Confirm payslip details

This wizard sits between reading an uploaded payslip and checking it. It groups the payslips waiting for you by person, asks you to confirm the award and level for each group, or set them yourself if you know them, and then collects the hours, so the checks run against the right minimums. Five steps run along the top: "Review", "Employees", "Award & level", "Hours" and "Confirm". Use "Continue ›" and "‹ Back" at the bottom, or click a completed step to jump back to it. Your browser's back and forward buttons also move between steps.

Why we pause here

A payslip you upload is read first (extraction), then checked (evaluation). Web uploads pause between the two at "Awaiting confirmation" so you can confirm or correct what was read before a verdict is produced. Payslips that arrive from a connected payroll system, the API or a webhook do not pause: they carry their own award and classification and go straight to evaluation.

The page opens as soon as you upload. While documents are still being read, a banner at the top says "Extracting n payslips…" or "Reading n uploaded documents — they may hold several payslips…". You can leave the page; we'll pop up a notification when they're ready. When more payslips finish while you are on the page, a "New payslips are ready — reload to add them ›" link appears. The page never reloads on its own, so nothing you have entered is lost.

If a document held more than 200 payslips, a red notice says how many were beyond the limit and were not extracted. Split the file and upload the rest.

Your place in the wizard is saved on the account: which step you are on, who you put in which work profile, and how far through the award questions you got, including the award and level settled for each person set individually. Closing the tab and coming back resumes where you left off, as long as the same set of payslips is still waiting. Nothing is written to any payslip or employee until you press "Confirm & run checks" on the last step.

You can also reach this wizard for a single payslip through "Confirm details" on its result page, or later through "Change award or level", to correct a detail and re-run the check while the payslip's extracted data is still held. Archived payslips are left out of the wizard.

Review

The first step shows what was read, grouped by person, before you answer anything. Getting the grouping right matters more than any other answer here: the award questions are asked once per person, not once per payslip, and next month's upload for the same people asks nothing.

When a batch holds more than one payslip, a summary at the top reads along the lines of "47 payslips, 4 people, 2 employers — does this look right?", nested by employer, with each person marked "qualified earlier" (they already have a confirmed award and level on record) or "not qualified". Payslips are grouped by payroll reference first, then by name, because two people in one batch can share a name. A payslip that prints neither stands alone. A link to "This upload's progress and results" opens Upload results for the batch.

If two groups look like they might be one person, an amber box asks "Are X and Y the same person?" and gives the reason. They are kept separate: FairCheck never merges two people's pay on a guess. If they are one person, give them the same payroll reference under Employers and re-upload.

Below the summary is one card per person listing their payslips (pay period and gross, with "hours provided" where hours were already supplied). The chips on each card say what the "Award & level" step will start from:

Employees

This step sets each person's role, attaches them to an employer, and puts people who do the same work on the same work profile.

What we know about each workplace

The panel at the top is asked once per employer, not once per person. For each employer:

• Employer — the name printed on the payslips, editable because it is sometimes wrong or missing. The field is labelled "Employer (edit if the payslip named them wrongly)" or "Employer — the payslips didn't name one". Pick an employer you already hold from the list, or type a name. Until it is right, the group is attached to the wrong employer record, and so to the wrong agreement and policies.
• Agreement — either "Checked against , with the award as the floor" or "No enterprise agreement on file. If one covers these people, their results will be checked against the award only — upload it." See Enterprise agreements.
• Confirm this employer — an optional lookup against the Australian Business Register by ABN or business name. It is identity only: it confirms who they are, not which award covers their staff. Once confirmed, later batches show "Confirmed with the Australian Business Register" and ask nothing.

Nothing in this panel is saved until the final step. "Manage employers" opens Employers.

Each person

Each card carries a chip: "Confirmed earlier", "Named on the payslip — confirm it next", or "Award to confirm". Only an award a person confirmed earlier is ever prefilled; anything read off the payslip is carried as a signal for the next step's questions and never sits in a field you can click past.

