Configuring Work Types for Payroll

This article steps through configuring Work Types in System Preferences. Work Types categorise the work performed in a Shift so that Shift data can be exported correctly to your organisation's payroll system — regardless of which payroll platform you use.

Once configured, Work Types can be assigned to Shifts (covered in a separate article) and will affect how that Shift's data appears in the Timesheet Batch export.

Privileges: 'Edit System Preferences'

Audience: Authorised Customer Representatives, Finance/Payroll Team, System Administrators.

Important — Available from v9.10

The ability to configure Work Types in System Preferences was introduced in SupportAbility v9.10 and is initially available for providers participating in beta testing. Please refer to the How to Send Time Sheets to Employment Hero via API article linked below for further context on the staged rollout.

Summary

The following list summarises the content within this article. Click on the links below to take you to the relevant sections:

What are Work Types and how are they used?
Understanding Work Type Categories
Multi-assignment rules — how many Work Types can be assigned to a Shift?
Where are Work Types configured?
How to add a Work Type
How to edit a Work Type
How to deactivate (or reactivate) a Work Type
Validation rules
Provider configuration examples

What are Work Types and how are they used?

A Work Type is a category of work that affects how a Shift's data appears in the Timesheet Batch export sent to your organisation's payroll system. Work Types allow your organisation to:

Distinguish how the hours of a Shift should be classified for payroll (e.g. Active Overnight, Training, Non-Client Facing),
Generate a separate timesheet line item for an allowance that needs to be paid alongside the Shift (e.g. a Sleepover Allowance, Meal Allowance), and
Generate a separate timesheet line item for finalised Private kilometres recorded against the Shift.

For providers using Employment Hero / KeyPay, Work Types are a key input to Employment Hero's pay conditions engine, which combines the Work Type with the date, time, employee classification and award rules to automatically derive the correct shift conditions, penalty rates and allowances.

For providers using payroll systems without an award-interpretation engine (e.g. MYOB, Xero), Work Types are used to generate distinct line items in the Timesheet Batch that map to the relevant Pay Categories in your payroll system.

The Category you choose for each Work Type determines exactly how it behaves in the export — see the next section for details.

Understanding Work Type Categories

Each Work Type must be assigned a Category. The Category is the most important field on a Work Type because it determines how the Work Type generates timesheet entries when the Shift is exported. There are three Categories to choose from:

Hours-based
Allowance
Kilometres

Hours-based

Examples: Active Overnight, Training, Non-Client Facing, Sleepover (for Employment Hero / KeyPay providers).

Categorises the Shift's existing timesheet entry — does not create an additional row.
The entry retains the full finalised Shift hours, with the Work Type attached.
Suited to payroll systems with an award-interpretation engine (e.g. Employment Hero / KeyPay) that can derive allowances and penalty rates from the Shift's hours and Work Type tag.
Only one Hours-based Work Type can be assigned to a Shift — the second Work Type would conflict with the first because both attempt to categorise the same base entry.

Allowance

Examples: Sleepover Allowance, Meal Allowance (for MYOB/Xero providers).

Creates an additional timesheet entry alongside the base Shift entry, with hours = 0 and units = 1.
Suited to payroll systems without award interpretation, which need a distinct line item to trigger flat-rate payments.
Multiple Allowance Work Types can be assigned to a single Shift — each will generate its own additional entry in the export.

Kilometres

Examples: Kilometres, Schads Kilometres.

Creates an additional timesheet entry alongside the base Shift entry, with hours = 0 and units equal to the total finalised Private kilometres recorded for that Shift.
Multiple Kilometres Work Types can be assigned to a single Shift — for example, a provider may use both Kilometres and Schads Kilometres together, each generating its own additional entry.
Kilometres Work Types include an additional setting, 'Auto-apply when private kilometres entered' — when set to Yes, the Work Type is automatically applied to a Shift the moment Private kilometres are recorded against it.

[Return to Summary]

Multi-assignment rules — how many Work Types can be assigned to a Shift?

The Category determines how many Work Types of that type can be assigned to a single Shift. There is no separate per-Work-Type setting for this — the rule is inherent to the Category:

Category	Multiple per Shift?	Reason
Hours-based	No — one per Shift	The Work Type categorises the base entry; a second would conflict
Allowance	Yes	Each generates its own additional entry
Kilometres	Yes	Each generates its own additional entry

A single Shift can have Work Types from different Categories at the same time — for example, one Hours-based Work Type, one or more Allowance Work Types, and one or more Kilometres Work Types. The one-per-Shift restriction only applies within the Hours-based Category.If a Staff Member or Team Leader attempts to add a second Hours-based Work Type to a Shift, SupportAbility will display a validation message explaining why this is not permitted.

Where are Work Types configured?

Work Types are configured in the new 'Work Types' tab in System Preferences. This tab sits between the existing 'API Configuration' and 'Payroll Time Type Codes' tabs:

[IMAGE: Sys Pref tab navigation showing Work Types between API Configuration and Payroll Time Type Codes]

When first opened, the list of Work Types will be empty. Your organisation must add the Work Types relevant to your service mix and payroll system — there are no defaults provided.

[IMAGE: Empty Work Types list in System Preferences]

How to add a Work Type

To add a Work Type:

Navigate to System Preferences from the Main Menu on the Dashboard.
Select the 'Work Types' tab.
Click '+ Add Work Type'.

