Checking Sick Leave Calculations for a Casual Employee's Timesheet

It is good practice to check the calculations are correct when adding sick leave to any timesheet for an employee on '8% of Gross Earnings (temp and irregular scenario)' leave setting. This article will walk you through this process.

Follow this link for a quick reminder of how to add a sick leave to your casual employee's timesheet.

1. In your saved timesheet (with green boxes), left-click in the sick leave hours entry field to access that entry's calculation data. Scroll down to find the cost tracking information below the timesheet.
2. This line shows the value of the sick leave to be paid for this entry. The system doesn't look at the number you enter into the sick leave day box. It recognises that there is an entry in one box for the sick leave field of the timesheet, then automatically calculates the average daily rate. This average daily rate is paid for a full day of leave no matter the amount of hours you entered into the timesheet.
   
   1. In this example, the line shows that for the entry clicked (Sick Leave on Saturday 15 July) a total of $ 113.50 will be paid regardless of the hours entered in the timesheet. Meaning: this entry is worth $ 113.50 to the employee, which is their average daily pay.
3. This system takes the number of hours you entered into the timesheet (step 1) as the ordinary hours the employee would have worked for this particular day, as a casual employee doesn't have set hours or days. 
   1. In this example, the 5 hours entered into the timesheet are taken as 5 ordinary hours for Saturday 15 July.
   2. If you wish to pay the employee their hourly rate (Step 6), and not their average daily pay (default) you need to ensure that this number is accurate as the number of hours the employee would have worked on this day. If you change the number of hours in the timesheet (and save), this number will update.
4. The system will automatically default to paying sick leave at the average daily pay rate, as employees on the '8% of Gross' leave setting do not have set days in the system. The numbers used for calculating the average daily rate is shown here.
5. This setting is toggled on by default to calculate sick leave at average daily pay for an employee on the '8% of Gross' leave setting. Keep this setting to pay your casual employee for a full day of sick leave.
6. If you want to pay your employee their hourly rate, you may switch to this 'ordinary rate' setting. Note that the system will pay the employee based on the hours entered in the timesheet.
7. This number is very important to check. It shows how many days or part days will be deducted from the employee's sick leave balance for this entry. Make sure that this number is not more than a day. It can be part of a day, e.g. 0.5 (half a day), 0.25 (quarter of a day) etc. You can manually adjust this to the correct number.
   1. In this example, the casual employee is taking a full day of sick leave, so the system automatically takes 1 day from their sick leave balance regardless of the number of hours entered in the timesheet. So, sick leave row entry per block = 1 day of sick leave deducted, even if you change the system to pay at the hourly rate (step 6). This is because the system doesn't know what an average day looks like for a casual employee.

Taking part of a day as sick leave:

There are three important places you need to manually change to ensure your casual employee is paid correctly and their sick leave balance is deducted with a part day. 

This example shows what the Costing screen will look like after all the changes have been made:

1. In your saved timesheet (with green boxes), left-click in the sick leave hours entry field to access that entry's calculation data. Scroll down to find the cost tracking information below the timesheet.
2. This line shows the value of the sick leave to be paid for this entry. Originally this amount will be the amount for a full day of sick leave (i.e. $113.50 as in the example above). By default, the system pays at the average daily rate. You will manually toggle the system to pay for the hours on the timesheet in Step 4, so this number will update. Check back on this number after following the steps in this guide.
   
   1. This example shows what the pay will be after all the changes have been made. The line shows that for the entry clicked (Sick Leave on Saturday 15 July) the total pay has dropped from $ 113.50 to $ 56.75 based on the hourly rate per hours entered in the timesheet. Meaning: this entry is worth $ 56.75 to the employee, which is based on their hourly rate.
3. Change this number to reflect the total amount of hours the employee would have worked on this day. (Standard pay hours + sick leave hours). 
   1. Originally, this number will be the hours entered in the sick leave timesheet entry only. You have to update this number to reflect all the hours for this day. In this example, the original entry was 2.5. It was manually changed to 5 hours.
4. Toggle on this setting to pay at the ordinary rate. This will pay your employee their hourly rate based on the hours entered in the timesheet box. 
   1. After toggling on this setting, the cost tracking pay amount will update to the new amount. (Step 1, shown as per the example)
5. Change this number to the correct part of a day to be deducted from the employee's sick leave balance. It can be part of a day, e.g. 0.5 (half a day), 0.25 (quarter of a day) etc. 
   1. Originally, the system had 1 in this box indicating that a day of sick leave will be deducted. It was manually changed to 0.5 so only half a day of sick leave will be deducted from the employee's sick leave balance.
6. Remember to Update and Save the timesheet after making these changes.