SCHADS award checks

SCHADS award checks for rosters: Catch the award problem while the roster is still a draft.

An award problem found at payroll is a back-payment. Found while the roster is still a draft, it's a shift you can still move. Corella runs nine SCHADS checks over the roster as you build it — rules and arithmetic a coordinator can check by hand — and flags every finding where you work, with the decision left to the coordinator.

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Two colleagues going over a schedule on their screens

The Corella week board for 21 to 27 September in the staff view: eight shifts on the Unassigned row at the top, Friday marked as a public holiday, an Award check button showing 8, a red banner saying 8 shifts on this week's roster sit past a SCHADS limit — fix them before the week is worked, not at payroll — a grey line reading 'No broken shifts across 32 staffed shifts this week', and warning triangles on the shifts concerned

Award check · 8Found on the draft, not at payroll

Flagged, with the reasonThe call stays with the coordinator

The rule you work under

The SCHADS award (MA000100)

The Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award sets the minimum pay and conditions for most Australian care and disability support workers. Among much else, it governs minimum engagements, the break between shifts, broken shifts, overtime and sleepovers — and it applies differently by stream and employment type, with many providers running an enterprise agreement on top. The award is the rule, and Corella's checks are prompts to look, set to your own thresholds, so your team sees where the roster meets it before the week is worked.

SCHADS Award summary (MA000100) — Fair Work Ombudsman

How it flows

From a booked shift to a decision made knowingly

1Book a shift
Book a worker in the shift drawer and, before the shift is saved, the nine checks run against that person's real roster as if it were already theirs. Anything found waits for your tick.
2The week is checked
The board checks every worker's week on screen, reading the days either side as well, so a Sunday-night shift that cuts into Monday's rest is still caught.
3Flagged where you work
A red or amber chip on the shift with the reason on hover, a banner when the week holds a breach, a summary grouped by worker, and the same flags on the printed staff roster.
4Decide, knowingly
Move the shift, split the day differently — or keep it and wear the cost on purpose. The check is there so every breach that's paid is one somebody chose.

Watch it

See it in 91 seconds.

What people ask first

The short answers, up front.

Which nine?
Minimum engagement, break between shifts, broken shift, shift span, daily overtime, weekly overtime, sleepover length, rest after a sleepover, and your own limit on sleepovers in 24 hours.
When do they run?
As you book — even before the shift is saved — and across the whole week on the board, with the days either side read too.
Red or amber?
Red is past an award limit. Amber is lawful but costs money or needs a decision: a broken shift within the limits, or daily or weekly overtime.
What happens when I roster a breach?
It's flagged red on the shift, with the reason, and the decision stays with the coordinator — sometimes a provider has to wear the overtime knowingly.
Can we set our own limits?
Every threshold, and a switch for each rule. The defaults are SCHADS-shaped: a 2-hour minimum engagement, a 10-hour break, a 38-hour week.
What does it read?
The roster's rostered times, before the week is worked. Clocked hours are then compared with the roster on the timesheet queue, where a person approves them.
What does the pay engine pay?
Approved hours at each worker's pay-group rates: time bands, shiftworker loadings, sleepover and broken-shift allowances, on-call pay, your state's public holidays, travel and kilometres.
Who sees the flags?
The office, and whoever holds the printed staff roster — the people who decide.
How does a flag explain itself?
Every flag traces to a shift, a threshold and a rule you can check by hand — rules and arithmetic over your roster.
What do the gaps cost?
A line above the board counts the week's broken shifts and prices them at each worker's own allowance, before the week is worked.

Whose screen

The same job, from each seat.

Colleagues discussing work around a desk

In the office

The coordinator builds the week and sees each finding where it happens: a red or amber chip on the shift with the reason on hover, a banner when the week holds a breach, a count on the Award check button that opens a summary grouped by worker, and a warning in the shift drawer, before a booking is saved, for anything it would cause. Above the board, one line counts the week's broken shifts and prices them. An administrator sets the thresholds and each rule's switch in Settings → Attendance rules, and the printed staff roster carries the same flags as the screen.

On the phone

The roster itself, once the coordinator has decided what it should be. Award findings are an office tool, kept with the people who decide.

For families

The family portal and the participant-view print show the visits themselves; pay warnings stay with the office, where they belong.

A worked example

One worker's week, checked against the defaults.

Demo figures: a made-up week for a single support worker, run through the nine checks with the default thresholds. Six findings — three red, three amber — each left for the coordinator to decide.

Mon · 7:00–9:00am, then 3:00–7:00pm: Amber · broken shift, one unpaid break
Tue · 10:00–11:30am: Red · 1.5 h, under the 2 h minimum engagement
Wed 2:00–10:00pm, then Thu 6:00am–2:00pm: Red · an 8 h break, under 10 h
Fri · 7:00am–7:30pm: Amber · 12.5 h in a day, over 10 h
Sat 10:00pm–6:00am sleepover, then Sun 1:00–5:00pm: Red · 7 h rest after a sleepover, under 10 h
The week's ordinary hours: Amber · 40 h, over 38 h
Decisions left with the coordinator: All six

Monday's broken shift spans exactly 12 hours — at the span limit, not over it — so only the amber allowance flag shows. The sleepover is left out of the ordinary hours; its own three checks apply to it instead. Every threshold here is a default an administrator can change, and each rule has its own switch.

