Pay Cat Toolbox Guide

This article explains how to set up and use the Pay Cat Toolbox Google Sheets™ extension.

Pay Cat created the Pay Cat Toolbox Google Sheets™ extension to make common Pay Cat payroll, reporting, timesheet, accounting, redundancy, and Portable Long Service Leave workflows easier to run from a spreadsheet.

This tool can be used to:

- Update employee details in Pay Cat from a Google Sheet™

- Prepare source timesheets in a Pay Cat-ready format

- Generate salaried hours and classification reports

- Run file reviewer checks before implementation or payroll processing

- Generate redundancy worksheets

- Generate wage accrual reports for accounting

- Generate Portable Long Service Leave reports and supporting worksheets

- Assess SCHADS employees for 5-week annual leave eligibility

Instructions:

1. Open any Google Sheets™ and go to Extensions > Pay Cat Toolbox.

2. Enter your Pay Cat API key and select the relevant business file through the Pay Cat Settings menu.
Go to Extensions > Pay Cat Toolbox > Pay Cat Settings > Set API Key and paste your API key into the prompt.
Go to Extensions > Pay Cat Toolbox > Pay Cat Settings > Select Pay Cat Business and select the business you want to use.

3. If you want to see the available toolbox options from inside the sheet, open the built-in read me.
Go to Extensions > Pay Cat Toolbox > Show Read Me.

4. Select the toolbox item you want to run from the menu. The main menu sections are:

- Pay Cat Settings for API key setup, business selection.

- Employee for Employee Updater

- Payroll for Salaried Hours Report, Portable Long Service Leave Report, File reviewer and Redundancy Template.

- Accounting for Wage Accrual Report.

- SCHADS for Classification Report and Annual Leave Report

-  Time and Attendance for the Timesheet Shaper

Employee Updater

What it does: Quickly and easily drop your employees into a Google Sheets™, make bulk record changes, and push those changes back into Pay Cat without leaving the spreadsheet. This avoids the common export and re-import issues that come with manual bulk updates.

1. To update employee details, go to Extensions > Pay Cat Toolbox > Employee > Employee Updater > Open.
2. Select whether to list active employees only, tick the employee fields you want to include, and click Get Data.
This will create an Employee Updater: Data tab. Update the values in that tab, then click Update Data from the Employee Updater sidebar.
3. Review the Employee Updater: Log tab after the update finishes.

Timesheet Shaper

What it does: Takes a range of generic timesheet formats and reshapes them into Pay Cat import-ready timesheets, saving hours of manual work. It includes error handling for issues such as overlapping shifts and handles common scenarios like sleepovers and kilometre shifts, which is especially useful when using a CRM without a dedicated Pay Cat integration.

1. To prepare timesheets, open the source timesheet tab and go to Extensions > Pay Cat Toolbox > Time & Attendance > Timesheet Shaper > Generate Source Sheet. This will create the sheet Timesheet Shaper: Source Timesheets. You will need to paste your timesheets for shaping into this sheet.
2. Next you will need to go to Extensions > Pay Cat Toolbox > Time & Attendance > Timesheet Shaper > Map Columns for Active Sheet. Here you can map your source columns to the relevant Pay Cat fields. The minimum required fields are:
- Employee ID
- Either Start Time and End Time, or a combined Start and End Time field
If the timesheets include kilometres or sleepovers, go to Extensions > Pay Cat Toolbox > Payroll > Timesheet Shaper: Settings before reshaping the sheet.
3. Then go to Extensions > Pay Cat Toolbox > Time & Attendance > Timesheet Shaper > Reshape active sheet.
This will create a Timesheet Shaper: Pay Cat Import tab containing the formatted timesheets and any issue flags.
4. Once there are no issues, you can use the newly shaped timesheets and import them to Pay Cat using the custom file upload method.

Salaried Hours Report

What it does: Breaks salaried employees down into salary hours, leave, and leave without pay, then compares those figures to contracted hours. This is useful for exception reporting where salaried staff are rostered onto participant shifts.

1. To generate a salaried hours report, go to Extensions > Pay Cat Toolbox > Payroll > Salaried Hours Report > Generate Report.
2. Choose whether to report on a single pay run or a date range, then click Generate Report.

Classifications Report

What it does: Shows how many hours and days an employee has spent at a particular classification. This helps identify when employees may need to graduate between levels and pay points that require total hours worked, such as SCHADS Level 1 Pay Point 1 to Pay Point 2.

1. To run the classification report, go to Extensions > Pay Cat Toolbox > SCHADS > Classification Report > Generate Report.
The toolbox will create a Classification: Report tab and, where relevant, a Classification: Diagnostics tab.

File Reviewer

What it does: Reviews a Paycat business file and highlights setup risks before you run payroll or complete an implementation. It produces a summary plus detailed result tabs for common red flags, helping you know what to fix before those issues become pay run problems.

1. To run the file reviewer, go to Extensions > Pay Cat Toolbox > Payroll > File Reviewer > Review File.

2. Select the areas of the business you would like to review from the selection list, then click Review File.

3. Review the File Review: Summary tab first, then work through any File Review: Results tabs that were created.

4. Fix any failed or please-review items in Paycat. You can open the links provided in the File Review: Summary tab to make the relevant adjustments, then run the review again if needed.

Redundancy Template

What it does: Automatically calculates redundancy payments based on employee age, tenure, and the termination circumstances you enter. It helps calculate ATO reporting, tax, and super treatment, and pre-populates details from the employee record.

1. To generate a redundancy template, go to Extensions > Pay Cat Toolbox > Payroll > Redundancy Template > Generate Template.
2. Select the financial year, confirm whether notice has been provided, enter the severance weeks, enter any other genuine redundancy payment amount, then select the employee.
3. To generate the HR worksheet, go to Extensions > Pay Cat Toolbox > Payroll > Redundancy Template: Generate Worksheet : HR.

Wage Accrual

What it does: Calculates the true value of unpaid wages at the end of a month or year for reporting purposes. It includes accurate timesheet costings and pro-rated salaries so period-end accounting journals can be posted more efficiently.

1. To generate a wage accrual report, go to Extensions > Pay Cat Toolbox > Accounting > Wage Accrual Report > Generate Report.
2. Enter the month you want to report on in YYYY-MM format. The toolbox will create:
- Wage Accrual: Pay Schedule Details
- Wage Accrual: Raw Report
- Wage Accrual: Consolidated Report

Portable LSL Report

What it does: Lets you nominate pay categories and generate Portable Long Service Leave reports ready for upload to the relevant state bodies. Pay category selections are preserved from month to month, so there is no rework required each reporting period.

1. To generate a Portable Long Service Leave report, first go to Extensions > Pay Cat Toolbox > Payroll > Portable LSL Report > Generate Pay Category Selection.
2. Review the PLSL: Pay Categories tab and tick the pay categories that should be included.
3. Then go to Extensions > Pay Cat Toolbox > Payroll > Portable LSL Report > Generate Report.
4. Select the state, report format, date range, terminated employee setting, leave allowance template setting, and earning location setting.

Last Updated: 20 August 2026