Payroll & Finance
From Clock-In to Payday: Better payroll workflows for shift-based teams
September 30, 2026
Managing payroll for clients with rosters, timesheets and variable hours?
You already know the drill: chasing timesheets, fixing hours, following up on approvals and piecing everything together before payroll can run.
With the Employment Leave Act introducing an hours-based leave system, now is a good time to look at what happens before payday and whether your clients' payroll workflows are ready for the changes.
In our latest webinar, From Clock-In to Payday: Better Payroll Workflows for Shift-Based Clients, we explored what’s changing and how accountants and bookkeepers can build more accurate, connected processes from rostering and time capture to payroll.
Here’s what you need to know.
Watch the webinar below!
What’s changing?
The Employment Leave Act was passed on 29 July 2026, with new rules taking effect from 6 August 2028.
For shift-based businesses, some of the key changes include:
Leave will be managed in hours
Leave entitlements will accrue from day one
Leave accrual will be based on standard hours of work
Additional and casual hours will attract a 12.5% Leave Compensation Payment
A new Otherwise Working Day (OWD) test will apply to public holidays
Pay statements (payslips) will become compulsory
What does this mean for shift-based payroll?
For shift-based teams, these changes put even more emphasis on getting the fundamentals right: knowing when people work, capturing the hours they actually work and applying the right payroll rules.
A reliable workflow should make it easy to:
Know the work pattern: Get work hours and OWDs right.
Capture accurate hours: Track actual time worked.
Apply the right rules: Rates, allowances, leave and public holidays.
Create a clear approval trail: Review and approve hours before payroll.
So what does that look like in practice?
From Clock-In to Payday: Two Tools, One Connected Workflow
This is where Droppah and PayHero come together.
Droppah | Rostering & Time Capture
Publish rosters: Build and publish shifts, with employees notified when their roster is ready.
Clock in & out: Capture actual hours worked with the Photo Time Clock.
Automated overtime & allowances: Apply configured overtime, meal allowance and other rules to timesheets.
Approve timesheets: Managers can review and approve hours before they flow into PayHero.
PayHero | Payroll & Compliance
Calculate payroll: Turn approved hours into payroll while handling leave, public holidays and OWDs based on each employee's work pattern.
Process payroll: Run payroll with AutoPilot®, or review and process manually when you need more control.
Pay & file: Pay employees and file directly with IRD.
Report & reconcile: Get ready-made payroll and leave reports, dig deeper with Insights, or use the Claude AI Connector to ask questions about payroll data in plain English. Connect with Xero for reconciliation, or export journal reports for other accounting systems such as MYOB.
Together, Droppah and PayHero connect the process from roster to payroll, with approved hours flowing through rather than being manually re-entered.
That means fewer handoffs, less double entry and a clearer process for everyone involved.
Is your payroll workflow ready?
Start by looking at how your clients' payroll works from clock-in to payday. Use our Shift-Based Payroll Workflow Health Check to review the workflow, spot potential gaps and identify where manual work could be reduced.
Download the Shift-Based Payroll Workflow Health Check
That's what Remuneration helps with. It puts the information you need in one place, so you're spending less time gathering information and more time making decisions.
Support your clients with PayHero
Want to explore a simpler payroll workflow for your shift-based clients? Our Partner Team can show you how PayHero and Droppah bring rostering, time capture and payroll together.
The PayHero Partner Programme also gives accountants and bookkeepers access to VIP Support, Partner Discounts of up to 25% and Migration Services.