In detail

The detail, on the real screens.

Nine checks, and what each one looks for

Minimum engagement: a shift that pays less than the minimum (2 hours by default) — sleepovers are left out, because a sleepover is an allowance, not an engagement. Break between shifts: two rostered shifts with less rest between them than the minimum (10 hours). Broken shift: one day's work split into periods by unpaid breaks — amber within the limits, red past the most unpaid breaks allowed (two). Shift span: a broken shift running longer than the maximum from first start to last finish (12 hours). Daily and weekly overtime: ordinary hours past 10 in a day or 38 in a week. Sleepover length: under the continuous period a sleepover needs (8 hours). Sleepovers in 24 hours, your organisation's own limit: more than one sleepover starting inside 24 hours, unless you set another number. Rest after a sleepover: less than 10 hours before the next shift, or 8 when that next shift is itself a sleepover.

Two carers in blue scrubs giving a thumbs up, one of them wearing a giant Corella bird head

Red is a breach. Amber is a decision.

Red means the draft crosses an award limit: under the minimum engagement, too short a break between shifts, too long a span or too many breaks in a broken shift, and the three sleepover rules. Amber means something lawful that costs money or deserves a look — a broken shift within the limits, or hours past the daily or weekly ordinary threshold, where overtime rates apply. Every finding carries its reason as a full sentence, with the times and the threshold in it, so the chip on the shift says what's wrong rather than only that something is. Breaches are listed before reviews, so the red ones are read first.

The day view for Thursday 24 September: an Award check button showing 2, a red banner saying 2 shifts on this day's roster sit past a SCHADS limit — fix them before the day is worked, not at payroll — and a warning triangle on each of the two shifts concerned — Two breaches on the day's draft, each flagged on the shift it belongs to (NDIS demo)

Where the flags show up

Where you're already working. On the board: a chip on each shift involved, with the reason on hover, and a banner across the week when it holds a breach — 'Fix them before the week is worked, not at payroll.' On the Award check button: the count, opening a summary grouped by worker. In the shift drawer: an award panel leading an existing shift's details, and, when you save a booking, a warning for anything the new assignment would cause — before it's saved, with a tick to go ahead. In shift matching: an award factor in each candidate's score, with the problem named. And on paper: the printed staff roster carries the same flags as the screen, while the participant-view print keeps pay warnings out of a participant's hands.

The week board for 7 to 13 September with a red Award check button showing 8, a red banner reading that 8 shifts on this week's roster sit past a SCHADS limit — fix them before the week is worked, not at payroll — and red warning triangles on the shifts concerned — The banner, the count and the flag on each shift — on the draft, not at payroll

It warns, and the coordinator decides.

That's deliberate, and it's written into the engine. A provider sometimes has to roster a breach knowingly — a participant's emergency, a worker's own request, a sick call with no one free to cover it — and wear the overtime, so the roster keeps moving: a flagged shift saves, drags and prints like any other — the tick is yours — and is paid like any other once its timesheet is approved. What the check does is put the cost in front of you before it's spent: the reason is written beside the shift, and the decision stays with the coordinator.

A woman at her office desk frowning slightly as she reads something on her phone

Your thresholds, rule by rule

The award lands differently by stream and employment type, and many providers run an enterprise agreement on top — so every threshold is set per organisation, in Settings → Attendance rules, and each of the nine rules has its own switch. The defaults are SCHADS-shaped: a 2-hour minimum engagement, a 10-hour break between shifts, a 12-hour broken-shift span with at most two unpaid breaks, 10 ordinary hours in a day and 38 in a week, an 8-hour sleepover, one sleepover per 24 hours, and 10 hours' rest after one — 8 when the next shift is also a sleepover. A rule you switch off stays listed in Settings, so the next coordinator sees what's been turned off instead of wondering. If your service isn't on SCHADS, the whole check can be switched off — and the board then leaves the broken-shift line out rather than claiming a clean week.

A man leaning over a colleague's desk to point at the figures on a printed chart

Broken shifts, counted and priced before the week is worked

Above the board, one line does the sum a coordinator would otherwise meet at payroll: how many broken shifts the week holds, across how many staffed shifts, and what they'll cost in broken-shift allowances, priced at each worker's own pay-group rate. It uses the same grouping as the award check, so the line and the flag on the shift can't disagree about what a gap is. Where some pay groups have no allowance set, it says 'at least' before the figure; where none do, it shows the count and no dollars, rather than a confident $0.00 across a roster full of gaps.