If more than one employee on file has this name and the payslips print no payroll reference, an amber box explains that their saved details are not applied and confirming will not update either record. Choose the award and classification for this payslip yourself, and add a payroll reference to each of them under Employers so they match automatically from then on.

• Role — their job title, from the standard Australian occupation list. It is remembered on their employee record for the next upload. "Suggest a role with AI" sends what the payslip prints about the job, the award the pay rate fits and your account's own role list to a model, which answers with one of your roles or nothing. It only fills the picker for you to review; nothing is written.
• Our guess — please check — shown when nothing is on record and FairCheck has a guess at the role, the work profile, or both, each with its reason. "Use this guess" fills the fields; nothing is saved until you confirm at the end. A role accepted from this panel is recorded on the employee as "guessed", so nobody later mistakes it for something a person decided. A role you pick yourself is recorded as "chosen".
• Work profile — "Type a group name, or pick one". Choosing an existing work profile applies its award, level, employment type, agreement and typical week to this person. Typing a new name starts a group; the name is immediately available on every other card, and the next step asks about each new group once. Leave it blank to set this person's details on their own in the next step.
• Don't check this employee's payslips — leaves every payslip in this group unchecked when you confirm.

When there is more than one person, a "Same work profile for everyone?" box at the top lets you pick one profile and "Apply to all employees".

Award & level

This step settles the award and the level for each new work-profile group and for each person left to set individually. The heading names who the answers are for — "Qualifying Alex Moreno — work profile “Outdoor Furniture”" for a group, or the person's name when they're set individually. A progress bar and list show who is done. Nobody continues past this step until every person has an award and a level a human decided. If everyone is already covered, the step says "Everyone here already has a confirmed award and level" and you continue to hours.

The questions

Under "A few questions", one question is shown at a time. Each is answered with a tap, and "‹ Back" undoes the last answer. Where a question has a reason, it is shown under the question. On a re-run, the answer given previously is marked "Last time". "Not sure" is always a valid answer.

When an award is being offered for confirmation, a chip above the question says how sure we are:

The "Our guess" chip is the one case where an award FairCheck inferred from the payslip is put in front of you. It is offered once, before anything has been asked, with the reason it was guessed. Saying yes records the award as "guessed" (see the table below), never as confirmed. Saying it's a different one rejects it: the rejection is remembered on the employee, so that award is not offered again on their next payslip, and the questions move on to the work itself. Once you have described the work, the guess is never re-offered.

If you answer "I direct a crew day to day" or "I plan the work and I'm accountable for it", the next question is "How many people work under your direction, not counting you?". Some awards set the level by how many staff are supervised. Retail, for example, puts supervising up to 4 staff including yourself at Level 4 and 5 or more at Level 6.

Once the award is known, it asks that award's own questions about the level, which are the facts its levels are written in. For Road Transport it asks "What do they mainly drive or operate?", with options by axles and weight (GVM): an HR licence covers both a 2-axle and a 3-axle rigid, and those are different grades. That answer sets the grade on its own, and the card says why ("A 3-axle rigid truck over 13.9 tonnes GVM"). For a cook (Hospitality, Restaurant) it asks whether they hold a trade qualification, their role in the kitchen (cook, demi chef, chef de partie, sous or head chef) and whether they run a section: the award grades a demi chef and a chef de partie above a cook even if they supervise nobody. For someone serving food or drinks it asks which best describes their work: clearing and collecting glasses, serving or working a bar, or skilled duties such as gaming machines or a TAB terminal, cocktails, silver service, cashier duties or training others. Those are the award's grades 1, 2 and 3. For someone in charge of a section or a shift it asks whether supervising the team is their job or something they do now and then, and whether they've done a supervisory course: the award's supervisor grade needs both, and otherwise supervising staff of a lower grade is grade 3. For Hair and Beauty it asks their highest qualification: a Certificate IV in Beauty Therapy is Level 4, a Certificate IV in hairdressing Level 5, and a Diploma of Beauty Therapy Level 6. With a Certificate III it also asks whether they qualified through a full-time course less than 12 months ago: if so the award's first-year graduate rate applies, otherwise Level 3. Other awards ask, for example, how many people someone is in charge of (Fast Food), whether they manage a department or drive a forklift (Retail; for someone who doesn't run a department it also asks whether they open or close the store, hold the keys or alarm code, count and secure the takings, or act as second-in-charge of a section, which the award puts at Level 3), or what kind of office work it is (Clerks). If you answer "Not sure" to the question a level turns on, any level the run reaches is shown as an assumption, not a confirmed level, and the payslip result says the level was assumed. Even when your answers set the level, FairCheck still reads them against the award's own description of each level. If that reading fits a higher level, the card shows your level as an assumption and names the higher one to check before you rely on the rate. It never moves the level down.

