Timesheet and time-record rules for Australian employers

The short answer

• Keep time and wages records for 7 years.
• They have to be legible, in English, and readily accessible to a Fair Work Inspector.
• They can't be changed unless the change corrects an error, and they can't be false or misleading.
• If an employee asks to see their records you must make them available, including after they have left.

Which hours you have to record

The Fair Work Ombudsman lists these records about hours of work:

• where penalty rates or loadings are paid for overtime, the number of overtime hours the employee worked during the day, and when they started and finished those overtime hours
• the hours worked by a casual or irregular part-time employee who is paid based on time worked
• a copy of the written agreement, if you and an employee have agreed to average their hours of work.

Its advice goes further than the minimum: keep records of hours worked for all employees, including pieceworkers. It describes this as best practice, because it makes it easier to keep track of employee details and to find payroll mistakes. A timesheet for everyone, every period, does that.

The other records you have to keep

About the employment

• your name and the employee's name, and your ABN if you have one
• the employee's start date
• whether they are full-time or part-time, and whether they are permanent, temporary or casual.

About pay

• the rate paid, the gross and net amounts, and any deductions
• details of any incentive-based payment, bonus, loading, penalty rate or other allowance.

About leave

• any leave taken, and how much leave the employee has
• if annual leave is cashed out, the agreement, the rate paid and when it was paid
• under many awards, a copy of any agreement to take annual leave in advance.

About superannuation

• the amount paid, the pay period and the dates paid
• the fund, and why you paid into it, such as the employee's choice of fund and when they made it.

In some situations

Copies of any individual flexibility arrangement and of any notice ending it; any guarantee of annual earnings; how employment ended and who ended it; and, on a transfer of business, the transferring employees' records. Employees paid an annual salary under an award need extra records.

Who can see the records

Employee records are private and confidential. Only you, payroll staff, the employee, and people you authorise, such as your accountant, should see them. An employee who asks must be given access to their own records, including after they have left. Fair Work Inspectors can ask for time and wages records to check what an employee is entitled to and whether they have been paid correctly.

What happens if records are not kept

If records are not made, not kept, or are wrong, a Fair Work Inspector can issue a fine called an infringement notice. Making or keeping records you know are false or misleading is unlawful, and employers can also be penalised if the Ombudsman takes a matter to court. In some cases an employer who has not kept records, or has not made them available for inspection, may have to prove to a court that they did not underpay an employee.

Practical habits that keep timesheets compliant

• Record hours as they are worked, rather than reconstructing a month at its end.
• Record start and finish times for overtime, not just a total, wherever penalty rates apply.
• Keep who approved each timesheet, and why anything was changed after it was submitted.
• Make sure whichever system holds your time records lets you keep them, or export them, for the full seven years, including after you stop using it.
• Know where each kind of record lives. Pay, payslip and super records usually sit in your payroll software; time records often sit somewhere else.

Where Vuqira fits

Vuqira records the hours each person works, day by day, against the client, project and task, and keeps who approved each timesheet. Approving a timesheet that did not pass its checks needs a reason, which is kept with the approver's name in the audit log, and leave is requested and approved in Vuqira too. It does not run payroll, so your pay, payslip and super records stay in your payroll software. See how approvals work.