PocketWatch FAQs

The roster/award rule engine in PocketWatch serves two key purposes: to notify the roster manager of any potential breaches against the roster/award rules that have been set, and to minimise manual interventions due to multiple complex awards when processing time sheets and or timesheet reports.

MYP generates the appropriate roster/award rules and applies the penalty rates based on the parameters set in the system. PocketWatch does not interpret the actual award as set by fair work Australia but flags potential issues and provides initial warnings to Roster Managers against the roster/award rules that have been set in your platform.

Subscribers have the freedom to customise rules based on specific awards, enterprise agreements, and individual interpretation of relevant regulations or agreements made with specific staff. Customising or changing existing roster/award rules may affect information related to warnings and timesheets. Any corrections requiring assistance from MYP may require a fee.

Using multipliers can simplify the payroll process and reduce complexity compared to using levels. However, the choice of which method to use is up to the subscriber and their specific requirements.

Subscribers need to review their roster/award rules regularly. MYP’s system is designed to assist subscribers in this process, but ultimately, it is the responsibility of the provider to ensure compliance.

It is the responsibility of the subscriber to interpret the award and review their own roster/award rules setup. The system does not provide award interpretation advice nor determine the desired outcomes a subscriber wishes to achieve. There are multiple interpretations of awards across PocketWatch’s subscriber base and the award rule engine is designed to allow the creation of rules to suit.

MYP advises subscribers via eNews and Best Practise training sessions when NDIS introduces changes. We may as a courtesy also inform the subscriber base when Fair Work Australia announces changes to commonly used awards to alert our subscribers to review their roster/award rules. Additionally, MYP communicates new parameters with new feature pop-ups and videos.

After adding roster/award rule groups, subscribers should thoroughly review the correct pay rates through testing real rosters, especially with complex scenarios and a range of variations.

There are many common reasons why you would not be able to check-in to a shift. The most common reasons are:
– Your GeoLocation has been turned off. You can resolve this by re-enabling your GeoLocation
– The roster requires you to be at a specific address. Resolve this by ensuring you check-in from the exact address with location tracking enabled.
– You are outside of the permitted check-in window. The shift check-in window is defined through PocketWatch > Settings and limits the time available for check-in/out.
– The shift is in the future and has not yet started. Wait for the shift start time to check-in.

A roster manager can select the staff name from the myShift drop-down, then select the shift and check in/out on behalf of the support worker.

If a roster manager:

1. Is a team manager + does NOT have global rostering permissions, they can only roster + check in/out on behalf of their team members + staff/team associated with the roster.
2. Is NOT a team manager + does NOT have global rostering permissions, they can only roster + check in/out on behalf of the staff/teams associated with the roster (this is the lowest level of permissions for a roster manager).
3. Is a team manager + has global rostering permissions, they can roster all staff, but they can only check in/out on behalf of their team members + staff/teams associated with the roster.
4. Is NOT a team manager + has global rostering permissions, they can roster all staff, but they can only check in/out on behalf of the staff/teams associated with the roster.

To see a staff member’s information in PocketWatch, you must be a manager for their team.

For instructions on how to add staff members to teams or to add yourself as a manager for a team, review ‘Administer staff’.

Any notes added to PocketWatch shifts are stored in the client’s history records in ARM Pro. Click on the ‘PocketWatch history’ icon in the HISTORY panel to view them.

If you are receiving errors when syncing your timesheets, please refer to the relevant error dictionary below:

• Xero dictionary of API errors
• MYOB dictionary of API errors

Publishing rosters is a queued process which is run in the background.

This enables you to work on multiple rosters and activities across the system without having to wait for a loading screen while rosters are being published.

However, this also means that if several rosters are being published at once, there may be a delay before the roster is published. The roster manager and the person who published the rosters will receive an email notification confirming that rosters have been published.

The recommended best practice process is to always publish rosters in advance (e.g. for the next fortnight).

The ‘Update roster shifts’ icon will not be available if a roster has not been created from the roster template or if the defined end date for the roster is now in the past.

You will need to either create a roster from that template or adjust the end date for the roster to be in the future.

This is because a default unit amount has been allocated in PocketWatch > Settings > GENIUS under ‘Default value of NDIS line item’. Remove the default value in the field and you will be able to allocate the correct units.

The reason you are unable to approve the timesheets for these rosters is that you are not a roster manager for those rosters. Team leaders can see the timesheets of all their team members but only roster managers can approve timesheets.

• Navigate to PocketWatch > Rosters + select the relevant roster
• Select the ‘Edit’ button
• Select the ‘Roster Manager’ drop down menu + select your name from the list
• Select ‘Save’
• Repeat for each roster that you need to approve timesheets for

Start by cancelling the shift as per the roster cancellation workflow and select ‘Without notice’ for the cancellation.

Next, to pay the staff member for a cancelled shift, create a new shift either in the same roster or a different roster and ensure no line-items are allocated to the shift (e.g. by removing the client from the shift).

This will enable the staff member to check in to the shift without a client or the roster manager/payroll administrator can create a timesheet manually if the staff member is not working the time they are being paid for.

Process the cancellation as per the roster cancellation workflow and select ‘With notice’ for the cancellation. No invoice or timesheet will be generated.