A dialogue will appear with the following fields:

Work Type Name (required) — Free text. The name must be unique across all Work Types in your organisation, including any deactivated Work Types. This is the name that will appear when assigning a Work Type to a Shift.
Work Type External ID (optional) — Free text. This is the identifier used by your organisation's payroll platform to match the Work Type. For example:
- Employment Hero providers should enter the corresponding workTypeExternalId from Employment Hero.
- MYOB or Xero providers may enter the relevant code (e.g. SLP-01).
- Providers who only use the Detailed Timesheet Batch export and map Work Types by name in payroll can leave this blank.
Category (required) — Dropdown with three options: Hours-based, Allowance, or Kilometres. The list is blank by default. See Understanding Work Type Categories above for guidance on choosing the right Category.
Auto-apply when private kilometres entered (only visible when Category = Kilometres) — Dropdown with Yes or No, defaulting to No. When set to Yes, this Work Type will be automatically applied to a Shift as soon as Private kilometres are recorded against it.
Notes (optional) — Free text. Use this field to record any platform-specific configuration notes for your organisation's reference, e.g. "Maps to Pay Category 'Sleepover Allowance' in Employment Hero" or "Use code SLP-01 in MYOB import". The Notes field is for your internal reference only — it does not appear in any export.

[IMAGE: Add Work Type dialog with Hours-based Category selected]

[IMAGE: Add Work Type dialog with Kilometres Category selected, showing the Auto-apply field]

Once the fields are completed, click 'Save'. The new Work Type will appear in the Work Types list.

How to edit a Work Type

Work Types can be edited at any time by clicking the row in the Work Types list. The fields available for editing depend on whether the Work Type has been used yet:

Editing fields that can always be changed

The following fields can be edited regardless of whether the Work Type has been assigned to any Shifts:

Work Type Name
Work Type External ID
Notes
Auto-apply when private kilometres entered (for Kilometres Work Types)

Category — locked once used on a signed-off Shift

The Category field is editable until the Work Type has been assigned to a signed-off Shift. This is because the Category determines how timesheet entries are generated, and timesheets can only be generated from signed-off Shifts.

Once a signed-off Shift exists with this Work Type assigned, the Category field is locked and displayed as read-only:

[IMAGE: Edit Work Type with Category field locked]

If your organisation needs to change the Category of a Work Type after it has been used on a signed-off Shift, the recommended approach is to:

Deactivate the existing Work Type (see below), and
Create a new Work Type with the required Category.

This preserves the historical record of how the existing Shifts were categorised at the time they were signed off.

[Return to Summary]

How to deactivate (or reactivate) a Work Type

Work Types are not deleted from SupportAbility — they are deactivated. This preserves the historical record of any Shifts that have the Work Type assigned.

To deactivate a Work Type, open the Work Type and toggle the Active status to off (or use the equivalent control on the Work Types list).

[IMAGE: Deactivating a Work Type]

Deactivation rules

You cannot deactivate a Work Type if it is assigned to any future (not yet finalised) Shifts. SupportAbility will prevent the change and indicate which Shifts must be updated first.
If a Work Type is deactivated, it will continue to appear as a read-only label on any historical or current Shifts that have it assigned — it is not stripped from existing data.
Deactivated Work Types do not appear in the selection list when assigning Work Types to new or future Shifts.

A deactivated Work Type can be reactivated at any time by toggling its status back to Active.

[Return to Summary]

Validation rules

The following rules are enforced when adding or editing Work Types:

Work Type Name is required.
Work Type Name must be unique across all Work Types, including deactivated ones. If a duplicate name is entered, a validation error will be displayed and the Work Type cannot be saved.
Category is required.
Category is locked (read-only) once the Work Type has been assigned to any signed-off Shift.
Auto-apply when private kilometres entered is only visible — and only relevant — when Category = Kilometres.

[IMAGE: Edit Work Type validation error example — duplicate name]

[Return to Summary]

Provider configuration examples

The following examples illustrate how different providers might configure Work Types based on their payroll system and service mix.

Example 1 — Employment Hero / KeyPay provider

Because Employment Hero / KeyPay can interpret awards and derive allowances automatically from the hours and Work Type tag, this provider would typically use the Hours-based Category for most Work Types:

Work Type Name	External ID	Category	Auto-apply
Sleepover	`sleepover`	Hours-based	n/a
Active Overnight	`active_overnight`	Hours-based	n/a

In this configuration, a 10pm–6am Sleepover Shift is exported as a single timed entry tagged with the Sleepover Work Type. KeyPay's pay conditions engine then interprets the entry to calculate the sleepover allowance, minimum engagement and any disturbance payments automatically.

Example 2 — MYOB / Xero provider

A provider whose payroll system does not perform award interpretation would typically use the Allowance Category for the same scenarios, because the payroll system needs a distinct line item to trigger flat-rate payments:

Work Type Name	External ID	Category
Sleepover Allowance	`SLP-01`	Allowance
Meal Allowance	`MEAL-01`	Allowance

A Sleepover Shift's hours are exported as a standard entry, and the Sleepover Allowance Work Type generates a separate line item (0 hours, units = 1) mapped to the provider's Sleepover Allowance Pay Category in MYOB or Xero. The payroll system pays the flat rate for that line.

Example 3 — Kilometres configuration

A provider that pays kilometres at two different rates may configure two Kilometres Work Types, both with Auto-apply enabled, so that they are added to a Shift automatically whenever Private kilometres are recorded:

Work Type Name	External ID	Category	Auto-apply
Kilometres	`kilometres`	Kilometres	Yes
Schads Kilometres	`shads_kilometers`	Kilometres	Yes

Each of these Work Types will generate its own additional timesheet entry on export, with units equal to the finalised Private kilometres recorded for the Shift.

[Return to Summary]

Populated Work Types list

Once configured, your organisation's Work Types are displayed in a sortable list showing each Work Type's Active status, Name, External ID, Category, and Auto-apply value (where applicable):

[IMAGE: Populated Work Types list in System Preferences]

The list can be sorted as required so your organisation can order the Work Types in the way that makes them easiest to find when assigning to Shifts.

[Return to Summary]