How It Works — Roster to Payday in 5 Steps

The journey

Five steps. One unbroken pipeline.

Every step feeds the next automatically — the data your payroll team needs on Friday was captured the moment the shift happened.

Step 01

Set up once

Load your people, your sites and the rules that govern them: pay templates with penalty rates, allowances and overtime rules; your compliance catalogue of licences and certifications; and customer rate cards that price your work for each client. This is the only step you do once — everything after it runs week in, week out.

✓Pay templates capture weekday, weekend, night and public-holiday rules
✓Compliance catalogue defines the documents every role must hold
✓Customer rate cards set what each client pays for each service

PTSecurity Officer — pay templatePenalty rates · allowances · overtime rulesTemplate

CCCompliance catalogueLicences and certifications with expiry remindersTracked

RCHarbour Logistics — rate cardClient billing rules per service and dayRate card

Step 02

Roster & publish

Build the week from reusable templates on a leave-aware grid — approved leave blocks people out before you can double-book them. Gaps go out as open-shift offers to eligible staff, and the moment you publish, every shift lands on staff phones with an instant notification. The full toolkit lives in employee scheduling.

✓Templates roll recurring patterns forward in seconds
✓Open-shift offers fill gaps — first eligible acceptance wins
✓Instant mobile notifications for every new shift and change

WWeek template rolled forward14 shifts · 3 sites · exceptions onlyBuilt

LLeave-aware gridApproved leave blocks staff automaticallyProtected

→Published to staff phonesPush notifications sent instantlyLive

Step 03

Work happens

On the day, staff clock in and out with GPS verification, scan checkpoints, follow site instructions and submit incident or end-of-shift reports — all from the mobile app covered under field workforce management. Back at base, you watch live attendance while automatic shift reminders keep no-shows down.

✓GPS clock-in and clock-out proves who was where, when
✓Checkpoints and site instructions guide work on the ground
✓Live attendance and automatic reminders catch problems early

⌖Clock-in 06:58 — GPS verifiedOn site, two minutes earlyOn shift

CPCheckpoint scans loggedPatrol route followed · site instructions readTracked

IRIncident report submitted 21:14Photos attached from the fieldFiled

Step 04

Approve once

Timesheets arrive with planned and actual times side by side, so the review is a glance, not an investigation. Bulk actions tidy a whole week at once — and here's the part that saves real admin: one approval generates both the paysheet line and the customer invoice line. Reject something and it rolls back cleanly from both sides.

✓Planned vs actual highlighted, so anomalies jump out
✓Bulk actions — approve, round times and tidy breaks across many rows
✓One approval, two outcomes — pay and billing created together

±Planned 07:00–15:00 · actual 06:58–15:04Variance highlighted for reviewReview

✓ApprovedPaysheet line + invoice line generated togetherDone

↺One entry rejectedPay and billing lines rolled back cleanlyReversed

Step 05

Pay & bill

Approved hours land as paysheets bucketed into Earnings, Allowances and Leave — ready to export to Xero Payroll or as CSV in iPayroll and KeyPay layouts via payroll preparation. On the client side, branded PDF invoices are emailed with BPAY and PayID payment details, and credit notes or adjustments handle anything that changes after the fact.

✓Earnings / Allowances / Leave buckets match what payroll systems expect
✓Xero Payroll export or CSV in Generic, iPayroll and KeyPay layouts
✓Branded PDF invoices emailed to clients with BPAY and PayID details — plus credit notes and adjustments when things change

$Paysheet — week ending SundayEarnings · Allowances · Leave, bucketedPay-ready

↗Exported to Xero PayrollOr CSV — Generic, iPayroll, KeyPayExported

PDFInvoice emailed to the clientBranded PDF · BPAY and PayID details includedBilled

The pipeline in numbers

Captured once. Used everywhere.

5 steps

From first setup to staff paid and clients billed — on one platform

1 approval

Generates both the paysheet line and the customer invoice line together

3 CSV layouts

Generic, iPayroll and KeyPay exports — plus direct export to Xero Payroll

PDF invoices

Branded, emailed to clients with BPAY and PayID payment details on every invoice

Common questions

Getting started, answered

How long does setup take?

Setup is a one-off exercise: staff, sites, pay templates, your compliance catalogue and customer rate cards. How long it takes scales with the size of your workforce, and our ANZ-based team works through it with you — so the effort is concentrated in your first onboarding sessions, not spread over months.

Can we adopt Engage WorkForce gradually?

Yes. Many teams start with rostering and mobile notifications only, then switch on GPS time and attendance, timesheet approvals and payroll preparation when they are ready. Each step builds on the last, so there is no big-bang cutover required. Start with scheduling and grow from there.

Which payroll systems does Engage WorkForce work with?

Approved paysheets export directly to Xero Payroll, or as CSV files in Generic, iPayroll and KeyPay layouts — so your payroll team imports pay-ready data in the format their system expects. The detail lives under payroll preparation.

Do we get help with onboarding?

Yes. Our Australian-based team runs your demo, helps load staff, sites, pay templates and rate cards, and stays available as you roll out to your workforce. You are never left to figure the platform out alone.

Next steps

Where to go from here

Explore

Ready when you are

Watch the whole pipeline run live

Book a personalised walkthrough with our Australian team — roster a shift, clock it, approve it, and see the paysheet and invoice appear together.

Book a Free Demo View Pricing

No lock-in contracts · ANZ-based support

From roster to payday in five steps