Process the cancellation as per the roster cancellation workflow and select ‘Without notice’ for the cancellation.

Process the cancellation as per the roster cancellation workflow and select ‘With notice’ for the cancellation.

Next, create a new shift for the staff member without a client and publish the shift. Staff can then check in to their shift as normal or the roster manager/payroll administrator can create a manual timesheet if the staff member is not working the time they are being paid for.

Alternatively, ask the staff member to check-in to their shift and select ‘Client Did Not Attend – With Notice’.

Navigate to rosters, select the shift in question and remove the original staff member from the shift. As the shift is published, select a cancellation reason for the staff member, and then allocate a different staff member to the shift.

Leave is lodged, approved, and processed through 94six and is not included in PocketWatch payroll.

Process the cancellation as per the myShifts cancellation workflow and select ‘Without notice’ for the cancellation for the client that did not attend.

Ask the staff member to check-in to their shift and select ‘Client Did Not Attend – With Notice’ for the client that did not attend.

This may be because the schedule of support unit allocation has not been completed on the roster or roster template.

To correct this:

• Navigate to the roster template
• Edit the first shift
• Within the deep edit on the shift, select ‘Edit client NDIS items’ below the participant’s name
• This will load the schedule of support + you can allocate to use either timesheet hours (automatically assigns units based on shift length) or static units (can be overridden before timesheets are approval but requires manual adjustments)
• Allocate the use of timesheet hours or a static number of units to the item relevant to the client’s support needs for the day
• Select ‘Save’

Repeat these steps for each shift within the template until all shifts have been updated. Once complete, select the ‘Update roster’ icon at the top of the roster template page. When updating your roster from the template, best practice is to select a future date to update from. This will mark the period where you know that your rosters will be correct from, while also maintaining any current shifts staff may be currently working for the current week.

Following the update, it is time to address the timesheets that have been approved.

To support this, use the ‘Timesheet Invoiced Hours’ report available through PocketWatch > Reports.

This report will identify the status of all your timesheets, and from here you can identify any timesheets where:

• Units have not been allocated
• Invoice type has not been selected
• Schedules of supports have not been loaded as part of the shift

You can then either:

1. (Least effort, quickest results) Manually create an invoice in GENIUS for the services that were delivered based on the report up until the date selected for your roster update
• This can typically be consolidated into a single invoice in GENIUS spanning the period of time supports were delivered over
2. Reject the timesheets that were approved, then edit the timesheet and select ‘Edit Client NDIS items’ within each timesheet
• This will open the schedule of support page as if you were editing it on the roster template page
• Allocate the relevant units to the schedule of support + the invoice type required
• Once completed, approve the rejected timesheets again. Doing this will then generate a new invoice in GENIUS for the items allocated per timesheet.

If Geolocation is active, a staff member will be prompted to allow PocketWatch to access their location when they open PocketWatch.

NB: The wording and appearance of the prompt will be dependent on the browser used. Any staff member who has access to timesheets has access to the information captured with Geolocation enabled.

It is recommended to view the individual browser website for instructions on how to re-enable location access in a browser if switched to ‘No’. 

Chrome (with instructions for Desktop, Android, iPhone + iPad)
https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/142065

Safari (iPad/iPhone)
https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT207092

Safari (on Mac)
https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT204690

Firefox
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/geolocation/

Windows 10 (Edge)
https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10-location-and-privacy

Once enabled, the staff member’s location will be captured when they check-in/out.

The staff member’s location is captured using GeoLocation. If the actual location is not available, it means your staff member has either:
A) Declined sharing location permissions in their browser when they checked in
B) Turned off location sharing on their device

Please speak to your staff member and ask them to enable location sharing for their device and in their browser.

The invoice type is defined by the service bookings in combination with their plan style available within GENIUS at the time the client was added to the roster template, template shift, roster and rostered shift.

If the schedule of support has been updated and the service booking budget does not capture the services included, the invoice type can’t be selected.

However, if a client was on a shift beforehand and a previous schedule of support was loaded through, you can reload this by either:

1. Remove the participant from the shift/template/roster, then immediately re-add them. This will pull through the schedule of support again.
2. Alternatively, copy the participant’s existing schedule of support in GENIUS and immediately finalise the schedule of support. Click ‘SAVE + CLOSE’ at the bottom of the page. This will trigger a bulk update of the schedule of support attached to all templates, template shifts and rosters that the participant is attached to. If the budgets are available to cover these services, the invoice type will be automatically assigned.

To resolve this, please follow the below steps for all rosters:

1. In your roster, edit the roster and add the correct position
2. Navigate to the roster template and add the correct position to the roster template
3. Add the template shifts to the correct position
4. Update your rosters from a future date from the template. We recommend you update from the start of your next rostering period where shifts have not yet been published. The correct positions will now pull through to the roster, and your shifts will be included.
5. Remove the incorrect position from the roster + roster templates

Note that you MUST follow these steps to avoid data loss from your shifts.

PocketWatch rosters and roster templates are designed to pull through the schedule of support after the date that a client’s booking commences, as this date is meant to reflect the participant’s commencement date with your organisation.