Release Notes - March 2023

Improvements & New features  

• Pre-fill work pattern based on weekly hours entered - When giving an employee a full/part time position for the first time, the work pattern on the second step will now apportion the weekly hours set in step one across Monday to Friday by default. This is the most common employment setup and will assist in the faster setup of positions.  
• Popover in award test links to settings page - When the award title is clicked on the popover in award test results, the settings page of the award will be opened rather than the rate label page.
• Shift penalties included in roster analytics - The shift penalties built-in position rules against specific hours worked will now be included when viewing the estimated wages and wage analytics on rosters. 
• Updated the design and performance of the Reimbursement Types page under Payroll Settings - The page and actions on the page will operate faster and the design is aligned to all new pages. Removed the ability to manage pending, approved and declined reimbursements from this area. 
• Removal of JobMaker - The final claim date for eligible JobMaker employees was 31st January 2023 and the JobMaker scheme has now ended. Removed all references to JobMaker across the foundU platform. 
• Rates book templates added to Rate Rise Tool - Pay rates in positions being actioned in the tool will be updated on relevant rates book templates. Templates will appear in their own section on the rates book step above operation rate books. 
• Remove access to financial/tax details for contractors - When an employee is marked as a contractor they will not have an option in their profile anymore for tax or financial information. The reminder that was showing to submit a TFN will also no longer show to this type of employee.
• Bulk adjusting shift times in Approve Shifts - Added the ability to adjust shift starting and finishing times in bulk within the Approve Shifts page. Shifts can now be adjusted by duration or to a specific start or end time in the same way they can be adjusted on the roster. 
• Day hours totalled on roster 'print view' - Added a row at the bottom of each roster in print view that totals the hours of all shifts rostered across each day. 
• Added leave to Pending Shift Import - When importing shift times to approve, or decline shifts in bulk, leave can now be added and approved to a shift. Based on system settings, a user is also able to attach an attendance, performance, or termination reason along with a comment during the upload process. 
• Added Public Holiday Approval Type to Pending Shift Import - Added the ability for users to specify a Public Holiday Approval Type (Worked, Not Worked Pay Normal, Not Worked Pay Base) when approving shifts through the Pending Shift Import tool for shifts that are on a Public Holiday.
• Export temporary Availability Requests - The table that tracks availability requests within the Time-off > Availability page can now be exported to CSV. The export will apply whatever filters have been applied to the table and a user can select whatever columns they wish to include in the export.  
• Expand All Option for Award Test Results - Introduced an option to “expand all” on the award test, allowing users to be able to quickly view the extended version of the data that award test presents without the need to individually click into each employee. 
• Display additional Superannuation contribution fields on creation of manual payslips - When creating a new payslip manually, the additional super fields for employee/employer additional super will now show to user. Previously to add to the fields a user would need to create and save the payslip, then edit it to see these fields. 
• Remove access to tax and financial options for contractors - When an employee is marked as a contractor they will no longer be able to access the Bank or Tax details sections of the employee self-service profile.  These components were already hidden in onboarding however remained available in the profile and could lead to errors when entered for contractors.
• Payroll tax and workers compensation added to ETPs - When creating an ETP a user can now specify the relevant payroll tax state and applicable workers compensation code.  This will then flow through to the relevant reporting of these costs.  
• Roster Summary report now includes costing for shift penalties - When viewing the roster summary report with costing option, shift penalty costs are now included in the total and shown separately in expanded view and export. This brings it in line with recent improvements to roster costing.   
• Contractor badge to display like other employment condition badges - A teal contractor badge will now display alongside other employment condition options (i.e workcover, special condition etc) in the employee profile, people and pay pages.  
• Operation Contacts can now be deleted - Provided the ability for admin users to delete contacts associated with operations.
• Prevent Auto rounding of annual salary when positions are edited - Previously when a position was edited the annual salary figure would re-calculate automatically. The employee’s hourly pay would not change, but given rounding the annual salary display would show differently to what was entered. I.e $110000 would become $109999.97 both paid at $55.668 an hour. This behaviour has been changed so only if the hourly rate figure is edited will the annual salary amount recalculate.   
• Fair Work Information Statement - Updated the Fair Work Information Statement to the latest version. 
• Pending Shift Import - Updated the Pending Shift Import feature to respect the system setting 'Enable Pre-Approve Shifts'. Previously, users were able to bypass the system setting and approve future dated shifts using the Pending Shift Import feature.   
• Custom label override for public holiday not worked shifts - A new system setting has been introduced that will override any rate label approved as a Public holiday not worked shift. This override will flow through to APAR, award test and payslip export and persist after a payslip edit. The setting is added below the other public holiday setting in system settings.  
• Rostered break start time - Added the ability to enter and edit break starting times on roster shifts.
• Automatic shift cost code adjustments - When editing a shift with cost codes, if the shift starting or ending times are adjusted, the cost codes will be automatically adjusted to reflect changes to the shift times. 

Bug fixes 

• Choosing tax averaging method on allowance setup no longer removes STP category - Fixed a bug on the creation of an allowance/pay item where if a tax averaging method was chosen the STP category field would be hidden and prevent user saving. 
• Fixed an issue that was causing admins to receive employment start date reminders for employees who have already been declined. 
• Fixed an issue that was causing unexpected sorting of employees on the roster when using Sort by 'Name' in combination with the display setting 'Use preferred name'. 
• Only show TFN warning to relevant employees - Fixed an issue to ensure the warning for not providing a TFN will only display to employees who have not done this, it will no longer ever show for contractor type or person who has completed the declaration. 
• Allow negative leave amount entered but toggle for allowing advanced accrual can be off -Fixed an issue that was defaulting leave balances back to 0 if a user tried to toggle off the allow advanced accrual option. A user can now toggle this on, enter a balance below 0, but then toggle back off so the employee can’t go further into negative.  
• Minimum award hours warning - Fixed an issue that was causing the text displayed when hovering a rostered shift to be 'unknown'. The warning intended to indicate that the rostered shift was below the minimum number of hours set against the position. The warning will now display as 'Duration warning'. 
• People Page Saved Searches - Fixed an issue that sometimes caused search filters to incorrectly save with the 'Save' feature. This prevented the saved filter set from working as expected when applied. 
• Roster Name Selector in Approve Shift Create Shift - Fixed an issue that was causing errors on the 'Create shift' modal within Approve Shifts when users have a large number of rosters in their system.