XBert Type: Standard
Accounting Software: Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks Online
Country Restriction: Australia only
Risk Type: Payroll Risk
Business Function: Payroll
Overview
This XBert checks whether an employee who is set up on a casual employment basis also has a paid annual leave accrual running against their record. Casuals are normally paid a casual loading instead of paid leave, so a casual carrying a paid annual leave balance is usually a setup error worth checking. Catching it early protects your wages bill and keeps your leave provision accurate.
What it does
Casual employees are generally paid a casual loading, commonly 25%, in lieu of paid leave entitlements, including annual leave. So a casual carrying a paid annual leave accrual is usually a payroll setup mistake rather than a genuine entitlement. For the affected employee, XBert identifies the leave type, its annual entitlement and its current balance. These figures are leave units, not a dollar value. This may be legitimate in a small number of cases, but most often it means the employee is set up on the wrong leave template or the wrong employment basis.
How it works
XBert reviews active employees and flags any recorded on a casual employment basis that also has a paid annual leave entitlement or balance set up, since casuals are normally paid a loading instead of paid leave. If a casual employee accrues paid annual leave, a few problems can follow:
Double payment: the business may be paying both the casual loading and paid annual leave for the same employee, effectively paying twice for the same cover.
Overstated leave liability: the accruing balance inflates the leave provision on the balance sheet, so the accounts overstate what the business actually owes.
Misclassification risk: it can be a sign the worker is recorded as casual but treated like a permanent employee, which carries Fair Work and entitlement exposure.
Rework: the longer it runs, the larger the balance grows and the more time it takes to unwind and correct the records.
To keep the alert accurate, unpaid, loading and zero-entitlement leave lines are ignored.
Example/Use Case
Priya runs payroll for Coastline Cafe and adds a new casual, Daniel, by copying an existing permanent employee's setup to save time. The copied template carries an annual leave accrual, so every pay run Daniel quietly banks annual leave units on top of his 25% casual loading. Nobody notices for eight months. When Daniel leaves, he asks to be paid out his accrued annual leave balance. Priya now has to work out whether he was genuinely owed it, unwind the accrual, and explain to the owner why the leave provision in the accounts was overstated all year. A two-minute setup check at the start would have avoided the cleanup and the awkward conversation.
Accounting software
This XBert runs on the major Australian-compatible accounting platforms, including Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks Online.
Which countries it supports
Australia only.
Processes
This alert sits within your Payroll process and helps ensure casual employees are set up correctly. Confirm whether this employee should really be a casual, and whether they should be accruing the flagged leave type at all. To resolve it:
Select RESOLVE NOW to open the employee in Xero Payroll, then check the employment basis and the leave templates on the employee's record.
If they are a genuine casual, remove or zero the annual leave accrual so they are not banking paid leave on top of their casual loading.
If they are actually permanent, correct the employment basis so the record reflects how they are genuinely engaged.
If the current leave balance is wrong, adjust it to the correct figure.
Once the employee's setup has been corrected, mark the XBert as resolved.