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Allied Health Payroll

Payroll that keeps up with a multi-practitioner roster.

Practitioners, admin and support staff across multiple awards, casual loading, and scheduling software that needs to translate accurately into Xero. We handle the mapping and the compliance so your practitioners get paid correctly, every session.

Where it actually breaks

Sessions get booked correctly. Pay runs often don't reflect them.

Allied health clinics run tight scheduling, practitioners booked by session, across sometimes more than one site. The gap opens once that data has to become a pay run: casual loading applied inconsistently between practitioners, a classification set on day one never revisited as someone takes on supervision or senior duties, hours from a scheduling tool not mapping cleanly into Xero. Nothing looks wrong in any single fortnight. It becomes a wage claim once the pattern has run for a year.

Why this actually matters

This isn't a hypothetical risk

A Record Year for Enforcement

The Fair Work Ombudsman secured $21.2 million in court-ordered penalties in 2023-24, its highest total in 15 years. Health and allied health employers are a recurring focus, precisely because multi-practitioner awards and casual loading make manual compliance genuinely error-prone.

Underpayment Is Now a Criminal Offence

Since January 2025, intentional underpayment carries criminal penalties, up to 10 years imprisonment for individuals, and for companies a fine of at least $7.825 million or three times the underpayment amount, whichever is larger.

The Cost Isn't Just the Penalty

Individual penalties can reach $16,500 per contravention, and $82,500 per contravention for an employer, on top of the back-payment itself. A single casual-loading error, repeated across a roster for a year, can multiply into a genuinely large liability before anyone notices.

Practitioners Notice, Even When You Don't

Underpayment complaints are increasingly how these cases start, a practitioner who suspects their classification or casual loading isn't right. Getting it right isn't just compliance insurance, it's a genuine retention factor in a competitive allied health workforce.

Why outsource instead of hiring in-house

The real cost comparison

Costs Less Than an In-House Hire

A dedicated in-house payroll role covering multi-practitioner award classification, casual loading and scheduling-software mapping is a full salary plus on-costs, training and management time. Outsourcing to a specialist team costs a fraction of that, at a fixed monthly fee, with no recruitment or turnover risk.

Done by Specialists, Not a Generalist Learning on the Job

Award interpretation across practitioners, admin and support staff, and casual loading rules, is a specialised, constantly-updating skill set. An in-house hire is learning one clinic's payroll from scratch; we apply this expertise daily, across multiple clinics, and run structured CPD specifically to keep it current.

Real Value, Not Just a Compliance Box to Tick

Getting clinic payroll right protects you from Fair Work penalties, but it also protects practitioner trust and retention in a competitive allied health workforce. Outsourcing this properly means your time goes back into running the clinic, not chasing a pay run or an award update.

What we handle

Four jobs that keep allied health payroll correct

01

Scheduling Software Mapped to Xero

Whatever system your clinic uses to schedule sessions and log time, mapped to the correct Xero pay items, so casual loading, multi-site hours and standard sessions flow through as what they actually were.

02

Ongoing CPD on Award Changes

We run structured internal CPD covering the awards relevant to allied health practitioners and support staff, tracking Fair Work Commission determinations and annual wage reviews, so a rate change shows up in your pay run the cycle it takes effect.

03

Classification Review as Practitioners Grow

A practitioner's classification set correctly on their first day rarely stays correct once they've taken on supervision, senior caseloads or additional responsibilities. We review classifications on a schedule, not only when a question is raised.

04

Super, STP and the Full Pay Run

Superannuation guarantee timing in line with Payday Super requirements, Single Touch Payroll reporting every pay run, and leave accrual across a casual-heavy, multi-award clinic, handled end to end as one accountable service.

Who this is for

Solo practitioners to group practices, 1–15 staff

PhysiotherapyOccupational TherapySpeech PathologyPsychology & CounsellingPodiatryDietetics & NutritionChiropractic & OsteopathyDental

Most clinics we work with hit real payroll complexity once practitioners span more than one site or one award, and casual or part-time arrangements make up a meaningful share of the roster.

Part of True Tally Bookkeeping

A payroll team that understands how a clinic actually schedules

This is a dedicated payroll service from True Tally Bookkeeping, an Australian Registered BAS Agent and Xero Certified Advisor. Full bookkeeping and BAS support for allied health clinics is handled the same way, by the same team, if you need it.

There are no silly questions. You should be across your payroll numbers at all times, our job is to make that easy.

"Our practitioners finally get paid exactly what they're rostered for."
Allied Health Clinic Owner
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Payroll Management, Explained

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Related Reading

Allied Health Bookkeeping, our full bookkeeping service → Allied Health & Medical Bookkeeping in Geelong → Payroll Management for Australian Small Business, the full guide →
Straight answers

Practice owners ask us…

A multi-practitioner clinic often has practitioners, admin and support staff sitting under different Modern Awards, plus a mix of full-time, part-time and casual arrangements with different loading rules. Practitioners frequently work variable hours across multiple locations, which makes manual payroll checking genuinely error-prone as a clinic grows.

Casual loading applied inconsistently, a practitioner's classification never reviewed as they take on more senior work, and timesheet or scheduling software data not correctly mapped into Xero, so hours worked don't match what's actually paid.

We run internal CPD sessions covering the awards relevant to allied health practitioners and support staff, tracking Fair Work Commission determinations and annual wage reviews, so classification and rate changes are reflected in your payroll from the pay cycle they take effect.

Yes. We map each shift or session type in your scheduling and timesheet software to the correct Xero pay item, so casual loading, multi-site hours and standard sessions flow through to payroll accurately rather than being flattened into ordinary hours on import.

A fixed monthly fee based on practitioner headcount and how many scheduling systems need to be reconciled into Xero. No surprise invoices. Book the free consult and we'll give you an actual number.

Free 15-minute consult

Not sure your practitioner payroll would survive a closer look?

We'll review your current award classifications, casual loading handling, and how your scheduling software lines up with Xero, then tell you exactly what we'd change.

Book My Free Consult or call 0468 159 950
📞 Call True Tally on 0468 159 950