Allocation

Once unpaid breaks have been applied, the primary interpretation process breaks each paid and each unpaid period on a timesheet into a separate item. If project codes are used on timesheets, each attendance/absence keyed against a project code is broken down to a separate item for interpretation and all time keyed against a project code is allocated against that project code. For example, consider the following timesheet entries:

9.00 - 12:00 Project Code 123

12:00 - 12:30 Unpaid Break

12:30 - 13:30 Project Code 123

13:30 - 17:00 Project Code 124

In this example, the total paid hours allocated against each project code would be as follows:

Project Code 123 = 4 hours

Project Code 124 = 3.5 hours

If all time keyed against a timesheet is not allocated to one or more project codes, the portion of the time not allocated to a project code is allocated to the default project code, as defined on the job order.

Timesheet and Schedule Comparison

An option called Compare to Job Schedule can be enabled on a pay agreement to run the job schedule, as defined on the corresponding job order, through the primary interpretation process along with the timesheet. This can be used to determine how much time a payee worked outside the schedule. Rules can be configured for the secondary interpretation process to determine how time worked within the schedule and time worked outside the schedule is treated. For example, time worked outside the schedule may constitute overtime and may therefore need to be paid as overtime.

If the Compare to Job Schedule option is enabled on a pay agreement each primary interpretation header belonging to the pay agreement can define a single hour rounding rule. An hour rounding rule is like a time rounding rule but applies only to the portion of the time keyed in against the timesheet that falls outside the job schedule. For example, the hour rounding rule may stipulate that time worked outside the job schedule is to be rounded up to the nearest hour. If a payee worked an additional 45 minutes after the scheduled end of a shift, the primary interpretation process will interpret that time as one hour worked outside the job schedule.

It is not mandatory to define an hour rounding rule and no rounding is applied by default.

Hours outside the schedule can be at either end of the scheduled start and end times of a shift.