FairCheck reads the position the payslip prints ("Sales Assistant", "Storeperson") as well as the employer's name and the pay lines, and says so in the reason under the question ("the payslip lists the position as …"). Ordinary pay lines such as overtime, weekend or casual hours are not treated as evidence of any particular award. Government and public-service awards are never guessed for a company (an employer whose name ends in Pty Ltd or Limited).

If there is little to go on, the first question is "What kind of work do you mainly do?", in your own words or from the options. When two or three awards are genuinely in contention you are shown the shortlist to pick from. Answering "Not sure" to the shortlist only goes ahead on an award when one is clearly ahead; otherwise you're asked what kind of work it is instead, and if that still doesn't point to one, no award is assumed and the result says so.

When the run can't settle on a level, the card asks "Which level fits this work?" without a "Recommended" badge, and lists the award's levels under "Levels in this award" to choose from. They run lowest to highest in the award's own order. The one or two levels that came closest to your answers carry a "Closest match" badge where they sit. Classifications outside the award's main ladder (the Clerks award's call-centre levels, for example), and any that clearly didn't fit what you described, are listed last under "Other classifications in this award".

When the run settles on a level you see a "Recommended" card: the level, its minimum rate, the award's description of it in plain words, and a "Read the full definition on the Fair Work award ›" link. Any assumptions the run had to make are listed on the card. When two levels fit and one fits a little better, the card says so and names the levels to check before you rely on the rate. Up to two other levels appear under "Also possible", each with a "Choose" button: the levels either side of the recommended one, the one above first, unless the comparison's runner-up is within two levels. Breaks, typical week and allowance triggers settled along the way are shown under the card, starting "Also recorded for this work". "Check this against the award" links to the award on the Fair Work Commission site and the Fair Work Ombudsman's award library. "None of these fit — start again" clears the run for this person.

If you already know the answer

"I know the award and classification — let me set them" opens the direct path. Search for the award, pick the level, and click "Use these and continue". We still ask the few things a payslip doesn't show: employment type, junior or apprentice rates, and typical hours. "Back to the questions" returns to the guided path.

How each decision is recorded

Every award and level carries a record of how it was decided. The result page repeats it, so a reader always knows whose answer it is.

"assumed" and "guessed" are treated as weak. The result flags them: it says what was assumed or guessed, why, and asks you to check this before relying on the result.

Hours

Hours decide how much a check can find. With an award and level alone, only base rates can be compared; with a typical week, missing penalties and loadings can be flagged; with the hours actually worked, a shortfall can be reported in dollars. Each person is a collapsible row showing their payslip count and "n h on file", "n h" or "No hours yet".

The hours a payslip is checked against are taken in this order:

1. A typical week on file. If the employee (or their chosen work profile) already has one, the seven-day grid is prefilled and captioned "From this employee's record". It is used for every payslip below unless you enter different hours for one, and applied to each week of the pay period. Leaving it unchanged keeps it as it is; editing it saves the edited week.

