How Do I Set A Custom Work Pattern For An Employee Who Doesn't Work Monday To Friday?

Lightning Payroll derives the employee's work pattern from their ordinary hours, but you can override it manually for staff with non-standard schedules. The work pattern affects leave display, public holiday entitlement, and Relevant Daily Pay calculations.

How to set a manual work pattern

1. Open the employee and go to the Leave tab.
2. Tick Manually set work pattern.
3. Select the days of the week the employee normally works.
4. Set the ordinary hours per working day if the employee works the same hours each day, or use the per-day override fields for variable patterns.
5. Save the employee.

What the work pattern controls

• Public holiday entitlement: if a public holiday falls on a day the employee normally works, it is an "otherwise working day" and they are entitled to be paid for it.
• Alternative holiday grants: only awarded when the employee works on a public holiday that would have been an otherwise working day.
• Relevant Daily Pay: the daily rate for valuing alternative holidays and some sick leave days.
• Leave display: sick leave days show against the work pattern when reviewing the balance.

Common non-standard patterns

• Part-time staff working 3 days a week.
• Shift workers on a rotating roster - tick all days the rotation covers and set hours that reflect the average shift length.
• Weekend or evening-only staff.

If the work pattern changes permanently, update it from the date the change took effect; previous pays are not adjusted retrospectively.