Condition Actions & Action Limits

Each pay code rule that belongs to an agreement may have one or more actions that can be applied if all of the conditions of the pay code rule apply. Each action can have an action limit that stipulates a minimum or maximum limit for the action.

For example, a pay agreement may stipulate that a payee must be paid an overtime for working a shift that begins at 17:30 or later on any given day. The pay agreement may stipulate that the overtime rate applies to the first four hours of the shift. Any remaining time worked on the same day must be paid as double-time. In this case, a pay code time rule could be defined within the pay agreement in Rates and Rules, which would apply to shifts that begin at 17:30 or later on any given day. The rule would have the following actions/action limits:

• an action to stipulate that the first four hours of the shift should be allocated against the relevant pay code representing overtime pay (pay code X)

• an action limit on the abovementioned action to restrict the allocation of time against the overtime pay code to a maximum of four hours per day

• another action that allocates any remaining time against the relevant pay code representing double-time (pay code Y).

Besides defining the pay/bill code against which to allocate time or an item, an action of a pay/bill code rule defines the quantity that will be paid or billed for each hour or unit that is allocated to that pay code or bill code respectively. To understand the concept of the action quantity, consider the example in the table below.

According to the values in the table above, a quantity of 1 is applied for every hour that is allocated against pay code X. If the applicable pay rate for pay code X is $30.00, a payee would receive payment of $30.00 per hour gross for each hour that is allocated against pay code X (i.e. quantity per hour multiplied by pay rate).

The table also shows that any time allocated against pay code Y is paid at a quantity of 2 per hour. If the applicable pay rate for pay code Y is $35.00, a payee would receive payment of $70.00 per hour gross for each hour that is allocated against pay code Y.
Note that the actual rate of pay corresponding to pay codes X and Y is defined by the applicable pay rate rules.

As the example above is an example of a time rule, the quantity is defined in terms of quantity per hour. The quantity can also be defined according to the following terms:

• per day

• per week

• per timesheet

• per unit.

Which of these terms applies to the action quantity depends on the pay code rule type and, in some cases, the specific conditions of the rule.

Where a pay code rule has multiple actions, each action is applied sequentially until all time/units are allocated against a pay code. That is, the first action is applied and, depending on the action limits, if unallocated time/units remain, the second action is applied and, depending on the action limits of the second action, if unallocated time/units remain, the third action is applied and so on. This process continues until all time/units are allocated against a pay code.

An action limit is defined by specifying a quantity, a limit type and a frequency. The quantity of an action limit is the actual limit value. The limi type specifies if the limit value is a minimum or maximum value. If a limit type of minimum is applied and the timesheet quantity is less than the quantity specified by the action limit, Rates and Rules applies the minimum quantity value specified in the action limit rather than the quantity specified on the timesheet. If a limit type of maximum is applied and the quantity specified on the timesheet is greater than the quantity specified by the action limit, the action is applied only up to the specified limit. The remainder is then passed onto the next action within the rule. If there is no other action within the rule, the remainder is discarded (for more information, see below).

The frequency specifies if the limit applies on a per day, per week or per timesheet basis. For example, consider the example in the table below.

The example action limit in the table above stipulates that a maximum of 10 hours/units per week can be allocated against the pay/bill code defined by the action.

Action limits are not mandatory. However, where a pay code rule has multiple actions, an action limit is required wherever any time/units remaining from applying one action are to be passed onto another action within the rule. An example of this is shown in the table below.

The example in the table above is an example of actions for a bill code time rule, whereby there are three actions. Notice that the first two actions have action limits which allow any remaining time to be passed onto the next action in the sequence. The last action does not have an action limit. Therefore, any time remaining after applying the second action will be allocated against bill code Z without restriction. This means that no unallocated time remains after applying the actions.

Note that a Time From and Time To can only be defined for the first action of a pay code time rule and hence these columns are shaded in the table above.

It is possible to define an action limit for an action if that action is the only action or the last action within a pay/bill code rule. In such cases, any time or units that remain unallocated after applying the action are not allocated against a pay code and are therefore not paid. For example, consider the table below.

In this example there is one action that allocates units against the pay code 01 M Meal Allowance. The pay agreement states that the payee is eligible to a maximum of five meal allowances per week. Therefore, the action has a quantity limit of five units maximum per week. If a submitted timesheet has seven units allocated against the corresponding manual item for a single week, the payee will be paid for five meals only and the remaining two units will be ignored.

It is possible for an action to have multiple action limits. An action can have a minimum and maximum limit and/or different limits for each day, each week or each timesheet.

The exact procedure for defining actions and action limits differs depending on the type of pay code rule to which the action corresponds. For example, general rules can only have one action per rule and cannot have any action limits. Manual rules can have multiple actions and one or more action limits but would generally be configured to have a single action and, if necessary, a single action limit. Other rule types can have multiple actions and can have action limits for each action.