A woman working through figures at her desk beside a wall planner

What it reads, and where pay is worked out

The checks read the roster: the rostered start and finish times of every shift that's still going ahead. They read the days either side of the week on screen, so a Sunday-night shift that leaves too little rest before Monday morning is still found. Two periods that run back to back count as one unbroken shift. Pay is worked out from approved timesheets: the broken-shift allowance from the unpaid breaks recorded on the timesheet, alongside the time bands, shiftworker loadings, sleepovers, on-call pay, your state's public holidays, travel and kilometres — labelled lines you check against your own award obligations before each pay run.

A woman at a desktop computer, hand at her chin, reading a weekly schedule on the screen

One engine behind the board, the drawer and the ranking

The board's chips, the week's banner, the per-worker summary, the warning in the drawer and the award factor in shift matching all ask the same engine the same question — so the flag you see on a shift is the answer the ranking used when it suggested who should work it. In matching, each candidate is checked as if they'd already taken the shift: a breach costs them the award factor's six points, an amber review costs three, and either is named in their reasons for and against. Six points of a hundred is deliberate. A strong candidate can still rank near the top with an award problem — written beside their name, where you'll see it before you click.

Five clinicians gathered around one laptop, smiling at what is on the screen

Straight answers

Safety built in: what warns you, and what it stops.

Warns you

Red — a shift that pays less than the minimum engagement (2 hours, by default).
Red — less than the minimum break between two rostered shifts (10 hours).
Red — a broken shift spanning more than 12 hours from first start to last finish, or split by more than two unpaid breaks.
Red — a sleepover under 8 hours, more than one sleepover starting within 24 hours, or less than 10 hours' rest after one (8 when the next shift is also a sleepover).
Amber — a broken shift within the limits: an allowance is due, and the unpaid breaks need recording on the timesheet.
Amber — more than 10 ordinary hours in a day, or 38 in a week, where overtime rates apply.

Stops you

A broken-shift allowance paid on a guess — it is paid from the unpaid breaks recorded on the timesheet, at the worker's pay-group rate.
A zero it never measured — with the award check switched off, the board leaves the broken-shift line out rather than showing a clean week.
Hours changing under a payslip — once an entry is in a pay run, it's locked.

Who stays responsible

The coordinator decides whether a flagged shift stays, and your organisation stays responsible for paying correctly. Corella applies nine award rules to the roster before it's worked and says, in words, what it found; the pay engine then turns approved hours into labelled pay lines you check before each pay run. The current award is published by the Fair Work Ombudsman, and your adviser applies it to your organisation.

The rulebook

Questions, answered properly.

In the help centre

A woman wearing a headset, smiling on a call at her laptop

How do the award checks and the pay engine fit together?

The checks apply nine award rules to your roster before it's worked and say, in words, where a shift crosses one. The pay engine then turns approved timesheets into labelled pay lines — time bands, shiftworker loadings, sleepover and broken-shift allowances, on-call pay, your state's public holidays, travel and kilometres — with the hours sent to Xero Payroll as draft timesheets where Xero is connected and every line in a pay-run CSV for your payroll software, and you check them against your own award obligations before paying.

Why does it warn and leave the call to us?

Because sometimes the breach is the right call. A participant's emergency or a worker's own request can make wearing the overtime the best available decision, so Corella warns with the reason and leaves the decision, and the accountability, with you.

Can we change the thresholds?

Yes. Every threshold — engagement, break, span, unpaid breaks, daily and weekly hours, sleepover length, frequency and rest — is set per organisation in Settings, and each of the nine rules has its own switch. A switched-off rule stays listed there, so nobody has to wonder what's been turned off.

Where are the hours people actually worked checked?

On the timesheet queue, where clocked hours are compared with the roster and a person approves them — that's where a long clock-off shows up. The award checks read the roster's rostered start and finish times, before the week is worked.

How is the broken-shift allowance paid?

From the number of unpaid breaks recorded on the timesheet, at the worker's pay-group rate — a deliberate step, so every allowance paid matches what was recorded. The flag on the roster tells you the day is a broken shift.

What if our service isn't on SCHADS?

An administrator can switch the award check off for the organisation, and the board then leaves the broken-shift line out rather than showing a zero it never measured. The booking warning for rest after a sleepover has its own setting in the same place, so it keeps warning until that is set to zero too.

Does it catch a problem that straddles two weeks?

Yes. The checks read the days either side of the period on screen, so a Sunday-night shift that leaves too little rest before a Monday-morning start is still flagged.

Who sees the findings?

The office — coordinators on the board and in the shift drawer — and whoever holds the printed staff roster. Findings stay with the people who decide; the worker's app, the participant-view print and the family portal show the roster itself.

Can we see what the broken shifts will cost?

Yes. The line above the board counts the week's broken shifts and prices them at each worker's own broken-shift allowance. It says 'at least' when some pay groups have no allowance set, and shows a count with no dollars when none do. It shows whenever the award check is on.

Can we check a finding by hand?

Yes. It's arithmetic over your roster — times, thresholds and rules you can read and check by hand. For pay and rosters that's the stronger property: every warning traces to a shift, a threshold and a rule.

Guides for this

Read the rule behind it.

Sources

Each link opens the original, so you can read the rule where it's written.

See SCHADS award checks for rosters on a live instance.

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