Answer
Full-time, part-time, and casual employees are all set up in Lightning Payroll from the same employee profile areas. The difference is how you choose to label them, set their standard hours, and handle leave accruals.
Employment type and tenure
When creating or editing an employee, go to Employees >> Pay Settings >> Pay Rates and choose the employment type and tenure that best match the worker. These fields are mainly used for labels, reporting context, and internal organisation.
Standard hours and days
You can also define the standard hours for a full day and the standard days for a full week. In Australian companies these are labelled Award hours for a full day and Award days for a full week in the desktop app, or Award hours per day and Award days per week in the online app. These values help when setting up leave accruals and default working patterns, especially for permanent staff.
Leave accruals
Leave behaviour is controlled under Employees >> Leave >> Leave Settings. Common patterns are:
- Full-time employees: usually accrue leave based on the pay period or default entitlement settings.
- Part-time employees: may accrue leave on a reduced pattern or on actual hours paid, depending on how the employer manages entitlements.
- Casual employees: are often set so leave does not accrue, unless the rules or agreement for that worker say otherwise.
The correct setup depends on the employment agreement, payroll rules, and jurisdiction that apply to the employee. Lightning Payroll gives you the fields to configure this, but the employer is responsible for choosing the correct settings.
For more detail on leave calculations, see the related FAQ on leave accruals.
