Pay Cat integration

How to connect Visualcare to Pay Cat for automated award interpretation and payroll export

This page covers the legacy KeyPay-API integration. If you’re setting up Pay Cat Connect (the newer integration with automated award interpretation and award-aware rostering), see Pay Cat Connect.

Pay Cat connects to Visualcare through the KeyPay API, giving you automated SCHADS Award interpretation for rostering and payroll. Once connected, you sync employees and pay items from Pay Cat into VCore, then export completed timesheets directly at the end of each pay run.

Linking VCore to Pay Cat

1. Get your API key from Pay Cat

   Log into Pay Cat, go to Account Settings → My Account, and locate the API Key field. Click Copy.

2. Open data export settings in Visualcare

   In VCore, click the Settings icon in the top right, then go to Settings → Data Export.

3. Connect your Pay Cat API key

   Click KeyPay Connection. In the pop-up that appears, paste the API key you copied from Pay Cat and click Connect.

   A success message confirms the connection, and your Pay Cat company file name appears on the page.

   To verify the connection, refresh the page and click KeyPay Connection again. You should see your company name and a connected status. If the field is blank, the API key wasn’t copied correctly. Try copying it from Pay Cat again.

Syncing data from Pay Cat

Once connected, pull your Pay Cat data into Visualcare from Settings → Data Export. Scroll to the KeyPay section and click each of the following:

• Sync Employees
• Sync KeyPay Pay Items
• Sync Tax Rates
• Sync Expense Categories

This brings across employee records, pay items, and other data from Pay Cat so they’re available for mapping in Visualcare.

Set the accounting code on each worker profile

Before your first export, you need to link each Visualcare worker to their matching employee record in Pay Cat.

1. Open the worker profile

   Go to Workers → Profile and open a worker’s record.

2. Set the accounting code

   Click the Finance tab, scroll to the bottom, and find the Accounting Code field. Click the drop-down. This lists all employees synced from Pay Cat. Select the matching employee name and click Save.

3. Repeat for all active workers

   Complete this for every active worker before running your first export.

   Any worker without an accounting code set returns an “invalid worker accounting code” error at export time. If you see this error, click the hyperlink on the error message. It takes you directly to that worker’s profile to fix it.

This mapping is permanent and doesn’t need to be redone each pay run. You only need to update it if an employee record changes in Pay Cat in a way that breaks the link.

Configuring work types and allowances

Set allowance codes for services with special conditions

Some services, such as sleepover shifts, need to be tagged with a Pay Cat work type so the correct award conditions apply on export.

1. Find the work type external ID in Pay Cat

   Go to Settings → Data Export, scroll to the KeyPay section, and click the blue arrow next to KeyPay Work Types. Locate the relevant work type and copy its External ID.

2. Add the allowance code to the service

   Go to Maintenance → Services, open the relevant service, paste the External ID into the Allowance Code field, and click Save.

This is a one-time setup per service. Check which of your services have special award conditions - for most providers this applies to sleepover shifts.

Set the kilometre pay code

If your workers are paid for kilometres travelled, you need to set a pay code so kilometre data exports correctly.

1. Open Finance settings

   Go to Settings → Finance.

2. Set the kilometres pay code

   Find the Kilometres section and paste the External ID for the kilometre allowance work type from Pay Cat into the Pay Code field.

   To find the kilometre allowance External ID, go to Data Export → KeyPay Work Types and search for “kilometre”.

3. Configure kilometres between shifts (if applicable)

   If your organisation pays workers for kilometres between shifts (provider travel), set the pay code for that as well.

   Setting	Options	What it means
   KM between shifts	No charge but pay / Charge and pay / No charge no pay	Whether to bill the participant and/or pay the worker for kilometres between shifts
   Travel time	Leave blank (most common)	Travel time is treated as regular time worked with the applicable pay rate for the day and time

Kilometres export as a separate step to timesheets. After exporting timesheets, go back and run Export KM to KeyPay as a second export. This step is easy to miss.

Setting the timesheet approval preference

On the Data Export page, there’s a setting for whether timesheets arrive in Pay Cat as draft or auto-approved.

Starting with draft is the safer option. Once you’ve confirmed the data looks correct across a few pay runs, you can switch to auto-approve if you prefer. This setting only affects how timesheets land in Pay Cat. It doesn’t trigger a pay run automatically.

Exporting timesheets to Pay Cat

1. Open data export

   Go to Timesheets → Data Export.

2. Select the period

   Select the pay period to export and click Reload.

3. Select items for export

   Apply any required column filters, then tick to select all items.

4. Export to Pay Cat

   Go to Export timesheets and select Export to KeyPay.

5. Review and process

   A summary window opens and highlights any items that won’t export successfully. Review these, then click Process Export to send the payroll data to Pay Cat.

Location tagging (optional)

Pay Cat locations let you tag payroll data by participant or area, which helps with cost tracking in your payroll reports. This is optional. Only configure it if you want cost tracking by location.

When exporting timesheets, Visualcare tags each shift with a location value pulled from a field on the roster. The available mapping options are:

Visualcare field	Use when
Agreement Area / Location Area	Timesheets are tracked by area listed in the agreement area or location area
Agreement Reference 1	Reference 1 on client agreements is used for cost tracking
Client Area Reference 1 / Location Area Reference 1	The text in the agreement or location area field needs to differ from what appears in Pay Cat
Roster Category Reference 1	Shifts are tagged by roster category
Service Reference 1	Shifts are tagged by service reference 1

The text in the Visualcare field must exactly match the corresponding location name in Pay Cat. For example, if the Pay Cat location is called “North Coast”, the value in the mapped Visualcare field also needs to be “North Coast”. If these don’t match, the location won’t flow through on export.

To set up location tagging:

1. Go to Settings → Data Export
2. Scroll to the KeyPay section and find the KeyPay Locations drop-down
3. Select the Visualcare field that best matches how your locations are structured in Pay Cat

Running into issues?

See Integration troubleshooting for common errors and fixes.

Related articles

Pay Cat Connect

The newer Pay Cat integration with automated award interpretation

Employment Hero integration

Sync worker data and compliance from Employment Hero

Award interpretation

How award interpretation works during rostering

Exporting payroll data

Export timesheet data to your payroll software