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Award Interpretation Software

Always pay your staff right and know your costs.


  • Award interpretation tool designed in Australia 
  • Handles the most complex awards and Enterprise Agreements
  • Ensure Fair Work compliance
  • Time and day rules, daily overtime and weekly overtime
  • Range of employee allowances
  • Accurately costed rosters and payroll
  • Integrates with Xero, MYOB, Sage and WageEasy


Simplify Award Compliance

An easy way to manage Fair Work regulations

Accountant Reviewing Payroll

Award Interpretation

Never worry again

Accountant Reviewing Payroll

Employment awards are notoriously complex, and it is too easy for business owners to make unintentional mistakes when approving payroll.


RosterElf's award interpretation software has been designed in Australia to handle the world's most complex industry awards and enterprise agreements. It will help your business remain Fair Work compliant whilst minimising payroll errors and saving you time. Always stay on top of your employee's hours with our time and attendance solution.


Our rostering software also provides accurate real-time roster and payroll labour costs to help drive profit and business sustainability. Manage your staff even when you're on the go with our mobile app.


Simplify award compliance using RosterElf's trusted award interpretation tool.  


Simple Awards

Time and day rules

RosterElf Time and Day Award Interpretation


RosterElf's award interpretation software handles typical time and day rules with ease, including the following:


  • Ordinary Hours -  Monday to Friday shifts during normal working hours
  • Late Night Hours - Monday to Friday late night shifts
  • Early Morning Hours - Monday to Friday early morning shifts
  • Weekend Hours - Saturday and Sunday shifts
  • Public Holiday Hours - Shifts worked on recognised public holidays


Easily customise a range of time and day rules on your account and sync to your chosen provider. 

RosterElf Time and Day Award Interpretation
RosterElf Daily Overtime Award Interpretation

Overtime Penalties

Daily overtime

RosterElf Daily Overtime Award Interpretation

Daily overtime applies when employees work more than a predetermined number of hours in a single day.


Beyond this threshold, employers must pay a penalty rate reflecting the employee's requirements to work a long day. 


RosterElf can handle a wide range of daily overtime, including:


  • Daily Overtime Monday to Friday 
  • Daily Overtime Saturday
  • Daily Overtime Sunday
  • Daily Overtime Public Holidays 

Overtime Penalties

Weekly overtime

Weekly overtime is a typical loading that applies once employees work more than a certain number of hours across an entire week. 


Once this weekly overtime number is reached, employees are entitled to extra hourly pay, which varies based on the award.


RosterElf can handle a wide range of week overtime, including:


  • Weekly Overtime: 38 to 40 Hours
  • Weekly Overtime: 40+ Hours
  • Weekly Overtime: Public Holiday
  • Weekly Overtime: Sat First 2 Hours
  • Weekly Overtime: Sat 2 Hours Plus
  • Weekly Overtime: Sunday


Other Penalties

Employee allowances

RosterElf also offers auto calculation of a range of qualifications or special duty allowances, including the following:


  • First Aid Allowance - Hourly
  • First Aid Allowance - Weekly
  • Laundry Allowance - Weekly
  • Tool Allowance - Daily
  • Custom Allowances 


Make the process of paying employee allowances a breeze with RosterElf. 

Real and Accurate

Labour costings

RosterElf Labour Costings


Our powerful award interpretation tool ensures that managers know, in real-time, accurate labour costs, including any employee penalties, overtime and allowances, in real-time.


Rosters and timesheets are calculated and cost in real-time, enabling managers to proactively understand budgets by location, region or business unit.


Rosters can then be optimised before publishing, ensuring labour budgets are met and overall business profitability maximised. 


Review actual payroll costs before exporting a timesheet to ensure no errors have been made. 

RosterElf Labour Costings
RosterElf Payroll Approval Process

Simple and Fast

Payroll approval

RosterElf Payroll Approval Process


With RosterElf's payroll integration, the modern award rules are applied automatically during payroll approval. 


