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Payroll

How Orbit works out pay

Approve, review, export — and what is frozen afterwards.

The essentials

Overview

Every pay run follows the same three steps. Hours are approved, the period is reviewed, and then the run is exported — at which point Orbit works the figures out again from scratch and keeps an unchangeable copy of exactly what it said.

What each rate and penalty actually comes to is decided by the award and by the store’s pay settings. Those figures live on the pay pages themselves, where they are always current.

Before you start

Confirm the store and pay period with your payroll team. Final payment arrangements depend on your employer and payroll provider.

Step by step

  1. How Orbit pays

    Approve, review, export — in that order, every time. A few things about pay are fixed and cannot be turned off; they are worth two minutes before you start.

    Review the choices available for your organisation in Orbit.

  2. Set the store’s pay settings

    Which award applies, where the store is, and when its pay week starts. Orbit prices every hour off these, so they come first.

  3. How your payroll behaves

    This page is where the way payroll runs is chosen. Some things are locked because they are floors, and some options are greyed because they are not built yet — you can see the whole shape either way.

    Review the choices available for your organisation in Orbit.

  4. Connect Xero

    Orbit sends approved hours to Xero rather than retyping them. You will sign in to Xero and come straight back here.

  5. Match your people to Xero

    Orbit suggests a match for everybody it recognises; you confirm them and sort out anyone it could not place. Hours only travel for people who are matched.

  6. Approve the period’s hours

    The export will not run while anything in the period is still open or waiting on a manager. Clear them and the wall comes down on its own.

  7. Run the export

    Orbit works the figures out again at this moment and keeps an unchangeable copy of exactly what it said. That copy is what your bookkeeper gets, and the period locks behind it.

  8. That is payroll set up

    Every run from here follows the same three steps, and past runs stay in the history exactly as they were sent.

What to check

If you need more help

If a period cannot be sent, use the issue details to identify the affected employee or setting. Do not change approved hours simply to clear an unrelated provider issue.

Contact the Orbit team

Open in Learn Orbit for guidance suited to your access and business settings. Sign-in may be required.