Payroll

A fast-growing professional services company was experiencing payroll inefficiencies and uncertainty surrounding the cost, structure and compliance position of parental leave entitlements across award-covered and salaried employees. The leadership team recognised that ad-hoc policy development was creating unpredictability, variable employee experience and increased compliance exposure under the Fair Work Act, NES, and Modern Award requirements.

Auscorporate was engaged to review the organisation’s existing leave framework, assess its compliance position, and develop a commercially sustainable parental leave structure aligned to talent retention, culture and financial capacity. Our work involved modelling multiple entitlement structures, scenario-testing parental leave availability across tenure bands, identifying governance controls, and drafting policy instruments that could be applied enterprise-wide consistently. We also advised on interactions with government schemes, maternity leave requirements, keeping in touch provisions, early return pathways, and conditions for paid versus unpaid leave.

Fits compliance capability through better design, rather than relying on assessing employee entitlements without following implementation, the business gained clarity and predictability in payroll costs, leadership confidence in risk exposure, and a consistent mechanism to assess employee entitlements without reliance on reactive interpretation. Employees benefited from structured visibility, while the business reduced administrative friction and strengthened compliance capability through better design rather than additional headcount. The result was a scalable payroll framework that supported growth, safeguarded workforce obligations, and materially improved culture during a period of rapid expansion.

A hospitality group engaged Auscorporate to clarify payroll obligations for full-time employees paid under Annualised Wage Arrangements, specifically relating to public holiday work, penalty exposure, and employer rights under the Hospitality Industry (General) Award. The organisation needed a defensible position that balanced operational coverage requirements with compliance certainty — without triggering inadvertent underpayment or workforce disadvantage.

Auscorporate reviewed the Award, assessed the structure and risk settings of the business’s employment framework, and advised management on when public holiday work could occur without additional wages being payable. This included establishing thresholds linked to ordinary hours, penalty-rate availability, and overtime limits. By identifying the boundaries that attract penalties and excess overtime hours, we equipped leadership with a clear, practical structure to manage rostering decisions confidently while remaining compliant.

We also strengthened governance around Annualised Wage Agreements by advising on mandatory reconciliation requirements, employee acknowledgement protocols, evidentiary record-keeping, and the annual review obligations necessary to ensure no employee is disadvantaged. Auscorporate provided guidance on when annualisation offered commercial benefit versus when it created unnecessary administrative overhead, enabling the business to simplify where appropriate and formalise where risk was present.

Following implementation, the organisation gained a defensible payroll position, reduced exposure to Fair Work underpayment risk, and improved decision clarity for public holiday rostering. Leadership now operates with rules-based guidance that protects the employer, safeguards employees, and provides transparent compliance assurance, supported by audit-ready record-keeping.