Care to Change and Visualcare: From reactive payroll to real-time cost control

By connecting rostering and payroll through Pay Cat Connect, Care to Change moved from overtime it could not see to cost control it can act on, saving more than $6,500 per fortnight in unmanaged overtime.

• More than $6,500 per fortnight saved in unmanaged overtime
• Real-time visibility of overtime accruing across the full pay fortnight
• Automated pay code generation through SCHADS-aware award interpretation
• Shift costs visible before a roster is ever confirmed
• Cleaner payroll reports separating chargeable from non-chargeable items

Before Visualcare, overtime accrued invisibly across the fortnight and there was no way to intervene until the pay run was complete. With award-aware rostering now in place, Care to Change can see the projected cost of every shift before it is confirmed, giving the business a level of financial control that was previously out of reach.

Challenge

Care to Change is a Brisbane-based NDIS provider with a workforce of around 100 staff, delivering Supported Independent Living and other disability support services under the SCHADS Award.

Rostering and payroll were disconnected: overtime accrued invisibly throughout the fortnight, with no way to intervene until the pay run was complete.

The rostering tool was not built for the sector: the team relied on Deputy, a platform built for hospitality rather than NDIS compliance.

The financial exposure was significant: for a provider with around 100 staff and tight NDIS margins, unmanaged overtime could easily reach $8,000 per fortnight, an exposure that compounds quickly and threatens the sustainability of even well-run services.

Solution

Care to Change partnered with Visualcare and piloted Pay Cat Connect, beginning with a Google Sheet integration before moving to full in-platform deployment.

SCHADS-aware award interpretation: Pay Cat Connect applies SCHADS Award rules directly to timesheet data, automatically generating accurate pay codes and flagging overtime in real time.

Live cost visibility through the fortnight: the team now monitors a rostered-versus-actuals report every few days, and at the end of each pay run receives a complete breakdown separating chargeable overtime from non-chargeable items such as Sunday penalty rates.

Award-aware prompts in rostering: rather than complicating the rostering role, the award-aware prompts built into Visualcare rostering enable rostering staff to work confidently without needing to carry deep SCHADS knowledge internally.

Recovering funds on short-notice changes: the platform helps identify claimable cancellations and recover funds through short-notice rules.

Span of shift overtime

A rostered staff member was consistently triggering overtime due to the 12-hour span rule. The payroll team were aware, but without a live connection to rostering the schedule was never updated. Award Aware Rostering surfaced the issue immediately and the roster was corrected, saving significant overtime penalty rates.

Incident workforce management

When allegations against two staff members required immediate stand-downs, their replacements were already at 76 hours, making overtime unavoidable. Award Aware Rostering gave the team projected costs before shifts occurred, allowing the roster to be juggled as effectively as possible. Once staff were cleared and reinstated, rostering data was used to assess staffing coverage and understand, with full confidence, the total cost of staffing during the incident, as well as highlighting improvements the team could make as a result.

"We had no real control or visibility over the overtime being accrued during the fortnight. You just had rostering on its own, with no implications until you ran the pay."

Emma Earle, Director, Care to Change

Looking Ahead

With award-aware rostering now live, Care to Change can see the projected cost of every shift, including penalty rates and overtime, before it is ever confirmed. The business now has a level of financial control that was previously out of reach.

Background

Care to Change is a Brisbane-based NDIS provider with a workforce of around 100 staff, delivering Supported Independent Living and other disability support services under the SCHADS Award.

About Visualcare

Visualcare is a care management platform for NDIS and Aged Care providers, putting the participant at the centre of your workflow and making compliance simpler across your entire business. Together with Pay Cat Connect, SCHADS Award interpretation is at providers' fingertips during rostering and payroll.

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