Direct employment
Employ your own team.
We carry the payroll.
Directly employing support workers gives you the most choice and control — and the most obligations. Here's how Ability8 turns a rostered shift into correct pay, lodged reporting and a closed NDIS loop.
Scroll to follow the money
The process — follow the money
The same six steps, written down
The detail behind the diagram
Roster the shift
Create the shift on the schedule and assign your worker — they accept it on their phone. Open shifts can be posted for the team to pick up, and leave requests live on the same calendar.
Hours, agreed
The worked shift converts to a timesheet with one tap (or hours are entered directly). You approve it — from this moment the hours are agreed by both sides, and every later dollar traces back to them.
Valued automatically
The rate engine prices the timesheet from your worker's rate plan — no award lookups at the kitchen table.
- Weekday, Saturday, Sunday and public-holiday rates
- Sleepover allowances and custom events you define
- Leave accrues where the employment basis earns it
Tax and super, handled
PAYG withholding is calculated from the ATO tax tables for your pay frequency and the worker's tax settings. Super is added at the legislated rate on top of gross. You see gross, tax, super and net before anything is paid.
One pay run, three rails
Create the pay run and the app compiles everything the outside world needs:
- STP — the pay event reported electronically to the ATO on payday for ABN employers. WPN employers use the ATO's exemption path: the app produces PAYG payment summaries instead.
- Super — paid through the Beam clearing house, which distributes to each worker's chosen fund. Payday Super ready.
- Bank file — one upload to internet banking pays everyone at once: each worker's net pay, the ATO's tax and the super amount
Claim, reconcile, payslips
The wage costs are already allocated to your plan budgets, so the NDIS claim builds itself from the records. When the NDIA pays, reconcile in a click. Payslips are emailed to each worker and filed in their profile automatically — money received, supports delivered, evidence on file.
Auto pay run
The whole period, checked and generated in one click
When a pay period ends, the auto pay run sweeps it for you. It refuses to generate until four things are true — so the classic payroll mistakes simply can't get through:
- Every worked shift has a timesheet — nothing recorded goes silently unpaid
- Every timesheet is approved — no unagreed hours are ever paid
- Every worker being paid has complete bank, tax and super details
- Nothing is paid twice — timesheets already linked to a payment are skipped and shown
All green? One click generates every wage draft — same engine, same rates, same tax — and workers across multiple participants are combined automatically. Approving, creating the run and releasing money stay human decisions. Automation owns the toil; you own the money.
The point
Things you'll never do again
Look up tax in the ATO tables and hope you read the right column
Type six separate bank transfers and triple-check the cents
Build payslips in a word processor at 11pm on payday
Reconstruct a year of evidence because an audit letter arrived
Questions
Employment, answered
I'm a family, not a company. Can I really run payroll?
Yes — that's exactly who Ability8 is for. Self-managing families who directly employ are genuine employers, and the app carries the employer workload: correct rates, PAYG from the ATO tables, super, payday reporting and payslips. You make the decisions; the app does the calculations and the paperwork.
What is STP and do I need it?
Single Touch Payroll is the ATO's requirement that every pay event is reported electronically on or before payday. If you employ under an ABN, Ability8 lodges it for you through a recognised gateway each time you run pays. Families employing under a WPN (withholding payer number) are covered by the ATO's STP exemption — for them the app produces PAYG payment summaries and the annual reporting instead, so you stay compliant either way.
How does super get to my worker's fund?
Through the Beam super clearing house: your single payment is split and delivered to each worker's chosen fund through the regulated SuperStream channel. The app tracks the contribution until the fund confirms it — and it's ready for the Payday Super changes.
What does the auto pay run actually automate?
The toil, not the judgment. It sweeps the pay period, refuses to proceed until every shift has an approved timesheet and every worker's bank, tax and super details are complete, then generates all the wage drafts in one click — same calculations as the manual flow. You still review, approve and release the money.
What about a worker who supports more than one participant?
Combine Wages merges their pay across participants into one master payment — one progressive tax calculation, one bank credit, one payslip — while each participant's plan is still charged its own share.
Pay your team properly, without becoming a payroll officer
From the first rostered shift to payslips in inboxes — one system carries the employer obligations with you.