Overview
Traffio's site allowance functionality allows you to give specific payroll allowances to employees that work on particular sites/projects.
For example, Susan works on high-risk construction site requiring significant responsibility, she can be paid an hourly allowance that has been assigned to that project in Traffio. Meanwhile, James is working on a smaller site which is assigned a lower hourly allowance.
Before You Begin
As of March 2023, Traffio's site allowance functionality is only available for the Spreadsheet, MYOB AccountRight, Attache, Xero and Employment Hero Payroll accounting packages. Additional integrations will follow shortly.
The site allowance functionality requires you to have the Payroll access permision.
How to Create a Site Allowance
Site allowances are managed from the 'Payroll' area of Traffio so you require payroll permissions before you begin.
Navigate to 'Payroll' > 'Site Allowances' tab and click the 'New' button.
Give your site allowance a name, optional description and click 'Create'.
Next you need to associate this site allowance with projects. Click on the 'Projects' tab and then click 'New'.
Select which project should be associated with this site allowance from the 'Projects' drop-down field. Click 'Create'.
Repeat step 4 for every project you want to associate with this site allowance.
You can also set the site allowance from any project's 'Overview' screen.
How to Configure Site Allowance
The site allowance functionality requires a small amount of configuration within each of your Enterprise Bargaining Agreements (EBA) before it can be used.
Navigate to 'Payroll' > 'EBA' > [Select an EBA].
Scroll all the way to the bottom of the 'Overview' screen and ensure the 'Site Allowance' and 'Site Allowance Overtime' earning items are toggled on.
Once you've toggled these on, click 'Save' .
Site allowance can be paid at two different rates - one for ordinary hours and another for overtime hours. The 'Is Ordinary Hours' column shows which rates will contribute to the site allowance's 'ordinary hours' (toggled on) and those that contribute to 'overtime hours' (toggled off). Currently you cannot change these toggles directly, however, some combinations of EBA settings will automatically adjust these for you.
How to Set Rates of Pay
The rate at which each site allowance is paid to employees can be different for each payroll cost centre you have and, because of this, you manage the site allowance rates of pay from within the payroll cost centre screen.
Navigate to 'Payroll' > 'Payroll Cost Centres' > [Select a cost centre] > 'Site Allowance Rates' tab. If you do not see the 'Site Allowance Rates' tab, the accounting package associated with your payroll cost centre does not yet support the site allowance functionality.
For each site allowance that appears in the list, select an ordinary and overtime pay rate. If your site allowance is paid at the same rate for ordinary and overtime hours, select the same rates from the respective drop-down fields.
When you have finished mapping your rates of pay for each site allowance, click the 'Save' button.
How does Site Allowance display in a Pay Run?
With the setup complete, you are now ready to create a pay run.
The site allowance corresponding to the project on which each employee's shift was worked, will automatically be calculated and shown in the 'Overrides' screen of a pay run.
Each employee's applicable site allowance can also be overridden by clicking on the blue button in the site allowance column and selecting from the list that appears.
The ordinary and overtime hours calculated for the site allowance can be viewed on the 'Allowances' screen.
When merging shifts that are entitled to different site allowances, an window will appear to allow you to select which site allowance should be applied to the merged shift.