For NDIS and aged care providers operating under the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services (SCHADS) Award, payroll is one of the most operationally demanding parts of running a compliant organisation. With penalty rates varying by day, time, shift type, employment classification, and break entitlements, even experienced payroll officers make costly errors. CareIQ was built to take that burden off your team entirely.
The SCHADS Award (MA000100) is one of Australia's most intricate modern awards. A single worker might attract ordinary time rates on a Tuesday afternoon, afternoon penalty loading on a Wednesday evening, Saturday penalty rates over the weekend, and a public holiday rate the following Monday — all in the same pay fortnight. Layer in casual loading of 25%, classification levels, and the requirement to apply the single highest applicable penalty (not cumulative stacking), and you have a payroll system that demands precision on every single line.
CareIQ's SCHADS engine is built directly into the platform's timesheet generation workflow. When a shift is completed and clocked off, the system automatically identifies the correct pay rate based on four factors: the day of the week, the start and end time of the shift, the employee's classification level and stream, and whether the day falls on a public holiday. The penalty hierarchy is enforced automatically. Casual loading is applied on top of base rates where appropriate. Break deductions are calculated and reflected in paid hours. If a meal break was not taken on a shift longer than five hours, the system automatically adds a 30-minute overtime penalty at 1.5x rate.
CareIQ allows administrators to configure each employee's SCHADS classification level, employment stream, and employment type. Maximum weekly hour caps can also be set per employee — when a manager assigns a shift that would push a worker over their hour cap, CareIQ displays a warning before the assignment is confirmed. All rate calculations are based on the current SCHADS Award rates effective from 1 October 2025 (MA000100).
Once shifts are completed for a pay period, a manager generates timesheets showing every shift, the applicable rate type, the multiplier, and the calculated cost per line. Timesheets move through a structured approval workflow: draft, approved, and exported. Approved timesheets can be exported directly to Xero via CareIQ's native integration, eliminating double-entry. A payroll summary report shows total hours, payroll cost, NDIS billable amounts, and margin per employee for the period.
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