Classification levels, sleepover and broken shift allowances, travel time, and a Shiftcare roster that actually maps to the right Xero pay items. Run by people who track SCHADS changes as an ongoing job, not an afterthought.
Most NDIS providers roster carefully in Shiftcare or similar software, real shifts, real locations, real client visits. The breakdown happens in the handoff to payroll: a sleepover shift imports as eight hours of ordinary time, a genuine broken shift gets paid as continuous hours, and a classification set correctly two years ago never gets revisited as someone's responsibilities grew. None of it looks wrong in any single pay run. It compounds into a wage claim or a Fair Work Ombudsman audit before anyone catches it.
A Melbourne disability provider signed an Enforceable Undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman after rectifying $2.05 million in underpayments, including interest and super, to 1,389 current and former support workers, most of them casual, underpaid over a period of six years before anyone caught it.
A national SCHADS-covered provider spent close to two years in Federal Court litigation over a single disputed shift loading tied to sleepover shifts. Even providers who ultimately prevail on the specific point still absorb years of legal cost and uncertainty getting there.
A 2021 Fair Work Ombudsman audit found 36% of NDIS providers reviewed had incorrectly applied penalty rates, casual loadings, overtime, broken shift and high-intensity support allowances. This isn't a rare failure mode, it's close to a coin flip.
Since January 2025, intentional underpayment carries criminal penalties in Australia, 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. Fair Work also secured a record $21.2 million in court-ordered penalties in 2023-24 alone.
A dedicated in-house payroll or HR role covering SCHADS classification, allowances and Shiftcare-to-Xero mapping is a full salary plus on-costs, training and management time, before they've processed a single pay run. Outsourcing to a specialist team costs a fraction of that, at a fixed monthly fee, with no recruitment or turnover risk.
SCHADS Award interpretation, sleepover and broken shift allowances, and rostering-software alignment are a specialised, constantly-updating skill set. An in-house hire is learning one organisation's payroll from scratch; we apply this expertise daily, across multiple NDIS providers, and run structured CPD specifically to keep it current.
Getting SCHADS payroll right protects your organisation from Fair Work penalties, but it also protects cash flow, staff retention and your reputation with the people delivering your services. Outsourcing this properly means the director's time goes back into growing and running the organisation, not chasing a pay run or an award update.
Every shift type in your rostering software, standard hours, sleepover, broken shift, travel time, mapped to the correct Xero pay item so nothing gets flattened into ordinary hours on import. We build this mapping once, then maintain it as your award or your roster structure changes.
We run structured internal CPD sessions specifically on SCHADS and disability-sector payroll, tracking annual wage reviews and Fair Work Commission determinations. A rate or classification change shows up in your pay run the cycle it takes effect, not the quarter someone happens to notice.
Support worker classifications drift as responsibilities grow. We review classifications against actual duties on a set schedule, not only when a complaint or audit forces the question.
Superannuation guarantee timing in line with Payday Super requirements, Single Touch Payroll reporting every pay run, and leave accrual across a casual-heavy, multi-classification workforce, all handled as one accountable service, not a processor running whatever numbers land on their desk.
Most of the providers we work with cross real payroll complexity somewhere between four and fifteen support workers, once rostering spans weekend shifts, overnight sleepovers and multiple client locations in a single day.
This is a dedicated SCHADS payroll service from True Tally Bookkeeping, an Australian Registered BAS Agent and Xero Certified Advisor. Full bookkeeping and BAS support for NDIS providers 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.
"They caught a sleepover allowance we'd been getting wrong for over a year."
NDIS Support Provider
The Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services (SCHADS) Award sets classification levels, allowances and penalty rates for most NDIS support workers, including sleepover shifts, broken shifts and travel time between clients. Standard payroll software isn't configured for these rules by default, and generic payroll providers routinely process them as ordinary hours.
Sleepover shifts paid as a full night of hourly wages instead of the correct allowance, classification levels never reviewed as a support worker's role grows, and broken shift or travel time simply not being captured because the rostering data behind it isn't structured to catch it.
We map each shift type recorded in Shiftcare, or similar rostering software, to the correct Xero pay item, so sleepover, broken shift, travel time and standard hours flow through to payroll as what they actually were, not flattened into ordinary hours during import.
We run internal CPD sessions specifically on SCHADS and disability sector payroll, tracking Fair Work Commission determinations and annual wage reviews, so classification and allowance changes are reflected in your payroll from the pay cycle they take effect.
A fixed monthly fee based on support worker headcount and how many rostering systems need to be reconciled into Xero. No surprise invoices. Book the free consult and we'll give you an actual number.
We'll review your current classifications, allowance handling and how your rostering software lines up with Xero, then tell you exactly what we'd change.
Book My Free Consult or call 0468 159 950