Overtime is counted one calendar week at a time. When a pay period starts or ends mid-week (a calendar month), the whole week still counts: if the month starts on a Thursday, Monday to Wednesday's hours count toward that week's 38, so Friday's extra hours are overtime in this month, but only Thursday and Friday are paid in it. A public holiday on a day they usually work is taken as a day off, paid as ordinary hours, and counts toward that week's hours.
2. A pattern you set now. When nothing is on file, the grid offers one-tap presets for the award, a box to describe the pattern in words, or "AI fill typical hours", which guesses a typical week for anyone without hours from their award and classification. An AI-filled week is never treated as exact — check it before you confirm. A pattern chosen here is saved on the employee as an indicative typical week, enough to flag a possible problem but never enough to claim a dollar figure.
3. Hours for one payslip. Each payslip under the person can carry its own hours, which replace the pattern above for that payslip only.

For each payslip, "On the payslip" shows the hours the payslip prints, by type and in total. "Use the payslip's hours as the hours worked" adopts them. These set the rates checked, but they are never evidence of unpaid time: if the hours actually worked differ (unpaid time, or weekend and evening hours folded into an ordinary line) enter them below. If no hours are printed, the hours you enter are what makes the payslip checkable.

The form for actual hours depends on the pay period:

• A period of a week or less gets a seven-day "Hours actually worked" grid. Hours entered here are treated as supplied for this payslip. Leave the days off to keep using the pattern above. Each day has a "Public holiday" tick. You rarely need it: FairCheck knows every Australian public holiday from 2019 to 2027 by state, and prices a day worked on one at the public holiday rate on its own, using the employer's state (from the ABN register, or the address on the payslip). If the person works in a different state from the one the business is registered in, the result asks which state, and re-checks (see Does this person work in that state?). Tick it for a holiday the calendar can't place, such as a regional show day. Each day can also take a sleepover: "Sleepover from … to …" for a night spent at a client's home starting that day. A sleepover is not hours worked; each night is checked for the award's sleepover allowance. Enter any active work after it (a morning handover) as hours on the next day.
• A period longer than a week (a fortnight or a month) gets a dated list with one row per day, because a seven-day grid would fold two Mondays into one. These rows are saved onto the person's record as dated shifts, so the check prices each calendar week separately, and days left off are treated as not worked. Where dated shifts are already on file for these dates they are shown under "Hours on file for this period"; two shifts on one date show as one row with a split shift.

Both forms have a "+ Split shift" button for a day worked in parts with unpaid time off between them (11:00–14:30, then 17:30–22:30). See Split shifts.

"Don't check this payslip" drops that one payslip from this run entirely. It is not the same as leaving the hours blank.

If you have a timesheet export, "Have a timesheet export? Import it" opens Import a timesheet.

Confirm

The last step shows one plain sentence per person summarising what we understood: the level their pay is checked against (not a statement that they are already paid correctly) and their employment type, the award and how it was decided ("which you confirmed", "which you set", "as on their record", "which we assumed because you weren't sure", or "our guess from the payslip that you accepted"), how many payslips are being checked and how many you excluded, and whether hours were given ("with no hours given, so we can only check the rate itself"). "Show the detail" expands the award, classification, type and payslip count. A person you ticked "don't check" is marked "Skipped". Everything here is built from the form as it stands, so it cannot differ from what is submitted. If something is wrong, go back and fix it.

Nothing has been saved until you press "Confirm & run checks". On submit:

• Each payslip is stamped with the award, classification, employment type and agreement for its group, who confirmed it and how each decision was made, and is queued for checking.
• The selections, role, typical week and dated shifts are written to the employee's record so the next upload for the same person is prefilled. An employer is created or updated from the name and any ABN you confirmed. Where a person's identity was ambiguous, nothing is written back to any employee record.
• The wizard's saved progress is cleared.

You are then returned to Payslip compliance with a message such as "3 payslips confirmed and queued for checking." and, where relevant, "1 left unchecked." If every payslip was marked "don't check", the wizard stays open and says "Nothing was checked — every payslip was marked "don't check". Untick that to run the checks." If a selection is invalid — for example a person has no award, or no record of how it was decided — the wizard stays open and names the payslip and the problem.