RosterElf can import approved timesheets with finalised award interpretation into your chosen accounting or payroll software, including Xero, MYOB, Sage or WageEasy.


This streamlined payroll approval process saves considerable time and minimises potential data entry errors during award interpretation.


No more manual payroll calculations or compliance worries. 

'Award Interpretation'

What is it?

Justice Scale Employee Awards

All Australian businesses must undertake an award interpretation to determine the minimum legal pay rates and conditions for their workforce and industry, as determined by Fair Work Australia - the Australian industrial relations tribunal. There are around 122 different awards that cover a range of other industries and sectors. Every industry and occupation should have an award, and your business may even have a non-standard enterprise agreement. For example, a retail clothing outlet would fall under the MA000004: General Retail Industry Award 2010 or an aged care business service would fall under the MA000018 Aged Care Award.

RosterElf offers complete award interpretation within our software to ensure your budgeting is accurate and that your payroll is compliant with Fair Work Australia legislation. When exporting to payroll, specific award interpretation rules are imported directly to your chosen accounting payroll software. Setting up pay templates and including all award interpretations for your industry removes the need to manually enter each award for each staff member. Which award are you?

Find My Award
Justice Scale Employee Awards

Discover more of RosterElf’s Features

Accountants Dream!

5 Star Review

Processing client's payroll has never been easier. As an Accountant, RosterElf has not only saved my clients time and money in preparing weekly rostering schedules, but has saved them huge amounts of time and money in processing payroll. The ability to sync seamlessly with accounting software means no more payroll errors!


Braden Whelpdale | Account For It

Manager’s online dashboard view

Award Interpretation Questions?

We have the answers.

What type of award interpretation can RosterElf handle?

RosterElf has a simple but powerful award interpretation tool that can handle time day, weekly overtime, daily overtime and allowances. Read more HERE.

How do I setup award interpretation?

Our tool enables users to set up multiple pay templates (e.g. Casual Under 18, Casual Under 19 etc.) using a range of time and day, weekly overtime, daily overtime and allowance options. Read how to set up HERE

What payroll providers does the award interpretation integrate with?

RosterElf can export the approved timesheets with award interpretation completed for various 3rd party payroll and accounting tools, including Xero, MYOB, Sage and WageEasy.

What are time and day rules?

Time and day rules include pay items related to the time and day of worked employee hours. For instance, Ordinary Hours (Monday - Friday), Weekends (Saturday and Sunday) and Public Holidays.

What are daily overtime rules?

Daily overtime applies when employees work more than a certain number of hours a day. For example, if the daily overtime rule applies at over 8 hours and an employee works 10 hours, then 2 hours of daily overtime would apply.

What are weekly overtime rules?

Weekly overtime applies when employees work more than a certain number of hours a week. For example, if the weekly overtime applied at over 38 hours and an employee works 45 hours across a week, then 7 hours of weekly overtime would apply.


What are allowances?

Allowances are amounts paid to employees to cover anticipated costs or as compensation for conditions of employment. These could include a uniform allowance, first aid allowance or travel allowance.

What is an award classification?

An award classification refers to classifying employees based on age, skill and/or qualifications, with the minimum wage for each varying.  

What is covered by an award?

Employment awards cover a range of employee entitlements, including base pay, weekly overtime, daily overtime, special leave arrangements, allowances and hours of work. 

What is award interpretation?

Award interpretation refers to a system a business must undertake by law to calculate the minimum legal pay rate and conditions for employees. The rules are based on a legal agreement between the business and employees, commonly referred to as an 'award', 'employment award' or 'modern award'. In Australia, Fair Work Australia is the best source for ensuring compliance. 


What is an award classification?

If employees are covered by law by an award or enterprise agreement, it outlines a 'classification' that they fall under within the agreement. This can be based on age, skills or responsibility level of their employment.

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