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Award Library Smart Formulas must be copied to your organisation and published before they can be assigned to employees.
Browse the supported modern award pay rates and Smart Formula variants before you copy a formula into your organisation.

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Before You Begin

Smart Formulas are not a substitute for payroll or legal advice, nor are they intended to relieve you of your obligation to comply with the Legal Requirements applicable to your business. It is each customer’s sole responsibility to pay its employees correctly and in compliance with all Legal Requirements. By using this functionality you are agreeing to these terms and conditions.
The Smart Formulas in the Award Library are pre-determined formulas that can be used as a starting point. They cannot be assigned directly from the library. To use an Award Library formula:
  1. Select Smart Formulas > Configure.
  2. Click Create Smart Formula.
  3. Choose Copy from Award Library.
  4. Find the formula and click Copy, or open it by clicking the name or View, then click Copy.
  5. Review the copied draft for your organisation.
  6. Edit the copied rule and test it in the simulator until you are satisfied with the behaviour.
  7. Publish the copied formula.
  8. Assign the published version from Smart Formulas > Assign.
You can configure your own Smart Formulas if you have custom requirements. Because this functionality creates pay items and assigns them to employees in Xero, we recommend for testing purposes to use the Xero Demo Company (it is free and can be reset at any time).

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Assign the Published Copy

After publishing the copied formula, assign it from Smart Formulas > Assign. Select the employee rows, click Assign, choose the copied formula and version, enter the base rate if needed, then click Assign.
Use the dropdown above the table to show all employees, only those already Assigned a Smart Formula in UpSheets, or only Unassigned employees. See Assign Smart Formulas to Employees for details.
Some awards have automated allowances. You can enable or disable them when assigning Smart Formulas.
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Assign UpSheets Smart Formula

After assignment, all of the rates and allowances are displayed for each employee.
A new pay item will be created for the award in Xero and will also be added to the pay template for each employee and set as the ordinary earnings rate.
 On assignment, allowance lines are not added to the Xero pay template when the employee’s Rate per unit matches the published formula rate. Use Automatic Allowances → Add to sync a rate-per-unit allowance to Xero even at the formula rate.
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Assigned Smart Formula

In Xero, the employee pay templates and ordinary earnings rates will be updated:
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Pay template with Smart Formula in Xero

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Ordinary earnings rate in pay template

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Updating Rates

Base rates and allowances may optionally be updated for each employee individually by selecting a row and clicking Edit Rate. The pay template for the employee will then be updated with the updated rate.
Rates that are set as a multiple of the base rate may not be updated as these are calculated automatically.

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Update a Copied Award from the Library

When UpSheets publishes a newer Award Library version for a formula you copied, Smart Formulas > Configure shows a Library update badge.
  1. Choose View updates to see a summary of what changed (effective date, classification rates, and rules added, removed, or changed). Open View beside classification rate changes to see each classification and the old → new rate.
  2. Choose Update from Library when you are ready. UpSheets creates or refreshes a draft with the latest library rules and keeps your short name.
  3. Review, simulate, and publish.
  4. Reassign employees to the new version from Assign. Choose classifications or base rates when minima change.
Multiplier lines are named with the multiple (for example Sat x1.25). A changed multiple gets a new pay item name in Xero. Do not strip the xN suffix to reuse an older pay item name — UpSheets blocks that when non-updatable Xero settings would conflict.

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Public Holidays

If you have formulas that need to use public holidays, please follow these instructions.

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Importing Timesheets

You are now ready to import your timesheets from a CSV file using the normal process from Import Files. If you need a sample file with your own data to test, select Download Sample File from Import Files and select only:
  • Timesheets
  • Start/End Times
  • Tracking codes (if you use them)
Click Download to generate the file so it can be imported and tested.

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Removing Smart Formulas

To remove a smart formula from the employee(s), select the employees in the table and click Clear.
UpSheets will attempt to remove all assignments from their pay templates and reset the Ordinary Earnings rate. If there is any problem doing this, it will need to be updated manually in Xero. Any Pay Items created are not automatically removed and should also be inactivated/deleted from Xero via the Payroll Settings as required.