Rostering and Payroll Integration
Deputy, Employment Hero and other rostering and payroll systems connected so hours flow from the roster to pay to job costs and client invoices
- 20+ years connecting business systems
- Works with the accounting, job and CRM systems you already use
- Fixed quote after a free chat
Wednesday afternoon at a labour hire firm. The payroll officer has Deputy open on one screen and Employment Hero on the other. She is comparing timesheets, because the hours in Deputy do not quite match what payroll has calculated. A night-shift penalty was applied in Deputy but not picked up in payroll, and two casuals on a construction site were rostered under the wrong award classification. She has been at this for three hours, and the pay run is due tomorrow.
The same hours drive everything downstream: what the worker gets paid, what super is owed, what the job or site is costed, and what the client is invoiced. When the handoff between rostering and payroll involves a spreadsheet or a manual check, the errors compound. An hour misclassified at the roster stage becomes a wrong pay rate, a wrong job cost and a wrong client invoice.
Kenomont connects the rostering system to payroll and from payroll to job costing and client invoicing, so the same approved hours flow through every step without anyone re-keying or rebuilding the figures. We work with Deputy, Employment Hero, KeyPay and other rostering and payroll platforms. If the vendor's standard link already does what you need, we will tell you.
Where Roster-to-Pay Breaks Down
- Timesheets are exported from Deputy, tidied in a spreadsheet and imported into payroll every pay cycle
- Award rates in the rostering system do not match what payroll applies, and the difference is found after the pay run
- Wage costs land in the accounting software as one lump, not split by job, site or cost centre
- Client invoices are built from a separate spreadsheet of hours, not from the same data that drives the pay run
- Nobody finds out about a timesheet error until the employee or the client queries it
- The margin on a labour hire placement is only known after both the pay run and the client invoice are done
The Chain: Roster to Timesheet to Pay to Invoice
Each link depends on the one before it. When one is disconnected, the rest is unreliable.
Roster
Shifts are built in Deputy (or another rostering tool) for each site, client or job. The roster drives who works where and when.
Timesheet
Staff clock on and off, or their hours are approved by a supervisor. Timesheets capture the actual hours, breaks and shift types.
Award interpretation
The hours are classified under the relevant award: ordinary time, overtime, penalty rates, allowances. This is where mismatches happen when two systems apply the rules differently.
Payroll
Pay runs are processed with the correct rates, super, tax and deductions. The figures must match what the timesheet and award rules produced.
Job costing
Wage costs are allocated to the job, site or cost centre in the accounting or job system, so labour costs show up against the right work.
Client invoicing
For labour hire and facility services: the same hours drive a client invoice at the charge rate, with the margin visible before the bill goes out.
Award Interpretation: Where the Mismatch Happens
Both Deputy and Employment Hero can interpret awards. The trouble is when they disagree. Deputy might classify a Sunday shift as overtime because of how the roster was set up, while Employment Hero applies the award's actual rules and calls it a penalty rate at a different multiplier. Or a break threshold is configured differently in each system, so the calculated hours do not match.
The fix is not always a system change. Sometimes one system's interpretation is correct and the other needs its configuration adjusted. Sometimes both are wrong because the award has changed and neither was updated. And sometimes the cleanest answer is to have one system do the interpretation and send the result to the other, rather than having both calculate independently and trying to reconcile after the fact.
We work out which approach suits your setup and your awards. The award rules themselves are a payroll and industrial relations question, and we will tell you if you need advice from that side first. What we handle is making sure the right data reaches the right system in the right shape.
Industries Where This Matters Most
Labour hire and recruitment
The roster, pay run and client invoice all come from the same hours, but under different rates and rules. A spreadsheet between them means margin is only known after the fact, and billing errors take weeks to find.
More on this industryCleaning, security and facility services
Hundreds of shifts across dozens of client sites, with different awards, penalty rates and client billing rules. If the timesheet data does not flow through cleanly, pay errors and billing disputes pile up.
More on this industryConstruction: builders and contractors
Site workers on project-based rosters, with travel time, allowances and RDOs. Wage costs need to reach the job in the accounting or job system so the project manager can see real labour spend against the estimate.
More on this industryTrades and field service
Technicians clocking hours in the job system or in Deputy, with the hours needing to reach payroll and the job cost. When the job system and the rostering system both record hours, they need to agree.
More on this industryWhen You Don't Need Us
The standard Deputy-to-Employment-Hero link works for you. If timesheets flow through, the award interpretation matches, and you do not need wage costs split by job or client invoicing from the same data, the built-in connection is doing its job. Keep using it.
Your team is small and on one award. Ten staff on a single award, all at the same site, with straightforward pay rules. The manual overhead is small, and the integration would cost more than the time it saves.
The real problem is the award setup, not the integration. If the pay rates and rules are wrong in the rostering or payroll system, connecting them will move wrong data faster. Fix the configuration first (your payroll provider or an IR adviser can help), then connect the systems.
Cost and Timing
Costs depend on how many systems are involved, how complex the award rules are, and whether wage costs need to reach job costing or client invoicing. We scope every project and give you a fixed quote after a free initial chat.
Not sure where to start? The $5,000 Process & Systems Audit maps your roster-to-invoice process and gives you a written report on what to connect, fix or leave alone.
Who Does the Work
Kenomont is a business systems consultancy with over 20 years building business systems and integrations. You work directly with the people doing the work, not through an account manager.
We work with businesses across Australia remotely and travel when a project needs it.
Rostering and Payroll Integration FAQs
Related: systems integration services, when timesheets, payroll and client invoices do not match, award and pay errors in cleaning and security, where Deputy's Xero and MYOB integration stops and labour hire systems.
Same Hours, One Source of Truth
We connect your rostering and payroll systems so the same approved hours drive the pay run, the job cost and the client invoice, without spreadsheets in between. Start with a free chat.
How Do Hours Flow Through Your Business?
Tell us which rostering and payroll systems you use, how many staff and sites are involved, and where the hours get stuck or mismatched. We'll tell you honestly whether the standard link will do it or what else is needed.
Free initial chat. No sales pressure - if we're not the right fit, we'll say so.
Prefer to talk? Call 1300 470 091
Got a spec or files? Email [email protected]